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Why should we do what we do?
I've been wondering lately... how should we value certain activities when we choose to do them? I'm not talking about day to day activities, but things like our careers, community involvement, and so on. I'm going to contrast two reasons for doing what we do.
As an example, I really like Philosophy. I love learning, and I value wisdom for its own sake. This is why I've been going to university. I don't enjoy doing it: the essays, the studying, and so on. But there is a goal in it, to learn and achieve.
On the other hand, let's say I stop going to school, and just do whatever I enjoy doing. I would probably get some job I don't mind too much to sustain myself. But I would be spending my free time doing what I enjoy, such as playing video games. However, neither gaming nor my new job (say, toll booth collector) would have a philosophical goal attached to it.
So, in my first example, I'm pursuing an ideal I value, at the sacrifice of my enjoyment (and also to the point of dislike). In my second example, I enjoy most of what I do, and at least don't dislike my career. However, I have no philosophical substance to my life. So, what's more important when we decide what to do... our enjoyment, or a philosophical ideal/goal?
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I think your own enjoyment is one of the most important things in life choices since it will lead you on a path which is most sustainable for you. Of course your comparison is a bit black or white, striving to reach a goal might be really enjoyable even though you don't particularly like the progress towards it.
For me i chose to really reach for the hardest things i could achieve after working in a factory for a year, which i found really mind-numbing work.
"I am vegan because I have compassion for animals; I see them as beings possessed of value not unlike humans. I am an anarchist because I have that same compassion for humans, and because I refuse to settle for compromised perspectives, half-assed strategies and sold-out objectives. As a radical, my approach to animal and human liberation is without compromise: total freedom for all, or else."
"It takes no more time to be a vegetarian than to eat animal flesh.... When non-vegetarians say ‘human problems come first’ I cannot help wondering what exactly it is that they are doing for humans that compels them to continue to support the wasteful ruthless, exploitation of farm animals."
For those of us who live in the USA, the best thing to do is to oppose Trump and Trumpism on a Popular Front basis, uniting all who are willing to oppose Trump.
In my case, I try to find ways of implementing Marx's eleventh thesis: Philosophers have sought to understand the world. The point, however, is to change it.”
It is, of course, a general statement. However, it invites us to reflect on the needs of the day and how to apply revolutionary theories to those needs.
It's a great quote, though, as Heidegger points out (and presumably, Marx was aware when he wrote the quote - something Heidegger does not consider), the practical approach presupposes certain theoretical frameworks, too.
Socialist Party of Outer Space
Since you asked, and, for whatever it's worth, I'll proffer a particular materialist perspective that's grounded in how *surplus value* is directed -- any material surplus (money, these days), beyond a strict, unrealistic 'subsistence living' baseline will either go 'upwards', to 'administration and/or management', or 'downwards', to 'pleasure' (consumption).
Maybe this will be relevant to you in some way....
[12] G.U.T.S.U.C.
G.U.T.S.U.C., Individualism - Tribalism
Have you interrogated your personal enjoyments or aspects of them to see if it wasn't anything more than societal baggage like achieving, success, career, social status etc..Why wouldn't you have philosophical substance to your life?
"Refuse to impose any new organization from above. Any future organization will doubtless work its way through the movement and life of the people; but this is a matter for future generations to decide. Our task is terrible, total, universal, and merciless destruction."
Sure, theory and praxis are inseparable.
Heidegger, like Carl Schmitt, never fully renounced his Nazi sympathies. His existential phenomenology is useful, to a degree, but, IMO, it needs to be approached cautiously.
Embrace the Absurdity of the human condition and enjoy the freedom pursue your own passions and revolt's.
"It is only by the abolition of the state, by the conquest of perfect liberty by the individual, by free agreement, association, and absolute free federation that we can reach Communism - the possession in common of our social inheritance, and the production in common of all riches." ~Peter Kropotkin
"Let us fight to free the world - to do away with national barriers - to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers! in the name of democracy, let us all unite!" ~Charles Chaplin
"Communism is Anarchy. You can't regulate or reform your way to communism; it can only be achieved by direct action against state, class and capital."
Spread atheism, the internet is leading us too a new enlightenment era like the printing press did
I agree Heidegger needs to be approached with caution, and his fascism is well documented, though that does not diminish his genuine insights. He was certainly right on the point I mentioned (though I don't think it works as a critique of Marx, which is how I think he intended it)
Yes. Of course the same is true with Schmitt. At least Heidegger privately called his Nazi involvement "foolishness." Schmitt never even went that far. Still, his work on "sovereignty" is even used by some Marxist (or "Marxian") political theologians.
That's not radical at all, it is the most conformist mindset you can have today - it is literally the ideology itself of late capitalism. Most people think like you do, and that is why we are in this crap sack of a world.
You know you aren't a radical when your motto can be found on any fucking advertising billboard in any city from Washington DC to Beijing and Tokyo.
A discourse can be deployed in the service of a variety of strategies. Advertising campaigns everywhere call for "Revolution!" - shall we abandon revolution? Context matters. No billboard is actually demanding that anyone cease living in bad faith.
The life we have conferred upon these objects confronts us as something hostile and alien.
Formerly Virgin Molotov Cocktail (11/10/2004 - 21/08/2013)
The thing that would be of lasting benefit would be educating the working class about socialism with a view to them supporting it.
