I ask....
Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2023 5:04 pm
when growing up, we all wanted to "be" something,
I wanted to be a professional baseball player and
president of the United States...and some
want to be a firefighter and some want to be
an astronaut, and some want to be a soldier...
but few, if any wanted to grow up to be kind or nice or
to engage with love.... we want to be something to slay
dragons or make money or to help people, or own dozens
of homes and drive fancy cars....but that path is empty because
money and cars and homes are, at best, temporary.. they rarely
last very long....but we can be nice or love or be kind all of
our lives.....
but here is the interesting thing.. with each possession, we
become anchored deeper and deeper into the world...
with each car, we are forced to work longer and harder to pay
that car off and with each house, we are forced to extend
the number of years we must work to pay off that house....
material possessions are not the path to freedom that they
are claimed to be.. no, what they are, they are anchors
designed to tied us down... to burden our bodies and souls,
to one spot... think of Jacob Marly.. tied down with the
chains he forged day after day.. with every purchase,
we tie ourselves down deeper and deeper...
If one were to ask me, and I note that no one has, but
if asked, I would offer this advice to anyone who ask,
the path from birth to death is not about gaining wealth
or power or fame or material possessions....
for they don't feed the soul, they, the trinkets of existence,
hang on us like chains on our body....
so, what must we do, Kropotkin?
the path of the trinkets are paths of all or nothing...
there is no middle ground in pursuing trinkets...
and we must, if we are to reclaim our birthright,
we must remain in the middle...
our watchword must become a simple word...
Moderation
in term of seeking wealth or material possessions,
or even in terms of our life/work relationship...
Moderation in all things, but one... and that one thing
must be love...so the formula becomes this:
Moderation in all things but love... pursue love to the ends
of the earth...
It is ok to be angry and it is ok to be sad and it is ok to
be happy and it is ok to pursue our interests, but
do so in moderation... a little anger is good, but too much
anger makes us a conservative... and little hate is good, as
long as it is done with moderation... too much hate
and we become members of the MAGA team....
by moderate in all instances except in love... for we
can be consumed, we can be burned without some
moderation in our beliefs and actions....
too much hate or too much anger and we become
consumed with it...it is no different than owning
a dozen cars or having several houses... too many houses
or cars and our soul get weighed downed and too much
anger or hate and our souls get weighed down....
we burden our bodies and soul, with too much crap..
our soul with hate and anger and lust and greed,
our bodies with cars and houses and material possessions...
you want to lighten your load? You want to dance again?
You want to free your soul? the path is moderation...
(now, at this point, I could write that the sky was blue,
and a dozen people around here will claim I am wrong,
or I am a communist or a liberal, I am used to it at this point)
Now one might say, but Kropotkin, what does this have to do
with philosophy? well, frankly everything... for philosophy
isn't just about the theories of Kant or what it means to
be an analytical philosopher...
philosophy is the engagement we have with ourselves and
our world... I don't separate out disciplines like philosophy
and history and economics and science and evolution...
I think of them as different aspects of the same thing,
what it means to be human..... and we can learn what
it means to be human from history or philosophy or economics
or evolution or science....for me, I am not all that concerned
with where we came from...my interest is, where are we
going? what is the point of existence? what does it mean
to be human? I am interested in the goal of existence,
what are we trying to do? What are we trying to achieve
in our existence, both collectively and individually....
for me, these are the questions I seek, not necessarily
the answers...
Kropotkinn
I wanted to be a professional baseball player and
president of the United States...and some
want to be a firefighter and some want to be
an astronaut, and some want to be a soldier...
but few, if any wanted to grow up to be kind or nice or
to engage with love.... we want to be something to slay
dragons or make money or to help people, or own dozens
of homes and drive fancy cars....but that path is empty because
money and cars and homes are, at best, temporary.. they rarely
last very long....but we can be nice or love or be kind all of
our lives.....
but here is the interesting thing.. with each possession, we
become anchored deeper and deeper into the world...
with each car, we are forced to work longer and harder to pay
that car off and with each house, we are forced to extend
the number of years we must work to pay off that house....
material possessions are not the path to freedom that they
are claimed to be.. no, what they are, they are anchors
designed to tied us down... to burden our bodies and souls,
to one spot... think of Jacob Marly.. tied down with the
chains he forged day after day.. with every purchase,
we tie ourselves down deeper and deeper...
If one were to ask me, and I note that no one has, but
if asked, I would offer this advice to anyone who ask,
the path from birth to death is not about gaining wealth
or power or fame or material possessions....
for they don't feed the soul, they, the trinkets of existence,
hang on us like chains on our body....
so, what must we do, Kropotkin?
the path of the trinkets are paths of all or nothing...
there is no middle ground in pursuing trinkets...
and we must, if we are to reclaim our birthright,
we must remain in the middle...
our watchword must become a simple word...
Moderation
in term of seeking wealth or material possessions,
or even in terms of our life/work relationship...
Moderation in all things, but one... and that one thing
must be love...so the formula becomes this:
Moderation in all things but love... pursue love to the ends
of the earth...
It is ok to be angry and it is ok to be sad and it is ok to
be happy and it is ok to pursue our interests, but
do so in moderation... a little anger is good, but too much
anger makes us a conservative... and little hate is good, as
long as it is done with moderation... too much hate
and we become members of the MAGA team....
by moderate in all instances except in love... for we
can be consumed, we can be burned without some
moderation in our beliefs and actions....
too much hate or too much anger and we become
consumed with it...it is no different than owning
a dozen cars or having several houses... too many houses
or cars and our soul get weighed downed and too much
anger or hate and our souls get weighed down....
we burden our bodies and soul, with too much crap..
our soul with hate and anger and lust and greed,
our bodies with cars and houses and material possessions...
you want to lighten your load? You want to dance again?
You want to free your soul? the path is moderation...
(now, at this point, I could write that the sky was blue,
and a dozen people around here will claim I am wrong,
or I am a communist or a liberal, I am used to it at this point)
Now one might say, but Kropotkin, what does this have to do
with philosophy? well, frankly everything... for philosophy
isn't just about the theories of Kant or what it means to
be an analytical philosopher...
philosophy is the engagement we have with ourselves and
our world... I don't separate out disciplines like philosophy
and history and economics and science and evolution...
I think of them as different aspects of the same thing,
what it means to be human..... and we can learn what
it means to be human from history or philosophy or economics
or evolution or science....for me, I am not all that concerned
with where we came from...my interest is, where are we
going? what is the point of existence? what does it mean
to be human? I am interested in the goal of existence,
what are we trying to do? What are we trying to achieve
in our existence, both collectively and individually....
for me, these are the questions I seek, not necessarily
the answers...
Kropotkinn