So begin to understand that “to be human is to be social”.
To be human is to act and interact with our fellow human beings.
that is what it means to be human.
Now let us relate that basic understanding with our social, political
and economic systems. The human being can only exist and become
who they are by involvement with other human beings. That is the basic
human fact we must live with. So any political, social or economic
policy or system that does not address this fact of the human social
nature is doomed to failure. It is by our working together, living together,
playing together and dying together that we humans become humans.
so our political system must be of a social nature. For that is who we are,
social. So we must work for any political system that engages
us socially, politically and economically. So the political system
that is right for human beings is democracy. Not representative
democracy but direct democracy. For representative democracy can
be hijacked by the wealthy and powerful. As it exists right now in
the United States we do not have a democracy, but we have
a corporatocracy. That is the political battle of our age.
to make America a place where the government is
“of the people, for the people by the people”
a true democracy where we the people, the union of human beings have control
over and in charge of our own fate because that is what
is important about being human. Having control over and be in charge
of your own fate, of your own narrative. The quest to be human is
not just a social one or a personal one, but the quest to be human
is a political and social and economic quest.
The economic understanding of the human being is the same.
we are social creatures and we must have an economic system
that allows us to act and interact with each other. That means
that the current economic system of capitalism is not the answer.
The truth is, economic systems like communism is the economic answer
to our understanding of human beings. We must and need to engage with
each other and the only honest way to do that is by social economic
systems like communism.
The final understanding of systems is the social and we must
also discover a new means to that end. We are social creatures
and the answer to us becoming more human is to engage even
further as human beings. The new technology which isolates human
beings is a danger to our well being. The ever increasing “smart phone”
is dividing us into smaller and smaller numbers when we must be
engaging into larger and larger numbers to find our human nature which
can only be found in engagement with our fellow human beings.
we can only become who we are by engagement with our fellow human
beings. The true human being is found in their engagement with their
fellow human beings in the marketplace and the meetings halls
and musical concerts and in the polis. Our political, economic
and social systems must reflect that need of human beings to engagement.
Kropotkin