as an underlying issue of my writing is simply this,
what does philosophy have to say to people?
what can I say that will have an impact upon people’s lives?
As of right now, I write for a very small, specific group of people…
but what can I say to the wider population of American’s or even
to those outside of America……
Must I tailor what I say to fit into some conversation that people will
understand or should I just say what I gotta say and understanding be damned…
I suspect that my viewpoint is so outside the realm of understanding of
the “average” person that I may as well be writing in Greek……
the “average” person cannot for the life of them, see how the matters I bring up
are even a “problem” in the lives of “average” people…
for most people, the slogan is the message… as Raygun pointed out,
“government is not the solution, government is the problem”
this slogan is the message… any deeper thought into the matter never
comes to mind…all people can or will think of, is how government is
the problem… meanwhile never looking deeper into the matter to see if
this is even correct…the slogan matches people feelings about the matter…
in other words, people were already feel this way, but the slogan puts into
words, their feelings…people were already dissatisfied with government,
but they hadn’t or couldn’t put that feeling into words… the slogan match
their feelings about government…
the struggle to become human, fully human just doesn’t have a fancy
slogan which allows that idea to become part of the cliché of human
expressions…
clichés like “to err is human, to forgive, divine” that expression
has existed since, well forever… and is has become such a cliché that
we forget what it means…
so some clichés are so cliché that we are immune to its effects…
but what has philosophy offered to people that might even be considered
to be cliché? nothing…the impact of philosophy in these “modern”
times is minimal at best…and that is the problem……
the one discipline that people and society needs is unable to minister
to the needs of people because it has become out of touch with what
people need…philosophy has driven itself into extinction because it
has lost touch with what the people need…
and what do the people need?
why some means of being able to steer and direct our lives,
both individually and collectively… and we cannot steer or direct
our lives until we understand it… not in a scientific way, but in a
philosophical way… and that means we not only answer the who, what,
when, where, how, but we must answer the why… the one question that
scientific cannot answer, the why… but religion can answer the why, but
religion cannot answer the who, what, when, where and how…
religion comes from a place where the answer is already known,
the why… but in this case, the why fails to answer the doubts that
fill our hearts……
why do I suffer? believe in god… why must I die? believe in god…
what is the point of, the meaning of life… believe in god…
the problem with religion is that every answer ends with the answer of god…
you can replace every question of why, with the answer of god… question of why,
the answer, god,
the questions of philosophy do not and cannot answer with god…
for that answer is theology and we don’t need any more theology in our
lives… we need philosophy…
philosophy begins with doubt… theology begins with certainty…
I would rather live in doubt then live in certainty…for in certainty
cannot lead us to any new understanding of who we are and what is our point…
for certainty is the beginning of and the end of the process… there is no
other steps to the certainty of god… either you believe or you don’t…
I don’t… now what? that’s it… that is the end of theology…
I don’t believe…
but in philosophy, I don’t believe is the beginning of philosophy, not
the end…so, once again, what do we philosophers have to say to
our friends living a life where they don’t doubt anything…
begin to doubt?.. is that really all we can say to people outside of
philosophy? I would hope we could at least create a really cool slogan that
brought to life, the real message of philosophy…
something a little less esoteric then “cogito ergo sum”…
perhaps we can work on a really cool slogan of philosophy…
Kropotkin