Showing posts with label human. Show all posts
Showing posts with label human. Show all posts
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What it is to Be Human

What did you do today? And “nothing” is incorrect.

Philosophy and religion, in their truly infinite range and scope, have grappled with the question of what it is to be alive, furthermore, what it is to be human. They’ve wondered what or where is consciousness. They struggle with choice and free will. They’ve tried to order the universe or have even given it over to chaos.

The avid reader of philosophy is often blinded by the complexity, the tossing-about of multisyllabic, esoteric, arcane language, the seeming equally infallible logic of opposing viewpoints, and the ideology. What are the answers?

Let’s make one thing clear: I’m no sage. I am no genius and I do not claim to possess special knowledge. But so much of this is perhaps quite a bit simpler than the last 3,000 years or so of philosophy would have us believe.

We are here to do.

Wow! Do I get my Nobel Prize now?

I could leave it at that, but let’s examine the implications. If this is true, wouldn’t that imply that we are free to do? I think so. Ok, let’s give a round of applause to the existentialists. If we are here doing something, it would stand to reason that we exist, correct? Thank you Descartes, you are dismissed! You were so, so close. Let’s see, I think I am going to take a leap here and say that whatever we do exists in some sort of context. If what you do is drive a car, then you must exist in a society with cars and gas stations and driver’s licenses and roads and you probably have to go somewhere that isn’t within walking distance and presumably has a parking lot. Welcome to the party post-modernists.

Doing is what it is to be human.

But where does doing come from?

Here’s where things get a tricky. THEE calls it “Will.” But Will is a bit mysterious--as most origins are. It might be where consciousness meets biology. It could have something to do with the drive to survive. Really, it’s just a word that THEE uses to describe the source of creative energy and potential in people. Finding its location is not really important because we can all agree that it’s there somewhere. Every time you do something, anything, from the mundane to the triumphant, you’re using that energy, that potential.

Before you get to thinking that there’s some glowing, effervescent light emanating from you, just waiting to guide you to your own personal utopia, remember that Will is at the root of every human endeavor. That means great works of art as well as horrible crimes against humanity, acts of supreme kindness as well as terrible violence.  Will is both creative and destructive.

Let’s say you’re a car (just go with it). Will isn’t in the driver’s seat; it’s more like the motor--providing blind and directionless energy. If everything is working properly, the energy is used for its intended purpose--to move the car. If things aren’t working properly, the destructive consequences could range from being stranded on a deserted freeway to pieces of metal are flying into the air while highly volatile liquid spews flames at innocent passersby. 

I bet you’re wondering what (or who) is in the driver’s seat. Well, it is the elephant in the room. To start you off, check out the 7 realms of endeavor and we’ll talk about it more next week.

But as a sort-of lesson-of-the-week, if you can take anything away from this post, let it be that there is, in all of the complexities of life, something very simple, elegant, and mysterious at the root of what it is to be human, something beautiful that we all have in common. If we can understand it, and its implications, a better person and a better world could be possible.

Posted by Tom Kershaw
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What Do People Want?

What do people want?

As a group, they are not such a demanding lot. They want a sense of security, a distance from the fear that something or someone isn’t going to come along and hurt them or take what’s theirs. They want food and water and shelter and to feel productive. They want to feel that they have a say in what goes on in their and their loved one’s lives. Beyond that, they want to have fun, to hang out with friends, read a book, or enjoy a coffee at their favorite café.

What do people want? Well, if people are largely allowed to go about their business, they will tolerate any number of atrocities from oppressive governments to war to the perpetration of horrific human rights violations--as long as they are directed elsewhere.

Regarding what it is that people want, the teeming masses of the western world were told that their governments would provide these things for them. They would be equipped with a national security infrastructure, an economy that provided for their need to be productive and the means with which to feed, house, and clothe themselves and their families.

These democratic governments did provide these things for many generations, but as this unsustainable system has begun to collapse around us, governments no longer have the means to provide these things.

And where did they get the means to do so in the first place? The people. Governments, by themselves, do not have any money. They have no power. They have only promises and the mechanisms with which to collect and acquire money and power. Their new-found inability to provide their people with their small list of expectations using the people’s own resources is a result of gross misuse of those resources and a political system that has finally succumbed to the consequences of corruption.

As governmental, economic, and social institutions begin to fail, the people who have been administered by these institutions begin to feel that their small list of expectations is not being met. They worry that they will wake up one day and the bold moves of financiers in faraway cities will have devalued their money to the point of worthlessness. They will lose their jobs--no more sense of productivity and no more means to provide what is necessary to survive. They will lose their homes--no more shelter. They will struggle against an entrenched political system that, in truth, does not concern itself with the will of the people, dissolving any sense that they have a say in their own reality.

They will take to the streets, demanding what was promised to them. Governments, fearing that their grip on power may be compromised, will respond violently. But as things get worse, there is nothing that can be done to “handle” millions in the streets.

And here we are.

What’s next? Well, it’s up to the people. It will require a new way of thinking. Rather than demanding what they want from their government which, honestly, is nothing more than a projection of the people anyway, people will have to begin looking inwards and coming to some tough realizations.

First, we knew that our governments have been lying to us--and we let them. We knew that our elected officials were corrupt--and we allowed it. We knew that our political system was circling the drain, that the world was changing and we were not appropriately responding to it. We knew that our economic structures built fortunes for a few on the backs of the many. We knew we were being distracted, deflected, taken for fools. We watched this entire catastrophe unfold before our eyes, we listened as our elders pointed to times in history when similar, if not identical, events took place. And as we went about our business, ever struggling, we thought: “Someone else will handle it, it’s not our fault.” But it is.

We have manufactured every brick for every economic, social, and political structure that has been built around us. We allowed these things to come about and we encouraged their growth every step of the way, either consciously or as a result of inaction. Everything that is, we created.

This understanding must pave the way for a new world. We can no longer consider our position as “us” and “them.” Everything is “us”--our government, our economy, our interaction with others, everything.

We can wake up from this dream and build a new world if we are willing. We can create something that takes into account personal responsibility, accountability, and self-awareness, something that is reactive and flexible to our ever-changing, ever-evolving world.

It is no longer viable to consider the role of nation-states as separate from the rest of the world--as capitalism in competition with communism, as Christianity in competition with Islam, as the West in competition with the East. What’s good for one must be considered what’s good for all--and not in terms of some ideology like socialism or libertarianism or capitalism. These ideologies are espoused, but never fully adhered to and perverted so that their benefits are rarely--if ever--realized.

There will always be struggle and strife, pain and death, loss and sorrow. Governments will always be tempted to take for granted their citizen-derived powers. There will always be greed and heartlessness. But if people begin to take responsibility for themselves, their communities, their governments, and their world, there will always be a light to shine on their efforts.

Posted by Tom Kershaw
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