in our thinking, we have certain things we want…
thus we can say and expect that if we search for
or expect certain things, we are “progressing”
so for example, the declaration of independence,
“we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain
inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness”
it has also been suggested that we seek certain things beyond
“the pursuit of happiness”… that we seek “god, freedom and immortality”
and that we seek understanding and that we seek wisdom or we seek
knowledge… and we can mix and match these pursuits. We can seek
some combination of happiness and wisdom or seek wisdom and knowledge
or we can seek beauty and truth… there are quite a few combinations of things
that has been suggested of things that we seek…
and the place to begin to understand is the place for example, philosophy
begins, which according to whom you read can be wonder as the Greeks list
it or in doubt as I and Socrates list it or in the pursuit of wisdom… which “value”
do we use to begin our pursuit of philosophy? wisdom, doubt, happiness,
certainty or some other value which is used to engage in our pursuit of…
but the problem is, as I see it, is the psychology issue… and what that means
is this… by virtue of the values/ism’s/ideologies, superstitions, habits, prejudice
we are raised with, we can have psychological issues…for example,
we know that in pursuing the ism of capitalism, the pursuit of profits/money
over human beings and their values, in people we cause such psychological issue
as alienation, discontentment, despair, anger and the negation of human beings
and their values… all of which causes psychological issues in human beings…
we must “cure” ourselves of our psychological issues before, before we can
engage in our pursuit of happiness or wisdom or certainty… in other words, we
cannot become happy or wise or certain until we cure ourselves of our
psychological issues…
there are many different reasons why, why we have psychological issues,
among my psychological issues are caused not only by the indoctrinations of
my childhood but by the handicap of my hearing loss… it has taken me years
to overcome the psychological issues of my hearing loss…I cannot become wise
until I have learn to overcome the physical loss of my hearing and this is an example of
the psychological issues that we human beings must learn to overcome before we
can pursue happiness or wisdom or knowledge or certainty…
we must “cure” ourselves before we can engage in our pursuit of anything…
this is why I say that we must deal with our psychological issues before we
can engage with the question of what values are we going to engage with, or
pursue………
that is why the psychological is so important…we cannot become wise
or happy or content or certain until we “heal” ourselves…….once
the psychological is dealt with, then and only then can we begin the process
of the pursuit of…… whatever……
Kropotkin