I had the pleasure of rediscovering one of the "Enlightenment's" early philosophers, Baruch Spinoza this weekend.
After reviewing the first part of the video of the Community Summit as I was editing it. I was unhappy with my performance. Being someone who understands and has spent much time understanding what high quality public speaking is… I had fallen far short! I was the President of an exceptional Toastmasters group for God’s sake! So early Sunday morning, in an effort to inspire improvement, I listened to some very well done BBC presentations that just happened to be on Spinoza. “Is Spinoza a philosopher for our time?” was the subject.
This led to a discussion later that day on the value of Spinoza with my good friend Bob Podolsky. Who has a particularly good grasp of him. His mentor John David Garcia based much of his work on his. We discussed Spinoza’s desire to raise logic, reason and truth to a God-like status. The misinterpretations and mischaracterizations of his thoughts and his ties to today’s thinking. The understanding of the value or lack of understanding common today on Ethics.
Listening to more of Spinoza’s work and thoughts today and reading some of his most famous quotes, I found some sincere peace of mind in his thinking.
“A free man, who lives among ignorant people, tries as much as he can to refuse their benefits. .. He who lives under the guidance of reason endeavors as much as possible to repay his fellow's hatred, rage, contempt, etc. with love and nobleness.”
“He who wishes to avenge injuries by reciprocal hatred will live in misery. But he who endeavors to drive away hatred by means of love, fights with pleasure and confidence; he resists equally one or many men, and scarcely needs at all the help of fortune. Those whom he conquers yield joyfully.”
“Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.”
This also relates to another book I’ve been introduced to recently… “Punished by Rewards” which makes the very logical argument that both rewards as well as punishment are ineffective and detrimental to reforming people or instructing them on the value of better behavior. Something we may have gotten more inside information on had Robert F. Stroud’s (The Birdman) original manuscript “Looking Outward” ever been available for people to learn from.
In reviewing all of this I am of a mind and becoming more confident each day as I learn and converse with more open-minded individuals, that we have much to gain from more creative and loving approaches to almost every problem humanity faces. We do have the capability to understand, we can solve problems, we can derive processes and methods that can be constantly improved. Harm and potential harm can be identified and resolutions can be incorporated into a better process. There are ways to organize and work together that are not coercive and are efficient and productive. And all of this can be done without force once we recognize true value from the artificial value we have been taught to believe in, in a world of fiat.
The world we have been presented with, the one that is called "Society" is one of lower consciousness. One in which fear, apathy, hatred and conflict are repeated and focused on incessantly. Everything real is being replaced with an artificial substitute. Much is irrational and illogical. Emotions run rampant. Problems are grown to be taken advantage of. Trust is low... Energy is low... Creativity is faked as well. But as bad as all that is... to me it makes it very clear... there is much room for improvement. Immense opportunity for the thoughtful, the observant, the fearless, the creative, to name just a few!
I have high hopes for the future! Opportunity is all around us! We just have to learn how to open our eyes to it! Much like slaves being released into freedom... we have no references to form our expectations! We have learning to do in every direction! We need to help each other, we need each other's help understanding all that needs to be understood! It is indeed an exciting time to be alive!
("Up from Slavery" by Booker T. Washington may be a great reference)
I intend to revisit Spinoza more often. I think there is much to learn from his reasoning and thoughtful explanations. I hope to share them as well!
I strive to be a Peacemaker, an Entrepreneur and a Ambassador for Great Ideas (ie a Problem solver). I also wish to be a Poet, a Mentor and an Ethicist one day. At times I struggle to communicate the passions I have but I endeavor to do so meaningfully from my heart to others. All as I enjoy my life as a never-ending vacation in a place I adore. I care about what I do, I care about the people I do it with and I leave the rest to fall into place. ~ MikeonFire
