Apology: Part 3. What it means to be a humanist, a pantheist, a teacher

 

Jack, 

Blue Ridge Mountains

Summer 2025

What does it mean to be a humanist in today's USA? Despite the marches and the protests, despite the murder of an innocent civilian threatening no harm to anyone, despite the aggression, the cruelly, the greed and love of money and power, it means speaking out, standing up for what the ideals of humanism are: love and respect for others, for diversity, for freedom of speech, and the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, not just for the rich and privileged, but for everyone. The attack on those ideals brings fear and despair. So too does the indifference of people, as commonplace in this country as in Germany in the 1930s. 

For 55 years I have been a teacher. For most of my life, since I knew the meaning of the words, I have been a philosopher and a pantheist. As with humanism, both are under attack by those who rule our nation, as the populace grows indifferent and unphased, consumed by material pleasure and selfish interests (often called "the family.")

Have I actually done anything worthwhile in my life to counter the evil in our country today?  I've taught the values, the virtues, of rational thinking, of being a caretaker in society, instead of an abuser of it. I've taught esthetics and ethics. An essential part of ethics is the appreciation of beauty and art, whether literature, poetry, music, or the visual arts. To know what is good is to know what is beautiful, for beauty and joy come from love, come from Ataraxia. Seeing the beauty of nature and the beauty of the spirit of another person, are necessary for a good life. 

I am an old man. I've had so much love, experienced so much beauty, that I could drink Hemlock with a smile on my face. I am half a ghost already since the death of my husband of 35 years. Half of me is with his spirit, outside of time and space. The other half of me keeps the same values, the same love of nature, the same sense of morality, of what is good in the world, what is evil. Today there is no middle ground, no gray area any longer. You are now taking a stand against the festering, rotting evil in the U.S., or an activist, whatever your level, who expresses the need to overcome this evil and restore humanism, love of nature (the need for climate action), and love of others, rather than greed for private wealth and power. You must be for love and praise of diversity and nature's abundance; or you surrender to private gain, letting the abuse of others to continue, beating others in a game of who has the most, and enjoying the cruelty, the physical brutality, even murder of those who are not white nationalist bullies. 

Jack