ok, we have a problem to solve…
the question of existence… what does it mean?
is there a meaning or purpose in life?
Perhaps we can recast this problem into other words…
How are we to be redeemed? How can we be saved?
but being redeemed or saved, not in a religious sense but
in a secular sense… we cannot find redemption in god or religion
because as Nietzsche noted, god is dead… and with god’s death,
so has religion died…
we cannot, cannot turn to religion or god to find redemption…
so, what is left?
As usual, I shall turn to my own life to seek understanding…
How am I to be redeemed? How can I be saved?
but then the question comes, redeemed from or saved from what?
the answer is thus, how does one become redeemed or saved from
our modern nihilistic state?
we have both the political and the economic world attempting to
drown us in the nihilism both practice…
How am I to be saved from the modern nihilism?
both politically and economically, I am devalued, dehumanized,
debased by the modern state which preaches and praises the
values of money, power, materialism, fame, titles…
all of which is part and parcel of the modern world’s
devaluing of human beings……… if the human goal is to reach
money or power or materialism or fame or titles, then we human
being are below, beneath these things…….we have no value that is
unique to being human… we are simply tools to reach such things
as power, money, fame, titles, materialism…they have more value them
just being human… and that is nihilism…
the devaluation of human beings and their values…
if making money is more important then human beings or their values,
we human beings are devalued…
and that devaluation is the modern state of affairs…
how am I to be saved or redeemed from being devalued, or
be dehumanized?
How do I find meaning/purpose in a world that practices nihilism?
by what means do I find meaning/purpose?
is it art? or is it philosophy or seeking history or do I find meaning/purpose
in those old standbys of seeking happiness or wisdom or knowledge?
we have in this last 120 years seek meaning/purpose in those many schools
of art and philosophy such as with art having Expressionism or fauvism,
cubism, Dadaism, surrealism, pop art, abstract expressionism, or post-modern art?
we have also seen the growth of the many schools of philosophy which have been
searching for or seeking meaning/purpose……which as been logical positivism,
analytic philosophy, phenomenology, existentialism, poststructuralism for example…
the question to ask is, why has there been so many schools of thought in
both art and philosophy in the 20th century?
the reason seems simple enough… the fracture in the soul of human beings
as reflected by the many diverse schools of art and philosophy…
this fracture was caused by the rise of both capitalism and the rise of
the industrial revolution… both fracture human beings because of their shared
emphasis on the dehumanizing and devaluing human beings…
until we return human beings to the center of what is really important,
we shall remain divided and fractured… which is exactly what
the concepts of alienation and discontentment is…the fracturing of
the human soul…
so how am I to be redeemed or saved given that I have been
disconnected from and alienated from a society/state that treats
me as a means to the real goal which is profits, power, fame, titles,
materialism…
I exist in modern corporate world as the means to achieve profits/money…
I have no other goal in the modern economic world…
I have no political goal because I am used to achieve
the real political goal of gaining money and power…
I am used, abused and forsaken so others can achieve the goal
of money/power/materialism/fame……
I have no value in the modern world and you have no value in the
modern world…
so, once again I ask, how are we to be saved or redeemed in the face
of the modern world goal which is to devalue, dehumanize me in order
to reach the goals of money/profits/ power/ materialism/fame/titles…….
I can either crash the modern world and rebuild or, or I can remake what
it means to be human…….
so, we return to an old idea… that we are animal/human…
that we humans have come from being animals, no different then
being a dog or a cow or sheep… and what happens to those animals?
we human being use those animals to achieve our own goals…
and so as we are animal/human, we are used as we use animals…
because we are animal/human… and animals always get used in some
fashion to benefit others…
so the goal for us is to reach something more then just being animal/human…
the goal is for us to become human, fully human… and then we can no longer
be used as we use animals…
I can be redeemed/saved if, if I become human, fully human… no longer
just another animal/human that gets used like we use farm animals to
feed us…the path to be saved is the path to become fully human…
the road to being saved is not about some distant and far off
religious redemption of god or jesus or heaven, but the road lies
in us finding our full potential, our full possibilities in who we are
and exploring them…… and that path is only found in sacrifice of some
sort and that sacrifice is of material wealth and money… in order to be
saved, redeemed is to reduce our commitment to wealth and power and
fame and titles… we must commit to becoming something more then just
animal/human…
I cannot reduce my hours at work…
given my cost of living but I can limit it…
I can make becoming who I am a priority
not work, not the busy work of day to day life,
but having as a priority, finding out who I am by
the examination of my values… I must know thyself…
I must become aware and that takes time and effort…
so I reduce my working to commit to an understanding
of my possibilities…
So, I walk away from the materialistic and destructive American dream
of wealth, materialism, titles, fame……
the goal is no longer what I can buy or sell, the goal becomes
what does it take for me to become my values……
the journey is no longer about some external battle to gain wealth or
titles or material goods, but the battle becomes a battle to be aware of
who I am and what are my values?
it is an internal battle, not an external battle… I am no longer slaying dragons
or seeking outside goals…the seeking I seek is within me and about me
and has only my awareness to seek out…
walk away from the American dream and become aware of who you are……
that is the only possibility right now…
don’t buy that new car or that new house or that new TV…
or don’t buy that couch… walk away from the materialism that
dominates our lives because of the ism’s and ideologies of capitalism
and the industrial revolution…….
if you want to be free, truly free… you must forsake what it means
to be an good American and discover the true possibilities that lie
within you……
when work gives me too many hours, I simply call in sick…
I must devote time to me and if that sounds selfish, good…
I want to make the journey to become me, about me and only about me…
the modern crisis isn’t about policy differences on tax cuts or
student loans or infrastructure or defense spending…
the modern crisis is about the internal battle to become
human, to rise above being animal/human… which is above
being purely animal which we were a few million years ago…
the battle isn’t about us today or yesterday, but about who we are tomorrow…
what choices can we make that will allow us to become more human?
and that isn’t about ism’s or ideologies or money/profits or titles or fame or
materialism………
those choices only mask the real search for who we are and who we might
become……
so the problem to solve is about what it takes to become human, fully human
and not animal/human or just animal…….
Kropotkin