Desires and Beliefs on the Path to the Truth!

Desires are like beacons on our path in life marking the direction towards our purpose. As any force of nature, they can be perilous and destructive or propel us towards our purpose in life if managed by a skillful captain. We are free to choose to guide the ship of our life towards exotic places or left without direction towards the only place our life will naturally go: the bottom, no matter how much we wallow in self-pity.

To find out where we are and where we want to go we try to base our decisions on fact and proven theory. But life is much more complicated and on top of that personal so its often hard to find useful advice and guidance. What are we and where do we want to go? Everyone certainly has some idea about that. So do your friends and wider circle of relatives, workmates etc. Their view may be close to yours or widely different. And somewhere there is the real you independent of opinion but certainly moving or being moved in one or other direction for good or bad.
Among all that we have our beliefs: the things we hold to be true without decisive proof because we didn’t have the time or the opportunity to check their validity. We still act upon them because we need to act and make choice big and small in every moment of our lives. So these beliefs influence reality and so in fact create into reality. Again, we may be successful but that would be entirely due to chance. Only by sharing our beliefs, assumptions, hypothesis with other reasonable people and accepting any constructive criticism can we see clearer in the fog of complexity created by contemporary society. Our desires, passions, values, goals being the compass the best map will be the one created by thinking and experience, and open to corrections by fellow travelers.
And not only for advice, often if not always we need outright help from others to achieve our goals.

But how do we enlist that help?

There are two obvious ways: 

Cooperation or Coercion. Coercion might come first to mind and seems like a quick and easy way to achieve your goals but it’s self-defeating in the end. Cooperation builds on common reasoning and pooling of resource to reach goals both personal and common trough understanding, compassion and common sense.

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Does “society” even exist?

 

Mish Mash for busy minds

There is no such thing as "society” just an useful invention of sociopaths to exploit the gullible.

Society as something opposed to the individual is a travesty. The only useful use of the term is if it serves me.

There is no such thing as “society” apart from the personal interests if its members and only in the sense those members understand them – not as some other people or group will try to impose on them.

Any claims of primacy of the common good over personal interests betray either personal confusion and a repulsive “holler than you” self-righteous ignorant attitude or exploitative hypocrisy  in a brazen attempt to shame you into submission.

As with the wise Emperor of China who was the wisest person in the land because he was able to learn something even from the dumbest person so everyone of me and you is an emperor of our individual destiny. Free to set up our own goals and devise the means to achieve those goals. Free to succeed and free to fail including free to learn from that or ignore the lesson.

Mish Mash for busy minds

Life, Freedom and Wealth are Private

Life, freedom and wealth are individual. They constitute the good life. To pursue these goals people cooperate in the fields of business, politics and ideas.

Business is best governed by the market but that being based on human judgement is not perfect. Its utility is in the fact that he market aggregates value judgements from a large number of people thus reducing but not eliminating the possibility of error. The danger of error exists because market choices might be made on the basis of insufficient or erroneous information. Therefore the market needs regulation by the government. The advantage is that political value judgement is formed in a manner different from that of the market thus minimising the danger of aggravating the same error. The way politics define value does not have the numerical measure that the market has and its less straightforward and well defined. That is why politics need a political theory which is based on philosophy and especially ethics and resulting theory of law and economics where it negotiates the legitimacy of its interaction with business.

Freedom is what makes us human. Bees and ants have better organised and consequently more effective and efficient societies but lack freedom and the concept of the primacy of individual interest. In contrast monkeys are on a constant vacation with few if any constraints (especially for the stronger individuals) and where food and shelter are basically free. Yet if compared to humanity their abilities to enjoy life are limited.

People unite to pursue their goals. This political activity has the potential for undesirable side effects. The first are grouped around the necessity to establish rules. That can be mitigated by negotiating the rules. The others are grouped around the potential of united people to exploit and oppress other people leading naturally to the danger of humanity obliterating itself. This threat is overcome by the elaborate security arrangements that define human history.

Faith and art define humanity and might have played a decisive role in its survival. Art and faith have an legitimate but uneasy relationship to philosophy through aesthetics and theology and to politics and business through their influence on public opinion and distribution channels and religion. Nevertheless governing faith and art using political or business tools have proved to be disastrous.

The modern democratic state based on a prosperous middle class thriving in a well regulated by an unobtrusive government market economy is the pinnacle of contemporary governance achieved through centuries of experimentation with theocracies, hereditary monarchies, primitive democracies like the ancient Greek and Roman and merchant republics like Venice and Florence. Apart from it there are states that are state only in form but not in substance which I will label collectively kleptocracies. These are states where the governing elites are concerned with providing exclusive privileges for themselves at the expense of the people they are supposed to serve.

Who Needs the Pen to Be Mightier than the Sword

Its in the common interest to create a society where "the pen is mightier that the sword" if only because the pen is less dangerous that the sword and mistakes with a pen are easier to fix than those committed with a sword. The first attempt at political organization probably stemmed from two lines of historical experience that have proven beneficial if not crucial for the survival of humanity: family and tribal loyalty on one hand, and the importance of preserving preferred hereditary traits leading to more productive crops and domesticated animals. The logic consequences of these line of thinking was the absolutist hereditary monarchy which failed in the long term after numerous obstinate attempts to make it work. The first attempts at democracy the most well-known in Ancient Greece were not very impressive too: they managed to kill Socrates and loose their freedom to a dictator - Alexander and later to Imperial Rome.

Only the unique combination of Enlightenment in Western Europe (brought in part by Arabic and Muslim cultural influences both original and through their acting as an intermediary for the penetration in Europe of Ancient Indian and Chinese culture and their role for the preservation of Ancient Greek and Roman sources), combined with the advances in trade and industry brought to the initially fledgeling democracies of Switzerland and the North of Europe to culminate with the creation of the U.S.A.

The problems is that even after the end of the cold war and a seeming worldwide consensus on the fact that their is no alternative to liberal democracy and market economy as the only political and economic guarantees for aligning the interests of the individuals to create viable political and economic entities, too many of the countries whose governments proclaim adherence to the above principles (often under some international pressure) in reality develop corrupt states, harboring organized crime and terrorists and stiffing economic development while covertly or overtly abusing the human rights of their hapless citizens.

It cannot be that the citizens of these failed or failing states want this. It is against their interests. I cannot be that the people of the developed countries want them to suffer too if not so much for reasons of sympathy and compassion but more realistically because of the danger that oppression and crime in one country can easily spill over the world through mafia activities, terrorism and the actions of the corrupt state causing suffering and death regardless of borders, cultural preferences and political allegiance.

From a political point of view the easiest way to deal with one's interests may be to take care of everything on your own. Retire in the mountains, fish and hunt for dinner and forget about the rest of the world. That may be a boring but feasible and with some luck sustainable existence. The security, freedom and opportunities of civilization come with complications and danger of becoming a slave of nonessential desires and activities. But it's the only prudent way.

Proper institutions may help but ultimately its everyone's responsibility to take pursue personal goals. The care of others though gives the power and ability to pursue these goals more efficiently and effectively while mainlining a level of security and freedom impossible individually. Freedom as understood by Roosevelt in his four freedoms: "freedom from want, freedom from fear, freedom of faith and freedom of expression".

All Hands on Deck!

We discussed global economics in a group at my local church
We discussed the need to incorporate ethical judment in the study of politics. I know its dangerous to mix science and ideology or even worse try to pass ideology for science. I come from a communist country and know first hand how bad is that. Still politics, philosophy and economics have profound effects on people's lives and we cannot pretend to study them without any bias. If we judge by effectiveness in achieving goals and popular support certainly Hitler would come up high in our evaluations scale at least in the first years of his leadership but was he good? We all know the answer and don't need political science to tell us what it is.
My son remarked that society hasn't really changed much from ancient times, but I said that is probably because we only choose to remember particular events from the ancient society, In reality I believe it was much more primitive and horrible but we remember the good things that only came to matter in our age because people made them happen.
Now we have a crooked world. A world in crisis. A world that have exhausted most of the intellectual and philosophical capital of the past. Western Enlightened that came about when Christian West European medieval thinkers rediscovered ancient Greek philosophy preserved by Muslim scholars who had managed to combine Judaism and Christianity (born on the border of Greek and Roman fascination with Judaism) into Islam a spiritual-political system that went on to create one of the most far reaching and culturally diverse empires only to collapse under the weight of corruption and resistance to change to it's present pitiful condition. The Catholic empire went the same way so did Communist Russia. In the East Buddhism found acceptance in Taoist, Confucianist China and Shinto Japan that wen on to adopt Western ways after being humiliated by the Commodore Perry. China went on to adopt Russian Leninism and make it even more horrible. Then Deng figured out the it doesn't matter if the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice and here we have contemporary Communist China as the main creditor of capitalist USA.
And that's it. Since Kant, Marx and Keynes nothing radical new under the sun of human thought. After “We the people hold these truths to be self evident … “ we have only the pale echo of the UN Charter and Declaration of human rights and that's it. Where on from now? The great philosophers a thing of the past, the great spiritual prophets too. Yet humanity faces problems immensely more complicated than thousands of years ago.
I believe the answer is in respect for every human being. Only collective wisdom can help us overcome. It is there we have to reach for it. And make sure the voices of millions disenfranchised are heard too because they may come up with important part of the solution.

Personal Interests, Politics and Philosophy

Personal interests are our only legitimate claim we have to resources including the time and effort of others. I believe we can only inquire about other’s interests to be able to find ways to align ours to theirs and help each other achieve our goals through cooperation. Free association through discussion and good all fashioned haggling about who gets what should complete the process to everyone’s satisfaction.
Unfortunately human history is littered with wars and injustice and despite the major advances in science and technology that ensure that al humanity’s needs can be met at an acceptable level to situation in politics prevents that from happening. On the contrary we the people continue to waste resources for expensive and destructive armaments, disregard the environment which affects us and our offspring and worst of all: do nothing to relief the suffering of fellow human beings who are in dire conditions through no fault of their own or even worse killing, oppressing or denying opportunities for development.
That is even more perplexing because if you check the statements of our politicians and the declarations of the only global political body we have, regardless of its deficiencies the UN we all want peace, prosperity, care for the environment and sustainable development.
There is an explanation for that discrepancy between intention and reality and I will not accuse politicians of hypocrisy but the sheer complexity of balancing all interests, the complexity of ensuring proper governance of resources and the ingrained ancient and ineffective in the modern age concerns about security prevent the right things from being done.
Corrupt politicians and business leaders will exist always. Good, bad and completely rotten people will exist always. That’s human nature and I have no explanation for that. But the least we can do is eliminate groundless fear that stems from ignorance or reluctance to abolish defunct systems, knowledge and beliefs that worked before but are no longer relevant. It’s easy to find excuses for inaction but I believe that if we realize that it’s our own lives, our own welfare that we are playing with we’ll be more keen to take matters in our own hands and think more, listen more, learn more and act more sensibly in our own interests which ultimately is in everyone else’s interest.

Does a bag of potatoes need philosophy?

Who needs philosophy? Does a bag of potatoes need philosophy? My sons while learning how to drive noticed that it's much easier to drive if you know where you are going. Niki Lauda said that a sack of potatoes can drive very fast if you prop the accelerator with it but you’ll see the difference between a good driver and a sack of potatoes on first bend on the road.
Philosophy won’t help us find where we want to go and what we want to achieve but I believe that it can help us learn how to drive to get there.
Philosophy is not an art, religion, science, but it is the tool that we use when all these other tools don’t work. It’s not about what you want to eat or how to buy the ingredients but about how to cook and often that makes all the difference.
A bag of potatoes certainly doesn’t need philosophy, but an aspiring chef certainly does.

Personal Political Philosophy

Political Philosophy can only be personal. To paraphrase the crook quotation Ask not what you can do for your country but ask what your country can do for you, because if your county doesn't do anything for you yet you are forced to do more and more for your country without getting anything in return then your country is probably called the Peopl'es Democratic Republic of North Korea or any other People's Democratic Republic which usually has nothing to do with the peoples or the demos or the public except trying to extract as much as possible and stash it away into foreign bank accounts away from harm. Also if you hear a politician asking you to sacrifice for society or the future they most probably equate society with themselves and have in mind the security of their future not yours. But if you live in a country which states that we the people ... and the people means you and me so let's paraphrase it more properly to: I have certain inalienable rights like life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and if the government is not up to its task of protecting and supporting my rights I have the right to denounce it. That's the basis of politics. It's not about power Its about finding a way to help each other protect and enhance our rights mostly by cooperation against those who think that politics is about power and exploitation. And if they succeed it's not their fault that they get their way its my fault that I let them encroach on my life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
If knowledge is our most powerful and only tool to achieve happiness in fact knowledge and thinking as the only thing that distinguishes us from animals. (I know there are people who consider animals better than people and very often I can see why but still these people cling to our society instead of practicing what they preach and fade into the jungle to lead a life of Tarzan or Mowgli :-) So if knowledge is our most powerful weapon in the fight for freedom and good life and society is the most important amplifier of both our knowledge and efforts then politics should be the most important knowledge that we can ever have. Consequently as I proved that I am the most important subject and object of politics and politics is all about me then studying myself must be the starting point for studying politics.
Since philosophy is about creating good life then political philosophy should start and end with me: my needs, my desires, my aspirations and my plans to get there.
Ethics
Getting there must be moral. Because morality ensures the cooperation of society and society or simply said other people can be our greatest help or obstacle in achieving our goals following our dreams. That's why politics is important. You can always steal and get away with it but probably not for long and that's why it's not wise.
To finish.
You can't sign away your rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They are not yours because they the were in that well know declaration. It stated a fact, not a claim. You have them no matter what but to make them real you must fight for them, defend them enhance them. Without that they are like an empty bowl you have to work to put the soup in.

Knowledge and Happiness
(Politics and Philsophy)
My starting point is the belief that knowledge is the basis of our well-being by helping us succeed in our pursuit of happiness and in our efforts to solve our problems. I believe in the ultimate sovereignty of everyone which cannot be ceded, transferred or divided. From it stems all political legitimacy on local, national. regional and world level.
That lead to the fact that respect for human rights is not an option but a must for every legitimate contemporary political entity. That democracy can only work where it is coupled with accountability and the above mentioned respect for rights including the rights of any minority. Dictatorship of the majority is no more acceptable that the dictatorship of an individual or an oligarchy.
Accountability means not only compliance with national and international standards of behavior but also all possible care to avoid harm to people, and support for criminal and terrorist setups or worse: corrupt, failed or oppressive regimes.

Please, feel welcome to share your thoughts, opinions and suggestions.

Cheers,
Alex