As an average person looking at the academic disciplines that we
depend upon such as history and economics and science and of course,
philosophy, we see a complete lack of understanding of those disciplines
and a disregard of those disciplines. In other words, the common man/women
might ask, what has those academic disciplines done for me? Do those
academic disciplines help my life in any, way, shape or form? The common
person most likely sees someone who engages in those disciplines as
not much more then a “egghead”, whatever that means, and they dismiss
anyone who engages in such matters as history and philosophy and political science
and economics and……….
The “average” person cannot make a connection with any of those
academic disciplines and see them as not much more then
intellectual masturbation. The common person has no engagement
or connection with such academic disciplines.
The common American is “practical” and they don’t see any of those
academic disciplines as being “practical”. Americans have always
disliked and distrusted “intellectuals”. In Europe and Asia, intellectuals
have a much higher level of respect then here in America.
Part of the slam against Clinton was, she was an intellectual who didn’t connect
with people. As if connecting with people was a prerequest for being president.
Anyway, how do we get the “average” person to reconnect with such academic
disciplines as political science and philosophy and history?
You have to connect the disciplines with what is happening in people’s lifes.
Why does philosophy matter? You have to show people why philosophy
matters in their life? The dry philosophy of deconstruction and analytical
philosophy doesn’t tell people what they want to know about how to live life.
Or to be more exact, people don’t see the issues in their life.
In their quest to be “Practical” people miss the fact that their
lives are an empty shell. People are simply going through the
motions in getting through life. Capitalism and democracy and the
western way of life has failed. The promise that life would be better
under this form of government and economics has failed…… but why
has capitalism and democracy failed? That is a question the common
people don’t grasp. They don’t see how capitalism and democracy
has failed. But the failure in both, stems from the same failure.
Both capitalism and democracy have money as it final judgment.
Both are judge by profits and losses where as we must judge
a political system and a economic system with a different
judgement values. But these matters don’t engage the average person,
the average person simply wants the system to work and they don’t care
how that happens or who is damaged in the rush to make the system work.
But that is the point, we should care not only if the system works,
but how it influences people, for better or worse. The failure is
not understanding that a system that works is still not the best system
to have. Success or failure is not just a matter of profits and losses,
it is about the effect that system has on its citizens or the people within
the system. We must make it clear that system understanding is really
in the best interest of people. We have said for decades, let the experts
do the thinking for you. And the experts have been in the pay of those
who make the decisions and thus the decisions have benefited those
who have paid for the “expert” opinions. The answer for me has always been
simple, the more people involved the better. Democracy or any political
system works best the more people you have involved in it. Any economic
system works best the more that the people benefit from it, not just the
1%. The answer is to increase participation in every area of our lives.
That is how we get engagement from people. We engage them by
getting them a voice, a place in the system. The academic disciplines
can become part of our engagement with people by bringing the disciplines
to the people, not just leave it in the hands of the “experts”. Make philosophy
part of peoples life by allowing them engagement with philosophy.
I believe in the wisdom of the people, the group more then I believe in
the wisdom of the few or the one.
Kropotkin