Philosophy Now Forum

we can state what ism's are... they are the rules of
existence as stated by certain means.. capitalism...
is the rules of existence economically, and Catholicism is
the rules of existence based on religion where the goal
is to go to heaven by professing belief in Jesus...

various ism's have different rules of existence... and they
are trying to achieve different things.... for example, democracy
is a political ism that says we function best, politically, when
everyone has a say in their governance.... monarchy is the ism
that says that we function best with a monarch who decides
the rules...
each ism has a starting point and an ending/goal purpose..

and what is existentialism? just another set of rules, but these rules
are much vaguer than normal ism's...existentialism is a negative view
of existence... recall our existentialist who proclaim that we are "thrown"
into existence and we have angst and despair and unhappiness...
existentialism is just another set of rules..

now we have our third point.. that of science in which one of the
primary laws of science is entropy... in which the universe has two
directions.. one toward energy unifying and other, energy dispersing..
energy dispersing is entropy...an example of entropy is our own bodies...
old age is entropy at work...in my youth, I could easily run 10-15 miles,
(when in shape) and climb rocks and stay up all night... today,
ah, not so much...with the effects of entropy I can no longer
run, I certainly can't climb rocks and I can't stay up past 9:00 anymore....
physically I am a shell of what was possible for me...

all, ALL being have entropy within them.... it is just chaos and
disorder at work...no matter how I fight it, I grow weaker physically...
and no matter how hard I fight, entropy will end my life.. one way or another...
if disease or an accident doesn't end it first...

the flow of the universe is the act of energy flowing in and out of
being... entropy is in everything.. biological or not...rocks and wood
and stars are all invariable effected by entropy...
we can see the universe in terms of the flow of energy toward and
away from being...(being is just another word for things existing)

the rules or ism's in some times and periods are quite clear
and pronounced...during the Medieval period, in the west,
the Catholic church had total control over virtually all aspects
of life....control was strictly held by the church... and in the
ensuing centuries, control over the people was, at first, jointly
held by the state and the church and over the last 200 years,
more and more, the state has seized control over the people...
today, the modern church has very little power in the business
of the state.... (the rise of the western Taliban is an attempt
to correct this)

there are times in history where the ism's had strong power
and other times, that the ism's were fading.. an example of this
is the long period of time while the Medieval church was slowly
fading and the rise of the secular state... or to say it another way,
when the rules, the ism's no longer have the power to dominate
like they once did, then we are in an interim period of history..
we have ism's but they are no longer as strong as they once were
but we haven't established other ism's to replace them...
we are in one of those strange time periods between dominating
ism's...think of that time period between the fall of the pagan world
of Greece and Rome, and the rise of the Catholic church...
neither one dominated, and Rome itself was slowly coming undone..
where the energy that once drove the empire to thrive, has left
it and that meant the rise of entropy within the empire...
the ism's of ancient Rome and Greece no longer had the power to
control people... but there was an interim period when no
ism dominate the state/society...the collapse of Rome is
the rise of entropy within that state...

and we see that today... no one ism is dominating the "stage"
and many of the ism of yesterday have lost their impact,
their energy to impact the world....if there is less energy
to drive ism's, then that means that the ism's have less energy
and that is the very definition of entropy....we see America impacted
by people putting less energy into it and that is why we see America
beset by problems...America is suffering from entropy.. the loss of energy...
and the alienation and despair and all the other descriptions of life,
as described by the existentialists, are examples of this entropy...
angst and despair and even horror of modern existence are from
entropy.. the lack of energy being put back into the society/state..

whereas the existentialist sees despair and angst in the modern world,
I see something different... with the loosening of ism's and ideologies,
the rules of existence which in the minds of existentialist is a crisis,
I see possibilities....think of ism's and ideologies, as maps...
they guide our life and provide us with directions to get from
birth to death... ism's answer the Kantian question of "what am I to do?"
with ism's we have an answer to that question... with capitalism,
I am to make money/create profits.. pursue the trinkets of existence...
with the ism of communism, I am going to become part of the flow
of history and help create the utopia of the "worker state"..
and with Catholicism, I follow the word of god/Jesus
and in my belief in god/Jesus, I will go to heaven...
that is what I am to do...
every single ism provides us with the answer to the Kantian question,
of "what am I to do?"

and part of the malaise of Jimmy Carter, is that the ism's of
America has entropy within them.. we have less belief in
the path of the ism's.. as guides, we no longer trust them or
believe in them.... the guiding ism of America no longer
hold any power over us... we are without a guide into the future...
and that is the entire idea of the "malaise" within America...
we are no longer in touch with finding our goals, individually
or collectively...what are we to do? No one knows...
what is our goal/purpose? no one knows...
the ism's that would normally tells us the goal/purpose or
the road map into what our lives is supposed to be, is gone...

or said another way, what should we be putting our energy into?
to get rich or to be moral/ethical people, or to pursue fame
and power and material possessions? "what am I to do?"

let us return for the moment to existentialism... what if, what
if they were actually right, but missed they missed the point?

what if, instead of seeing, as the existentialist saw, the negative,
what if we see the positive... instead of the angst and despair
of existence, we see the possibilities inherent in our existence...

we can see beauty and love and pursue justice and hope...
we don't have to see the negative of existence when there
is no ism or road map to follow...we can turn to the possibilities
inherent within our lives...whereas in capitalism, simply matters
like falling in love or just watching the sunset, are frowned upon
because they don't increase the GDP or help us create profits,
the goal now is to improve our souls, and we can do that by
understanding that existence isn't about being a worker,
producer or a consumer... as capitalism demands that we become...
we can rise above mere consumerism and seek out the meaning
of what is a human being...instead of seeking out profits or
material possessions, I seek out what are my possibilities..
individually and collectively....

for being human is a collective action... we cannot become human
without a state/society to provide us with our needs, both biological
and psychologically..... I cannot find love or esteem or
safety/security without a society and I cannot find my physical
needs without a society/state that allows me to feed and clothe
and house and provide me with an education and health care....
we are social beings and that must be part of any equations
about what it means to be human...

whereas the existentialist saw angst and despair in existence without
ism's, I see that we have a possibility to achieve who we are and
what it means to be human... by not being bound, tied by ism's,
we are free to seek out our becoming's, our possibilities...
I can rewrite what it means to be human if, if there are no
ism's creating a false road map... which is what the existentialist
mean when they talk about acting in "bad faith"...
by following an ism, a road map that doesn't allow me to
achieve what is possible for me, that is acting with "bad faith"...

having "bad faith" is to follow a paradigm, like capitalism
that only has as possibilities, a worker, a producer
or a consumer...I say, I have greater possibilities than
just becoming a producer, a worker or a consumer...
the ism of capitalism limits me to only certain possibilities...
possibilities that only benefits capitalists.. that is acting in
''bad faith" by not pursing what my goals or possibilities are.....
by not having the courage to become me.. by only following
the road map of capitalism, in which my own goals and possibilities
are devalued and dehumanized.... that my only possibility of
being valued within a capitalistic society is to create profits,
but that is not only not worth it, but it is dangerous to both
the individual and the society...

if I pursue the capitalistic agenda of only seeking out profits, I
then deny myself....that is acting in ''bad faith" to fail
to pursue my own possibilities.... and to only pursue what
has been indoctrinated into me... that is why overcoming is
so important... to weed out those indoctrinations and know
what values and beliefs are actually mine, not just values
that were indoctrinated into me... that is ''bad faith" to
follow someone's else/the state/society values and beliefs
instead of my own values and beliefs..

this is a rare and interesting time period when the society's
ism's, values and beliefs are weakening...when the normal
road map of following the society's values and beliefs,
is limited.. when we can now pursue our own values and
beliefs with a greater freedom than is normally possible...
this lessoning of ism's and ideologies is an opportunity to
become who we are... if the rules of a society/state
are weak, then that gives us a chance to create our
own rules and follow our own possibilities.... without
interference from the state/society....

to become what is my possibility is what is important...
seeking out philosophy as I do, is not accepted because it
doesn't create wealth or profits...to become the best
possible philosopher I can possibly be, is the goal I
am engaging with, not following the state/society
goal of seeking out profits or increasing the GDP...
I am a heretic in the modern world in terms of
my being... I am not interested in being wealthy
or famous or powerful or have material possessions...
the usual goals or purpose of existence in capitalism...
and I am not interested in reaching heaven.. and that
is the two main ism's/ideologies of our modern world....

I say and believe in a third choice... to become a better person,
to seek out what is possible for me to achieve, not what the
state/society wants me to be, but to engage in what I want...

the modern world and existentialist proclaim that the
values of existence of the current ism's and ideologies
are lost, I say rejoice... rejoice and strive to achieve
the values and possibilities of becoming human in a world
where ism's and ideologies are weakened...

rejoice... to be alive when the ism's of existence are
weak, which allows us to pursue our own goals and possibilities...
seek out what is possible instead of damning existence,
as the existentialists have done...

Kropotkin

I have hear it said about a person, "they lost their way"
but what does that actually mean?

''Lost their way" compared to? did they lose their way because
they no longer follow the folly's of a society/state or
they lost their way because they have lost their own personal
road map?

losing one's way is a suggestion that life is a map of sorts and they
are lost in that map in some fashion...
the question become, whose map are they following? god's,
the state, the society, which ism are they not following
which means they have lost their way from?

I can say that we are lost, as a society because we no longer
have a map of existence that we can trust.. the religious
map, the Marxists map, the capitalism map... are all
gone...and what directions or understanding can we follow to
become ''not lost?''

to become lost is to lose one sense of direction.. I have been lost
in Yosemite... we lost track of the trail and were wondering around
the areas between the trails...eventually, we ran into some people
and they led us to a trail...is being ''lost" as a human being similar to
being lost in the forest or national park?

I think so... and for pretty much the same reasons...
we lost track of the trail and soon, had no real idea which way
to go...and so, when I say, America is lost, that is the exact same thing...
so we ask, what trail should we be on.. as so we are not ''lost?"

and therein lies the question... what trail should we be on?

Kropotkin

to say, we must be on a religious trail, is to ignore
the fact that, as Nietzsche said, "god is dead and we have killed him"
we cannot find our trail within a religious context if our world is
really a "no god" world..... and so we have to look elsewhere
to see if there is some other trail out there that can lead us
to where we are ''no longer lost"...

one possible path is the political path... we can find our meaning
and being, in a political sense....in a very real sense, we can call
the 20th century, the age of the political...
and depending on how we define the political, we can create
values that will give us meaning and purpose to our existence...
but for the moment, let us create a thought experiment
and decide that there is no political theory that will give
us meaning or purpose...

so, what is left? we cannot turn to the religious and we cannot
turn to the political, what is left?

Kropotkin

Perhaps we can solve this problem with philosophical ideas...

for example, one way to avoid being lost is by the understanding of self...
if we practice what Socrates suggested, in that we know thyself
and we practice an examination of our lives... ''the unexamined life
isn't worth living" so, we can engage in these two theories
and find ourselves again... and we can use the "Enlightenment"
as another means of finding ourselves again....

we can examine our values and see what value are actually our values
and not the values indoctrinated into us as children...and we
use these examples as possibilities to escape being "lost"...
to be lost is to be without a map.... and we can use
these examples as a way we can find ourselves on the map...
if I engage with Justice as a value, as long as I use justice as my
value, how can I be lost? Justice is my value and my map into the
future... I can't get lost if I am using a value to be my map....

much of what we believe in is simply values and beliefs giving
to us as indoctrinations in our childhood...if we can escape those
indoctrinations and understand what values we actually believe in,
we can no longer get lost....for we carry our compass within us in
the values we hold to be true....

if I seek out my possibilities as a map, then how can I get lost?
if I seek out my own possibility of becoming a great philosopher,
and as long as I maintain that course, how can I get lost?
but let us say, I lose faith in becoming a great philosopher,
then I am truly lost... for what would replace that possibility?

you cannot become lost if you have a goal and keep that goal in sight, within
your mind at all times....becoming lost is simply losing track of that goal
and the road needed to take to achieve that goal... can I become a
great philosopher if I am immoral or unethical? No, part of the
philosopher's toolbox is not only thoughts but actions.. I must
act with morals and ethics if I am to be considered to be a great
philosopher... we cannot divorce ethics as a practical matter and
as a theoretical matter.. theory and practice must match each
other for us to be a great philosopher...

to lose one is to become lost... to have us preaching theory without
practicing ethics/morals is to be lost... and visa versa....

that is why, in part, why Spinoza was a great philosopher...
he did practice what he preached...

do you?

Kropotkin