When I was younger I read a lot of philosophy. I don’t think there’s a problem with exploring ideas—I think it’s a good thing to do—but it’s also important to have a baseline you can come back to. For me, it’s the idea that I want to ultimately live a peaceful life appreciating this world. I am against violence. Violence only leads to more violence, and cannot be trusted to achieve anything other than itself. Revenge is pointless, because if everyone took revenge doom would consume the world. It’s stupid. Violence is truly a fool’s approach to life. Humanity survives not because of violence, but in spite of it. We survive because of how many people say “no” to it.
At the end of the day, I think most people just want to live a quiet, simple life. They may not know it, but what people really want is to eat a nice meal with others and enjoy the weather, to live peacefully appreciating this world. Maybe they spend time now and then reading books, playing video games, exploring hobbies, engaging in a moderate spiritual practice, or volunteering in a community. It’s different for everyone.
Lately I believe deep down nobody wants to die. Deep down we all want to live. To truly take this seriously, we must work to reject all premeditated violence, reject all forms of reactionary violence, and ultimately hope that we can survive simply by acting in self-defense whilst also trying to be the best people we can be. We can learn how to talk through problems with others, to be open minded, to seek reality.
I want to live a quiet, peaceful life. It certainly pains me to see people hurting each other in this world, I wish they wouldn’t. I wish everyone would just help each other instead. I wish the world could be a place where people collaborate and work together to build the perfect moneyless social network like in Death Stranding 2 or as seen in some amazing solarpunk world full of geo-power, trees, and gardens.
One of my favorite ideas lately is that we can ultimately use non-lethal weapons to take down groups armed with lethal weapons. In other words, we can still defend ourselves and those we care about, without ever killing anyone. We can use all kinds of advanced techniques to build systems of non-lethal defense, while also realizing that one of the best forms of preemptive defense is generosity and care.
Preventative care is what they call it in medicine. It’s the idea that if you put health and care first in your life you can prevent worse conditions from developing. This is also certainly the case in social situations like society. I think we all are aware there are some very confused people walking around hurting others and acting like fools.
Such confused people are clearly lost, and we may even have to defend ourselves against them. I hope we can still find a way to build a non-violent and certainly a non-lethal future where we can all learn to get along and build a better world. I already said I hate violence and would prefer to simply read Moby-Dick and maybe help out with some sort of community gardening project. I’m willing to also acknowledge a certain degree of darkness and unconsciousness in life and history. Lost souls definitely exist. That is why I am willing to acknowledge the need for non-lethal defensive measures in this world. However, there is still no excuse for lethal weaponry in any case. I really don’t think there is any good reason for such nonsense.
I admit I am also against philosophies which degrade human life. All human lives, and animal lives for that matter, have tremendous value and we should protect them as we can. This is what I believe in. If you’re reading this, I believe you should be able to have a good life. However, I also believe there are certain things which are not up for debate, such as the importance of life, and the importance of reducing violence. No one should ever have to die for any preventable cause. Many causes are preventable, and the more solidarity we show with all life everywhere, the more causes we can prevent until one day we could very well wake up in a world where the fever has broken. I believe a better world is totally possible. We can build a better future, but it requires us to sacrifice some of our negative emotions in favor of holding ourselves back so that way we can support and care for the world. We should also learn never to harm others on purpose. I hope I can support others and always do my best!