so we have philosophy being a response to the events
and experiences of our lives, both individually and collectively…
so philosophy should be a creation that responds after the fact…
first we experience then we understand… is my formula…
and we use experience to guide our future selves as it responds
to future events and experiences…
but, recall that the enlightenment was a response to a certain
facet of our lives… we are born into this world that already
has as it guide myths, habits, prejudices and superstitions
and it teaches those myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions
to babies and toddlers and children… we aren’t born with the myth
and superstition that there is a god, we are taught it by our parents,
by the church, by the state, by the media…from our very first days
of life, we are taught myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions…
but how do we reconcile this method of philosophy teaching
with the idea of philosophy being a reaction to events and
experiences of our lives? if we are taught the myths and habits
of our culture as philosophy, then how do we then use philosophy
to understand events and experiences? if we have an already created
philosophy meant to understand events and experiences, how does
an already created philosophy suppose to understand events and
experiences that lie outside of those myths and habit and prejudices
we have already been taught? for example, we have certain myths
and habits and prejudices and superstitions that I have dubbed
Americanism… which is the divine belief that America is the greatest
country on earth, which has no basis in fact or reality… this myth,
this habit, that we are taught from birth, then reaches the point
of events and experiences that tell us we are not in fact, the greatest
country on earth… how can we be the greatest country on earth,
when we condone torture? How can we be the greatest country on earth
when we pay teachers so little money, they must have more then one
job to survive? How can we be the greatest country on earth
when we have millions who are one or two paychecks away
from complete ruin? we face this reality, these truths
and we must either accept the myths, habits, prejudices
of our childhood and deny the charges that
our daily events and experiences tell us is happening right now,
here in America… or do we create a new philosophy which
moves to understand current events and current experiences
and deny our childhood myths and habits…
first we experience, then we understand
but if we follow the path of using our myths and habits
and prejudices and superstitions as our guide for life,
then we do things differently,… we understand then we experience…
in other words, we force the events and experiences to match
our current myths and habits and superstitions…
we must adapt our thinking to the events and experiences
not force the events and experiences to match our thinking…
many a politician forces the event and experiences to match
their thinking…IQ45 believes that illegal aliens are taking
over the US…his false thinking derived from the myths and habits
and prejudices and superstitions of his training from childhood,
he cannot conceive of any other way of thinking…
so when faced with a situation where the events and experiences
don’t match his thinking, his myths and habits and prejudices and
superstition, he denies the truth, the reality of that situation…
and forces it to match his myths, his habits, his prejudices
and his superstitions…ALL criminals are black or brown…
that is his myth, his prejudice…
or the one that is really, really obvious… when white males
commit terrorist actions, they are mentally unbalanced…
when black or brown people commit the same actions, they
are terrorist…he cannot conceive of a white person who
is a terrorist because it violates his preconceived training from
birth, the myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions
that he has… he is forcing events and experiences into
already conceived myths and habits and prejudices…
he doesn’t experience then he understand…
he understand then he experiences… and those experiences must match
his understanding of the world or he denies it…
he does not philosophize… he simply repeats the script taught to him…
and millions of people do the exact same thing…they don’t experience,
then understand… they understand…they follow the myths and habits
and prejudices and superstitions of childhood and they use that script
to explain current events and experiences…it is not philosophy that they
are doing… but reciting old formulas taught to them by their parents,
by their church, by the state, by the media… they haven’t learned
anything new… and any new events or experiences must be filed under
old myths and old habits and old prejudices and old superstitions…
as long as they follow the old scripts they were taught,
they cannot learn anything new…they are as trapped in the
past by their thinking and unable to adapt or change to match
the current environment… we call that type of person… a dinosaur…
and we know what happened to the dinosaurs…
Kropotkin