Part 3 - The Philosophy of Existentialism: I - Existentialism Today

The Dialectics of Liberation: Anarchism, Existentialism, and Decentralism.

Part 3 - The Philosophy of Existentialism:
I - Existentialism Today

"Existentialism is action, not beliefs" - charlie777pt

0 - Prologue

I'm interrupting the broadcast of my line of thoughts from the ordained mini-essay about the introduction to existentialism that was supposed to have one post, but the political events around me, have distracted me from my rational goal, to include the relation and the remaining spirit of existentialism in the political arena of the new century.

In the next three posts, in the introductions, I'll keep telling the story and concepts of existentialism, but I'll be more focused on the relation of the emergence of existentialism in its initial manifestations, and to show that the movement is still alive, in all the informal groups without leadership, that had the courage to challenge the increasing repression and threats of the right wing neocon governments where politicians, multinationals, and bankers are a brotherhood to extort our money, rights, and free will.

I've been closely following the Yellow Jackets, that like May 68, are the first signs of a movement that is hated by the police, the media, governments, and the actual political parties involved in the manipulated electoral bureaucratic systems, that steal our rights to fight and give the illusion of a participatory democracy.

"Without action, there is no change" - charlie777pt

1 - Introduction

Philosophy is addressed to people who want to question and know more, and to find tools that stimulate the curiosity of inner exploration to modify the world and themselves.

"It is necessary to emphasize, contrary to what is customary, that the formula of being free does not mean to obtain what one wanted but to determine oneself to want (in the broad sense of choosing for oneself)." - Jean-Paul Sartre in Being and Nothingness

The Renaissance thinking brings to the stage the creative and transformative man as the vortex of the Universe, based on Plato's three dialogues (Banquet, Phaedo, Phaedrus), the birth of the craftsmen and Florentine thought that stimulates political activity and freedom of the boroughs, and being against the papal power and the Roman-German empire.
The Modern Philosophy of classical rationalism, with Enlightenment, scientism, and the affirmation of the arts were a sign of social progress, are also very important in the conceptualization of existentialism and humanism in Contemporary Philosophy.

Essentialism believe in an intrinsic meaning and purpose for life, and emphasize the involvement of the individual intuition in the construction of existence in reality, while existentialism deals with feeling and denies the sense of life, both opposing rationalism focused on logical and cognitive thinking, and empiricism dealing with knowledge as experience built on human sensation.

2 - Is Existentialism in rebirth again today?

The philosophy of existentialism is an immortal work of the human spirit of liberty and is more needed now more than ever because the Human experience is based on freedom.
Existentialism still matters today, as a philosophy to find the real meaning of life, using inner transformation as a political commitment against the actual overwhelming reality of power.
Difficult economic times create crises of social values and increase the possibility of greater self-consciousness among the masses and the possibility of changing their culture.

On the other side, the cyclical crises of capitalism have always generated voids of cultural values, which are usually reflected more intensely in the lower classes, but they lead to the explosion of new visions and the resuscitation of old theories such as existentialism, anarchism, decentralism, individual autonomy, and self-liberation.
These ideas, which are dormant whenever the centralized power consolidates, but during crises, they emerge again to remind humanity of the infinite possibilities of a world based on the struggle for the autonomy of individual freedom as the best way to create the true collective human value on a Planet preserved for all.

Today's mainstream printed and social media information is intellectual spam to prevent education, the self-awareness about the hidden forces of power, and is there to justify the point of view of the rulers to impose inequality of rights and wealth in the name of the business.
Our data is now entangled with our real and our virtual selves and actions, where the Big Tech companies and government surveillance agencies, are in the same plot to manipulate and control our behavior and values using our personal data, to make business.

The question is not "if" the centralized system is busted, but "when" it is gonna happen, and I hope a world war conflict doesn't deflagrate as it happened every century of our world history.

3 - Is May 68 back with the Yellow Jackets?

Existentialism can't be separated from the May 68 movement and general strike in France, when it becomes a living philosophy in the streets empowering every citizen with ways to fight the concentration of wealth by a dominant class, that cannibalized the money of the middle class and from the poor.
Existentialism seems today forgotten or is referred to as the past, but it has never been so actual as a do it yourself swiss knife for the resistance to be controlled, defined or intimidated, because what really matters is the individualism and the personal freedom to construct ourselves and participate in the building for a more equilibrated society in the distribution of wealth.

"Occupy Wall Street" and "Black Lives Matter", are like existentialist movements that have today a version in the Yellow Jackets.
The economic crash of 2008 was a way to reinforce the already rich class that triggered it, by placing bankers and businessman in power that subsidize big corporations and the election of populist politicians.
The "Yellow Vests", like in all the movements without orientation and centralized decision-making, there is always the certainty of police, intelligence and provocateurs to disrupt violence, that can justify the violent intervention and the threats of sanctions to the movement.
Populism legitimates itself with the argument that they incarnate the will of the people, it is against liberalism and human and cultural diversity, and it seems that nowadays it is the best strategy to assault power and establish authoritarianism and dominance to empower anti-democratic forms of government and the parties Kafkian machines, close to the participation of society.

Sartre is one of the philosophers that saw his existentialism used as a social tool, being exercised in the streets of the Revolution of Paris in May 68, like a kind of a philosophic social tool to change our existence.
Some people say that we are near one of the worst world depressions, but they will try to create false booms with printed money as a debt of the citizens until it worths zero and creates a total calamity for mankind.

Like history has always demonstrated, monetary policies have always been an option of a class with the power to buy it, while its outcome should serve the people.
The "Yellow Vests" leaderless grass-roots movement that is being accused of populism, because it has no organization and has not clearly set concrete objectives, and it seems to have spontaneously spread using social media, that started with the main objective of stopping the green taxes on fuel, and this was the drop of water that made the full bottle spill.
I hope the accumulated rage of the inner personal feelings of social and economic injustice, is transformed in the ambiance to find common grounds and clear objectives to challenge and change the actual political landscape of imposed obedience.

People in France and Europe are fed up with politics, and they don't trust the kleptocrats and the deceptive media anymore, and they are against the European parliamentary Empire of the Bureaucrats of Bruxels, that the Brexit results have shown at the subconscious level.
The Achilles' heel of Institutional power was broken and the king is naked and is being attacked because people do not stand anymore the lies of the politicians narrative, and governors are just governing themselves.

The "Yellow Vests" movement emerged, surely like a consequence of the new populist politicians in power, with empty promises of change, using our emotions like flags of fear and hate to divide us, but people are tired of this facade of the theater of distraction to hide the void of solutions to solve the problem of a system that is self-destructive, with the blindfold of money as a mean an end for happiness.
The source of the movement is discontent, just revealing the general dissatisfaction of people with the "politricks" of the actual savage capitalism turned into a "capitolism" of rich lobbying to suck more, and to generate a total "capitulism" for the poor.

The most important problem is to define ways out of the current decayed political system, where we are not heard anymore.
The "Yellow Vests" are called troublemakers and rioters and now they are really afraid of the people wearing masks to protect them from retaliation and using extreme violence as the only language the system can speak now.
The movement is growing in France, expanding to Europe and to the rest of the world, and it seems to have a new proposition to restore and reinvent the "popular referendum" political systems as a way to dilute the actual feudalistic configuration of power.

We have to get rid of the party political systems that undermined and perverted democracy to a lobbied government, compromised with the big capital and multinationals as a supranational power controlling internal policies to obliterate social and economic justice.
A big coincidence is that one of the most violent confrontations happened when people from the movement tried to put on fire the hotel where the mainstream reporters are hidden, in the top of the building, to avoid the real contact with the manifests, and meaning that the media as already in the other side of the fence.
Alternative media reporters are on the street with the people suffering the extreme violence of the police, where we can see the excellent work on the field of our friend @lukewearechange from Steemit (see the last news here)

In Portugal, the "Yellow Vests"(Coletes Amarelos), want to follow the French movement as a "peaceful non-profitable, nonpartisan movement, of unity and support to all groups and individuals", and besides being small and with some convulsions in the decision-making process and leadership, the authorities have created reinforced security and already detained three people and identified a lot of the manifests and their activity is being monitored.

Please, I ask the Portuguese and Brazilian communities of Steemit to comment on this post all the news about the movement in Brazil (if it is not time to start) and in Portugal.

I hope there are still human readers at Steemit, who are a bulwark for the demise of the media as agents of capital, which obscure reality and serve to maintain the pseudo-democratic facade of prevailing political-party systems, and because bots do not know read and do not add value in the diffusion of the ideals of freedom.

4 - The Yellow Vests Manifesto in France

The most important of this decentralized movement, which seems to have come to stay, was the definition of objectives, as there is already a manifesto for the "Yellow Vests" with authors and unknown origin

Referências:

Official charter of the 25 claims of Yellow Vests
(Charte officielle des 25 revendications des Gilets Jaunes)
Image Source: here

This Yellow Vests manifesto is the initial draft for a new political view of the People's Referendum System.

This manifesto below seems to have some similarities to that of the previous figure.

Because it has not yet found the manifesto of the Yellow Vests translated into English, here it is in the Steemit registered for the posteriority.

The Yellow Jacket Reindeer (Gilets-Jaunes)

MPs from France, we inform you of the People's Directives for that you transpose them into LAW.
- Zero SDF: URGENT.
- More progressive income tax (no more slices).
- SMIC (minimum wage) at 1300 euros net.
- Promote small starts in villages and town centers. (Stop the building large commercial areas around the big cities that kill the small business.). + free parking in city centers.
- Large insulation plan of the housing. (to make ecology by making household economy).
- WHOLESALE (Macdo, Google, Amazon, Carrefour ...) pay BIG and that the small (artisans, small businesses) pay small.
- The same social security system for all (including artisans and auto-entrepreneurs). End of the RSI.
- The pension system must remain in solidarity and therefore socialized. (No retirement at a point).
- End of the tax hike on fuel.
- No pension below 1200 euros.
- Any elected representative will be entitled to the median salary. His transport costs will be monitored and reimbursed if they are justified. Right to the restaurant ticket and the check.
- The salaries of all French people, as well as pensions and allowances, must be indexed to inflation.
- Protect French industry: prohibit relocation. Protect industry is protecting our know-how and our jobs.
- End of detached work. It is abnormal that a person who works in the territory
French does not enjoy the same salary and the same rights. Anyone is authorized to work on French territory must be on a par with a citizen French and his employer must contribute at the same level as a French employer.
- For job security: further, limit the number of fixed-term contracts for big companies. We want more CDI. - End of the CICE. Using this money to launch an Industry French hydrogen car (which is truly ecological, unlike the electric car.)
- End of the austerity policy. We stop paying off interest on the debt are declared illegitimate and we start repaying the debt without taking the money the poor and the less poor but by fetching the 80 billion fraud tax.
- That the causes of forced migration are treated.
- That asylum seeker is well treated. We owe them housing, security, food, and education for minors. Work with the UN for host camps to be opened in many countries around the world, in waiting for the result of the asylum application.
- That the unsuccessful asylum seekers be returned to their country of origin.
- That a real integration policy is implemented. Living in France involves to become French (French language course, History of France course and course civic education with certification at the end of the course).
- Maximum salary fixed at 15,000 euros.
- That jobs are created for the unemployed.
- An increase of disabled allowances.
- Limitation of rents. + moderate rent housing (especially for students and precarious workers).
- Prohibition to sell property belonging to France (airport dam ...)
- Substantial means granted to the courts, the police, the gendarmerie, and the army. Whether law enforcement overtime is paid or recovered.
- All the money earned by motorway tolls should be used to the maintenance of motorways and roads in France and road safety.
- Since the price of gas and electricity has increased since privatization, we want them to become public again and that prices fall consistently.
- Immediate closure of small lines, post offices, schools, and maternities. - Let's bring well-being to our elderly people. Prohibition of making money on the elderly. The gray gold is finished. The era of gray well-being begins.
- Maximum 25 students per class from kindergarten to Terminal.
- Substantial resources brought to psychiatry.
- The People's Referendum must enter the Constitution. Creating a site and effective, supervised by an independent control body where people can make a bill.
If this bill gets 700,000signatures then this bill of law will have to be discussed, completed, amended by the National Assembly which will have the obligation, (one year to the day after obtaining the 700 000 signatures) to submit it to the vote of all the French .
- Back to a 7-year term for the President of the Republic. (The election of deputies two years after the election of the President of the Republic allowed sending a positive or negative signal to the President of the Republic concerning his policy. It helped to make the voice of the people heard.)
- Retirement at age 60 and for all those who have worked in a trade using the body (mason or boning for example) right to retirement at 55 years.
- A 6-year-old child does not keep himself alone, a continuation of the PAJEMPLOI help system until the child is 10 years old.
- Promote the transport of goods by rail.
- No withholding tax.
- End of presidential allowances for life.
- Prohibit paying merchants a tax when their customers use the credit card.
- Taxe on marine fuel oil and kerosene.
This list is non-exhaustive but later, the will of the people will be heard and applied through the creation of the People's Referendum system that will quickly be put in place.

Members of Parliament, make our voices heard in the House.
Obey the will of the people.
Apply these Guidelines.
The Yellow Vests.

The Dialectics of Liberation: Anarchism, Existentialism, and Decentralism.
Published Posts:

Introduction to the Dialectics of Liberation: Anarchism, Existentialism and Decentralism

I - Anarchism

• What is Anarchism?
• Part 1 - Philosophical Introduction
• Part 2 - The Concept of Anarchism
• Part 3 - Types of Anarchism
• The History of Anarchism
  • Part 1 - Pre-Anarchy - Social Revolution
  • Anarchy: Revolution Against The State
  • Part 2 - Anarcho-Federalism
  • Part 3 - Libertarian Anarchism
  • Part 4 - Anarcho-Syndicalism
• Anarchy Today
  • Part 1 - The Era of Extremisms
  • Part 2 - Crypto-Anarchism
  • Part 3 - Anarchist Tools
  • Part 4 - Anarchy in the Blockchain I
  • Part 4 - Anarchy in the Blockchain II
  • Part 5 - Today's Anarchism
• Index and Conclusions of part 1 - Anarchy
II - Existentialism
• What is Existentialism ?
  • Part 1 - Unplugged Introduction to Existentialism
  • Part 2 - The Short History of Existentialism: I - Early Pre-existentialism
  • Part 2 - The Short History of Existentialism: II - Pre-Existentialists
  • Part 2 - The Short History of Existentialism: III - Phenomenology - Brentano to Husserl
  • Part 2 - The Short History of Existentialism: III - Phenomenology - Jaspers to Sheller
  • Part 2 - The Short History of Existentialism: IV - Humanistic Existentialists - Buber, Arendt, and Tillich
  • Part 2 - The Short History of Existentialism: V - Humanistic Existentialists - Rollo May
  • Part 2 - The Short History of Existentialism: V - Humanistic Existentialists - Abraham Maslow
  • Part 2 - The Short History of Existentialism: VI - Post -Structuralism - Jacques Lacan
  • Part 2 - The Short History of Existentialism: VI - Post -Structuralism - Michel Foucault
  • Part 2 - The Short History of Existentialism: VI - Post -Structuralism - Emmanuel Levinas
  • Part 2 - The Short History of Existentialism: VI - Post -Structuralism - Jacques Derrida
  • Part 2 - The Short History of Existentialism: VI - Post -Structuralism - Paul Ricouer
  • Part 3 - The Philosophy of Existentialism: I - Existentialism Today - This post
Next posts on the Series:
II - Existentialism(Cont.)
• What is Existentialism ? (Cont.)
• Part 3 - The Philosophy of Existentialism: II - The Meaning of Nonsense
• Part 3 - The Philosophy of Existentialism: III - The Players and the Times
• The "Existentialists"
  • Part 1 - Gabriel Marcel - The Neo-Socratic
  • Part 2 - Jean-Paul Sartre - The Man of The 20th Century
  • Part 3 - Simone de Beauvoir - The Castor
  • Part 4 - Albert Camus - The Absurdist
  • Part 5 - Merleau-Ponty - The Humanist Existentialist
• Humanism and Existentialism
  • Part 1 - The Fear of Freedom of Erich Fromm
• Existentialism and Anarchism
• The Future : Posthumanism, transhumanism and inhumanism
III - Decentralism
• What is Decentralism?
• The Philosophy of Decentralism
• Blockchain and Decentralization
• Anarchism, Existentialism, and Decentralism
IV - Dialectic for Self-Liberation
• The Dialectics of Liberation Congress
• Psychedelics, Libertarian and artistical movements
• The Zen Buddism of Alan Watts
  
• Psychoanalysis and Existentialism
• The Anti-psychiatry movement
• Anarchism, Existentialism, Decentralism and Self-Liberation
V - Conclusions and Epilogue

References:

- charlie777pt on Steemit:
Collectivism vs. Individualism
Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin - The Emergence of Anarchism
Social Reality: Index of the series about Social Reality: Power, Violence and change
Index of Chapter 1 - Anarchism of this series

Books:
Oizerman, Teodor.O Existencialismo e a Sociedade. Em: Oizerman, Teodor; Sève, Lucien; Gedoe, Andreas, Problemas Filosóficos.2a edição, Lisboa, Prelo, 1974.
Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Others
Levy, Bernard-Henry , O Século de Sartre,Quetzal Editores (2000)
Jacob Golomb, In Search of Authenticity - Existentialism From Kierkegaard to Camus (1995)
Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society
Louis Sass, Madness and Modernism, Insanity in the light of modern art, literature, and thought (revised edition)
Hubert L. Dreyfus and Mark A. Wrathall, A Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism (2006)
Charles Eisenstein, Ascent of Humanity
Walter Kaufmann, Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre(1956)
Herbert Read, Existentialism, Marxism and Anarchism (1949 )
Martin Heidegger, Letter on "Humanism"(1947)
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power (1968)
Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism And Human Emotions
Jean-Paul Sartre, O Existencialismo é um Humanismo
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Sense and Non-Sense
Michel Foucault, Power Knowledge Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977
Erich Fromm, Escape From Freedom. New York: Henry Holt, (1941)
Erich Fromm, , Man for Himself. 1986
Gabriel Marcel, Being and Having: an existentialist diary
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Visible and The Invisible
Paul Ricoeur, Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences. Essays on Language, Action and Interpretation
Brigite Cardoso e Cunha, Psicanálise e estruturalismo (1979)
G. Deleuze and F. Guattari, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia,
Robert C. Solomon, Existentialism