the unknown truth of America....

[Peter Kropotkin]

(I almost tossed this into my Modern thinking and its solutions thread,
but decided to separate it out for reasons that should become clear)

what is a great unknown truth?

that philosophy is not only the glue of a society, but
philosophy can also be a form of dynamite within a society...

and it should be.... we hold to the three great truths of philosophy..
one: that we must ''know thyself'' two: the unexplained life isn't worth living,
three: that we must engage with a reevaluation of values if we are to
overcome... (anyone familiar with Nietzsche will know what I mean by
overcoming)

it is our engagement with a ''revaluating values'' that can bring about
the philosophical explosion within a society...

and in the name of reevaluating values, that I explore ism's and ideologies...

within even a superficial look at modern history, we can see the modern
age for being what it is, the age of ism's and ideologies.... and that leads us
to a second question, is ism's and ideologies essential for human existence?
must we have ism's for humans to lead our lives? and the answer is clearly no....
in fact, if I were to guess, that the vast majority of human beings have had
no contact with ism's or ideologies their entire lives...
does a peasant in 1370 rural France have a daily contact with an ism or ideology?
the church, an ism, is not a daily affair in rural France in 1370... once a week,
the family will go to church, but otherwise, the church is only for special events,
births, deaths, marriage, baptisms... and did the man who worked the land
in 70BC, in rural France... did he have any daily contact with an ism or
an ideology? Nah.... nor did the peasant of rural China or Russia in
70 BC have any daily contact with ism's or ideologies...perhaps on
special occasions, but otherwise, no.... the vast majority of human
existence had no daily contact with the society/state ism's or ideologies....

but today, today it's hard to avoid any daily contact with ism's and ideologies...
turn on the TV and there it is...

but I think we should engage with a deeper look at ism's and ideologies....

ISM: a distinctive doctrine, theory, system or practice...

IDEOLOGY: the body of doctrine, myth, belief, etc., that guides
an individual, social movement, institution, class or large group....

and today, we have many such ism's and ideologies we can point to,
and follow... capitalism, communism, Catholicism, Buddhism,
any religion is an ism.... and we ask, why should we follow
this sort of ism or ideologies from the past? the conservative
says that we must follow tradition and custom if we are to
preserve our ''way of life''... and this following tradition
and custom is supposed to ground us in the actions we take...

''The French Revolution failed because it tried to discard the old wisdoms
of French traditions''

traditions are meant to prevent actions that go too fast for us humans beings....

but traditions themselves have a problem, a very serious problem...
they not only slow down movement but they actually tie us down,
they bind us to one course of action...the traditional path...
and by following traditions, we are tied down... bound to
that tradition.. and no recourse to move past that tradition...
but we are also, in following traditions, tied to the past..
we cannot move past or beyond the past because of our
allegiance to traditions...

being tied to traditions means we are unable to move freely, to adapt
to changing conditions, we are tied to, bound by traditions that
prevent us from changing our actions or beliefs... the faithful
execution of tradition means we can only travel one path
and one path only....for following tradition forbids us from
following other paths or possibilities...

or said another way, traditions are a means of chaining ourselves
to the past with no possibility of escape or release....we are tied to,
bound to the past forever... so, how do we free ourselves from
the chains of the past in the form of traditions?

do you know the reason for earthquakes? as I live in California,
I hear about and have felt earthquakes for over 40 years....

what happens that the continents, which are built on moving
plates, move into each other...and sometimes the plates get
stuck on each other... and over the years, the plates build
up tremendous pressure from one plate moving toward another...
and being stuck.. the release of that pressure, the slipping of
the plates pass each other in violent movement is called
an earthquake...over the years I have felt many earthquakes including
the famous 1989 quake... and the power within an earthquake is
actually quite scary... being in a building and feeling and seeing that
building moving like Jello is quite scary... the slipping of the plates
create movement in the plates.. and that creates power...
and in the world, we have had other types of earthquakes...
the French Revolution is such an earthquake... where the two
forces or more, are stuck against each other and then suddenly,
the two forces move past each other.. and the ground shakes...
and great power is released... The Russian Revolution is another
earthquake... and as was the Industrial Revolution and the Scientific
Revolution...this movement that causes the earthquakes... the power
that comes from this movement is incredible....

and we return to traditions... one path to overcoming traditions
is by an earthquake... like the French Revolution.... and we can see
other revolutions having been caused by such things as philosophy
and novels, and poems... the books of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and
David Hume caused profound revolutions in Art, Science, History
education, and Philosophy...to name a few examples....

so, we can by an earthquake/ or a revolution, we can overcome
traditions and be released from traditions...
but Kropotkin, why would I or anyone want to be free of
time honored traditions? Because traditions tie us down,
bind us to the past and prevent us from moving into the future...
as long as we are tied to traditions, we cannot, ever, move into
the future... we are stuck in the past... where granted many
would love to see us, stuck, trapped in the past with no escape...

but not I... for I am a human being and that means I am about
the future, not the past...and the past is already written,
but we can write the future with our words and our actions....
it is to the future that we owe our allegiance... not the past...
and holding to traditions prevent us from an engagement with
the future...

and philosophy can be, and in certain conditions, must be
an earthquake in a society, the state.... as in today,
we must overcome our being bound by the past and
overcome it, and that will take an earthquake that
overcome the past, the traditions that bind us....

that overcoming comes in the form of a rejection of ism's and ideologies....
we have no need for ism's or ideologies... because right now, right here
in America we are bound, by traditions, to be held in place, just
like the continental plates, we are being held in place while the energy continues
to build up behind the plates... and only by inducing an earthquake,
can we move past that...into the future....

movement is not possible until we can move past the blockage... the
ism's and ideologies that are fighting for dominance in America today...
and are blocking each other way... that stalemate is only going to
get worse and the damage from that earthquake that releases from
being stuck, will only get worse... Heidegger once said,

''Only a god can save us now''

I say, only an earthquake that
allows us to pass each other, can save us now....

we are trapped by ism such as nationalism, white is right ism,
capitalism, Buddhism, Catholicism... and are unable to move
into the future until we free ourselves from those ism's that bind us,
tie us to the past....

being tied to an ism, being devoted to an ism, means you can go no further
than what is allowed by the ism... and that leash is very short in isms....
your boundaries and range is set by the ism...and that distance is short,
very short...you can go no further...

but one might say, Kropotkin, isn't science an ''ism''?
and my answer is no... because in science one isn't bound
to the past... you have freedom of movement in science that
isn't present in isms and ideologies...but science is, to an large extent,
bound by, tied to the state and thus is bounded...
the ism of the university is being tied to, bound to the present
ism's of the state... and why? because the university is tied to the state
for funding and research... you want a research grant, most likely you
have to go to the military and get it from them... thus tying you to
the state ism's and ideologies... research is bounded by the isms
of the state which pays for that research... thus true research that
denies any current ism is cut from any funding... that is how the state
control research in the university....by funding or not funding it...

and where does this leave us? the fact of the matter is then, there
is no possibility to attack or oppose any current ism or ideology...
as the state controls the funding of any research... and the state,
can by proxy, control the media... thus if I were to oppose the current
ism or ideology, I would never get a platform to state this opposition...
there is no media that is free to give the news as it is... the media
that we have, makes its choices by who it favors to print or to put
on TV, decides the opinions we hear and read....there is no opposition
to the current regime and its isms and ideologies
because all opposition to it is kept off the media...
you never hear about the opposition to capitalism because
it is censored by the media with help from the state...the media
itself helps controls the narrative of ism's and ideologies...
who speaks and who doesn't... I will never be on the media
because I am an outspoken critic of the current isms and ideologies...
we are controlled by who we see and who we don't see...

and therein lies the value of philosophers... we can become the voices
of opposition to the isms and values of America... even if we are not on
state sanction media.. which is the nature of the media today... it is state
sponsored, given huge tax cuts only if they report the news that the state
wants reported.. and any opposition to the states ism's is never reported...

and what is freedom? the ability to act and voice my opinions..
but when the media prevents our voices being heard, we are not
free.. we have no freedom....

in the next post, we will explore the nature of our not having freedom
in America today...

Kropotkin

[Harbal]

what is a great unknown truth?

Well nobody knows, do they?

[Age]

(I almost tossed this into my Modern thinking and its solutions thread,
but decided to separate it out for reasons that should become clear)

what is a great unknown truth?

that philosophy is not only the glue of a society, but
philosophy can also be a form of dynamite within a society...

and it should be.... we hold to the three great truths of philosophy..
one: that we must ''know thyself''

If you and others, supposedly, 'must' know "thyself", then why are you, and they, doing the exact opposite things that were and are needed and required to reach and know "thyself"?

two: the unexplained life isn't worth living,

Have you explained 'life', itself?

In fact, have you even examined 'life', itself, fully and absolutely?

three: that we must engage with a reevaluation of values if we are to
overcome... (anyone familiar with Nietzsche will know what I mean by
overcoming)

If you think or believe that you have some sort of 'right' to tell other human beings what they 'must' do, then you are more lost and confused in 'Life' than you even realize yet.

it is our engagement with a ''revaluating values'' that can bring about
the philosophical explosion within a society...

Well considering the fact that you have not so-called 'reevaluated values' properly and Correctly yet, then the rest you have claimed here is just moot.

and in the name of reevaluating values, that I explore ism's and ideologies...

So what?

Some of your own 'isms' and 'ideologies' are absolutely False, Wrong, and Correct. So, telling others what they 'must', or 'must not' do, and telling other that if they do some thing like 'reevaluate values', then something else will happen is just absolutely absurd.

within even a superficial look at modern history, we can see the modern
age for being what it is, the age of ism's and ideologies.... and that leads us
to a second question, is ism's and ideologies essential for human existence?

Of course not.

And, that you have and hold onto them, and onto assumptions and beliefs, are also not essential at all for human existence.

must we have ism's for humans to lead our lives? and the answer is clearly no....

Yet you still do this anyway.

in fact, if I were to guess, that the vast majority of human beings have had
no contact with ism's or ideologies their entire lives...
does a peasant in 1370 rural France have a daily contact with an ism or ideology?
the church, an ism, is not a daily affair in rural France in 1370... once a week,
the family will go to church, but otherwise, the church is only for special events,
births, deaths, marriage, baptisms... and did the man who worked the land
in 70BC, in rural France... did he have any daily contact with an ism or
an ideology?

So, to you, supposedly, having contact with an 'ism' once a week is okay and all right, but having contact with an 'ism' daily is not okay and not all right, right "peter kropotkin"?

Also, this means that "peter kropotkin's" weekly contact with 'isms' will be perfectly fine, okay, and all right as well. Even though "peter kropptkin" follows, daily, its own 'ism/s'.

Nah.... nor did the peasant of rural China or Russia in
70 BC have any daily contact with ism's or ideologies...perhaps on
special occasions, but otherwise, no.... the vast majority of human
existence had no daily contact with the society/state ism's or ideologies....

So what?

Get on with what you want to end up telling 'us' is the 'right thing to do in Life'.

but today, today it's hard to avoid any daily contact with ism's and ideologies...
turn on the TV and there it is...

but I think we should engage with a deeper look at ism's and ideologies....

ISM: a distinctive doctrine, theory, system or practice...

IDEOLOGY: the body of doctrine, myth, belief, etc., that guides
an individual, social movement, institution, class or large group....

and today, we have many such ism's and ideologies we can point to,
and follow... capitalism, communism, Catholicism, Buddhism,
any religion is an ism.... and we ask, why should we follow
this sort of ism or ideologies from the past?

Only a True idiot would ask, 'Why should i/we follow any ism/ideology?'

But, that you do this "peter kropotkin" does not surprise us at all here.

the conservative
says that we must follow tradition and custom if we are to
preserve our ''way of life''... and this following tradition
and custom is supposed to ground us in the actions we take...

''The French Revolution failed because it tried to discard the old wisdoms
of French traditions''

traditions are meant to prevent actions that go too fast for us humans beings....

but traditions themselves have a problem, a very serious problem...
they not only slow down movement but they actually tie us down,
they bind us to one course of action...the traditional path...
and by following traditions, we are tied down... bound to
that tradition.. and no recourse to move past that tradition...
but we are also, in following traditions, tied to the past..
we cannot move past or beyond the past because of our
allegiance to traditions...

being tied to traditions means we are unable to move freely, to adapt
to changing conditions, we are tied to, bound by traditions that
prevent us from changing our actions or beliefs... the faithful
execution of tradition means we can only travel one path
and one path only....for following tradition forbids us from
following other paths or possibilities...

or said another way, traditions are a means of chaining ourselves
to the past with no possibility of escape or release....we are tied to,
bound to the past forever... so, how do we free ourselves from
the chains of the past in the form of traditions?

do you know the reason for earthquakes? as I live in California,
I hear about and have felt earthquakes for over 40 years....

what happens that the continents, which are built on moving
plates, move into each other...and sometimes the plates get
stuck on each other... and over the years, the plates build
up tremendous pressure from one plate moving toward another...
and being stuck.. the release of that pressure, the slipping of
the plates pass each other in violent movement is called
an earthquake...over the years I have felt many earthquakes including
the famous 1989 quake... and the power within an earthquake is
actually quite scary... being in a building and feeling and seeing that
building moving like Jello is quite scary... the slipping of the plates
create movement in the plates.. and that creates power...
and in the world, we have had other types of earthquakes...
the French Revolution is such an earthquake... where the two
forces or more, are stuck against each other and then suddenly,
the two forces move past each other.. and the ground shakes...
and great power is released... The Russian Revolution is another
earthquake... and as was the Industrial Revolution and the Scientific
Revolution...this movement that causes the earthquakes... the power
that comes from this movement is incredible....

Really, some so-called industrial and scientific revolution... this movement that causes the earthquakes?

and we return to traditions... one path to overcoming traditions
is by an earthquake... like the French Revolution.... and we can see
other revolutions having been caused by such things as philosophy
and novels, and poems... the books of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and
David Hume caused profound revolutions in Art, Science, History
education, and Philosophy...to name a few examples....

so, we can by an earthquake/ or a revolution, we can overcome
traditions and be released from traditions...
but Kropotkin, why would I or anyone want to be free of
time honored traditions? Because traditions tie us down,
bind us to the past and prevent us from moving into the future...
as long as we are tied to traditions, we cannot, ever, move into
the future... we are stuck in the past... where granted many
would love to see us, stuck, trapped in the past with no escape...

you are stuck here, in the days when this is being written more so because of your 'current' beliefs and assumptions, rather than you just wanting to say and claim, 'santa claus will give you gifts on one day of the year', for example.

Sure, 'traditions' hold you human beings back, but compared to your 'current' beliefs and presumptions, 'traditions', relatively, have that much of an effect.

but not I... for I am a human being and that means I am about
the future, not the past...

Is this meant to 'follow, logically'?

If yes, then you will have to starting doing some 'explaining' here.

and the past is already written,
but we can write the future with our words and our actions....
it is to the future that we owe our allegiance...

And, what 'ism' and/or 'ideology' are you proposing here 'now', which you are also telling others that they owe their allegiance to as well?

not the past...
and holding to traditions prevent us from an engagement with
the future...

and philosophy can be, and in certain conditions, must be
an earthquake in a society, the state.... as in today,
we must overcome our being bound by the past and
overcome it, and that will take an earthquake that
overcome the past, the traditions that bind us....

I think you will find that 'earthquakes', themselves, will never necessarily do what you say it will take to do.

Some would say just a 'paradigm shifted' is what it will take.

that overcoming comes in the form of a rejection of ism's and ideologies....
we have no need for ism's or ideologies... because right now, right here
in America we are bound, by traditions, to be held in place,

So, this one is now claiming that it cannot 'make the change', needed here, because it lives in a the country and 'cult'/u're called "america".

These adult human beings, as can be clearly seen here, in the days when this was being written, would come up with the most outlandish excuses for just 'not changing' "themselves", for the better.

just
like the continental plates, we are being held in place while the energy continues
to build up behind the plates... and only by inducing an earthquake,
can we move past that...into the future....

So, this one is 'now', literally, blaming 'the earth', itself, for its own inability and for its own just 'lack of want', to just change for the better.

movement is not possible until we can move past the blockage... the
ism's and ideologies that are fighting for dominance in America today...
and are blocking each other way... that stalemate is only going to
get worse and the damage from that earthquake that releases from
being stuck, will only get worse... Heidegger once said,

''Only a god can save us now''

I say, only an earthquake that
allows us to pass each other, can save us now....

So, instead of actually just doing some thing, this one will just, literally, wait for an earthquake to occur and happen.

we are trapped by ism such as nationalism, white is right ism,
capitalism, Buddhism, Catholicism... and are unable to move
into the future until we free ourselves from those ism's that bind us,
tie us to the past....

So, this one tells others what, and why, it and the others are 'stuck', but still continues to just do the very thing, itself, which is trapping it, and others

being tied to an ism, being devoted to an ism, means you can go no further
than what is allowed by the ism... and that leash is very short in isms....
your boundaries and range is set by the ism...and that distance is short,
very short...you can go no further...

This one says and states this while still holding, desperately, onto its very own 'isms'.

but one might say, Kropotkin, isn't science an ''ism''?
and my answer is no... because in science one isn't bound
to the past... you have freedom of movement in science that
isn't present in isms and ideologies...but science is, to an large extent,
bound by, tied to the state and thus is bounded...
the ism of the university is being tied to, bound to the present
ism's of the state... and why? because the university is tied to the state
for funding and research... you want a research grant, most likely you
have to go to the military and get it from them... thus tying you to
the state ism's and ideologies... research is bounded by the isms
of the state which pays for that research... thus true research that
denies any current ism is cut from any funding... that is how the state
control research in the university....by funding or not funding it...

Adult human beings who do 'science' are also stuck and trapped by 'isms', and not necessarily in the way you describe here at all.

and where does this leave us? the fact of the matter is then, there
is no possibility to attack or oppose any current ism or ideology...
as the state controls the funding of any research... and the state,
can by proxy, control the media... thus if I were to oppose the current
ism or ideology, I would never get a platform to state this opposition...
there is no media that is free to give the news as it is... the media
that we have, makes its choices by who it favors to print or to put
on TV, decides the opinions we hear and read....there is no opposition
to the current regime and its isms and ideologies
because all opposition to it is kept off the media...
you never hear about the opposition to capitalism because
it is censored by the media with help from the state...the media
itself helps controls the narrative of ism's and ideologies...
who speaks and who doesn't... I will never be on the media
because I am an outspoken critic of the current isms and ideologies...
we are controlled by who we see and who we don't see...

you also do not get heard because you are stuck and trapped in your own 'isms' "peter kropotkin".

and therein lies the value of philosophers... we can become the voices
of opposition to the isms and values of America...

No so-called True "philosopher" would ever look at "america" only, like you do "peter kropotkin".

even if we are not on
state sanction media.. which is the nature of the media today... it is state
sponsored, given huge tax cuts only if they report the news that the state
wants reported.. and any opposition to the states ism's is never reported...

and what is freedom? the ability to act and voice my opinions..
but when the media prevents our voices being heard, we are not
free.. we have no freedom....

in the next post, we will explore the nature of our not having freedom
in America today...

Kropotkin

in your next post we wait to look forward to seeing your other own 'isms' here "peter kropotkin"

[Peter Kropotkin]

I was planning on putting this out tomorrow, but I have time tonight...

when last seen, I was asking about the great ism's of America.....

We have multiple ism's in America... ism's that tie us, bind us to
past... we are in chains if we remained tied to isms....
with no freedom of movement.......

we have three basic ism's in America... and they aren't as obvious
as one would think....

the first one we look at is so prominent in America, that we often miss
it because it does stare us in the face... that of militarism..
we can see this in every single election... the GOP/MAGA party, the
conservative party screams about this every single election...
that a liberal politician is weak on defense.. and will gut the defense
budget to the point we can't defend ourselves......
we hear this every single election.. Tammy Duckworth who lost limbs in
the Gulf war, I think, was attacked as being weak on defense because
she once suggested that we take a look at the military budget...
she didn't propose any cuts, the very fact that she wanted to inspect
the budget was enough to hear claims how weak she was on defense...
If there was an ism that defined America, it would be its militarism...

America in its history, has been engaged in some sort of warfare for
over 90% of its history.. be it external conflicts such as Iraq or WW2 or
internal conflicts such as the very real attempt to have a genocide
of the American Indian.. in our 248 year history, 223 of those years
have been engaged in warfare of some sort... I am not sure even Sparta
engaged in warfare as much in its history....
and listen to the political rhetoric today, this election cycle...
about Patriots serving, sacrificing for our country...
but do the politicians, do they serve? nah, they are too busy
claiming to have bone spurs in their foot....

so that is the first ism of America.. militarism...
and the second ism of America is in its love of private property....
both of these ism's are ties that limit our ability to act freely...
they are chains around our feet... limiting what we can do...
and as with militarism, private propertism... is unspoken of,
as an ism in America...that private property is considered to
be ''sacred'', shows us the bind that ties private property to
Americans...it is unthinkable to even be an American and not
want to own property.....it is an ism that has our complete
and udder faith in... ..find someone who doesn't have faith in
private property and you will find the last communist in America....
(In full disclosure, my wife and I own property)
and as I am not a communist, I don't hold to the theory
that there can't be private property.....but look at the effects
of private property on people..

as Isaih Berlin writes:

''Socialism is a body of western teaching and practice resting
on the belief that most social evils are due to unequal, or
excessively unequal distribution of material resources: and
that these evils can by cured only by the transference,
gradual, or immediate, total or partial, of the ownership of
property and of the means of production, exchange, and
distribution from private to public control...''

and few can argue that the massive inequality of income has
brought America into conflict and even despair...
which is centered on the ownership of private property...

so, spend some time thinking about whether private property
is the cause or the symptom of our modern day crisis that
so dominate our lives, both publicly and privately...
from the individual to the collective... either way we say it,
the fact is, we are in crisis, and I suspect that this
ownership of private property is one of the prime causes....

think about it...

Kropotkin

[Peter Kropotkin]

now we enter into the third ism that dominates America...

that of the GDP.. which is the ''Gross Domestic Product'' which is
a monetary measure of all the final good and services produced in
a specific time period by a country or countries....

if the GDP goes up, that is considered to be great, and if it goes down,
that is considered to be bad... but the question arises... good for who
and bad for who? the question of income distribution has been fairly
studied... for every 10 dollars created, 8 of those dollars go to the
wealthy... 1 dollar goes to the middle class and everyone else shares
the leftover dollar...is this distribution exact? not exact but close
enough to tell us who gets the money made and who doesn't....

and this is why there is cheering when the GDP goes up, because
for every 10 dollars created, the wealthy will get 8... the GDP
benefits the wealthy above everyone else... and as the media is owned
by the wealthy, we are told that this growth of the GDP is ''good'' for
the country... that we, the people, will benefit from this growth..
if you consider pennies on the dollar as a ''benefit'' sure, we can
cheer this or we can become aware of the very real problem
of income inequality.... but the media avoids this problem like
the plague...

the GDP is a very sacred thing in America and an ism we follow
religiously...along with the other sacred ism of America, the Stock
Market... but as noted of every 10 dollars created, 8 goes to
the wealthy and this is true of the Stock Market....
the average person makes very little to nothing on the Stock Market....
the only ones who benefit from it is.... the wealthy... that is why
the rise and fall of the Stock Market is cheered or makes people sad...
it is the wealthy who gain... and the media which is owned by the very
wealthy actively cheer because they make money from a rising
Stock Market.. you and me, not so much...but less be frank..
the wealthy has no interest in the ''little people''
our ''value'' is to make the wealthy money/profits...
and this connects nicely with our third ism mentioned today..

this ism is the cultivation of the worker mentality... we are brainwashed
from birth that working has value.. that we have some meaning in
the action of working... but nothing is further from the truth....
in working, all we do is create wealth for those who own the means
of production... remember for every 10 dollars we create, one might
get to all the rest of us.. we are fighting and clawing for a very small
fraction of the created wealth...

so, we have a three headed ism that is sacred in America...
the first head is the GDP, the second is the Stock Market
and the third is the creation of the worker mentality...

and the one value or item that is sacred that I didn't bother to
mention is the faith in the almighty dollar... we worship
money.. but this was so obvious that it didn't really needed to
be mentioned... we pray to money, we live for money and
we are willing to die for money... it is the true god of America...
it is more than just an ism, it is the true faith of America...

want to know what Americans pray to? it is money....
but that is so clearly evident, I wasn't even sure I should mention it...

these are the ISM'S of America... the ones that we hold as the highest
goal and standard for all Americans....

the isms that we hold to be the highest value....

Militarism, private property, and we have the three headed isms of
the GDP, the Stock Market and this worker mentality... these isms
are prayed to in every corner of America...

and what does this all mean?

Kropotkin

[Peter Kropotkin]

the bottom line here is that we have isms in America that
continue to bring about the present state of discontent and
alienation in America today....and I content that a great
deal of this alienation and discontentment comes from our
current economic and political situation....

for me anyway, there is no difference between our political
and our economic situation...for politics and economics
are one and the same....and that we will never be able
to achieve political freedom without economic equality...

every single politician in America will drop everything to take
a phone call from Musk or Gates... is the same true of us?
would Biden drop everything to take my phone call? no,
because of the vast wealth of a Musk and Gates... wealth
offers one access to places other can't go to...or as one
saying from the past goes...

he who has the gold, makes the rules...

the economic dominates the political today...
which is why we cannot have political freedom without
economic equality....and economic equality will be fought
by the wealthy, to the death, because with economic
equality, the wealthy lose their access, their privileges,
their ability to dominate the lives of the average American....
the power to decide who has a job or who doesn't, has a
profound effect on the lives of millions of people...
which is why the wealthy and by extension, the political
hate the idea of a UBI.. or Universal basic income...a UBI
takes away some of the power the wealthy have over our lives...
and by extension, allows us some political freedom.. for money
and politics are tied to the hip in America today.... if you have
one, you have the other...

OK, Kropotkin, I'm sold.. what is next? the same step as now...
in which we educate people to the dangers of the American isms I have
highlighted.. who is the hero of the ism of militarism? not the individual
or the average American who has sacrificed.... the state is the hero
in this story of militarism... for people who sacrificed for America,
the so called hero's... they are not the story here, but the state is
the story.. just as it is in communism where the worker sacrifices for
the good of the state/communism... and in capitalism where
the worker sacrifices for the good of the state/capitalism...

all three devalues, negates the workers, the soldiers, anyone
who sacrifices for the good of the prevailing isms...
human beings are sacrificed for the benefit of the ism, be it
capitalism or communism or the economic...
to be sacrificed in the name of anything, is to be dehumanized,
to be negated in the name of that ism..... as it is today, in America
and around the world.. in the name of the ism of faith, which
right now is money......

so, today what is the path of being saved? to reduce if not eliminate
the isms that bind us, that tie us down...to remove the isms
of capitalism, to remove the ism of communism, to remove
any such ism including nationalism that makes the state of
greater value then the individual...
which includes the isms of the militarism and private property
and the three headed monster of the GDP, the Stock Market,
and the worker mentality that is propagated by business
and by its extension, government.. ... the lies we are feed in
order to keep the worker working and to keep feeding the machine
that keeps the very wealthy, very wealthy.....we are sacrificed for
profits, we are sacrificed to the state, we are sacrificed to the alter
of the isms that are America...

Now one might say, Kropotkin, you are wrong or misinformed...
I say, the corporate/state indoctrination of its citizens/workers
is doing an excellent job, with people like you.....

Kropotkin

[Peter Kropotkin]

if Kropotkin is right, and we are being both brainwashed and
sacrificed to the isms of America, what can we do?

Becoming aware is part of the solution... but we also must
walk away from isms and ideologies... but what can take the place
of isms and ideologies in our current world?

what are we to follow?

and that is the question, isn't it?

Kropotkin

[Peter Kropotkin]

we return to one of the isms that is a primary ism in America...
that of private property... we hold, as a matter of faith, that
private property is sacred in America....there is nothing that
pisses off American more than the concept of ''Eminent Domain''
the concept that the government has the power to take or condemn
property for ''public use'' without the landowner consent
upon paying ''just'' compensation... this can go all the way from
the federal government to a local entity like a school district..
and trust me, nothing gets the attention of people more than
a case of ''Eminent Domain''.....

that property is sacred has been a long standing concept,
that was best advocated by John Locke... the basic idea
is that a home, privately held, is the best defense against
an out-of-control government... that private property
gives us a way of defending ourselves from the government....
a dubious concept at best, but ok... let us take it at face value...
however this ''sacred'' aspect of private property has taken
a hit with various police tactics such as no-knock warrants...
this idea that the pursuit of crime and criminals supersede
any such notion of the private property being sacred....

that the police cannot enter a home without the permission of the
homeowner, is a quaint notion given the out-of-control nature of
the police, who given their mandate of chasing criminals regardless
of the situation before them.. have to a certain extent, taken
away the sacred nature of private property...

but the real question for me is this, should a home, private property
have such a sacred nature to it? this ism has, I believe, outlived it
usefulness... it is not possible for us to hold onto to the faith
of private property...and why Kropotkin?

we have to adapt our beliefs and actions based on our current
environment... and the current environment is not conductive
for us to have absolute faith in private property...

the fact of the matter is that given the overpopulation of
both America and the world, that we cannot give everyone
their own private home... even if we were to desire that fact,
it isn't possible... America has over 340 million people
and planet Earth has over 7 billion people....
the sheer numbers prevent us from housing everyone in either
America or on Planet Earth, given the 7 plus billion people on
Earth....given this reality, we must adjust our thinking about
private property...

the next brick in the wall is the resources to build the housing
required by 7 plus billion people... we need to destroy entire
forests to build even enough housing for a quarter of that number.. 
we just don't have the physical resources to build enough housing
for everyone... little less private housing for people.....

now to bring this idea back to where I am, is this desire for
private property actually a need of ours? in other words,
we human beings have biological needs and psychological needs...
does the idea of private property, single family homes, part
of either our biological or psychological needs? as part of
our biological needs come the need for shelter, but does that
mean private property? Or does that simply mean a roof over
our head? to own is part of the human heritage but
is that heritage actually owning homes, having private property?
is that a biological need brought to us from our evolutionary past?

the archaeological records seem to be pretty firm on Human beings
living communally for almost a million years, if not more....
we live together in caves or in large, shared buildings for the entire
time of the hunter-gatherer stage of human existence..
and in the next stage which was the Tribal pastoral stage...
again, shared living quarters was the norm during this time
of thousands and thousands of years....

the idea of private property would never have entered the head of
anyone during these two long lasting ages, hunter-gatherer,
the pastoral stage.. over a million years of human evolution....
and no one ever, ever thought of it... at least as far as we know....

the concept of private property comes from the beginning of
the agricultural state... when the rise of planting food and remaining
in one place became all the rage.. with this comes the rise of
cities... and now we have this idea of private property...
a million years of no private property and roughly 10,000 years
of private property... and even this isn't actually true... we know
of tribes into the 20th century that lived communally, including
Native American Indian tribes.. the concept of private property is
a relatively late one.. occurring during our recent past...
the last 15,000 years...practically yesterday in terms of human history...

and does this concept of private property actually even benefit us
in our future, short term and long term? as I noted before, I
don't think given our current overpopulation and lack of resources,
that the concept of private property is not sustainable for our numbers
and resources...

if we are to survive, we must rethink what private property means
to us.....once again, a reevaluation of values is required for us to
be able to move into the future...do you have the courage for
an honest reevaluation of values?

Kropotkin