a new understanding of today, time and space.

ok, we have followed just one aspect of the economic… the massive
income inequality that exists in America today and the economic
danger it poses… but it also poses political and historical and social
danger to every single person in America…

the fact is as I said, that money value lies in being the medium of
the economic growth of America… America has only so much money…
and if that money is locked up in the hands of 500 people in such
things as overseas tax havens and in houses, then how can the rest
of us gain wealth? the very fact that so much money is tied up
and out of touch causes us danger… we have only so much money
we have access to and that money is the fertilizer that
creates wealth and jobs…so the more money ties up with
the wealthy, the less for us to grow America…

this is not only an economic issue but a political issue
and a social issue… socially it is an issue because
we as a country have made economics such a prioity
in our political and economic and social life…
anything that damages the economic damages
America at large and this is because of the choices
and decisions we have made…a country that is economic
trouble as we are, is a country that socially becomes
discontented and unhappy… we are an unhappy people,
we are a discontented people because we are not where
we want to be and that is because of the massive
income inequality due to the great amount of wealth that
is unavailable to us for us to achieve what we need to achieve
both personally and collectivly…

you want a stronger, more alive, a restored America?
then you want to end or lessen the income inequality that exists
in america and that takes political will…

but we face severe opposition because of people’s faith in
the ism of capitalism… in other words, we face ruin because
people cannot escape the myths and habits and prejudices
and superstitions of their youth…they believe in the myth
of capitalism to the point of damaging America with the possibility
of destroying America… but that is less important then keeping
and maintaining their myths and habits and prejudices and superstition
of capitalism… they would rather have America fail then disturb or
challenge their myths and habits of capitalism…

now some might claim, as they usually claim when their faith is challenged,
that I hate America…not at all, in fact, I appreciate and understand
America far more then these haters… I am holding firm to the
underlying values that makes America, America… which means this…

as a philosopher, I don’t work with facts unless they support or oppose
values… for it is values that philosophers work with…
what values are worth having and what values are not…
what values are worth living for and worth dying for?

if modern America is not holding values that truly are worth
living for, worth dying for, what is the point of being an American?

so, I attack the current political and economic and social
conditions that exist today in America in hopes of creating
a country that hold values that is worth our lives and
our support and is worth dying for… I am willing to dump
our current system of the political and economic… to create
a country that holds values that is worth living for and worth
dying for and today, in our America… we don’t hold values
that is worth living for and worth dying for…

our values, our current values are of the lower base of human
nature… we hold values of greed and anger and hate and
intolerance… those aren’t values worth living for or worth
dying for…those values of ignorance are values of IQ45 and
his followers… and I don’t and won’t support values that are
the base animal values… I support values of hope and justice
and love and tolerance because those are the values worth
living for and worth dying for…

and it is this understanding of values that I critique America today…and
I attack capitalism and attack the buying and selling of America and its
politicians and I attack the lower values that currently rule America today…

if we hold to the lower values of hate and fear and anger and lust and
greed and all the other lower values, this is not a America worth living
for, worth dying for…

we must hold our values to make a country great… it isn’t a country
that make values great, it is the values of the country that make it great…

so this is how we connect the political and the economic and the social
and the historical and the philosophical… by understanding the values
that a country hold in terms of… in regards to its political and economic
and social and historical and philosophical…instead of thinking about
our GDP, Gross domestic products… think of the values that we want
to create and then, and then think about our GDP… decide on our values
we wish to proclaim and act upon and then create our actions that
we need to achieve, to achieve those values…

values before actions… because the values decided upon should
create the actions we must take… the values determine the actions,
not the actions deciding the values as we have it now…

what values are important? justice is one such important value
and so with the value of justice in mind, we can create actions, laws
that accept and promote the value of justice… and what is justice?
equality before the law…equality is the value of justice…
so without equality, we cannot have justice and so we must act
and create laws that promote equality…by holding to the values,
we can create the laws and actions needed to hold to those values…

and that is the problem with America today, it acts without any regards
to the values those actions either uphold or deny…

we hold to actions that promote a phony and false and dangerous
course…

and example of this… the justification of torture in America…
we allow torture to, allegedly, protect us… to keep us safe…
so we have the value of security and it is the wrong value in this
time and place…we must hold to justice and equality and freedom
before safety and security… and thus we must deny and forbid
torture and those who promote torture… the act of torture
damages us far more then the protection and safety and security
we may or may not have by the act of torture… torture
has never been shown to or proven to protect us or make us
more secure or have an increase in the security of our daily lives…

but, but justice and equality and freedom do increase the safety
and security and does protect us far more then actions like torture…

the values of justice and equality and freedom protect us far
more then the values of security and safety…

the values should decide the actions… and the values
we should be answering to are justice and equality and freedom…
and the values we should be leery of are the values of
instincts and the values of the lower human values like
security and safety…and hate and anger and greed
and fear… and security and safety are all about fear and hate values,
the instinctual values… values we have in common with the animals…
and we must reject those lower values of the animals…

we must hold to and honor the human values we have… hope,
love, charity, peace, justice, equality…

so what values do you hold and why?

Kropotkin

Again I intrude, if my comments can be characterized as such: but if it is so, just pass on one word and will cease, but not decist.

Values are commensurate with money, explicitly so, here in this land of ultra capital.

How can the poor acquire more? I bet the Malaysian, the Phillippino, and other very much more impoverished, crave the internet images of the poorest of the poor here, in the U.S., and would give up every value imaginable to get the same.

The world is becoming smaller, more understood, and the old barriers, boundaries are breaking down. That is why the new world order, its getting harder to keep them out. They will nuke you to get to you, to what you have. The external barbarian is pushing too hard. That’s why all the cost expanded on defense.

Defense of the rich supposedly puts up an umbrella against the trickle down possibility of nuclear waste material. Could the average American, or even the poorest of the poor understand and produce a defense against a wholesale invasion of the least fortunate in this world?

What other political production could curtail the envy of the world, for it is that from our point of view. But is the very essence of existence be labeled envy and coveting your neighbor’s goods?

When Your child plays in the vermin infested mud puddle of far eastern playgrounds, when their only nourishment consists in good bits thrown away, and I’m talking half the population here, not indigenous and disabled social outcasts, would a head of State such as North Vietnam’s flutter at the thought a basic fear of recolonization, or ethnic subjugation? No. We’ve been fed the same lie too long, that our wonderful, hectic life of rushing to anxiety ridden lives is preferable to the impoverished quietude of the East, which is truly a prefabricated lie.

Is not a metaanalysis worth a look, preferable to a rush to judgement, on a system laboring to solve methodically, political/social/psychologically, wherein does not appear to be any post historical, post ideologically human solution?

K: and the revolution I proclaim is not the change human nature… I want to become who
we are and those values, the human nature is the values of love and hope and charity
and hope and peace… I am not interested in changing human nature… I am interested
in putting emphasis on a different set of human values… not on the instincts of
animals which are values like hate and anger and greed and lust…

but on human values above animal instinct… not to change human nature but
to evolve and grow and adapt values that make us better human beings…

I have no interest in changing human nature, to values of the animals…
simply to hold to the higher values of being human…

the next point is that human beings have been treated as commodities
for over a century… Marx commented on it in the 1850’s… the point is
to return human being back into human beings with value and not as
a means to an end, a commodity, but with a greater value then
the current modern value which is money/profits…

I can’t speak to the next age…as I will be long dead when it strikes…
I can only speak to the last age and the current age…and we must, if
we want to survive as a people, as a culture and as a species, we must
begin to value people over money and profits… if we don’t, we will end
this current system of ism and ideologies very badly… with wars
and depressions and resources being so scarce as to leading to wars…
see the third world as it begins to fall under the pressure of
having reduced or no resources in which to take care of their people…
water, food, shelter… all resources that the 3rd world don’t have
and causing severe political and social and economic upheaval
there… we the industrial world will be next and in fact,
we are starting to see the effects of the reduction of resources
in the discontentment of the people in the industrial world…
it will only get worse… unless, unless we hold to values that
make the acquisition of material goods as being dangerous…
as they are… capitalism with its necessity for the acquisition of
raw material to make into goods to be sold as the primary
goal of a society… whereas it is not nor should it be, the
primary goal of a society, a culture, or a species…

we have allowed our attachment to a failed ism like
capitalism to threaten our civilization and threaten our
society and threaten our species…

what values should we hold to and act upon is the question…

values that make human beings a commodity is a wrong
value and one that must be discarded in place of values
that put the primacy on not just humans, but on life itself…

we must, must if we are to survive change our values, not
our human nature, but the values that support our survival like
the values of love and peace and hope and charity and justice
and the maintaining of life…

it is not human nature I attack but the current values of hate
and greed and lust and anger… remove those values and
we become a stronger people, a stronger nation and have a
far better chance of keeping the human species alive and
growing…

Kropotkin

Yes . Only, how , how to do it, that is the trillion dollar question.

How can You change values without changing human nature?

Peter, I don’t expect an answer to this , because maybe there is none. Could I elicit some solutions, because I feel exactly the same, but as regards to what my mind feeds me, if seems all but hopeless.

allow me some time as I must go to the store for lunch and dinner…
back in a bit…

Kropotkin

K: ok, back from the store and my buffalo wings in the oven and my
hot peppers all ready to go in my sauce…

anyway, the point about values is they are not dependent upon human nature…
they are simply choices… we choose our values if we properly understand them…
to make this clear… you have heard of the man who when killing his wife claims
to be temporarily insane… he claimed that he was so enraged, so under the control
of his emotions that he had no choice… we see this all the time when we see
people out of control with anger and hate and greed and lust… they are
under the control of the lower, instinctual emotions… like animals,
they cannot do anything but the instinct whatever that instinct is, be
it anger or be it lust or be it hate, or be it greed…they cannot control
their lower instincts and thus become temporarily insane…

they didn’t choose their values… the lower, instinctual values of
hate and anger and greed and lust choose them, controlled them…

I am talking about values we choose regardless of our human nature…
we don’t become possessed by values to the point of not being able
to control ourselves when we choose peace or freedom or love or
justice… the higher emotions, the human values that give our
lives meaning…you have never heard anyone say, they were temporarily
insane when they marched for peace or marched for justice or they
promoted love as the primary value of human existence…

you don’t need to become depress or sad when thinking about making
choices that are about love or happiness or peace… the
values I am talking about our the values that we can choose as
human beings or as americans or as part of life…that is the point…
we can choose our values that we want to follow whereas
if we cannot choose our values, then we are under the control
of the values of hate and anger and fear… we are under the instincts
to the point of being insane… and we, I don’t choose that…
it doesn’t matter what our “human nature” is if we make choices
that promote life and love and peace and justice and equality…

the point is we have choices… we just need to make the right choice…
something I tell my daughter every single time she goes out for the night…
make the right choices… and as I hope she makes the right choices…
I hope you make the right choices and any who read this, to make the right
choices and the right choices are the choices that aren’t instinctual choices,
choices that control us… no, make the choices that we control like
love and life and peace and hope and justice…

Kropotkin

Ok, that makes sense.could we correlate sense with non-sense to good choices and no choices? Then sensing versus not sensing what is right or wrong is the ultimate key to change , as I understand it.

The problem with this is statistical likelihood of being able to sense thus difference , because our minds are often mistaken.

But, looking at the political/psychological/social matrix today, the numbers are not promising about what senses might want to accept or reject. Most want to accept what their minds tell them because they do not trust their senses. They are very easily swayed one way or another.

Can this negative difference be overcome by a majority?

I have grave problems with this. I think Your futurism is commendable but it may not be quite a self fulfilling prophesy. I may be off on the statistics I admit.

Meno:

Ok, that makes sense.could we correlate sense with non-sense to good choices and no choices? Then sensing versus not sensing what is right or wrong is the ultimate key to change , as I understand it.

The problem with this is statistical likelihood of being able to sense thus difference , because our minds are often mistaken.

But, looking at the political/psychological/social matrix today, the numbers are not promising about what senses might want to accept or reject. Most want to accept what their minds tell them because they do not trust their senses. They are very easily swayed one way or another.

Can this negative difference be overcome by a majority?

I have grave problems with this. I think Your futurism is commendable but it may not be quite a self fulfilling prophesy. I may be off on the statistics I admit.
[/quote]
K: all I am saying is not about stats or the “social matrix” whatever that is…

no, all I am saying is we have a wide variety of choices in terms of values…
we can pick our values be it love or peace or charity or justice…if we
want to have control over our values…

if we pick values like anger and hate and violence and greed and lust…
we have no control over instinctual values like anger and hate…so on…

make the right choices and choose love or peace or justice or charity
that is all I am saying… nothing more…

Kropotkin

I think Your comments are poignant and ‘make sense’ there is the statistical problem with who among the popular, who can make sensible decisions among the options out there, since they (most) can’t differentiate what appears ’ right’ to them from what in fact is sensible. This difference is tantamount in taking the right path toward the most factual choice.

This is what’s wrong with this whole Trumpism scene, and this is why an ill defined center is developing.

I am reading a book about Hume: an intellectual biography by James Harris…

and one quote just leaped out at me… I think this quote sums up
the entire conservative mantra…

“What matters in government is stability, order and the protection of rights
of property”

that sums up the entire conservative mantra and point about
government… but what if it is wrong…

what if… the point of goverenment is not just about stability or order or
the protection of property… notice that the quote doesn’t mention
values like freedom or justice or equality or hope… no, the entire
point of government is to maintain the order of society even if that
order is wrong… for example, it is 1935 and the legally elected goverment
of Germany is Hitler’s Nazi party… under the conservative mantra, we must,
must obey the governement because it is creating stability and order
and protects property… of course it did this at the expense of the
Jews and other “undesirables” like homosexuals and communist…

creating order by eliminating dissent and “disorder”…
basically anyone who opposes the Nazi’s… you have stability
and order and the protection of the rights of property by
removing anyone who opposes you… this is a method favored
by conservatives today… who have called for “libtards” to be shot
or removed from this country forcibly without any recourse to
legal protection… because personal rights are just not important
compared to the protection of property…

so is government just about stability, order and the protection of
the rights of property or does government have a far greater role…
in the promotion of freedom or of justice for example…or equality…
it is not enough to want a form of government that only has very limited
scope like maintaining stability or order or the protection of the rights of
property… we need, must have a government is engaged in the expansion
of such rights as freedom and justice and equality for all it citizens…
it is not enough to promote stability or order… we must have a government
that promotes values that benefit all its citizens, not just the ones
who want their property protected…

“we the people in order to form a more perfect union”

we the people, not we the people with property who want police
protection and government that only protects my property and maintains
my safety and my security…

once again it is about the values chosen… not just the value
of security or safety… but the values of freedom and justice
and equality and hope and love and peace and charity…
for not just the instinctual values of safety and security…
higher values like love and hope and charity…

this is the question… what values are we going to choose, not
only personally but collectively… together… which values are
the values in which we are going to live our life, individually and collectively…

what choices are we going to make in regards to such issues as the reach
of government and how are we to interact with each other…
do we act and interact with love and peace and justice and
tolerance or are we going to act and interact with hate, anger, greed,
lust, violence… the instinctual values that we cannot control because
they are instincts… the value we inherited with the animals of the earth…
are we really going to act with and become one with the instinct of animals?
I hope not… I want to choose higher, more human values… values that
represent me as a human being… values of…you know …

Kropotkin

K: actually the “center” is quite defined… we have picked values that represent us
as human beings… values like love and charity and justice and equality…
“Trumpism” is about values like hate and anger and violence and lust and
greed… negative values that are lower values… values that bring us closer
to being animals instead of becoming who we are… which is human… and
the values we choose defines who we are… rise to become human… don’t fall
and become animal by letting our lower values define us… values which we cannot
control because they are instincts like anger and greed and hate and violence…

I believe you are overthinking this… it is really simple… if you were to teach
your children values… which values would you teach them? would you teach to hate
or be greedy or to have lust or to be angry? no, you wouldn’t and I am a parent
and I tried to teach my daughter positive values like love and peace and charity
and hope and justice and equality…that is all I am saying… what values would
you teach your children? and then adapt those values for youself…

Kropotkin

let us build this from ground up…

we are life… we are part of life that has existed for over
a billion years…and we have over the billion years evolved
into our current shape and form…genetically, we are related
to cows and dogs and apes and cats and fruit fly’s among other
life…we human beings must do animal things because we
have no choice… we must eat and we must sleep
and we must shit and we must all the things that
life has done for the last billion years because we
came from that life… and after human beings die, life
will go on in some fashion and some other life will take
our place… personally I’m betting on cats… but that is just me…

now, as stated, science deals with facts and philosophy deals
with values…facts such as I am 5 foot 8 and brown hair…
those facts don’t tell us anything about who I am… those facts just
describe me and those facts means I am one of about a billion people
who fit those facts… with each fact, we can narrow down the specific human
being… as I relay facts, with each fact you get closer and closer to
who I am…but once again those facts don’t tell you WHO I am…
am I a nice person or a mean person or a kind person or a smart person or
a “low IQ” person…what really turns me into a human is not facts like
I wear size 8 shoes but the values I accept as values worth following…

so when I mention I study philosophy, I get the question, what is the meaning
of life…and I am never quite sure how to answer that…until today, today I am
ready to answer that…it is not about human facts that I have two legs
and two arms and ten fingers… no, what makes me human are the values
I have… it is the values we have that gives life meaning…

Nietzsche questioned, often, values and made a rather big point
about how we must have a reevaluation of values…
and he also said…

it is not enough to have the courage of our beliefs,
we must have the courage for an attack upon our beliefs…

beliefs here means values… for an attack upon our values.…

I have laid out the idea that we are born into a society which
has myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions…
those myths and habits etc… are often values…
that have been passed down from generation to generation, blindly passed down…
it is believed that holding values that make god the central point of
being human is the “true” path…for example, the boy scout oath…

“On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to god and my country and to
obey the scout law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself
physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight”

the very first value offered is duty to god… and this oath is passed down
from generation to generation… I said it myself when I was a boy scout…

this myth, habit, prejudice and superstition is in line with what I am saying
about how we promote values often times without even thinking about it…

the question of philosophy is to answer the basic question…
what values should we hold and what values should we discard…
and why? why should we obey this value but not that value…

and it is in values that we find our meaning of life… for values
are what give our life meaning…not the instinctual “values” that
are passed down from generation of life to generation of life on down
to today…instinctual values like hate and greed and lust and anger…
values over which can take over us… recall our man who claimed
temporary insanity because he was struck with an anger so great
he couldn’t control it… a rage so great as to be uncontrollable…
that is instinctual because we cannot control it… just as animals
cannot control their instincts…and we cannot find the meaning of
life in values that we cannot even control…instinctual values cannot
be the meaning of life because we cannot control those instincts…

to have a meaning of life, we must have some control over it…
that eliminates god also… because we have no control over god…
and those believers think that is a good thing…but if we have no
control, then they become like instinctual values… values we react to
but they can cause temporary insanity because they takes us beyond
our control…

we see this all the time… the religious zealots who kill and torture
in the name of god… regardless of the god’s name… it doesn’t matter…
if you are so possessed by a religious feeling that you must act upon
it in without choice, you have an instinctual value problem…

so what myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions should we
hold? none… we should examine every single myth and habit
and prejudice and superstition to see if they hold values that aren’t
instinctual…because if we hold values that are instinctual,
they pose the risk of causing a person to go out of control they
cannot control themselves… they become temporarily insane…
we cannot hold to or commit to values that can cause us
to become temporarily insane…values that are instinctual…

this is another example of Nietzsche’s reevaluation of values… he wrote about…
to examine the myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions we
were raised with and discover what values we still engage with, that
are instinctual values, values from childhood that we still hold onto
and values that can cause us to become temporarily insane…
and in daily living, we can see values that do cause people to become
temporarily insane… hate and anger and greed and lust are among the
values that we have seen cause this temporary insanity…
or said another way, did the man who bombed the café have hate in his
heart or love, which values was he following when he bombed the café
or shot up a musical festival or attacked a school?

this is just one brick in the wall…

we shall see others as we move along…

Kropotkin

ok, so what values should we hold?

we have discussed negative values like anger and hate and greed and lust
as being instinctual values… values that cannot be the meaning of life
because they are negative…

ok, try this… imagine a man… the man has negative values of
hate and anger and greed and lust… you know, like IQ45…
now imagine this man’s actions…he has cheated on his wife, multiple times,
he has threaten and intimidated people who he feels is a danger to him…
he lies and lies and lies… he has ended people’s careers because he
failed to pay them for jobs done and they went out of business…
he has sued and been sued over 2000 times and to avoid his debts,
declared bankruptcy 6 times…these negative actions…
are they values that are negative or positive? the answer to that
is rather easy… his values are negative values and he acts upon those
negative values…creating chaos and destruction and damage all around him…

now, as an ism, capitalism is based upon the simple notion that
by private vices we create public good… that greed in people, somehow
creates a public good…(the exact mechanism is never actually shown but is assumed)
so one man’s private greed creates a public good…really… show me a person
who is greedy… they don’t create a public good, they cause chaos and damage
all around them… or lust, when a man or women for that matter, pursues
lust to the point of infidelity, how does that private good create a public good?
it cause chaos and damages the wife and any children and in general, creates
a negative environment… how is infidelity a public good? it isn’t and how
does pursuing greed create a public good? it doesn’t… so, the basic and fundamental
talking point of capitalism creates chaos and damage to both individuals and
a society when capitalism is practiced…private vices are both private dangers
and public dangers when acted upon…

so negative, instinctual values don’t help or aid or improve a society…
how can they? does someone who promotes hate or greed or anger or lust
improve or aid or help a society? nope…values that are negative… they are values
that Hitler and Stalin and Mao promoted… we cannot survive as individuals
and as a society by promoting negative, instinctual values like hate and
greed and lust and anger… because they cause too much instability
and chaos and disorder within a society…a person who promoted
anger and hate in society creates and promotes chaos and instability
within that society… think of times when someone you knew was about
the hate and anger and lust and greed… bosses who only cared about
their bonus and bosses who were dicks and bosses who only carried about
hate and anger and lust and greed… think about that workplace… it
was and will be a terrible place to work… the boss’s values of hate
and anger and greed and lust creates a terrible work environment…
isn’t that like a person whose values of hate and anger and greed and lust
creates a terrible social environment/ society for everyone…

it is no different… if it is a boss or a parent or a friend or a sibling or
co-worker… if they promote negative values it creates a negative, a
terrible environment to be in… and so why should an ism like
capitalism which promotes negative values like greed and lust and envy
be somehow any different then the environment you see every day,
where people who hold those negative values create a negative,
a terrible environment to be in and work in and live in…

this is why we must understand and promote values that create a
positive environment… be it work, be it home or be it society…
capitalism is a negative, instinctual value system and thus
creates negative and instinctual values that damage and
creates despair and anger within a home or work or a society…

this is why we cannot support capitalism as a value, or as a system of
belief…it is private vices which can never lead to positive values…
private vices which leads to a negative, hateful, angry system,
be it family, work or society at large…

so once again, which values should we hold to?

Kropotkin

I have worked for over 40 years… since I was 17…
I have had many, many bosses and different work environments…

I can recall the work environments that I enjoyed and wanted to work in…
they were far and few in between… but on occasion it happened…

so think about either your work environment or home environment
or school environment… and which one’s did you enjoy and want to
come to? which one’s were productive and positive and worth
coming to? and most importantly, why? I would suggest the
the productive and the enjoyable environments were the ones
with positive values, love and hope and charity and equality and justice
and peace…the leaders in those successful environments were the ones
who didn’t follow negative values like hate and anger and lust and greed
they followed positive values, not instinctual values, but positive values …

and this is not just about small, environments like work or school or the
family, but larger environments like institutions and government
and society at large…if our leaders hold to positive values like Obama
did, the society at large is happier and more successful and more engaged
then when the leaders hold negative, instinctual values like hate and anger
and greed and lust… like someone you may have heard of…

and this search for values that drives political theorist
and philosophers and economist and historians…

we must find the values that create a positive and successful environment

so which values do you think create a positive and successful environment?

which values, both individually and collectively, across society, which values
should we hold?

Kropotkin

think about it this way… the values we hold, individually and collectivly,
create the environment we exists in… if the boss manages to his bonus
and thus follows greed, he creates a negative environment… his values
creates the environment the workers exist in… thus we can have
negative values infecting the workplace, creating a toxic environment,
a terrible place to work and why? because the boss only cares about and only
acts upon his greed… and thus creates a negative environment…

the values he holds creates the working environment… and this is true
in any given environment… be it small, family or the school room or
work… but it is also true in a large environment… the values followed
created the workplace environment or the school environment or
the societal environment…so, if we as a society holds negative,
instinctual values, we create an environment that also
holds to the negative, instinctual values which leads to
a toxic and negative society and workplace and family…

our values creates our environment…so what values do you hold?

Kropotkin

so let us explore enlightenment values…

the enlightenment pursued values of humanism…
like tolerance and freedom from authority, be it the church
or philosophies like Aristotle or St. Augustine…

this pursuit of positive values help creates the environment
that leads us to our modern society and it’s is about positive values…

toleration, equality, freedom, justice, free expression…
these enlightenment values helped create a positive
environment… which has helped create the modern world…

values create environment… so if we hold values that are positive,
we create a positive environment… think of your workplace… the leaders
create the environment by the values they follow… toxic workplace is
toxic values… like hate and anger and greed and lust and envy…

toxic family is about toxic values like…

and a toxic society is about toxic values that are embodied
by such ism’s as capitalism and dictatorships and religion…for example…

Kropotkin

the values you have, drive the actions you take…
and if not, then how can you explain your actions?

Kropotkin

Never stop learning. Cause the world never stops teaching. This quote or at least mentality help me to succeed in living this far in my life and get through school. hm. I love this Man!

Poets as legislators is I believe is one of the topics
that Nietzsche undertook…
in other words, the creators of values was poets…
honor in the Greek world was found in Homer…
and arête, excellence was found there too…
in other words, the Greek values that we
still know them by, is found in their poetry…
and the reason why Plato wanted to ban
poets in his ideal society…

ancient Rome also had values created by the poets…
Vergil and Ovid for example help create the Roman values
we know them for…

but today, who reads poetry? no one outside of English major’s…
so who creates the values of today if it isn’t the traditional creators
of values, poets?

other points come to mind and I shall address them in the next post…

Kropotkin

so we have values and their society…
for example, we have the famous American example,
of the American values system…

Truth, justice and the American way of life…

Truth…what is the truth? indeed, we have that problem today…
we have a president who is indeed, untethered from the truth…
and can be demonstrated to have lied over 2,500 times since he
has been president…the truth means nothing in our age…
so the first word in our American value system has no value…

justice… justice is bought and sold as a commodity today…
the wealthy buy influence and justice and the poor and middle
class don’t have that luxury… justice is equality and we clearly
don’t have any sort of equality in America today… from economic
justice to political justice to legal justice… in each area, we see
how justice and equality has been subverted by money…
when only 500 people have the same wealth as 3.5 billion people
around the world, we cannot have equality and justice when that
is the current situation in our world today…so we have no justice
and the second word in our American value system no longer exists…

and the third valued offered… the American way of life…
and what exactly is this? where we treat human beings as commodities
and value their existence based on their creation of wealth and profits…

that means people are means to the creation of profits… which makes
profits the priority, not people…people become expendable…
and their values just as expendable because values are
negated because they don’t create profits… love and hope and justice
and peace and honor and charity… these values don’t create profits
and thus are denied and negated… this negation is nihilism…
and we live in a nihilist world because human values are negated
because those values interfere with the pursuit of profit…

now let us look at the third point about values which is a historical
understanding of values…

Kropotkin