as with all philosophy, we have to begin somewhere....
as I noted elsewhere, that death really does define us..
as in no matter what we do, and how much we try to ''build''
something, it ends at death.. death turns our lives into
being a ridiculous/absurd notion.... we slave away at work
for 40 plus years to end with.. what exactly? in a no-god world,
there doesn't seem to be a point or meaning for us being in
the world....remove god from the world, and life becomes very ridiculous....
so, Kropotkin make the leap and join us believers in that
we at least have meaning... and therein lies the problem....
that the notion of religion devalues, dehumanizes us as human beings....
the idea of god, devalues us as beings...if the point of existence is to
go to heaven, then the point of existence is to get to heaven...
that devalues human beings because we are no longer the goal, the
end result of existence... because it is irrelevant to god if we get to
heaven or not.. if not a single human being makes to heaven, what
does it matter to god? Human existence has little relevance to god..
if god is, as described, the several omni.. omnipotent, and omnipresent
and omnipotence, then what does god care about human beings?
a single human being living 70 years has no more impact on god,
then a single ant action has to us... the concept of theology
basically, devalues us as human beings.. for if there is something
greater than us, we have far less value.... think of a diamond..
if you have lots of diamonds in your hand, what do you care about a
single dollar bill? it becomes irrelevant... a single dollar bill,
as with a single human being, has no value if it has competitors that
have more value than human beings... if god is valuable,
then we as human beings, we are dehumanized, devalued...
and the same goes true for isms and ideologies...
we are dehumanized, devalued in isms and ideoleogies.....
take the ism of nationalism... that country is what has value,
that if America is number one, then a single individual, has
no value... for we are not, as individuals, a priority in
the ism of nationalism...
and the same goes true for all other isms... we are dehumanized
and devalued in all other isms and ideologies...take communism,
we are devalued in communism, the single human being has no
value in communism... what matters is the creation of the worker state..
all other values are secondary to that one value... in which we are
dehumanized, devalued... and the same goes true to capitalism,
we are devalued in the name of profits... profits come first, human
beings are, at best, second...and the same is true of all ism's...
''white is right'' ism, the point is to be white... and yet, given how
many people are not white... millions of people are devalued,
dehumanized in the ''white is right'' ism... and even many of the
followers of the ''white is right'' group are not actually white...
they are of mixed decent... the importance is not being human,
but in being a ''white'' human... being white has more importance
than being human.. we are devalued in such a belief...
and all isms devalue, dehumanizes us...
and therein lies much of the modern world problems..
we have been dehumanized, devalued in light of the many isms
that exists in the world...capitalism devalues us, communism
devalues us, Catholicism devalues us...Buddhism devalues us...I
am hard pressed to think of an ism that doesn't dehumanizes us,
devalues us...
so, in light of the isms that devalue us, what becomes the point
of, the meaning of existence? and because the very point of god,
automatically devalues us, what becomes the point of existence?
I would suggest that the point of existence is to find values and
beliefs that do not dehumanizes, values that don't devalue us....
let us try this... if we hold to the values of hatred, bigotry, of
anger and prejudice, do these values increases our value or
do they decrease our value? it is clear that bigotry and prejudice
devalues us as human beings... that hatred and anger dehumanizes
us... we can't even look to isms or ideologies to return us to
being valued.. we must engage with values, if we are to return
to becoming valued, and part of the values we must engage with
are positive values... values like love and hope and courage are
values that bring us to being valued... we are not secondary values,
we become the primary value... for a value like courage for example,
cannot exists alone... it must have a human being to be courageous,
for courage to make any sense...it is by the positive values of existence
that we become human.. it is in love and hope and honesty, that we are no
longer devalued, dehumanized... it is the positive values that bring
us to becoming even more human... the rise of human beings from
animal to becoming animal/human to finally becoming fully human...
to be devalued, dehumanized, is to bring us closer to being animal,
than to being human....and the journey is always forward, upward....
the time is coming to end the age of isms and embrace values...
to becoming human... embrace values that allow us to become
better human beings.... but Kropotkin, there is no
meaning or point in embracing values.... and there is a point,
meaning in embracing the isms that devalue us, dehumanizes us?
Kropotkin
But Kropotkin, what about....
-
Peter Kropotkin
- Posts: 1577
- Joined: Wed Jun 22, 2022 5:11 am
Re: But Kropotkin, what about....
once in a book, ''The Myth of Sisyphus'"
Camus asked,
"Is an absurd work of Art possible?''
we can see how in our own life, that we can be rendered
absurd/ridiculous by our death... to spend a lifetime trying to
reach goals that become completely irrelevant by our death...
and we try to apply those rules to ART...
is life absurd/ridiculous, yes, but ART? Much of the failure of
the isms in life, is that they dehumanize us, devalue us...
does ART, in some way or fashion, devalue us, dehumanizes us?
I would argue that in many ways, ART increases our values,
it does the opposite of isms in devaluing, dehumanizing us.....
for ART makes the human experience valued by bringing it front
and center of what it means to be human....
ART tells us what it means to be human... it can paint a picture,
or by a few lines, explain the human experience...
and ART can last forever, potentially anyway... The best known
painting in the world, The Mona Lisa, was painted around 1505 or so..
that was around 520 years ago.. and we have ART from the Greeks that
is over 2500 years old... and we have cave paintings that are upward
of 40,000 years ago...
the legal, political, economic, social and philosophical landscape of
the world can change by the day.... there is no permanent idea
within that legal, political, social, economic or philosophical landscape....
we live in a transitory world, with transitory lives and values and beliefs....
But that painting of the ''Mona Lisa'' can give us a reflection of what it
means to be human, even after 500 years...
and ART reflects back to us our very existence and what it means to be
human... so, no, the answer to the question, can ART be absurd or
ridiculous, is no..... for ART reveals to us the ''human condition''
in ways no other aspect of our lives can show us....
and that ART can allow us to seek something else... we can seek
out the beauty of our short existence... and it will mean just
as much as, or even more than any other aspect of our lives....
At work the other day, when it is warm out, I parked in the lower parking
lot, because it is shaded and much cooler than the upper parking lot
which has no trees in it... I eat lunch in my car every day... and I back
into my parking space which means my view is to the opposite side of me...
so, the other day, I was eating lunch.. and looking out at the cars before me..
it was around 1 or 2 in the afternoon, the sun was ahead of me and to the left...
and there are trees everywhere in this parking lot... and before me, were
several Cherry Blossoms trees... the wind came up and the blossoms began
to fall to the ground...and the picture of the pink blossoms against the blue sky
and the many trees, as it was falling, was quite beautiful... and that moment,
that lasted, maybe, 5 minutes at best... made my whole day... it was as
worth as much, if not more than my entire 8 hours of work...
and that is the beauty of ART, it can bring us meaning that we cannot
find in any other format... making money and getting my hours so I
can have health insurance is certainly more practical, but it isn't as
valuable as ART...
Kropotkin
Camus asked,
"Is an absurd work of Art possible?''
we can see how in our own life, that we can be rendered
absurd/ridiculous by our death... to spend a lifetime trying to
reach goals that become completely irrelevant by our death...
and we try to apply those rules to ART...
is life absurd/ridiculous, yes, but ART? Much of the failure of
the isms in life, is that they dehumanize us, devalue us...
does ART, in some way or fashion, devalue us, dehumanizes us?
I would argue that in many ways, ART increases our values,
it does the opposite of isms in devaluing, dehumanizing us.....
for ART makes the human experience valued by bringing it front
and center of what it means to be human....
ART tells us what it means to be human... it can paint a picture,
or by a few lines, explain the human experience...
and ART can last forever, potentially anyway... The best known
painting in the world, The Mona Lisa, was painted around 1505 or so..
that was around 520 years ago.. and we have ART from the Greeks that
is over 2500 years old... and we have cave paintings that are upward
of 40,000 years ago...
the legal, political, economic, social and philosophical landscape of
the world can change by the day.... there is no permanent idea
within that legal, political, social, economic or philosophical landscape....
we live in a transitory world, with transitory lives and values and beliefs....
But that painting of the ''Mona Lisa'' can give us a reflection of what it
means to be human, even after 500 years...
and ART reflects back to us our very existence and what it means to be
human... so, no, the answer to the question, can ART be absurd or
ridiculous, is no..... for ART reveals to us the ''human condition''
in ways no other aspect of our lives can show us....
and that ART can allow us to seek something else... we can seek
out the beauty of our short existence... and it will mean just
as much as, or even more than any other aspect of our lives....
At work the other day, when it is warm out, I parked in the lower parking
lot, because it is shaded and much cooler than the upper parking lot
which has no trees in it... I eat lunch in my car every day... and I back
into my parking space which means my view is to the opposite side of me...
so, the other day, I was eating lunch.. and looking out at the cars before me..
it was around 1 or 2 in the afternoon, the sun was ahead of me and to the left...
and there are trees everywhere in this parking lot... and before me, were
several Cherry Blossoms trees... the wind came up and the blossoms began
to fall to the ground...and the picture of the pink blossoms against the blue sky
and the many trees, as it was falling, was quite beautiful... and that moment,
that lasted, maybe, 5 minutes at best... made my whole day... it was as
worth as much, if not more than my entire 8 hours of work...
and that is the beauty of ART, it can bring us meaning that we cannot
find in any other format... making money and getting my hours so I
can have health insurance is certainly more practical, but it isn't as
valuable as ART...
Kropotkin