Philosophy Now Forum

the emotions, the stamp of existentialism, is
within despair, lonesomeness, guilt, boredom,
and the favorite word of the existentialist, Angst....

ANGST: a feeling of deep anxiety or dread,
typically, an unfocused one about the human condition
or the state of the world in general.

practically the only emotion we have left is Angst...
it occupies the left and right equally, with millions
of people deserting the world, trying to escape this worldwide
feeling of Angst...

But of course, you can't escape, no matter how hard you try...
who is to say that Angst doesn't follow us into that "undiscovered
country that makes cowards of us all"...

but I say unto you, that existentialism has been looking down
the wrong tube.. instead of focusing on the micro, the small,
let us focus on the large...instead of looking at atoms,
we should be looking at stars and galaxies....

I can spend hours looking at pictures of galaxies.. wondering...
how can I get there and what would I find and what would
a resident of that galaxy think about looking at a picture of
my galaxy and wondering, what I am thinking?

I am looking at them and they are looking at me....and both
wondering about the other...and tell me, where is the despair
and Angst and loneliness when we are wondering
about distant galaxies? Wondering about who lives in
those distant galaxies and what they are thinking about?

the truth of the matter is that existentialists failed because
they focused their energies on the negatives of existence instead
of the positive of existence.... we have such a variety of human
states... we have love and hope and peace and charity and curiosity
and justice.. but the existentialists never saw that.. nor has
the modern day conservatives.. it is 24/7/365 doom and gloom...
woe unto us..... not that a conservative would notice, but
a liberal might despair when realizing that children, millions
of children are starving and homeless...
but it doesn't have to stay that way, it doesn't have to remain
that way.... when we see the world, what we see is a snapshot of
what it is right now, but it doesn't have to remain that way...
for our world is not set and bound into it present or future...
we can remake our own future and our own world.. if
we choose to... that is that most modern of possibilities,
that of choice...what is today, doesn't have to be tomorrow....

every single day of existence is radically different than yesterday...
and it will be radically different tomorrow... the one constant
of existence is its movement... we never stand still or stay in one
place for long... our very existence is ever changing and radically
moving... the story of the world, indeed the universe is one of
development, reversal, revolution, mutation, diversity, advancement
and retreat... we are in one place for a moment and then, that moment
is gone...and we are in another moment....

that is why the modern despair and wailing about our fate is
not only foolish, but pointless... because that moment is
gone in an instant... and another moment is in its place...
and with every passing moment.. another possibility exists
for us to act within...we may despair this moment,
but another moment gives us more possibilities to act...
and every single act is just another choice to become
something different.... life is transitory... and we need
not react permanently to something that is so transient,
so transitory...

we act as if every moment is permanent and fixed forever..
and no, no it isn't... this moment doesn't have to be our permanent
moment..... this moment isn't our permanent moment...
we have the next moment and every single moment thereafter to
become something different....to act differently, to believe
differently.... this moment isn't fixed, it is just a moment
in the midst of millions of moment... why think it is permanent?

Kropotkin

within the last 123 years, since 1900, we have had two
World Wars, the Holocaust, the dropping of the bomb,
the My Lai massacre, 9/11, and countless gun massacres,
both here in America and around the world.....
but are those events, permanent, inevitable, fixed to
go on in our lives?

No, no they are not...what was written yesterday is not written
today nor is it written for tomorrow... we can change the script
to match whatever reality we want to see....

One of the great terms of the 20th century has been alienation...

Alienation: the state of experience of being isolated from
a group or an activity to which one should belong to, or in which
one should be involved in:

the loss of or lack of sympathy...

that we are alienated from society, the state or even ourselves
is a given.. but why, why are we alienated from each other or
the state/society?

one thought might be that we are dependent on technology...
that we don't react to each other without going through
technology first... in other words, we communicate to
others by technology... we use the phone, computers,
media, radio to communicate to each other... but we rarely
ever communicate with each other directly....our relationship
to each other is mediated by technology... we talk to the phone or
e-mail to each other... the technology stands between us and
each other... and that is one form of alienation.....

that we feel we have no direct contact with the forces that
dominate our lives.... I ordered a computer a week ago, but
it arrived at my place on Sunday, I wasn't home, so they didn't
delivered it.. ok, fine, yesterday, my wife was home all day
and listened for the buzzard that my package was here...
they never buzzed...and so once again, my computer went back..
but I want to communicate with them that I will be home today...
but I can't.. there is no way I can communicate with them
that I will be home.. so, I will be sitting on my front steps
for hours waiting for them to deliver my computer...
because I can't communicate with them.....technology
is preventing me from communicating with them because
of the limited nature of the communication with them...

in a very real sense, I am alienated in my situation because
of the limited nature of the communication possible with them....
this is but a small sense of the modern way of alienation that
exists in our modern world....

I have no control over the forces that dominate in my life...
deliveries and government and market forces and dialectical
materialism are all forces outside of my ability to impact or
influence or change....

do I walk away or do I try to gain more control over
those forces?

Kropotkin