Dear friends,
It seems to me, the reason we don’t get ahead, is because we hold ourselves back. We do this individually, communally and as a species. One way to hold ourselves back is by relearning lessons we’ve already learned. Getting us stuck in a loop. Often we don’t think we’re capable and so don’t even try. Other times we race blindly into the dark, holding scissors, and are shocked when we’re horribly wounded. The ways we hold ourselves back are myriad and countless. Advancement starts with the individual, continues through society and culminates in the philosophical advancement of us as a species. Why? Because a species cannot be philosophically advanced if it’s populated by barbarians. Which means, as we advance individually, we drive mankind forward.
Individually we hold ourselves back all the time. Psychopaths would confuse this as limiting ourselves by ethics. Because psychopaths and sociopaths have no integrity and assume no one else does either. Those unfortunates are doomed to cycle in the loop of relearning lessons forever. Ethics and morality are the aggregate of centuries of learned wisdom. Others hold themselves back because they have no self confidence. Confidence is a trait that’s grown though, it needs to be nurtured, and not allowed to be smothered by the weeds of self doubt. Fear is another factor that holds us back as people. We fear taking that first step. Fear the outcome should we lose… and fear the outcome should we win. But it’s fear of the unknown that binds us firmly to mediocrity.
Communally we hold ourselves back as well. Our culture is subject to some of the problems individuals are… with an added few that are more problematic. Since communities are run by the elite, they reflect the personalities of the elite. Elites don’t hold themselves back by a lack of self confidence, fear or “ethics.” So communities act without regard to these things. Trapping cultures in the doom loop of relearning lessons already learned. Often at great cost. The lack of integrity of the elite always leads the people to display a shocking lack of morals. The elite’s failure to humility creates corruption which obliterates advancement. Moreover, arrogant community leaders nurture an arrogant community. All of which holds back a community, and its culture, often for centuries.
As a species we’re held back by our elites and the barbarians among us. The elites with their corruption and barbarians by their crimes. Often, the crimes of the barbarians facilitate some Hegelian manipulation of the elites, so it’s enabled. Which, clearly, holds us back as a species. Then there’s war. The elite love their wars. Happily slaughtering whole generations for fun and profit. A great deal of profit. Wars however destroy, they don’t create anything, other than barbarism. So war doesn’t hold us back as much as it forces us to retreat. Losing hard won ground in the ongoing struggle to advance mankind to a better place. For us as a species to advance we need a confluence of events. Individual growth and cultural advancement lead to our growth as a species, in philosophy, science and wealth.
Wise advancement is the goal then. As a species today, our philosophy is far more advanced than that of the Middle Ages. Just as their philosophy was more advanced than that of the Bronze age… and so forth. That advancement in philosophy, individually, communally and species wide, has allowed us to advance to become the science, economic and tech giants we are. From here we could advance or we could retreat. It depends on us. Are we going to retreat as a species? Will we have to relearn the lesson of morality again? Are we going to ruin that which our forefathers built by war? Will we diminish the human genome by slaughtering whole generations and races? Or will we advance as people, a culture and therefore as a species? It starts with us. By not holding ourselves back.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
