a new understanding of today, time and space.

Today of all days, 4th of July, we ask, what does it mean to be
an American?

the very term, American, isn’t an answer, it is a question…

“I am an American”?

that is a question about what it means to be an American…

the question involved is a economic, political and social one…

the political question being asked, given that human beings are social
beings, what sort of political system should we have? the answer given is
a system (and it is a system) that people should be able to control their
own fate, their own destiny by making political choices collectively…
a majority rule system of politics…

instead of a dictatorship in which decisions are made by one or a few people…

are people qualified enough to make their own decisions about how they lead
their own lives?

to choose one system over another is to make a choice over the ability
of people to choose wisely for themselves…

despite the last election which made the individual choices we make
problematic, I still hold to the collective wisdom of people…

one of the questions about our modern age is how does the wearing of
masks which helps hide people from who they are and what is possible for them,
how does wearing a mask influence our collective choices?

If I am not being truthful to myself, how can I be truthful to the collective in
which I live in?

the mask I am forced to wear, influences the choices I make…

the isms, ideology, the narrative we follow, influences the choices we make…

so why don’t we question the ism’s, ideologies, the narrative we follow?

we pretend we have answers in the ism’s, ideologies, narratives we hold
to…capitalism, Catholicism, communism, Buddhism, democracy, monarchies,
and so on…

these are not answers, but questions about what it means to be human?

science has a definite method or methodology it follows…

and it is encouraged to discover the correct answers…
for example, before Copernicus, there was a ism, ideology,
a narrative about the way the universe moved…that the earth was
the center of the universe was the narrative before Copernicus,
and he questioned that narrative…thus “disproving” the old model,
the old narrative of the earth was the center of the universe…

science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge
in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe…

every single advance in science advances a new narrative, ism about
the way the universe works…

so science is a question about how the universe works…

at no point does science offer up some “final” answer as to
which narrative is the “correct” narrative…

each question leads to another question and once again,
we don’t have a why given in science…

it is about the how, not why……

I don’t get final answers in science, I get the latest understanding of
how the universe works…

and that difference between getting the final answer and getting the
latest answer makes all the difference…

so given this understanding, we can see what is the role of such
isms, narratives as capitalism really means…

capitalism is not the final answer, it is simply the answer for a past
age… capitalism no longer answers our questions anymore…

as a model, a narrative capitalism leaves much to be desired…

it fails too many people, it isolates people from each other…
it is too much of an “US vs THEM” understanding of the universe…

at every step of human existence is another step for inclusion for
human beings… exclusion doesn’t work on any level in human existence…

if we look at human history, the march of history has been for inclusion,
not exclusion…

from the Egyptians to today, has been a journey from the one, to the few to
the many to all…

our country foundations of voting has gone from the few, landowning white men,
to become ever more inclusive…to women and to blacks and to the young…
it hasn’t become exclusive, solely to the few or to the wealthy, but to everyone
regardless of accidental traits of existence…color of skin, the religious,
of sexual identity, to height or to the color of one’s eyes…

the very movement of human existence has been of going from
the one or the few to many or to all……

and the 20th century history could be written as inclusion and exclusion…

the Nazi’s were examples of exclusion, the Fascists were example of
exclusion, the KKK are examples of exclusion, the GOP is an example
of exclusion…the ongoing GOP voter suppression is an example of modern
day exclusion, whereas the Democrats practice inclusion…

the Democratic party clearly has a much larger “tent” then the GOP
and the Democrats are attempting to allow everyone the chance to vote…
inclusion, not exclusion…

and for this and other reasons, the Democrats are the party of the future…
for the future will follow the past and become ever more inclusive…

from one to few to some to most to all…

and in every area of life, follows this path of one to many to all…

we go from a few scientists to some scientists to many scientists, perhaps
someday we will get to every one being a scientist… or not…

we have more scientists graduating from MIT in one class year to
being more scientists then in the entire world in 1600……

so if you ask yourself, what questions am I asking?

are you British? Are you white? are you male? are you
religious? are you an atheist? are you gay?

each one of these are not answers but questions of existence…

what is your question of existence?

Kropotkin

religion: a tale told by an idiot full of
sound and fury, signifying nothing…

Kropotkin

I am sick… and this entire modern age is sick…

the question becomes this, how are we to be cured?

how are we to be saved?

what is this “modern” illness?

we are “soul” sick……

but what exactly does this mean?

it is just like a person having the flu or having cancer,
but instead of the body being sick, the soul is ill…

what is the cause of this illness?

we have lost sight of what it means to be human…

we no longer know who we are and what is possible…

what is your goal?

what is the goal of the collective?

no one knows… hence we are sick because we know not where to go…

for people to be healthy, they must, must have a sense of who they
are and what is possible for them…

one of the Kantian questions: what is possible for us?

and who knows the answer?

no one… hence we are ill, “soul” sick……

how do we cure the human race of its “soul” sickness?

we create a goal and a destination and a meaning/purpose…

we are stuck until we find ourselves on a path into the future
and into what it means to be human…

being “soul” sick/illness means not to know what it means to be
human………to think we are the destination, instead of what we really
are, which is another step into becoming…becoming human…

it is not enough to say, I have a goal, a destination…

we must say, we have a goal, a destination…

and we shall remain “soul” sick until we answer the question,
what does it mean to be human? and what is our goal?

Kropotkin

Socrates is famous (or infamous) because he brought
Philosophy down from the stars. Philosophy before Socrates,
was basically what we today would call, science. Natural philosophy
which was concerned with the natural world… what was the “ultimate”
substance in the universe? This we see as a scientific question, but
was considered to be philosophy, natural philosophy, until the
18 or 19 century………

Newton for example, was considered to be a Natural philosopher,
in his day…

we fast forward to our modern times…

we see philosophy of the modern times to be movements,
for example, German idealism, Analytic philosophy, Phenomenology,
Pragmatism, structuralism, deconstructionism, Logical positivism, Marxism…
to name a few……

so, we have theories that don’t really tell us about who we are…
philosophy as it were, is in the sky…

but then we have another movement that brings philosophy back down
to us at the human level, existentialism…

the movement is the same, bringing philosophy back down to earth and
engage us at a personal level… just as Socrates did…

but today, after decades after the death of existentialism, we have lost
sight of us, as human beings and what really matters to us…

Philosophy doesn’t matter anymore because it isn’t engaged with
anything that influences our lives anymore…the movement of
Deconstructionism for example… it has nothing to tell me about
what it means to be human…what are my choices in being human?

what are my possibilities because I am human?

what am I to do? what should I hope for? what values should I hold?
what can I know? and by extension, the questions of a collective, of being human isn’t
answered either…

what are we to do? what should we hope for? what values should we hold?

Philosophy has lost sight of its purpose and meaning… by its engagement with
such movement as in logical positivism or with structuralism, or phenomenology…

the very questions modern philosophy asks, has no relevance to me as a human being…

what does it matter to me that a given text can be deconstructed?

does that tell me, What am I to do? or What should I believe in?
or what values should I hold? little less the collective questions that
we exists within…What are we to do?

so once again, we must bring philosophy out of the sky and bring it
back to earth… and by doing so, we can engage with philosophy to have
meaning in the world again…

what does it mean to be human? that is one of the questions that
philosophy ought to be engaged with… and those types of questions
about the meaning/goal/destination of us humans must become
the primary questions of philosophy…

what is the point of human existence?

bring philosophy back down to the human existence level…

don’t tell me what language tells you about this text or that text…

tell me what it means to be human?

and how does being human affect the goal of existence…

the quest of philosophy needs to return back to this question
of being human… return philosophy to the human existence level…

Kropotkin

philosophy engages with the rational part of existence…

it is rational to think about what it means to be human,
but the human experience is so much more then the rational…

for example, love isn’t rational and love is a key, vital part of being
human… and we cannot, cannot explain love in the rational terms of
philosophy…hence the rise of the Romantic movement of the late 18th
and 19 century…that was an attempt to explain human existence
in terms of emotions and feelings… and in some ways, these
Romantics did explain human beings better then the rationalist of
philosophy…

human existence is some combination of rationalism and emotionalism…

and if philosophy is to be engaged in the human experience, then
philosophy must too engage with the Romantic’s understanding of
existence…

if we cannot explain what it means to be human by the binary choice
of rationalism or of emotions, then we must combine the two…
rationalism and emotionalism…

philosophy that isn’t engaged with what it means to be human
without any reference to the emotional aspect of being human,
it isn’t really philosophy… it is a rational inquiry and thus
only half the necessary inquiry needed…

the statement “I love” cannot be understood or is understandable by
philosophy… the statement “I hope” isn’t understandable by philosophy…
pain or suffering or despair isn’t understandable by philosophy……

these are emotional responses to people, events, actions outside of us…

remember the equation…

if we have logical/rational on one side of the equation,
then we must have feelings, emotionalism on the other side
to even out our equation…

logical/ rational = emotionalism/feelings……

the two sides must balance out…

and we philosophers only consider one side of the equation,
the logical/rational side of the human equation…

and poets and theologians and artists consider the emotional/feelings
side of the human equation…

so what needs to happen?

we must become philosophical artists or perhaps poetical philosophers?

and this was the tactic of Nietzsche… he wanted to become a “philosophical artist”…

or perhaps he should have become a philosopher who uses poems to engage his thought…

oh, wait, Nietzsche did write poems, his “Gay science” had a great many poems in it…

and his Zarathustra was an Artistic attempt at philosophy…

and we can do no worse then follow Mr. Nietzsche by attempting
“Artistic Philosophy” or perhaps being a “Poetical Philosopher”

our engagement with philosophy must be expanded to include the
emotional/feeling side of existence…or it isn’t inclusive enough to
really explain the “human condition”…

and we have inclusion once again…

Camus and Sartre both attempted to be “Artistic Philosophers” in their
plays and their works of fiction…

and note, they were both existentialist…just saying……

the world is in fact ready for “Artistic Philosophers”, in fact,
I would suggest that the world is vastly overdue for someone who
uses Art to discover what it means to be human, philosophically…

the revolution is to become human and we need both the rational/logical side
of us as well as the emotional/feelings side of us… to become whole…
and perhaps that is why we don’t feel whole, we have disconnected
our rational/logical side of us from our emotional/feelings side of us…

to become human, fully human requires us to reconnect our rational/logical
side with our emotional/feelings side of us…

and who is brave enough to engage with both sides of being human?

Kropotkin

I might say for example, that capitalism is soul crushing,
and alienating and corrupt and anti-human, anti-art,
anti-anything that might redeem human beings…

and one might say, ahhhh, you are critiquing capitalism from a
Marxist standpoint…

using one viewpoint, one ism or ideology or a narrative to critique
another viewpoint or ism or ideology or a narrative……

but that is presumptuous… I don’t need a “Marxist” viewpoint to
criticize capitalism… I just need eyes to see…

the failure of capitalism is clear for all to see… if you only have eyes…

you can believe that human beings have an inborn dignity and self-worth
that isn’t connected to some other ism or ideology…

I don’t need an ism or an ideology or a narrative to believe that
human beings, by being born have an inborn dignity and self-worth…

I don’t need an ism or ideology to understand that since the start of
the “modern” era, that we have negated and devalued, (nihilism)
human beings……

this new wave of isms/narratives that say, only by being a “good” citizen
or being a “worker”, gives us any value………

I say unto you, that the higher value is the value of being human
and the value of being life…the very act of being born and alive,
give us value and dignity and self-worth……

we are not born within the act of sin… we are born with dignity
and value regardless of the accidental traits we might have been born with…

the history of human beings is the history of inclusion…

at every step, we have engaged in the inclusion of others…
at one point in time, we were tribal and everyone was judge
by their existence within the tribe… very few people engage
in that primitive mode of narrative or ism any longer…

we have expanded our idea of being human to include everyone who
belongs to a nation or a society or a state…
and again, without any reference to any accidental traits…

thinking of people in tribes is so old fashion as to belonging to
the stone age…that narrative is long past its time…

the end game of our current narrative is to included everyone who is
human, regardless of their nationality or creed or color or sexual
orientation… the accidental traits of being human is no longer
even considered when we reflect upon what it means to be human…

all that is needed is to be born human…that is narrative enough…
and that is our current end game… and what I mean by that is that
after we understand that we are one, a human being is a human being
is a human being regardless of any accidental traits they might have…

and after that we will include life, all life, which means all the life
on planet earth is equal to us… regardless of any accidental traits
being born by that life……

the narrative/ism will be that there is no difference between a whale and
a cat and a lion and a snail and a human being………we are bound because
we are life… that is the sole narrative or ism needed… that will be the
next inclusive step of human existence… and then we shall expand again,
we shall include all life, everywhere… in every solar system and star
and galaxies all across the universe…

we are connected because we are life… to be alive is enough to
be accepted into the narrative/ism we have constructed…

the universe is simply a game of going from one single
being to being included into a all forms of life…

we are traveling the journey of having all life, all life,
of going in our viewpoint or ism or narrative being as one…

all life is classified into a hierarchy of biological existence…

we go from species to genus to family to order to class to
phylum to kingdom to domain to life…….

and we human beings will understand life as going from
species to life…

we just recently have begun on this classification system…

in other words, we still haven’t even begun to think of all human
beings as being part of the species…

we still haven’t even engaged in human life on this scale of
biological classifications yet…

so perhaps we might go with this (from bottom to top)

tribe

nationality
(nationalism accepts the idea of people being within a section like
this, but it only accepts white people or Christians or the wealthy…
it doesn’t accept everyone who lives within this classification regardless
of accidental traits is part of nationality and until we accept everyone who
falls into this category, we cannot even have nationality as being a classification
of people…because we are still in the tribe phase)

western civilization (everyone who lives and exists within the confines
of what we think of as western civilization regardless of any accidental traits)

and then we see everyone, everyone on planet earth, as being part of
the human classification, species…

we then begin on this long chain of understanding our place
within this hierarchical chain……

we are just at the beginning of our understanding of what
place that human being, exists at…

as our understanding rises up this ladder of existence from species to
genus to family to order and so on… our viewpoint, our narrative becomes
more of how we fit into the family or the order of the biological classification
system…….

in our viewpoint, we will soon exists as a species, not black or white or
Christian or Jewish or young or old, but as a human being. period…

and our understanding will rise as we better understand our real
existence in the biological classification system…

and soon, we will go from seeing ourselves as a tribe to a nation to a civilization
to a species to an class to a kingdom and eventually to being part of life…

how do you see your fellow human beings?

are you even on the lowest level of understanding which means
how do you classify people, as a tribe or a nation or a civilization?
but who is evolved enough to see human beings as being something higher
then just a tribe or a nation or a civilization but as a species or even higher,
as a genus or perhaps even a family?

we have a long ways to go before we think about all life as being one life…

and thus once again, we human beings are not engaged with answer, we
are still in the part of existence that is working out the questions…

we are in a journey, a process of discovery that we are not just a tribe or a nation
or a civilization, but a species and a genus and a family and a order and a class
and a phylum and a kingdom and then a domain and finally, we reach the highest level
of understanding, that we are life, not just human beings but we are life and
we exists along with all the other life, be it on earth or elsewhere…

life is life is life… no matter where that life lives or what it looks like or
how it moves or what colors it is, life is life and we are a part of
that vast chain of existence…and the goal of existence is to
be able to engage in the journey or process that human beings must
engage with to become one with all life… to self identify as life…

not as a tribe or a nation or a color or even a species but as life…

Kropotkin, who are you? I am life and I am equal to all life and all life
is equal to me…

when I reach my apex of human achievement… that is when I no longer
self identify as being white or American or male or Christian or even
as part of the human species… I have reached my journey end when
I finally identify as just being life…

Kropotkin

so we aren’t even close to being able to think we are
the highest specimen of animals on planet earth…

for we have several different types of journeys to engage with…

as are engaged in the journey to go from animal to animal/human to
becoming human, fully human…

and we are engaged in the process/journey of thinking of ourselves as human beings,
not as individuals, as I am Kropotkin… and I have no other designation outside of
being a American…

I am on two separate journeys… one to engage with going from animal to
animal/human and then finally to become human… which means I am no
longer driven or motivated by animal instincts and motivations…
I am in control of my instincts and my motivations and my emotions
and reason… I am human…

and the second journey is to travel from thinking about human beings
in terms of a tribe or a nation or even a civilization…
these small simple thoughts betray someone who hasn’t
make the journey or begun the process to become something
more then just human…

we are more then just a tribe or a nation or a civilization…
we are a species of human beings…
and we are part of a Genus and a part of a family and part of
a order and part of a class and a part of a Phylum
and a part of a kingdom and part of a domain and finally
thinking of human beings as being part of life…

when I think of Kropotkin, I don’t think of being part of a tribe or
being part of a nation, I think of being part of a species and being
part of a class and finally being part of life…

those two notions, of our becoming… becoming more human and
thinking of human beings as more then just a species, but being,
being a part of life……

that is when we have finally grown up……

we are not complete or final… we have a very, very, very long
ways to go before we can think of ourselves as being anything other
then a child……

Kropotkin

what is the value of greatness?

we have, as examples, the greatness of such people
as Mozart, Goethe, Shakespeare, Lincoln, Socrates…

we can see their greatness, we have honored their greatness,
Each of them has a greatness…Mozart wrote some of the greatest
music ever written, and Goethe is one of the most complete human
beings ever to live and we know the Greatness of Shakespeare
and we think of Lincoln as being of one the great leaders ever
and we know, know that Socrates was the greatest philosopher
of all time…

each of these people were great and frankly a couple were miracles
of nature…

but what do these great human being have to do with me?

our role is to overcome even their greatness…

I am attempting to become the possibility, of becoming
the greatest philosopher of all time…

and others who engage in music, should engage in music
by trying to become better then Mozart

and writers should engage in becoming a greater writer then
Shakespeare… a very tall task indeed, perhaps even impossible…
and that is the very point… measure yourself against the very best
in your field of endeavor… as I am trying to create the best philosophy
ever, I am trying to overcome the very large shadow of Socrates…

and to those who don’t know what greatness they are trying to overcome,
I would suggest that they try to overcome Goethe and a become a fully
realized human being who has achieved their potential/possibilities…

or perhaps try to overcome Lincoln… in his determination to overcome
vast odds and accomplish something like keeping a country together in
the face of a long devastating civil war… use his example to attempt to
achieve greatness in some field of action you decide upon…….

the point is not to look up and daze in wonderment about their great
achievements, no, no, a thousand times no…….

the point is to overcome them by becoming something even greater
then the great ones…….

overcome Socrates by becoming the greatest philosopher ever…….

that is my goal…

what is your goal of overcoming greatness like a Goethe or a Lincoln?

who is great in your mind? and why haven’t you overcome them by
achieving even greater things then they had achieve?

the members of the famous herd… the ones you so laugh at, they
are members of the herd because they are afraid of attempting the
greatness I advocate…… they are the herd… and they have settle into
their little world of being animals… of avoiding greatness like the plague

if you are to become better then the herd… you must achieve the
greatness you want to overcome……. that is being the Ubermensch….

in not just being animal/human but in being fully human and overcoming
even the great human beings…

so what greatness are you attempting to overcome?

and if not, why not?

Kropotkin

ok, let us say you want to achieve greatness, how do you do so?

by overcoming… by practicing values that are positive…not negative…

think of the great ones I mentioned in the last post…

do those great ones engage in negative values of hate or anger or lust
or greed or violence?

no, they achieve greatness by achieving positive values of love, hope,
charity, peace, justice, non-violence…….

any step toward greatness begins with the values you become…

Lincoln became great because of the values he championed and promised…

he became great because of his values choices…

think of other great human beings… they are great because they choose
to live by positive values… like love and peace and hope and charity…

think of the infamous “great” human beings… like Hitler…
he valued the lower, negative values of hate and anger and lust
and greed and he promoted those values and he championed
the Nazi party which is the negative values incarnate…

those who championed and held negative values are those like
Hitler and Stalin and Mao and Pol pot…

no one but a fool considers those negative values purveyors
as being “great”… no, no, a thousand times no… a holder of
negative values like IQ45 can never be considered to be great because
negative values cannot lead one to achieve something higher, something
worth achieving… like overcoming Lincoln or overcoming Socrates…
you need, you must have positive values of hope and love and charity
and honesty and peace to overcome and achieve greatness…….

you want to achieve greatness, you must first begin by achieving
positive values… by overcoming your indoctrinations and achieving
values worth living for, values worth dying for, values worth holding…

Kropotkin

one of the things that science does well, is ask questions…

one could make the argument that the “great” scientist were
“great” because they asked the right questions…

it wasn’t the answers that made scientist great, but the right questions…

What was Newton’s question?

the apple that fell, or didn’t, how is that connected to the solar system?

what was the force in nature that allowed that apple to fall “down” instead of up?

and we have Darwin’s questions, how was man “created”?

we have the biblical stories, but what if we remove the biblical stories,
and ask, how else did we human beings get here?

and what about Einstein’s question? what about the motion or speed of light?

the theory of relativity was really a theory about something moving both in
relation to a non-moving object and a theory about one object in relation to
another object moving……. the entire theory of relativity is
about the motion of objects in relation to the speed of the objects………
science ask questions… and philosophy/philosophers ask questions…

that is the true relationship between science and philosophy…
not about the method of the two or how close should philosophy
mimic science in seeking answers… no, the relationship
between science and philosophy is about finding the right questions to ask…

it doesn’t matter what the answers are, it does matter what the questions are………

don’t seek answers, seek questions…

and that is what it means to be both a scientist and a philosopher…

Kropotkin

as I seek to overcome myself, I have found the noise
of my “friends” to be loud and distracting…

so, I left them behind…to engage in their endless babble
by themselves……

we humans, we humans are social creatures by the design of evolution,
the creator of all… we are wired to connect to each other…
the greatest punishment handed out is solitary confinement…

any person who has been confined by themselves, quite often
begins to go mad after a week or two…

I confined myself to be solitary and alone with only the words on the printed page
to keep me company…

why? why such craziness?

the only conversation I allow myself is within reading…
right now I am conversing with Nietzsche…….

what is he trying to tell me?

what is his message to me?

by shutting all other voices out, I am left with only two voices left…
the book I am currently reading and my own voice………

you would be surprised at how many people feel shame and fear when
they can only hear their own voice…

people try to drown out their voice with TV and music and movies
and loud and distracting friends………

meanwhile I try to hear what my voice is telling me…
what my soul is telling me…

that voice, that soul is quite scary because if we are truthful,
that voice is not who we are that we present to the world……

we offer the world a mask, a disguise to hide who we really are…
and why?

because we are afraid of being shamed for being different…

we obscure who we are because of fear and shame and doubt because
we don’t really trust our true self, our real self…we are afraid to
be authentic because we dread to hear the truth about who we really are…

so we hide behind mask and disguises…………

and we use these mask and disguises to silence our inner voice…

do you have the strength to hear the “real” “authentic” you?

I doubt it… few have that kind of courage……

we are always trying to “look good” even in front of strangers,
perhaps especially in front of strangers………

we are social creatures which means we fear judgement of others……

we practice “paralipomena” because we are afraid of being judge…

and yet the harshest judgment I face isn’t from others, no, I fear my own
judgement far worse then I fear judgement of others……

although I must admit, it is women who are far more severe judges
then men are… and women are more influenced by being judged then
men are…

in the end, I always return to my friend, silence……

most people are afraid of silence… but I, I truly enjoy
silence…… I am not being judged…….

and silence allows me to engage in conversation with my soul…

and sometimes, sometimes, I even peel back the mask and disguise that I hide behind
and I see me for who I am……….

and in moments of bravery, I wonder, I wonder what is possible for that true
self I see, when I am without a mask or disguise……

what is possible when I am not wearing a mask…….

for that is true courage… to overcome without wearing a disguise…

do you courage enough to become who you are… with no mask or disguise?

Kropotkin

“most people are afraid of silence…”

Depeche Mode isn’t. In fact they even encourage others to enjoy it.

K: I had to actually look it up to understand what you meant…

as I am hearing impaired, I don’t listen to songs with words, as I am
unable to understand them…

Kropotkin

one size does not fit all…

we have morality…good and evil…

but what is “good?”… what is “evil?”…….

take an event like the holocaust…….pure “evil” right?

and yet, a class of Germans did benefit from the Jews being taken
away… they got better jobs, better housing, more money because
they simple took over what the Jews left…

was the Holocaust “evil” to those who benefited from it?

it was certainly “evil” to those who suffered from it, the Jews…

and to many, far too many, it was a matter of indifference…

the U.S knew about the concentration camps of the Jews, quite
early… and did anybody shout from the rooftop about it?

nope…“evil” is "evil’ only if it is happening to you or to those you know…

the U.S stayed quiet about the Holocaust because people were making money from
trading with Germany…better to lose lives then to lose money… thus spoke the
capitalist…and as the capitalist funded the politician, it was better to lose lives
then to lose money… thus spoke the politician……

and we might think it “evil” to engage in the Holocaust, but if people are making money,
is it truly “evil”? that is the capitalist viewpoint…

never let “good” or “evil” stand in the way of making money/profits……

thus spoke the capitalist… and we all know the capitalist is a “good” American……

so what is “good” and “evil?”

it depends upon what side your bread is buttered on…

“good” is when you make a profit regardless of who dies or who suffers
and “evil” is where you didn’t make a profit despite people living on…

if we see the world through the eyes of profits and losses, then there
is no such thing as good or evil, just profits or losses…numbers…
and how can numbers be “good” or “evil”?

if we judge the world on something beside profits and losses, then
we might be able to judge “good” and “evil”……

so what is “good” and what is “evil”…

clearly “good” is what benefits you and “evil” is what harms you……

so, does one size fit all?

Kropotkin

the call of the mob…

we have mobs in America today… and each mob has a recipe for America…

one mob call’s themselves “Patriots” and hold to exclusion as the answer,
their recipe for America is excluding anyone who doesn’t believe in their answer…

the other mob believes in inclusion… we rise or fall together… not as
individuals…the recipe for America is inclusion… and equality… and freedom…

I know which mob I believe in, but truth be told, I am uncomfortable with both
mobs…

but why? there are mobs… they don’t revaluate what they believe in…
they operate from certain, set, values/ principles that haven’t had a revaluation of
values……. we cannot advance until we have appraised/ assessed the truth of
our values… are we living with indoctrinated values/principles, or are we living
with values that have been graded, judged, calculated… assessed for their worth…

my values are my values because they have gone through the fires of
evaluation… where I discover if my values are actually my values,
and not the values of my indoctrination as a child…

I hold certain values because they have gone through the crucible of
fire in my youth…….

why do I hold to justice as a higher, positive value?

because in my youth, I fought and challenged my values to exist…

Justice was one of the values I subjected to the fires and it survived to live
another day…

the mob, the mob just assumes the values for which it fights for are the
“VALUES” and we cannot make that assumption…

the mob is a lower form of life because it doesn’t evaluate the values
it is fighting for…… it assumes to much…

to walk the streets in protest of police brutality is not only right, but
it is to be expected… but why? that is the question… why is police
brutality wrong? what values does police brutality violate?

we know that police brutality is wrong, but we have to be able to
justify our marches against police brutality with values that support
our position…police brutality is wrong because it violates the basic
principles of justice… police brutality is wrong because it violates
the basic principles of peace and love…
police brutality is wrong because it doesn’t offer us any of the positive values…
values like love, justice, hope, peace, non-violence, charity, honesty…….

all police brutality offers us is the lower values of anger, lust, greed, hate violence……

that is why police brutality is wrong……. because it violates our values, our principles
that make us human…the protesters acted, within the most part, with love, justice,
hope, peace, non-violence…… and it is a fact that a large part of the violence within
the marches were by agent provocateurs… for example, we have video’s of off duty
police officers in Minneapolis damaging stores and breaking windows in an attempt
to create the impression that the marchers were violent…they weren’t…

once again attempting to convict a group of people with actions by another group…

in fact, I would bet the vast majority of violence in those marches were
by the police themselves…see the 75 year old man in buffalo, who was
knocked down by police and severely brain damaged…

anyway, the mobs attempt actions based on principles… I want them to
practice a revaluation of values on those principles to see if they are
really the values they wish to act upon…….

Kropotkin

the call of the mob…

wealth, wealth, wealth… we seek wealth……

and I ask of the mob, why? why have wealth when so many other
possibilities exist?

the pursuit of wealth is a easy path in existing… you don’t have to
have any real thoughts as to what is point of existence…
you can just assume that wealth is the answer to the question of
existence… assume and nothing more……

and the mob chanted: fame, fame, fame…

and I ask the mob, why fame when so may other possibilities exist?

we seek fame like we seek wealth because it is such a low lying fruit
on the tree of life…it takes very little effort to seek such things
as wealth and fame… to reach the higher branches of existence requires
so much effort that we don’t try…

and the mob shouted… titles, titles and more titles……

and I ask the mob, why seek titles when there are so many other possibilities?

titles and wealth and fame are such easy targets to reach for…

we avoid targets that are so much harder to reach…….

we avoid such higher branches of existence like love and hope
and peace and charity…

these values requires so much work to reach and then maintain…

we don’t want to have anything to do with values that require us to
make an effort…

we want the lower values of existence because there is no work involved
in seeking values like hate and anger and lust and greed and violence…

to reach those values, all we have to do is seek the lower instincts inside of us…

to reach the higher values of love and peace and hope and charity and honesty,
requires too much work for us lazy ones…or as we like to call ourselves, the mob…

we are much to lazy to reach above us, so we reach down and avoid becoming…
for becoming requires us to work and we avoid work at all costs…

and I heard the mob chant, hate, hate, hate…

and I ask the mob, why do you choose hate, when love is far more
satisfying…….

because to love, requires work and effort and we might fail…
we are lazy and afraid, so we go after values that are the low
hanging fruit within human existence………so we hate and hold anger,
and have greed and lust and our favorite value, avarice… and we don’t
have to do anything special to reach these values, we just have to be ourselves…

we only need to be animal and we can reach these values…

but to become human, ah, that is too much work and what if people
don’t like us after we reach the values of love and peace and hope
and justice?

we want to be loved and we want to be cherished and we want to be honored…
but only if it doesn’t require too much work… otherwise we are fine with
being despised because that doesn’t take any work… to be despised…
all that is required to be despised is to be animal, not even animal/human…
and we are ok with that…because it isn’t to much work to be animal……

and what are you values? are you willing to suffer and fight and
be bloodied in your pursuit of your values?

or are you like most people and you want your values, wrapped in a
a pretty package with a bow tie on the top and with no work involved at all?

if you are one of those who want their value wrapped up in a pretty box,
then you are a valued member of the mob……

for what you seek is lies at your feet…

and what I seek lies in the stars and I must climb over
many mountain tops and then reach for the stars like
Icarus… I might burn by being too close to the sun, but
I cannot reach my values without risking life and limb……

no, hold to your call of the mob… it is the safe, easy path of existence…

Kropotkin

just finished Zarathustra…

I now wait to digest and understand it…

Kropotkin

Well if you’re hearing impaired, dont like lyrics, and a stevie wonder fan (you had mentioned liking it before), then this is indisputably the best instrumental wonder ever wrote. That’s not even a subjective judgement… like he hasn’t done anything comparable to this on other albums. So it’s basically wonder-fusion, and very precious because it’s so unique.

youtu.be/6T5q7BzpEe4

Btw has anyone here ever seen stevie wonder’s girlfriend?

(omg don’t say it. that’s just wrong)

"just finished Zarathustra…

I now wait to digest and understand it…"

When I read the zarathustras the first thing I thought was: i wish john Grisham would have written this instead of N. The premise, plot and storyline is magnificent, but it’s all too beautifully written for a post-modern nihilist like me.

But the thing is I wuz reading several of his others all at once, as well. Damn now you’re taking me back dude. Met this Appalachian state student dude at the magik beans coffee shop. He looked like ray manzerick from the doors so much it was stupid. But he had the ‘portable nietzsche’ paperback from the library. At that moment my only experience with philosophy was through Durant’s story of philosophy. Incidentally I hadn’t yet read the Nietzsche chapter at the time, so only knew of him. so when I wuz flipping through it and reading the aphorisms, I wuz struck into a momentary dumbfounded stupor at the sight of what I always knew needed to be said, but never suspected to see in a philosophy book and put so eloquently.

Then I plunged into it more or less. Bought three from the book store that week. Now to the point. The zarathustras were so stylistically different I kept putting them off for months… then years… only browsing once in a while through it if I came across it. It wuz in the back of the portable N if I believe… but the dude checked it back into the library.

Damn that’s memories man. Sitting on the steps of the coffee shop shell shocked by the antichrist quotes and so delighted that someone had said it, we could hardly contain ourselves.

Dude I actually had a relationship end with a wonderful girl from Arkansas who was also a student there, because of my obsession with N and my insistence on discussing the ideas. But the brutality of N’s ideas offended her, and a slow distance began to develop between us as I delved deeper and deeper into those books.

Carried them with me everywhere. Backpack… voluntary homelessness (couch surfing, camping). So I wuz always reading them because i did a lot of hanging out on king street. Lively place bustling with trustafarians selling art. Blue grass trios playing on the sidewalk. Like a mini Greenwich village. This was 93 or 94.

Anyway I keep putting Z back because I’m discovering all these other philosophers and I’m being blown away in all directions. I think that whole Boone period (the first one) was a study of the existentialists, now that I think about it. I didn’t pay any attention to the British, Scottish, or American greats for a good four or five years straight. I didn’t start venturing into the more analytical philosophy until I had a good grasp of hume… and that was much later. I wuz on sartre and kierkegaard and N and Heidegger and Camus for a minute, yo.

Zarathustra is essentially this though. It is an impossibly high set of ideals that is reasoned into existence by imagining a human being that has followed the hardest and coldest line of logic to arrive at truths which cannot be denied… and as such has to live with incredible discipline if he is to live honestly. Remember so many truths were lies, for Z. His struggle was to stay faithful to the hardest truths despite how mad he might become as a result. Or, worse, rejected. Think of the wanderer who finds more dirt and deceit in the cities than the wild, and turns around at the gates. That’s the kinda guy Z wuz. Folks in town ain’t tryna hang out with him because he asks the hard questions.

Here’s why I say ‘impossible’. You can’t really BE a Z. That’s retarded. But if and once you know what Z knows, you have to do the impossible and you require a hammer for that. If you wuss out, you need to be reading Bertrand Russell or John Dewey instead.

That’s why we are forever in rapture of the Z. He’s a fantastically impossible sage that belongs in a john Grisham book.