soul sickness... cause and cure...

[Peter Kropotkin]

Socrates thought of himself as a physician...
and the illness he was working on was human
beings being soul sick....quite often he spoke how
one should "tend" to their soul...not necessarily in
a religious context but in terms of being soul sick.....

and what is the source of being soul sick? for me anyway,
the source of being soul sick, is the preoccupation with
the wrong things in life....to seek out the trinkets of
existence, that of fame, wealth, titles, power and material possessions,
are examples of being soul sick... for those trinkets lead one nowhere
and end nowhere... for in seeking money, it has no other purpose other
than being money...all it can do is more of the same, nothing else....
and the same goes for seeking fame....it has no other purpose than
seeking more of the same.. in seeking fame, all one gets is fame,
nothing else....and that is true of power and material possessions..
it leads nowhere outside of more of itself...in seeking material possessions,
all we can get from it, is more of the same.... there is no final point, no
conclusions in seeking out material possessions or fame or wealth or titles
or power...

Let us look at one person to see this, IQ45.. all he seeks is wealth..
nothing more.... and I would like to see anyone on planet earth more
soul sick than IQ45? I doubt you will find anyone on planet earth more
soul sick than IQ45....

for he is seeking something that only value is to destroy the soul...
that is all seeking money and fame and material possessions and power
can do to the soul..... just make it more and more soul sick.....

but Kropotkin, you aren't making sense.... oh, I am.. in your own
life, look at the person in your life who is focused on those trinkets,
of seeking out wealth or power or fame or titles or material possessions...
look at them... and you will see that they are soul sick...that is all
they are seeking more of the same.. the things they seek are temporary,
ephemeral.... gone in a second... money, money is always coming and
going in our lives.. and material possessions, we are always replacing
some sort of material possession of ours and of fame, ask those who were once
famous, how ephemeral their fame was... titles and power are no different,
temporary and fleeting.. short lived....

No, those who seek out those trinkets are seeking out something
that is short lived and fleeting and basically worthless...
and those engaged in seeking out those trinkets are soul sick...
they just don't know it... and why?
because they don't practice the maxims of Socrates...
one: to know thyself... and two: the unexamined life isn't
worth living...

and one might, correctly ask, what is then the point of existence?
If not to seek out the trinkets of existence?
the point of existence is to discover and practice the values that
make our lives worth living...

the values that can bring us meaning into our lives...
the values like love, hope, peace, charity, justice/equality...
values that allow us to lead a life that has some purpose
and meaning... but Kropotkin, what value or values should I
engage with? that is not for me to know, I have my own value/values
I am engaged with.. Justice/equality for one....

in seeking out our values, we also can work out our respective
ism's and ideologies of life... in other words, by saying we are
engaged in seeking out justice/equality as a value for existence,
that is saying, we reject the ism of capitalism because capitalism
can only work if, if we reject both justice and equality...
for capitalism has no interest in either justice or equality...
or has Marx himself said over 150 years ago, that in capitalism,
we have as a basic feature, increasing amount of wealth
being consolidated into fewer and fewer hands...
and this is quite evident today... where 500 people hold more
wealth in their hands than half the population of earth...
defenders of the faith proclaim this to be a good thing, but
this basic injustice/inequality creates enough issues that it
will, at some point, cause an uprising of the poor against the rich...
and we have seen this, historically, time after time after time...
or what do you think was the root cause both of the French
Revolution and the Russian Revolution? and ancient Greece had
open warfare between the right and poor dozens of times....
and the slave rebellions of Rome is essentially class warfare...

the question of modern-day class warfare is not if it happens, but
when will it happen and in which country? Here in America, we
are actually not that far off from this class warfare...my guess is
that once a leader come to the forefront of the poor and middle class,
it will be "game on"...

and the root cause of this class warfare is not actually wealth, but
the soul sickness that has infected America...

and until we reorientate ourselves into seeking out values that
promote our soul's health, not make us soul sick, as long
as we continue to promote the trinkets of existence,
we shall be soul sick...

so, what is a philosopher? someone who engages in what is necessary
for the soul to prosper....and what values are the values of a healthy soul?
the positive values of love, hope, justice/equality, peace......

but Kropotkin, prove this? I say look at the people that have impacted
our lives the most, the ones we build statures to and name middle schools
after.... MLK and Gandhi and Lincoln and Goethe and Shakespear....
they accomplished their goals by not being soul sick... they didn't pursue
the failed values of wealth or fame or titles or material possessions...

they sought out the values worth living... let us emulate these
people... the ones who matter... and follow them into seeking out
the values of justice, and peace and hope and love...
that is the path to overcoming being soul sick...

Kropotkin

[Peter Kropotkin]

in a very real way, every single thread and post I make,
is some aspect of this soul sickness... the ways we are soul sick
and the ways we can overcome being soul sick...

every single thread and post of mine has soul sickness front and center...

Kropotkin

[Peter Kropotkin]

as this is my 1000 post on this site, with thousands of other posts
on other website, I am trying to think of something profound or
witty... and frankly, I got nothing...

Kropotkin