a new understanding of today, time and space.

any existentialist who utters the phrase ‘the universe is irrational’ means to say something about it sucks because he doesn’t like it. mortality, natural disaster, disease, war, famine, poverty, Entertainment Tonight, etc. but all this has nothing to do with ‘rationality’ in the way that the existentialist wants to believe. the universe is no less ‘rational’ because of these things, and its only because the existentialist finds it disagreeable at times that he would say such a thing. this is why existentialism that continues to linger after its done its 19th century work - the death of god, the lack of objective values and ultimate purpose, yada yada - becomes a liability. it encourages ‘wallowing’, and wallowing is precisely what conservatives want/need the working classes to do to slow progress.

for a marxist, all of this process is ‘lawful’ in the sense that it follows a natural order… and the marxist is only describing what’s happening and why it’s happening. it doesn’t say anything about what ‘ought’ to happen… because when you start making claims about what ought to happen, you start inserting values and doing philosophy. and that’s what we want to avoid because when you do that, you become a mouthpiece for a particular set of prejudices and convictions that reflect more about you than the facts about the world. a philosopher loves nothing more than accidentally distorting reality on purpose.

so no, a marxist would never say ‘the goddamn working class should own the means of production’… but what he will say is something like ‘after an extensive analysis of historical trends and the general direction of the course of human evolution and development, there’s a damn good chance the working class will end up owning the means of production.’

now people can do with that what they want - criticize it, lambaste it, condemn it, whatever - but that don’t change nothing and it says more about what a particular person stands to lose than it does about the actual facts of the world. a philosopher will do back-flips to try and convince you that this should never be, but all you’re hearing is a distress call from a person who’s becoming more and more nervous as the world rapidly changes.

anyway yeah existentialism was a critically important stage in philosophy since it demolished damn near everything but analytical philosophy. its purpose was to assist in the deconstruction of ruling-class ideology that has persisted for over a thousand years, and clear the way for radical social and economic change. there’s a pattern to all this, bro. in fact i think i bantered a bit about it in my first or second post here… the progression from platonism to enlightenment realism to structuralism to post-structuralism something something something.

really all that’s left is analytical/structural marxism and nihilism. all the other nonsense has been formally usurped and exists now only in the personal memoirs of forum philosophers and independent authors coming to a bookstore shelf near you (again… and again… and again. i know, right. like give it up already).

Now Pro75, I am going to answer your question? but not really answer
your question…

I have been deep into this book by Prigogine called: Order out of chaos…
Man’s new dialogue with nature…

and one of the topics he deals with is Entropy…and of course this idea
of order and chaos…but the big question he deals with is energy……

let us do a quick review of philosophy and see what has been the deal
with philosophy…

with the “new” science of Kepler and Galileo and Newton,
we have come to learn of new vision of the universe…
a vision where motion, the movement of objects and stars
was the “Scientific” way and philosophy in some attempt to
become more “Scientific” adapted the scientific method…

Socrates would have been rolling around in his grave had he known
this because Socrates whole point was to bring philosophy down to earth…
not to make philosophy scientific, for that was the whole movement of
philosophy before Socrates…to engage in the world scientifically
and see what that meant philosophically…

but Socrates didn’t want to have anything to do with that, he wanted
to bring philosophy “out of the heavens”, not science, as was practiced
by the Pre-Socratic philosophers but about values and the soul and virtue…
Human values, not an understanding of the universe scientifically, but
philosophically…

so, when did Modern philosophy lose it way?

when it became scientific… following the lead of Descartes
and Newton, Hobbes and Locke and Hume……

let science do its thing and that thing is good, make no mistake,
I am not anti-science… However I am for science being about science
and philosophy being about matters of philosophy…

there are many question of philosophy for which science cannot answer for us…

for example, science cannot answer questions of ethics, nor can science answer
questions of Aesthetics and most interestingly Epistemology… the study of the
scope, nature and limits of human knowledge…what did you say Kropotkin?

that science cannot answer questions of Epistemology?

Yep, no matter how big a set of Epistemology answers we get,
we cannot catalog everything… something will get left out of
the question of Epistemology…… we cannot put into a set
everything that is Epistemology… no matter how hard we try,
something will get left out…try putting all the emotions we have
into some set or subset…no matter how many emotions you might get,
you will be missing some… that is the problem with any attempt to list
everything about a certain subject… you can never include everything…

thus all information we have is incomplete… we can never reach the
limits of human knowledge… something will be missed…

so to return to our problem… science cannot answer certain philosophical
questions, no matter how hard we try to do so…

so, science starting with Kepler, became about motion…
read your Galileo and it is all about motion, read Newton
and it is all about motion…a good deal of Einstein is about motion…
the theory of Relativity and the special theory is all about motion…

so, philosophy in its bid to become
scientific, became all about motion…

and questions about motions is great for science, but the understanding of
motions doesn’t answer philosophical questions……

how is the question of virtue, a motion question?

it isn’t…but there is something that might be better suited to
answer questions of virtue scientifically…

and that is energy……

re orientate philosophy to think of questions in terms of energy…….

ah, what the hell are you smoking Kropotkin?

see the next post…

Kropotkin

we have in science certain idea’s and one of those idea’s
is the three laws of thermodynamics…

the three laws are basically laws of energy…

I don’t care too much about the third law but the first two,
especially the second law is of great concern to me…

the first law states simply that there is X amount of energy in
the universe…that can never increase or decrease…energy moves,
but it doesn’t increase or decrease…

we know this from Einstein when he made matter and energy
interchangeable… they are different forms of the same thing
and so, that matter and energy can change form, from matter to
energy and back again… but the amount of energy/matter doesn’t
change…the overall amount in the universe is the exact same as it
was in the beginning of the universe and will be the exact same at
the end of the universe……

that the second law is simply a comment about energy itself…
that energy spreads out… and that spreading out is entropy…
when energy is collected and used, it is in some form or another…

think of firewood…we have some wood… it has X amount of energy.
it is matter and matter and energy is the same…

so let us burn that firewood… the amount of matter/energy remains the same
after we burn that firewood… we feel the change in terms of heat… that heat is
the same amount of energy as the firewood…there is no difference…

so what about entropy? Entropy is simply the leveling out of that energy…

if we have a glass of hot water and then if nothing else happens, the
temperature of the glass water will slowly go down from hot to warm to room
temperature…that temperature drop is entropy… the dissipation of energy,
is entropy…I am old… just turned 61… old age is the action of entropy…

it is about the amount of energy I use… I cannot lift heavy things like
I used to… that is entropy… I am weaker, not as strong, I cannot run as fast,
nor walk as long as I used to…even thou I still eat food and drink water
and I average around 5000 steps a day, the amount of energy available to me,
is lower then it used to be…

ever buy a box of crackers and ate one and it was stale… that is
entropy… the box was sealed up and nothing impacted on the cracker
from the outside, but it was still stale… that is entropy at work…

I hate cleaning… left to me, our house wouldn’t get clean…
but I have noticed that when we go on vacation, say, 2 weeks,
we might have left the house spotless, no dust, no mess of any kind,
and yet when we return home, the house was a dusty and smelled funny
and it wasn’t as clean as when we left it… that is entropy…the movement
from order to chaos… by the dissipation of energy……it takes energy to keep
a room clean and if we stop putting energy into cleaning a room, it will
get dirty… that action of getting dirty is entropy…to keep a clean room requires
energy…to maintain order requires energy…

my wife and I will go out and happen to see young couples with children…
we have agreed to the fact that we don’t have the energy to contain
children from being chaotic… to keep children in order, requires energy…

that is why we leave the raising of children to the young… they still have the
energy to maintain order…

now any system to maintain itself requires energy… think of your body as
a system… if it is not feed, it will run out of energy and eventually die…
we must have energy in our system to be able to maintain it…

this is true of any system, be it natural, mechanical or biological……

our biological system demands energy to maintain itself… as all biological
systems must have energy to survive…

now the forms of energy might be different between the systems, but
the basic idea is the same…for example, a car is a mechanical system…
it doesn’t run on the same energy basis that a biological system needs…

a car requires gas to have energy… there is no difference between gas for
a car and food for a person or animal… it is the exact same thing…
energy… it might take a different form, but it is still energy…

remember Einstein, that matter and energy is the same thing…
gas as matter and food as matter is the same thing… energy for
a system…

and every thing, every thing is part of a system…
from our bodies to political systems to mechanical systems
such as cars and solar systems as our solar system is a system…

now look up system in the dictionary: a system is a set of rules,
an arrangement of things, or a group of related things that work toward
a common goal… an example of a system are the laws and procedures of
a democratic government… an example of a system is all the organs that work
together for digestion…

so, as we all, every single bit of matter or energy is part of a system,
then the trick is to understand systems as philosophy……

so how is virtue, as an aspect of an system, how does virtue work?

that is a philosophical question… what is the relationship
between virtue and any discussion of systems? how does virtue
work in regards to a political system? or how does virtue work in
regards to an economic system? we cannot take advantage of virtue
in regards to a mechanical system because virtue has no relationship
to any mechanical system such as cars… we cannot connect virtue
to mechanical systems nor can we connect virtue to our solar system…
it simply doesn’t work…

but can we connect virtue to biological systems as the human body?

Kropotkin

let us try this…

can we measure the amount of energy in a system like
a sporting event?

I have both played sports and have watch sports my entire life…

and I can personally attest to the fact that in sports, as in other areas of life,
energy can play a crucial role…have you watched an exciting sporting event?

I have watch plenty of say, basketball games, my local team is the Golden State
Warriors… they have been in the last 5 finals…over 100 plus playoff games…

and you can feel the excitement going on in the game, within the arena,
or in the bar if you are watching the game in a bar…that excitement is
a physical thing… you can feel it…now, one might say, nonsense Kropotkin,
you can’t measure the amount of excitement within an bar or an arena…

but you can feel it… it is a physical presence…but Kropotkin,
you can’t measure it you can’t weigh it, you can’t see how tall it is
nor can you tell much about how much energy is produce within
a game or in a bar… NO, no, you can’t and yet, it still exists…
don’t fall into the trap that insist that something isn’t real if
it cannot be measured or weigh or timed… in some fashion…

if it is not scientific, it doesn’t exist… that is simply not true…
because if that were true, then love, hope, justice, charity,
as well as the negative values of hate or anger or lust or greed
would exist either………

a great deal of philosophy involves things that cannot be weigh or measure
or timed…how can you weigh or time, beauty or virtue?

it still exist even if you can’t measure it in some fashion…

don’t fall for the trap thinking if it isn’t scientific, it isn’t real…

business is driven by the measurement of things… I am timed for
how long I spend with each customer and my money drawer is checked every night
to see how short I am in and people watch me on camera to see if I am standing in
the right place or if am doing something I shouldn’t be, like talking to my fellow
employee’s… that is frowned upon and actively discouraged…… I am only suppose
to be working and nothing else…and in the midst of all this, where are the values?

for example, how does love fit into this? or how does any value fit into
this scientific understanding of work…

for a great deal of business comes from scientific research…
look up Fredrick Winslow Taylor…to see the influence of science into
business…

but business has no interest in anything other then money/profits…
and it uses science to better increase money/profits…

the ultimate tool of business is the clock…time is money is a
business saying…I am timed in every aspect of my job…
from my breaks to my lunch to how long I spend with a customer…

that is science… but I am more then just science, I am a human being…
and what does being a human being have to do with being timed?

and so we return to energy… I am energy, for I am matter…
and matter and energy is interchangeable……

and the energy I use at work is used to gain profits/money…
and it isn’t used for anything else besides the expressed goal
of making money/profits…….

now ask yourself, is making money/profits really the best use
of what energy I have?

it depends upon the goal, now doesn’t it…

if I spend my energy on making profits/money for a company, then
I don’t have any energy to make myself a better person, I don’t have
any energy to create a better society, I don’t have any energy to
do anything other then the creation of money/profits……

we cannot allow the scientific understanding of the world outweigh
any other use of the world… in other words, there is more being human
then to make money/profits…and if it isn’t validated by science, then
it has no use…that idea must be removed……

in modern day society, if it isn’t measure, weighed, timed, it has no value…

we cannot waste time engaged in the pursuit of beauty or truth or justice or
hope because those things cannot be measured… that is what is the matter with
modern day society, if it cannot be measure in some fashion, it has no value…

but how does one measure love?

you can’t… but according to the modern world, love has no value
because it can’t be timed or weighed or measured…

and what does science do? it weighs, measures, times, put things
on a scale… so, we are a scientific world………

a Marxist/capitalistic world…materialistic systems that depends upon
some form of measurements, weights, times…….

so once again, how does one measure the amount of energy
that an exciting game of basketball creates in a bar or in person?

it can’t be weighed or timed or measured… so it is unimportant…

but I submit, it is the most important thing we do… what we spend our
energy on is the most important thing we do as human beings…

and I suggest that we should spend it on things that cannot be measured,
weighed, times… things like love, peace, justice, charity…

the path to becoming human isn’t through measurements or timed events,
but in the path, the road itself and that cannot be measured…

Kropotkin

being and becoming…

we are either being or we are becoming……

I am… or I am becoming…

the path of the human race has been the path of becoming…

from animal, like dogs, cats, cows, birds… to becoming animal/human…
where we still hold instinctual needs like sex and anger and hate…
but we can, at times, put those instincts on hold and do what we
want… sometimes, I want to beat the crap out of the customers who
are idiots in my line… if I followed my instincts, I would…
but I rise above my instincts and… with a great deal of effort,
I don’t act upon my instinct…In doing so, I am human and not
animal/human… for animal/human must still act upon their instincts…

to be human means to rise above instincts… we use other means to
judge our actions… logic, rational thought, just plain fear…
I don’t beat the crap out of customers because I don’t want to
explain to my wife why I was fired… that fear outweighs any other fear…

the instinct of fight or flight is an animal instinct… if we react to some action
without recourse to fight or flight, we are being human… we have risen above
just plain animal instincts…

but we must continue the road to becoming human… we have risen above
being just an animal to being animal/human and we must continue the road
to becoming human, fully human…

that means we rise above our instincts… we make rational choices as to
whether we have sex or if we eat a meal or if we fight or flight…….

we pause and think… instead of reacting instinctually…

and if we think, we quickly realize that wasting our energy on
such a meaningless concept of money/profits is dumb…
I have spent my entire adult life working, 43 years and counting…
I have absolutely nothing to show for it outside of a bad back
and bad hips and knees that don’t work anymore……

working is a waste of my time and is a waste of your time…

there is nothing to be accomplished by working…

but Kropotkin, it puts food on your table… I can think of a half dozen
of different ways to put food on my table that doesn’t demand that I
destroy my health for it…

we are letting the routine, the habit of working, the superstition of working
determine our course of actions… we actually haven’t tried to move beyond
work as a means of putting food on our table… we can begin by rejecting
materialism, meaning both capitalism and communism as THE political or
economic system that we can choose from… we have purposely limited our
choices to just capitalism or communism…we haven’t tried to expand
our choices beyond capitalism or communism……

we are just being and not becoming……

to return to an earlier concept…

entropy… as noted before…if we leave a room, say the
living room alone for 2 weeks, the room will slid toward
an increased entropy state… it will become dirtier…we must use
energy to maintain a state of clean in any room we live in…

energy is needed to keep entropy at bay… we cannot defeat entropy…
we can hold it off, but we cannot defeat it…
eventually, the entire universe will fall into a complete state of entropy…
the amount of energy will remain the same, but the energy will become
so dispersed that it no longer can hold systems in place…….

recall that the human body is a system held together by energy…
if enough energy is dispersed away from the body, it will decompose…
we die… energy is holding the universe together… if the energy is
dispersed, then the universe itself will no longer function…

the human question is not a question of motion as in science, but the
human question is a question of energy…

“Upon what should I spend my energy on?”

that Kantian/Kropotkin question now gains much more
urgency if we correctly understand the role of energy in
human existence…

to maintain order in the universe, we must use a great deal of energy…

so, how does that effect the political state of affairs?

we now see the damage that IQ45 has done to the energy
state of America… and every system is about energy…

he has taken energy away from maintaining our political system into
such useless matters as hate, fear, anger, greed, lust…

we cannot raise enough energy to maintain our political system if
that energy is wasted upon such nonessential matters as hate, violence,
anger, lust, fear……

that is the danger of IQ45… he waste our energy away from the matters that
should mean something to us…

if we hate, we cannot build, for hate cannot build…
if we have anger, we cannot build, for anger cannot build
if we fear, we cannot build, for fear cannot build…

if we love, we can build, for love build energy
if we hope, we can build, for hope builds energy

I have been angry and I have been in love and I can attest to
the fact that love is an increase in energy… hate and anger decrease energy
in people…and the only way we can build is by working with positive values
such as love and peace and justice and hope…

what increases energy? that is what we must be working for…

But Kropotkin, we cannot measure love or hope?

how can we build something that we cannot measure?

and that is the scientific part of our modern society……

the materialistic aspect of modern society……

it doesn’t count if it can’t be counted, or measured or weighed or timed…

you can’t count or weigh or measure love…

but the path, the road to becoming human follows love…

you can’t measure any part of what I say, so it becomes unimportant…

and that is the modern age in a nutshell…

next is becoming…

Kropotkin

The future entails ‘becoming’. My question to those believing the brain creates consciousness is how do neural circuits in the brain “know” the future?

That is, how are there neural circuits in the brain capable of generating experiences of external world states that do not yet exist? For example, how are there neural circuits having the ability to form experiences of the external world that do not exist now or in the past, but will exist 5 minutes in the future, 10 minutes from now, etcetera?

It seems odd, given the immediacy of new, incoming experiences that there are neural circuits in the brain that have the future of the external world stored in them before the external world has a chance to form what the neurons are prepared before the fact to replicate.

K: I gotta be honest, I don’t have the faintest idea of what you’re talking about…

Kropotkin

I do not think that neural circuits can actually know the future as such but they might be able to anticipate it through past experiences stored in the hippocampus
Because without some frame of reference with regard to what the future might become how could it be determined with any degree of accuracy ?
And so I would say that it is a phenomenon for which there is a rational explanation [ there always is ] but it is just not known at this point in time

That makes a sort of pseudo-sense (‘pseudo" in the sense that external world neurons, as they are composed of something other than subjective experience cannot know or anticipate anything as they, not being made up of consciousness are as conscious as a brick) when it comes to their formation of the experience of the future five or ten minutes from now (although one can make the argument that the process of perception in terms of the brain copying the dispositions of the external world as it assumes "now’ does not borrow from the past as past experience ceases to exist with every passing moment and the brain only receives and copies the external world as the external world forms its present in sensory terms), but past-experience-borrowing does not follow if in the future one experiences something one has never experienced before.

If the past ceases to exist with every passing moment then the future can never exist either except as an imaginary state
And so all sensory experience can therefore only occur in the present which is also in an ever changing state of existence

Well, the subjectively experienced doppelgangers of states of the external world that no longer obtain cease to exist (in the mythology that the brain creates consciousness and that consciousness can come into and go out of existence).

The external world, meanwhile, according to the mythology that it and the objects it atomically “Play-dohs” into consists of physical energy which, according to the 1st Law of Thermodynamics cannot come into or go out of existence, must always exist and is only able to change into non-conscious, non-brain-generated forms of past, present, and future.

Shit I’ve had experiences with a hippocampus myself. 'bout twenty years ago me and a buddy drove to Greenville for some party his girlfriend was invited too. She was a student at ECU, and let me tell you… I’ve never seen so many fat girls in one place at one time, as I did on that campus. It was unbelievable dude.

(this fuckin guy)

I see what you did there.

Strange, one of my favourite jokes now requires more thought about the punchline than it used to. You’ll understand soon. I blame internet porn tbh. Anyway.

There was this guy, he’d been married for umpteen years and if they were honest, some of the magic had worn off. They hadn’t had sex in months. One night he comes home and his wife opens the door. He looks at her in a way he hasn’t for a long time. “Let’s go upstairs” he says. His wife’s eyes light up and she says “ok, let’s go.” They go into the bedroom. “Strip” he says, he’s never been so masterful before. ‘This is just like 50 shades of grey’ she thinks as she throws off her clothes. She’s naked, he comes closer. “Now, do a handstand.” Channeling her highschool self she tells him to grab her legs and does a perfect handstand in front of the mirror. He walks behind her, and pushes his face between her legs. She gasps in anticipation.

“The guys at work are right, I would look good with a beard.”

There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, "It is just as I feared!—
Two Owls and a Hen, four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard.

I like these original takes on matters and I thank you for them…

When last seen, I was in the process of understanding
being and becoming in terms of thermodynamics…
entropy to be exact…and process is a good word to use…

being is a process as is becoming…….

and being isn’t just being… we human beings because of process,
are always, always in some change or another… we aren’t fixed…
physically anyway… our bodies because of processes that have existed for
billions of years, continue to change us physically…whether we are aware of
it or not… we age is one such process… and what is aging? it is simply the
process of entropy at work in our bodies… our bodies become disordered
as we become older…and that disorder is shown by my inability to
run as fast, or to lift as much or my lack of endurance…
my body is decaying and that is entropy at work…

we can never really just be… being is just a momentary stop in the
ever ongoing process of entropy… we are always becoming…

at some point, my body will become so disordered, that I will
naturally die of old age… death is human entropy taken to
its logical end…

at most, at most, we can only slow down the process of entropy…
if illness or accidents don’t kill us, entropy is sure to…

so physically, human process is simply entropy working on our bodies,
making it disorder… aging…and there is really nothing we can do about
entropy… the attempt to make us “ageless” is a futile attempt because
we cannot defeat physics. We cannot end something that is built into
the universe… we cannot end something that is part and parcel of
the universe…there is matter… stars, planets, comets, galaxies and entropy…
there is energy and there is entropy…

any description of the universe that doesn’t include entropy isn’t
really a description of the universe…

and so we return to becoming…in human beings… physically,
becoming is really just more and more entropy,
disorder in the human being…is aging…

so when we refer to becoming in human being it cannot be
something physical because that is aging and then death…

no, becoming refers to something that we do emotionally,
psychology, mental… it is growth that is inside of us…

when we understand human beings have gone from animals, like dogs
and cats and birds and cows, to being animal/human… that isn’t a
physical change we are referring to… the human structure hasn’t changed
much in a million years… we are referring to the changes within us…
what has change internally that has allowed us to go from animal to
animal/human? we have done something other animals haven’t done,
which is rise above instinct… we aren’t ruled by instinct… we can
react outside of our instincts… we have a third choice, outside of
fight or flight. and that third choice is a human choice…

and we want to continue our growth from animal to animal/human to
becoming human, fully human and that means we grow enough to
rise above instincts, all instincts……… we make choices based not on
any instincts, such as to mate or to hold to hate but we can rise above
our instinctual nature and make our choices as human beings…
with rational, logical or even just common sense…

when we rise above instincts, that means we rise above violence,
for violence is an instinctual matter, we rise above petty bickering
about land or money or material goods or ego…

we do what is right because it is right according to matters above instincts…
we do what is right not because our instincts told us, but because it
becomes the right thing to do…and that “right” thing to do, is
situational ethics… and dependent upon the situation, we may
save ourselves and again, we may sacrifice ourselves…
there is no universal ethical requirement like Kant’s duty…

but we can see how our understanding of matter like entropy
can lead us to make ethical choices… the universe is
engaged in entropy… we are part of the universe and thus
we too, are engaged in entropy…all that changes is the size…
we are small and we can see entropy happening to us, if we look,
every single day, whereas we cannot see within the stars and galaxies,
entropy, but it is there… just as surely as it is within us, entropy
exists and influences the stars and planets and galaxies and the
universe…

so how are we to think about entropy and say, ethics?

the question of entropy is a question of disorder, things naturally
become disorder unless enough energy is put into the system to
maintain order…

to hold order within a system, is a question of energy being put into
that system… as disorder is natural, entropy is natural, by doing nothing,
the disorder within that system will increase, that is the law of nature, of
entropy…to maintain a system, we must not only keep enough energy in
the system to maintain that system, but because entropy naturally
increases as time goes by, we must increase the amount of energy
that goes into a system…

a practical demonstration: your car…when we buy a new car, it needs
are basic and minimal… you put into it the right amount of gas and
the right amount of oil and watch the tire pressure… basic stuff every
single car needs… as the car gets older, the car needs more work,
more energy, more time to keep it running… that is entropy…
the car is aging, it is becoming more disordered…the car begins to
leak oil and doesn’t work as well, despite changing parts…
the car is engaged in entropy just as we human beings engage
in entropy…at some point, even with care and new parts and
a lot of mechanical work, the car won’t work as well as it did
when it was brand new… and then at some point, the car
is so undependable that you start to think about getting rid of it…
it become so much of an time consuming, gas guzzling, money eater,
that getting rid of the car becomes the best way to save yourself
time, money, effort… that is entropy…you already know
what entropy is……. and that there is no getting around
entropy……

so the question of ethics in a system becomes a question of
maintaining energy in a system… how do we keep the system
running? that is what social systems and political systems
and economic systems work on… how do we keep the system running?

and if the system is sucking up so much energy, time, money, effort,
perhaps we should think about replacing that system…

and that is where we are in regards to the economic system called
capitalism… is it worth the trouble to keep that system working?

that there comes a time in every systems life that entropy becomes
so much of a problem, that is it cheaper to dump that system then
try to keep it going, just like a car…….are we here with
not only the economic system of capitalism, but perhaps we are
also here with the political system, democracy?

has that “car” done all it can?

an understanding of where we are at, will help us engage in
some REAL dialogue about where we are and where we want to be…

Are our current systems no longer energy efficient enough to allow
them to continue on?

Kropotkin

we can see this lack of energy and effort by our elections…
we only had, roughly, 57% of eligible voters vote in 2016…

just as we put energy, money, time, effort into things that
we want to save/preserve/keep… if only slightly more then
half of all possible voters vote, then perhaps the current system
isn’t worth saving?

people putting their time, money, effort, energy into things that
they want to keep, if they don’t, then the answer become quite clear…

what is the solution?

Kropotkin

a little something different today…

I sat down to write something, perhaps profound, probably not,
but in any case, I was sitting down and I noticed that the stock market
dropped, and dropped big. The Virus that has everyone in California in a panic,
isn’t going anywhere and is dramatically increasing…

this is a case where the real world has intruded into my
philosophical speculations……

I can’t say I’m scared or worried, but I am concerned…

when I go to work later today, I will be facing customers that
are wearing mask and gloves and are panic buying things like
water and rubber gloves and toilet paper…

I rationally know that my chances of getting the virus is small and
my chance of death is really, really, really small………but that is intellectually,
emotionally, I am not as secure about it… but that the thing about the emotions,
they often overwhelm our rational, logical side…and this is why we are still
animal/human instead of human, fully human…

we still lead with our feelings/instincts about things instead of rising above
our feelings/instincts and being rational about things…

I am a healthy man, abet an older man… my preconditions are not
of the lungs or heart, but of the back and knees and hips… and so, my
risk is low… and I must lead with that… not with my emotions/feelings/instincts

I can logically think about my chances of getting the virus
and conclude even in my very public job where I deal with
hundreds of people a day, my chances are slim of getting the virus…

but what of the other matters, the stock market crash… I can do nothing
about that… what little I have to retire on is most likely going to take
a major hit, but I cannot do anything about that…I can only deal with
me and my reaction to current events… I cannot control the oil war currently
going on and I cannot control the stock market and I cannot control the Coronavirus…

all I have is me… and I must respond to this very real crisis in a human
way, not with instincts or feelings or emotions, but with an understanding
of the situation at hand… I must be rational and pause and reflect at
every action I take or don’t take, as the case may be…

I must act within the possibilities for me… I cannot influence matters
outside of my control…I don’t need to panic at that… I just need to
know what I can control and what I cannot and deal with what I can control…

my wife is home sick today, just a plain old flu, took her to urgent care
last night, so I have another brick in the wall today…but do I
need to be panic or be overwhelmed? no, I must do what I can with
what I have… nothing more is needed…

Kropotkin

[quote=“Peter Kropotkin”]
we have in science certain idea’s and one of those idea’s
is the three laws of thermodynamics…

the three laws are basically laws of energy…

I don’t care too much about the third law but the first two,
especially the second law is of great concern to me…

the first law states simply that there is X amount of energy in
the universe…that can never increase or decrease…energy moves,
but it doesn’t increase or decrease…

we know this from Einstein when he made matter and energy
interchangeable… they are different forms of the same thing
and so, that matter and energy can change form, from matter to
energy and back again… but the amount of energy/matter doesn’t
change…the overall amount in the universe is the exact same as it
was in the beginning of the universe and will be the exact same at
the end of the universe……

that the second law is simply a comment about energy itself…
that energy spreads out… and that spreading out is entropy…
when energy is collected and used, it is in some form or another…

think of firewood…we have some wood… it has X amount of energy.
it is matter and matter and energy is the same…

so let us burn that firewood… the amount of matter/energy remains the same
after we burn that firewood… we feel the change in terms of heat… that heat is
the same amount of energy as the firewood…there is no difference…

so what about entropy? Entropy is simply the leveling out of that energy…

if we have a glass of hot water and then if nothing else happens, the
temperature of the glass water will slowly go down from hot to warm to room
temperature…that temperature drop is entropy… the dissipation of energy,
is entropy…I am old… just turned 61… old age is the action of entropy…

it is about the amount of energy I use… I cannot lift heavy things like
I used to… that is entropy… I am weaker, not as strong, I cannot run as fast,
nor walk as long as I used to…even thou I still eat food and drink water
and I average around 5000 steps a day, the amount of energy available to me,
is lower then it used to be…

ever buy a box of crackers and ate one and it was stale… that is
entropy… the box was sealed up and nothing impacted on the cracker
from the outside, but it was still stale… that is entropy at work…

I hate cleaning… left to me, our house wouldn’t get clean…
but I have noticed that when we go on vacation, say, 2 weeks,
we might have left the house spotless, no dust, no mess of any kind,
and yet when we return home, the house was a dusty and smelled funny
and it wasn’t as clean as when we left it… that is entropy…the movement
from order to chaos… by the dissipation of energy……it takes energy to keep
a room clean and if we stop putting energy into cleaning a room, it will
get dirty… that action of getting dirty is entropy…to keep a clean room requires
energy…to maintain order requires energy…

my wife and I will go out and happen to see young couples with children…
we have agreed to the fact that we don’t have the energy to contain
children from being chaotic… to keep children in order, requires energy…

that is why we leave the raising of children to the young… they still have the
energy to maintain order…

now any system to maintain itself requires energy… think of your body as
a system… if it is not feed, it will run out of energy and eventually die…
we must have energy in our system to be able to maintain it…

this is true of any system, be it natural, mechanical or biological……

our biological system demands energy to maintain itself… as all biological
systems must have energy to survive…

now the forms of energy might be different between the systems, but
the basic idea is the same…for example, a car is a mechanical system…
it doesn’t run on the same energy basis that a biological system needs…

a car requires gas to have energy… there is no difference between gas for
a car and food for a person or animal… it is the exact same thing…
energy… it might take a different form, but it is still energy…

remember Einstein, that matter and energy is the same thing…
gas as matter and food as matter is the same thing… energy for
a system…

and every thing, every thing is part of a system…
from our bodies to political systems to mechanical systems
such as cars and solar systems as our solar system is a system…

now look up system in the dictionary: a system is a set of rules,
an arrangement of things, or a group of related things that work toward
a common goal… an example of a system are the laws and procedures of
a democratic government… an example of a system is all the organs that work
together for digestion…

so, as we all, every single bit of matter or energy is part of a system,
then the trick is to understand systems as philosophy……

so how is virtue, as an aspect of an system, how does virtue work?

that is a philosophical question… what is the relationship
between virtue and any discussion of systems? how does virtue
work in regards to a political system? or how does virtue work in
regards to an economic system? we cannot take advantage of virtue
in regards to a mechanical system because virtue has no relationship
to any mechanical system such as cars… we cannot connect virtue
to mechanical systems nor can we connect virtue to our solar system…
it simply doesn’t work…

but can we connect virtue to biological systems as the human body?

K: I am adding something I thought of this morning as I rush to get
ready to go to work…

the increase in Entropy is really about efficiency… my body is less
efficient as I grow older… the cars we drive around become less
efficient as they grow old…one way to think of entropy is to
understand it as things becoming less efficient…
at some point, my body will become so inefficient that it will cease
to work, just as at some point, my car will become so inefficient
that one morning, it will fail to start and you need to get a new car…

so entropy is the loss of efficiency in any system… we in America
see this entropy in our political systems, they have become less efficient,
there is an increase in entropy in America’s political, economic, social
systems, there is a loss of efficiency in America systems……

the only way to combat that is by an increase in energy into the various
systems…we must increase the systems energy, but how?

we can increase a system energy by putting in increasing time, money, effort
an energy…we can limit the amount of entropy in any system by becoming
more efficient and/or by putting increased time, money, effort into
said systems…

by getting more people to buy into our political, economic, social systems…
that buy in increases our political, economic, social systems efficiency with
an increase in effort put back into a system… any increase in time, money, effort
spent improves the efficiency of a system…

but what is true of large systems, is also true of small systems…
we see this is true in cars and in people…if we put more effort into
being moral, we limit the amount of entropy in morality…and we become
more efficient…

think about it…

Kropotkin

If as I have suggested, institutions and government
and society and political systems and economic
systems are feed by like a car, like a human being, then
what is this magical food/energy source?

these institutions are fed by the energy, effort,
time, money we put into these systems…

at one time, belief in certain religious systems were prevalent in
the world… for example, certain parts of the ancient world,
believe in Apollo and Aphrodite and Ares and Zeus and Hera
were the religious icons of the Greek world…But ask yourself,
what happened to these gods and goddess?

they died from a lack of energy… they were no longer being fed
by the energy, passion, time, effort and money of the people…
they died an entropic death from a lack of energy…

for a belief system to maintain its coherence, it must have a certain
amount of energy going into it… without that energy going into every
system, it eventual dies… the Roman and Greek and Egyptian belief
systems all died an entropic death by losing too much energy…
not enough people believed in and support those belief systems to
allow them to survive…

belief systems like cars and people require energy to maintain itself…

government is no different, if we deprive government its energy, it
dies…if we take away our allegiance from government and take
away our energy and time, money, passion and our involvement
in government, it dies… simple as that…

why is American government in so much trouble today?

enough people have taken their energy, time, money and effort
and put it elsewhere…not into government, but into something else…

take the cult of trump… that energy, time, money and effort
put into the Cult of trump has damaged America…

I would call the cult of trump a energy vampire… it takes real energy
and effort and time and money and sinks it into something wasteful
and worthless… it takes energy away from the important matter like America
and it fuels trump/IQ45… which is a waste of energy…because it doesn’t
help our government or our society or our state or our political or economic
systems…that is where our energy, time, money, effort, should be…

we can save that in which we put our energy, time, money effort into…

so if we put our energy into democracy and freedom, that is what we can save
and promote and it becomes “the value system” by which we decide all other values…

Nazi’s rose because people put their energy, time, money, passion and effort
into the Nazi’s… if the people had put their effort, time, money, passion into
the government it would have survived and flourished and become the government
that people need and want…the energy you put into something helps
decides if that something lives or dies… so by participating in our capitalistic
system, by putting energy into capitalism, it survive and flourishes…
take energy away from capitalism and it dies………I must admit, taking
away energy from a political or economic system isn’t very flashy or
dramatic or even very radical… killing a political system slowly or
a economic system slowly is the best way to go about it though…

because that slow death allows a new system to form and become
our new reality…a new reality we support by energy, time, money,
effort, passion…it is a quiet, merciful death that I want for the
tyranny of economics in America… the full on tyranny of capitalism
and the corporation that dominates and compromises America to
the point of extinction…

in order to save ourselves and we must, must kill capitalism…the
sooner, the better…

one only needs eyes to see, to see what a complete and total disaster
capitalism has been to the natural world. we have driven entire
species to extinction in order to fulfill our need for wealth and material
goods…we have brought upon ourselves climate change to have
a nicer car or a bigger TV set or a slightly longer couch…

what we have done to the environment to further our economic
system is something that future generations will hate us for…….

we have sacrificed the future to fulfill our present needs of money, profits,
material goods… and I was going to write a “dam shame” but that isn’t
violent enough to condemn what have done to our one and only planet…

our greed and lust and ego have conspired to severely damage the world…

our values, our negative values has done this…

our negative values put into our political and economic
systems has done irreversible damage to the world…

one the animals are gone, we are gone…

one might say, Kropotkin, you are being overly melodramatic…

I say, you haven’t faced the truth… you are willfully ignorant
of the plight we have put ourselves in…

let us imagine two possible situations…
let us say, I am right… then we must do everything
we can to mitigate our current damage to the world…
if I am right, we don’t have much time…

let us say, you are right… then we aren’t pressed for time…
we don’t have to act right now……

the problem is if we don’t act, we are doomed…
we must act as if we don’t have any more time…
not only to save planet earth, but to save ourselves…

recall our work on systems… that which survives is the
system in which we have put our energy, time, money,
effort and passion into…… we, ourselves, determines
which systems survive and which systems die… by
the placement of our energy, time, money, effort
and passion…

and that is why we must, all of us, become involved into
our systems… the more people who engage in our
political and economic systems, the more likely our
economic and political systems survive…

so, you are important, you do have choice, you can decide the fate
of the America society and the fate of the world by your decision
of which political and economic and social system you care to put
your time, money, effort and passion into…….

the average citizen becomes relevant again…
by their choice of which political and economic
and social system we choose to live by…

Kropotkin

I have only a very short time before work…

I have been trying to make philosophical sense of all the world’s
madness of late…

I see now that it isn’t really possible at this time……

Why?

think of it this way, it is hard to make sense of a storm when one
is in the middle of that storm…we cannot make sense of an experience
while in the middle of it… take WW2, those 5 years, were fairly lean on
philosophy because of the war experience… before and after, a whole lot
of philosophy was done, but not really during it…

it is very hard to make sense of an experience while in the middle of it…

and I see this today… I am having a hard time processing the various
shut downs and cancellations of, well everything right now…

the immediacy of experiences prevents one from being able to
make sense of, or to be philosophical about our experiences……
that takes time and distance from our experiences…….

this is why philosophy doesn’t work during an immediate experience,
one must pass through the experience and then, and only then can
we make sense of it…

so we can only make sense of coronavirus once the dust has settled
and we can see what massive changes it has brought about to
our country and all around the world…

I suspect this coronavirus might become one of the most important
events in human history… it might impact us in ways that we
can’t even imagine right now… I am of the opinion that
the coronavirus is now, is far and I mean far more impactful
then 9/11 ever was…… we may see a dramatically different
US and a far different world after this virus is done…….

but let us hold judgment and understanding until after this event
has played out and then and then we can become
philosophical about the coronavirus…

Kropotkin