A very Kolbrin-esque post I made on some blog's comment box. Some of you will recognize some cliches here. Feel free to add your own input if you so wish ;)“The question is, what originated our current situation? it wasn’t merely that some bad people imposed a wicked system that turned the rest into bad people as well. That’s an overly simplistic explanation. Humans had flaws from the very beginning. People are greedy and competitive by nature, and sometimes they turn ruthless and brutal when they lust over something. So in time humans developed systems to attempt to control these undesirable tendencies, but due to their own flawed mentalities they devised flawed solutions.
Sometimes idealists make the point that the world is a marvelous place full of free resources and if we only shared them we’d all be happy and prosperous. But you have to remember that seeds don’t plant themselves into the ground, and water channels don’t dig themselves up, and the produce doesn’t pick, package and distribute itself up all by its own volition. Everything that sustains human life involves human effort. It is this factor that has defined our societies as the general tendency is to want the most out of life doing the least effort possible to obtain it. Even in the midst of abundance an idle man is still a dead man.
Life wasn’t easy back when we lived in tribal settings either, those who infringed the tribal laws were banished and sometimes executed. Tribesmen had to contribute or else they’d be ostracized. Nothing has ever been free in this world and nothing truly desirable is ever easily attained nor easily preserved. No human society has ever appreciated leeches, and those who wish to take advantage of the toil of others will always meet animosity.
Even the best natured individuals can find themselves acting in the most vicious of ways when situations push them to their limits and/or when they lose their self control. Look around you, do you think we as a species are ready to uphold an utopian system?
So when you think about these issues don’t just choose the easy road of believing merely that “The System†is evil and we’d all be so much better without it. The system is flawed, granted, but humanity is in a progressive path towards a goal. Just because the goal hasn’t been reached yet doesn’t mean all the work done up until now has to be discarded. We need to progress gradually and have each generation improve upon what the previous one achieved. This is the true path of social evolution.
Maybe the apex of human social evolution will be a harmonious global communitarian anarchist system, but that could only work if humans arrived there in full consciousness and trough a gradual development, not because of a childish rebellious impulse of wanting it. Nothing comes merely out of desire, but effort and perseverance have to be added to the equation to reach the desired result.”
I truly loved what you had to say there, Manuel!
You have a lot of wisdom to share, and I for one hope you continue doing it more with the group here rather than just through outside channels. Everything you stated comes from thinking in a way, and attempting to live a life as how it is laid out in the Kolbrin. What you’ve just posted is a living, breathing example of how that philosophy can be extended and expanded. I hope you continue doing the same and others join you…there is a lot of great gems Kolbrin group members have been holding back. But Manuel, bravo, sir!
My own two cents: if men were angels, no governmental “systems†would be required at all. And even if there were these systems, any one of them, even the worst, would run perfectly. Yet, flawed man, even with the best of “systemsâ€, will attempt to corrupt or exploit it…
So what’s the most profound answer…improve man (yourself) first, the systems will naturally follow…
(And none of the above should imply that we should not help to improve these systems as we improve ourselves. They go hand in hand.)
Well sometimes it's good to share some of this also on those places where stagnant idealism is present to shake things up a bit
first we must work on ourselves, then our family, then our community, then the rest of the world at large... but first we must work on ourselves.