Peter Kropotkin wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2024 5:55 pm
now the interesting thing is this... if problems can have different solutions,
that seems to suggest that there is no such thing as a universal solution to
our problems.. solutions that work for everyone, at all times... if our problems
are different than the Greeks problems, than we require different solutions...
and I suggest that every society/state/civilization had different problems
that needed to be solved...and thus needs different solutions...
and we can relate this into our modern world... thus, we can see
the polarization of Americans coming from the fact that those on
the left sees different problems than those on the right...
and different problems require different solutions.. and no solution
is universal, answering all problems with the same answer...
as the right tends to do.....
so, to seek an overall understanding of this problem... we look into
history and see something interesting.. we see that our isms, our
disciplines are solutions to a problem...our study of history is a solution
to a problem, math is a solution to a problem, philosophy is a solution
to a problem...ism's like capitalism and communism and Catholicism are
all solutions to a problem.. as is the idea of government itself..
government is a solution to a problem... and different problems
require different solutions... and this is a response to the question,
what is being human? we are beings seeking answers to questions,
and the only way to get those answers is through isms and ideologies,
and disciplines like math or history...
so, we can backtrack different solutions into the problem being faced...
thus, we can see the Eternal forms of Plato as being a solution to
the problem of the appearance of change in our field of vision...
One of the questions that the Greeks faced, what this question of
change.. and was change real or just a mask for something else?
the answer of we can only step into a river once, is an answer about
the idea of change in the universe... it is a solution to the problem
of change or is change not real, it just looks real.. but isn't...
but we have no sense of that problem.. we don't need an answer to
that because it isn't a problem today, as it was for the Greeks...
we moderns have different problems in which we seek solutions....
both communism and capitalism are solutions to a problem...
they are both economic systems and thus solutions to
economic problems...and democracies and monarchies are political
solutions to a political problem... and we have to understand the
difference between economic and political problems/solutions....
and so, we return to the original problem.. of free will, determinism
and necessity.... and how do we connect our problems/solutions into
context of free will? One of the things about communism, is the
very need to proclaim it as a solution to a problem...
and as something that is part of necessity... that the inherent fate
of capitalism is to become a ''worker state''.. that that is going to
happen regardless of what we do or say about it... becoming a ''worker state''
is going to be a necessity... we are told that it is inevitable ...
and something that is inevitable is not free will but is determinism..
we have no choice.. that is the future.. the coming ''worker state''....
and the word inevitable means we have no free will/choice in the matter....
let us take another ism and deep dive into it... capitalism....
even a cursory look at capitalism tells us that capitalism is not
about free will/choice, but about determinism... necessity....
we have two points in which we can see capitalism is not about free will..
the first point is in the very necessity of capitalism...for capitalism to
succeed, it must have, requires that the business exploits its workers....
forcing workers to create profits over what they pay the workers...
this profit exploitation is pretty clear...the entire goal of business is
to make profits... and to do so requires a business to pay workers less
money than they create... if I create $10 dollars in sandwiches, they
cannot pay me for th0at.. it doesn't create profits if they pay me the same
amount for my production... they must pay, have to out of necessity, to
pay me less for my efforts... thus, I might get $5 dollars for the $10
dollars of effort/production...this is the only way for capitalism to
succeed.. there is no other way.. this is necessity and within necessity
comes determinism... if there is no free will, no choice, there is only
determinism.. then the entire system of capitalism is anti-free choice...
and another brick in the wall is the fact that we cannot opt out of
capitalism as a system... we have no free will in working within capitalism...
we could say no, and starve to death while living on the streets.. that that
choice is no choice given that we are programed by evolution to
''stay alive'' at all costs.. the will to live is very, very strong in human beings...
and this leads to conflicts... to have free will in the matter of capitalism,
we must ignore our evolutionary programming of living out our lives at all
costs... living on the streets is a very dangerous way of living... which violates
our prime directive of continuing living at all costs...
necessity vs free will.. comes at a cost....
so, we have two such ism's that have, at their heart, this question
of free will vs determinism...
if something is necessary, it isn't free will... and if it is truly free will,
it isn't necessary..
to continue on my understanding of capitalism.. we hold that
capitalism is about choice, and choice is free will.. but is
capitalism really about free will? is free will really about which
deodorant we decide upon? or the other problem, among many,
is this question, that Marx even faced, was the question of monopolies....
as fewer and fewer businesses own more and more, and we see this
every single day.... check out how Kroger's want to buy out Albertsons
all the while pretending that it will give consumers greater choice,
a bald face lie if there ever was one... and that becoming bigger will
reduce the prices within stores, another bald face lie...
and this reduction of the marketplace is happening in every industry in
America...from cars, to cereals to the number of airlines to tire manufacturing...
every single industry has smaller and smaller number of businesses engaged in
that industry... look at two sectors... cereals... we have entire shelfs
of cereals.. but look closer and we see that there are only 4 manufacturers
of cereals in America today and those companies own 85% of all cereal sales
in America...we have Kellogg which has about 30% of the cereal business,
we have General Mills, which has about 30%, we have Post holdings which has
about 19% and we have private labels which is about 7%.. thus about 86%...
of all cereals in America is produced by just 4 companies...and that is typical
of products in America...
for example, the 95% of all Media in America is owned by 5 companies...
Comcast, The Walt Disney company, Warner Bros, Discovery and Paramount
Global...and this owning of the media is a world wide problem....
not just an America problem...and thus, where is our free choice, our
free will if 95% of all media is owned by just 5 companies.....
free will is driven by choice, and if we have no choice, we have
no free will.. it is as simple as that...