Date: August 03, 2017
01) Stephen Hicks: Nietzsche Perfectly Forecasts the Postmodernist Left
“Stephen Hicks is a Canadian-American philosopher who teaches at Rockford University, where he also directs the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship.
In 2004 he wrote a book named “Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault” which was e.g. recommended by Jordan Peterson for understanding postmodernism (cf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPojltjv4M0&t)”
I often find the more conservative, right leaning philosophy interesting, and a worthwhile thing to have in one’s life…Because whether or not I like everything about it, or many of the people promoting it…there is truth to be gleaned from it.
…It’s not “all seeing”, however…a handicap every philosophy has.
What is commonly missing in any political, social and cultural philosophy, is the will of the powerful to self limit…and the wisdom to know why it must be done.
It’s all fine to argue, “the ideal is whatever works for the majority”…But that doesn’t mean that what’s being done [over all, or in individual instances], has a net positive for the majority. Sometimes, that really is smoke and mirrors…Sometimes, it’s more blatant.
Good leaders…good people who hold power…they do not rule with an iron fist…nor with intimidation and threat…They don’t get what they want, by destroying other people…
Good people who hold power, recognize human beings as human beings…and recognize the true needs of those human beings, without demonizing them for having such needs…That is what a true leader does…
One of the things discussed here…the sort of festering bitterness leading to hate…this is the fallout, of failed leadership…It is what happens when social balance and social safety break down into chaos, for some section of the population that has been marginalized out of both protection, and the ability to successfully engage in social politics.
For these groups, who absolutely do exist…the political system, itself, has turned on them…leaving them not only hounded, scorned and persecuted, but socially adrift…The system has been allowed to make itself, as nothing but an enemy to these groups…Yet, these groups are still expected to…well…
…I was going to say “function and thrive, under these systems”…But truth is, the systems usually work to destroy the ability of these groups [and the individuals within them] to function, let alone thrive…Reality is…the system works to drive these people into the ground, while expecting them to remain obedient working drones, who keep the system afloat.
The ugly reality is…Most social systems are allowed to exist and function, in a predatory state…The predation happens against those who are most easily demonized, with the least ability of successfully fighting back.
For the groups targeted…they usually reach a point of being toppled, dominated and psychologically defeated…Most lose their will, to change the social narrative…or even to stand up, and fight back for their own group.
What most people seem to be blind towards…is that this situation is created, by a social system that refuses to confront accurate truth…most especially unpopular truth…
…So…How far, is too far?…
…How far do we just let things keep going like this, as the system creates these pockets of angry groups?
…Many of these groups are fully justified, in their boiling anger over what is happening to them, at the hands of “the rest of society”…
It’s the fact that so many people lack human empathy, and the foresight to recognize practices that lead to the breakdown of social cohesion [and social order], which is allowing this state of things to continue…
We could address this, if we had real social leaders…people who are fit to hold social power.
…But the system being what it is…sick and dysfunctional…it produces sick and dysfunctional “leadership”…while ostracizing the quality people, society honestly needs.
This is why so many of us refuse to accept the status quo, anymore…
…There is no other way for groups being predated against, to dig themselves out of their current situation…than to come straight out and challenge [even attack] the system, itself.
The mountain goat cannot reason with the cougar, not to kill and eat it…
…The cougar must be replaced by something more benign, if the mountain goat is to survive.
…”Mountain goats” of all kind get angry, as they chronically watch their community get picked off by “the cougar”, one by one…
The reason I am increasingly more open to an anarchist society…is because I don’t see how we can make hostile people, get along with others…I don’t see how we can have an overarching government, which allows hostile people to set the standards and rules…That is a formula for nothing but conflict, and perpetual war.
If we have a world where communities set their own standards, and they are not interfered with by outsiders…everyone will have somewhere they can go too, where they can live according to their own beliefs, ethics and needs…And if where you are does not fit you…then plot a course for somewhere else, that does…
…But there must be a place of freedom and sanctuary, for every peaceful individual.
