Philosophy Now Forum

listen to the world around us, especially the media...
and what does one hear?

that we can be something else if, if we were to buy something
that would allow us to be something else... want to be sexy,
buy that new cologne or perfume, want to have both sexy and have
respect, buy that new car....want to be ''someone"... get that new ''toy''..
and by toy, we mean gadget, that is all the rage...

we define ourselves by the things we buy, not who we are or
what is possible for us...

how am I to understand my own ''value", if I value myself by
what I purchase...not by who I am? think about it... what do we
say about say, Bill Gates, that he is worth 100 billion dollars...
but is he a good person, or a bad person, a jerk, a saint,
who cares if he is worth 100 billion dollars...
I do know that he cheated on his wife... multiple times, that
he has driven many small businesses out of business, that he
buys out businesses to either stop competing ideas or products,
or to bury them altogether...

But Kropotkin, that is good business practices...that is how he got so rich...
but does that make him a good person? is he a person worth emulating
as a human being? do we ''value'' him because of being a certain type of
person or do we ''value'' him due to his wealth?

how do we judge a person? on what grounds or basis are we to judge
a person? if a person is a saint, just exactly who is going to care?
No one, because we don't ''value'' people that way....
we judge, or value people because of the wealth they created or
their own personal wealth or perhaps their job/titles or how many
houses they own?

but why those standards and not other standards?
to put this in ''Marxist" terms, we place object above human beings..
we ''fetishize'' objects and devalue human beings.. think about
the rush that people have down to the store, when a new iPhone
comes out... what exactly does the word "fetishistic" mean?

one: relating to a sexual fetishism, ''A fetishistic obsession with
leather outfits"

two: having an excessive and irrational devotion or commitment to
a particular detail"

that second description seems to fit modern America pretty well...
go out to dinner and watch a random table of people not talk to each other
or engage with each other, no, they will all be on their phones..
texting or buying or seeing the score of the game....
but actual conversation with each other, not so much...
I see this all the time around my work... in our breakroom,
I don't talk to my fellow coworkers, we sit and engage with
our phones, but not with each other...
that is modern life... and we don't see each other, we
see our phones and the communications we have with
that phone, but not with each other...

you want to change the world, transform how we view each other,
let us start with actual communication with each other.....
but Kropotkin, I don't want to change the world, I want
to survive the world, just make it through the day, so I can
go home and play with my toys at home... and what do we do
at home? we watch TV or listen to music or play with our phones...
and what is the center of our attention? the objects, the TV, or
phone or the music playing, but not the people, not the other
people living at home with us...

I know people who spend a great deal of time taking car of their car..
they wash their car and wax it and detail the car and even take
their cars to car shows....and what is the priority of their lives?
I'm pretty sure it's the car... and that is a fetish.. valuing objects
before we value real live human beings...

but that is the heart of capitalism too... we value objects, the
buying and selling of objects, the making of money, before
we value other human beings.... the entire American way of
life is nothing more than a fetish of objects.. to buy and to sell
and to create objects, to be a producer, a worker or a consumer...
that is what we are, not human beings, but workers, producers
and consumers... we see ourselves this way and the society/state
sees us this way....

as human beings we are devalued, dehumanized into beings that produce
or work to create profits..... but as a human being that loves, and cares
or believes in justice.. there is no profits in that, so it is unimportant,
insignificant, not worth our effort... we are and our values of being
human are devalued.... and what is the relationship here, between
devalued and the ism's of the modern world, like existentialism
or Marxism?

let us explore that notion, next time...

Kropotkin

one must ask, why is it so easy to turn objects
and other human beings into a fetish?
a commodity... of having no other value then what
we can create in terms of profits?

In this modern world, it is easy, very easy to turn objects
and others into a fetish, a commodity.. because we ourselves
are treated as a commodity.. I cannot tell you how many times
over these 45 years of working, how expendable I was and how
easily I could be replaced.. I heard from it from every boss
and every manager I ever had...

the fact that we are so expendable and easily replaced, show
us how much of an object we are in the business world...
that we are treated with the same respect and reverence
that a hammer or a nail in the wall is treated...in the eyes
of the corporation, we are expendable tools, that is easily
replaced...where is the value of being human in this
type of viewpoint?

that in any communication to the corporation, I must give
my employee number and my store number and what district
I am in... and in any communication with the government,
I must give them my Social Security number to even begin
a conversation with them....I must be catalogued before
any communication happens, in both the business world
and in any dealings with the government....

so, tell me how I am not an object in the modern world?
and thus we can just as easily turn our day-to-day objects
into commodities and treated as a fetish... as we are treated
in the modern world.... and where is the sacred, the treatment
of us as something more than just objects that can be easily
discarded?

in other words, we are treated transactionally and we treat others
transactionally...

Transactionally: with regard to, or in terms of a transaction...
we view others in terms of what we can get from them
and what we have to sell to them to get something...if a ''friend''
can't help me with somethings, why be ''friends"...the value
of a friendship is to get something from it.. nothing more
than a business transaction between friends...

and we do this in the business world, and we do this in the state/
society we exist in today...our interactions with our society/state
is a transaction between an individual and a state/society...

so, if you want to bring back some aspect of the sacred in the world,
we must treat people as a ends, not as a means... what can you do for me,
is the modern definition of our interactions with each other and
the state/society and the business world... and the cause of
our devaluing/dehumanizing other people...if we treat people
transactionally, we are devaluing them, we are dehumanizing them...

now existentialism, is not about transactions between people,
it is not about our transactional engagement with the state/society...
the individual has value, outside of being a producer or a worker
or a consumer... we are not the sum of our transactions,
existentialism says, we have freedom.. true or not is irrelevant..
it at least says so.... which is more than the modern world
says about us... we are nothing more than workers who turn
a profit and without this creation of profits, we have no value of
any kind...

now capitalism, as does communism, as does any ism, Catholicism for example,
devalues the individual, that our value lies in striving for something else,
not in ourselves as it is...my values lies in the profits I can make, in
the goods I can scan, (in my factory lite job) but do I have any value?
Does Kropotkin, by being Kropotkin, have any value in the business
or government world? Nope, not at all...
I will continue to be a number, a expendable tool that can be easily
replaced at will....

but Kropotkin, everyone knows this, what is new here?
and I ask, what are you doing to end this?
and then the excuses come fast and furious...
the system is unstoppable, we can't fight the "man",
our corporate overlords will never allow us to be free..
we are helpless in the face of overwhelming odds...
and I am sure I am just touching the surface
of excuses one has to avoid challenging the system,
our corporate overlords....

but make no mistake, it is cowardice and fear that tops
the list of why we fail to challenge the system... we might
lose what we have? and what is that, exactly?
our starvation wages, our nonexistent retirement, just
being a working tool all our life? or are you afraid
of what might come in its place? an even more evil
system and overlords? hide in fear if you wish...
I will not....

what have you done today to overcome?

Kropotkin