Yes, we are matter and energy but the part I wish to focus on today is
the matter part. We are matter, human beings, and as such we exists in
time and space. Human beings are, by the long hunter-gatherer years,
social beings…… we can only survive as part of a group…and evolution
has written survival into our genes, our genetic coding and these genetic
coding is very powerful in all animals… so for us humans, we are coded to
survive. As we must exist within a social society, we must then understand
what it means to be within society… now this society can be small, a family
or several families uniting together for survival, as it was for a million years
during our long childhood of pre-history or it can be large, as we have nations
with billions of us now. The size doesn’t really matter because the goal of
social society remains the same, survival. Now think back to the hunter-gatherer
society. We have small family units combining to create a larger society of
perhaps 75 to 100 people. To maintain order and allow survival in such
a group, the begining of what we would now call government began.
One person or perhaps a small group of people were in charge.
How they came to be in charge is different in each social group…
perhaps an election, perhaps the eldests, perhaps the best hunter or
the strongest person may have put into charge… it is hard to guess upon
what method was used, but the question of who is in charge and
how they are chosen has been an problem for human beings since the begining of time.
so you have some leadership, based upon some agreed upon method, which
is the beginning of government. That right there is the beginning of government,
the founding of leadership within a society and the method of choosing that leadership.
And for what purpose does this government exists? To allow the group to maintain order
and to better be able to survive the harsh conditions of the time.
We fast forward to Socrates and Greek society. Socrates felt that the
social society goal, mission, was for the individuals member and the society
at large was for the “common good”. In other words, we individuals worked for
and promoted the idea of society was for the “common good”. And it was clear
for Socrates at least, that the common good was for people to strive for
arete, excellence. Socrates goal was for society to be better, people had
to be better and the way to achieve that was for people to become aware of
and strive to work in their own soul… make society better by making the
people better, the individual people living within that society.
This idea of the “common good” has been lost in our modern society because
we are so atomize and isolated from each other and aided by
such ism’s as capitalism which is individual greed which somehow, by
the invisible hand of god, somehow makes society better. But it has never
been explained how the greed of man which drives our modern capitalist
society has within it, the ability to somehow benefit society… my greed to
achieve some materialistic goal as wealth or property is not connected to
any known method to help or improve or make society better. In fact, I would
suggest that this greed which is a vice, a determent to individual success is
in fact a danger to both the individual and the society. We have made an
addiction the central aspect of modern society. the constant drive for
goods that have an momentary high and then we want more and more,
just like an drug addict or alcoholic, we need more and more of our fix,
which in modern society is the drug of choice, materialism and the buying
of goods, wealth.
But in this drive for our addiction which is modern society, where is the
common good? How do we reach an understanding of the common good when
we are fix upon and driven by our need to be wealthy which is the
ability to have the wealth to get our daily fix of buying worthless goods.
This has been lost, the idea of the common good. This idea of the common good
has been lost in the face of nihilistic ism’s like capitalism and rugged individualism
and Ayn Rand’s false and dangerous ideology that deny the concept of the common
good. Modern society very survival depends upon our return to the old and forgotten
concept of the common good. Now the old idea of the common good ask for and
got the understanding of individual sacrifice for the good of all. But the modern
concept of sacrifice is done in terms of such nihilistic goals as in the pursuit
of money/profits. We are asked to sacrifice our souls and body for the
betterment of soulless and nihilistic entities like corporations and
the ism of capitalism. This sacrifice isn’t done for the betterment of
the common good, but for the betterment of those who own the means of production.
The pursuit of wealth and profits is nihilistic because it denies, negates both
our body and our values. The common good is not a negation of our body or
our values……… it affirms and raises our bodies and our values… we achieve
the common good when we strive for our higher values like love and peace
and justice and charity. when we deny our higher values for the lower values
we negate and deny our higher nature, our better angels.
The common good requires each of us to reach the higher values of
what is possible. when we reach for our lower values, our instinctual values,
we are no better then animals… being who we are is determined
and instinctual. Our genetic coding from which we come from is
fixed and determined in everyone, but to reach our becoming,
we must rise above our genetic coding, our instincts and become
fully human… that is what it means to become fully human,
to rise above our genetic coding and no longer be animals…
animals can only act upon instinct and their genetic coding…
if we just follow our instincts and genetic coding, then we too
are just animals, nothing more………
But I am not an animal, I am a human being because I can rise
above my instincts and my genetic coding. I can love and
desire peace and justice and charity which is our higher values,
our more human values…….
but we can only achieve this within a society.
and the only means we can achieve this, is by order
and tranquility which is the goal of government.
so the solution to our current problems of
the lack of justice and peace and disorder is
to work on this idea of the common good, not
by using your energy to achieve wealth and material goods.
These are false goals and damaging to your body and soul
and to society. For the pursuit of wealth is nihilistic. The negation
of people and their values. The pursuit of wealth is the pursuit
of the lower instincts of animals. We must reach for the higher values
of being human. and by that, we will become a better society,
we will value the common good for we can see how the common good
impacts and improves us.
The common good is reached when we begin to understand, to know
ourselves and then reevaluate and then becoming who we are. The path
to a better society lies in our becoming better people with better values
because we understand that reaching for higher values makes us
better people. Those who reach down, who follow lower values, instincts,
are not engaged in becoming who they are, they are not engaged
in becoming better people, they are not engaged in pursuing the common
good. This idea of the common good is tied up in the pursuit of
becoming more human, tied up in our engagement with becoming
human beings who rise above our lower instincts…….
If you want to improve society, improve yourself……
Kropotkin