Philosophy Now Forum

with a slightly different emphasis on.....

people often comment on how ''terrible'' the world is today....
and depending on how we view this, we can agree, disagree or
go even further into how bad the world is....

but the real question is, do we just quietly accept this verdict or
do we actually do something about it?

if we accept the god announcement that everything is in the hands of god,
then it is clearly god's faulty for a shitty world...

if we accept the argument that god is the creator of the world
and in charge of us, but because he has ''allowed'' us free will,
the world is as we humans make it.. so, the shitty world is entirely
our fault.. but this viewpoint has a secret message, god couldn't
care less about us, if he did, he would make the world better...
but he clearly can't, so, why bother with a belief in god if he
can't or won't make the world better? It is up to us to make
the world better or as the case maybe, worse.. and god's indifference
to us can become our indifference to god... if god won't do anything,
why bother with god.. and every man for himself...

now the third possibility is there is no god, no heaven, no hell,
no angels.... and that means if the world is shitty, that is entirely
on us...we have the possibility to change the world, for better or worse,
is up to us.... we cannot wait for someone else, be it time, nature, or god,
or a dictator, to make the world better, that task falls onto us...
and what are you doing, today, right now, to make the world better?
if not you, then who, if not now, then when?

but many people get lost in the details... what exactly must I do, to make
the world a better place?

and here comes all the excuses that we make to avoid any attempt
to make the world better..... I have no time, I work too much, I have
bills to pay, I have children and can't afford to miss them growing up,
the world is corrupt and the strong take the weak.. where is there room
for me in that message, what can I do in this massive world to make any
type of changes....the world is as it always has been..

oh, we have so many excuses to avoid facing the world of our own creation,
and that is thoroughly fuck up.. but we have no time to fix it? that is very sad
indeed....that we can mess up the world but not enough time to fix it.....
what does that say about human beings? Kropotkin, the past, the past fouled
it up, not us, why should we be held responsible for their ineptitude?

Because basically, it our world now... if you move into a house and the
previous tenants mess the place up and left you a mess, what is your
response? I didn't do it, I don't have the time, what about taking care
of my children? why didn't the landlord deal with it? it is, or more correctly
said, it has become your problem...how are you going to deal with it?
whinnying or complaining or bitching about it? and will that complaining
get the house clean? how does bitching about the house, get the house
ready to live in?

if god is the landlord and we are the tenants, and if god refuses to
take care of the house, then it falls into our lap... like it or not...
so, what are you going to do about it? complain or blame others or
are you just going to clean the house?

so, what are you going to do?

Kropotkin

or said another way....

are you going to curse the darkness or are you going to light a match?

Kropotkin

the question that we should be most concerned about is this
question of freedom.....which in its simplest form is about choice...
to be human is to have choice....which is why I reject most ism's
and ideologies....that most ism's limit or even eliminate choices is
clear....where are our choices in communism or in capitalism or
in Catholicism or in Buddhism?

Each of the above ism's are binary choices.. A or B.
and being forced to pick between either A or B, is not
a choice...for example, in capitalism, the choice is, once again,
binary, work or starve.... that is not a choice if death is one
of the choices..... for there to be truly choice, we must have more
than just two choices.. we must have three or four or more.....

but we run into that age old problem of too many choices tends to
freeze people.... we don't handle having too many choices very well...
the problem lies in our own limitations... not in the choices themselves...

and I suspect that part of the problem lies in the fact that people
don't have a plan or some goal to reach... they are content to just
float along with what is happening... go with the flow as it were...
but that is allowing choices to be made for you... and for many,
this is ok because for many, making choices is scary and troublesome....
we live in constant fear of making the wrong choice...so,
we make no choices at all.... but what raises us above animals
is our ability to make choices...for animals, they only have their
instincts to guide them... and if their instincts don't work, they are lost....

perhaps the best working definition of being human is this:

''Human beings are defined by choices and what choices they make''

to make a choice is to be human... and thus we find the real limitations
such isms and ideologies like communism and capitalism... they leave
us without choices...

but Kropotkin, does that mean we no longer need isms and ideologies?
no, it means we are not defined by our isms or ideologies, but we are
defined by our choices... isms and ideologies can help us make those
choices, but isms are only choices themselves... and quite often the
weight of the world lays heavy on our heads because we are forced to make
choices... and here is the point of existentialism.... we are responsible
for our choices...not god, not other human beings, not nature, not
evolution and not science......heavy lays the burden of man,
of having the curse of making our own choices... and much of
our current problems lay with the fact that many are afraid of any
choices they make.. they live in fear of actually having to make a choice...
and so, they don't make a choice....and so we allow chance and randomness
and chaos to make the choices for us.... and what could go wrong there?

so, that ago old question, what is the human condition?
is answered, we are beings that are condemned to make choices...
despite all our efforts to avoid making choices.... depending on god,
or nature or chance, to make our choices for us....

do you simply allow nature or god or change/luck to make your choices
or do you become human by making your own choices?

Kropotkin

Peter Kropotkin wrote: ↑Tue Jan 23, 2024 9:36 pm or said another way....

are you going to curse the darkness or are you going to light a match?

Kropotkin

Do you realize which it is that you are doing?