Tenderlysharp

If Jordan Peterson's premise is correct (He has done more research into the subject than I have) I might contemplate how this affects me on an individual level. If I realize I am talking to a person who belongs to a demographic with an average higher IQ, and I theoretically have a median IQ, I might assume they have a 60% chance of being smarter than me. If a person belongs to the bottom 40% of their group, and they haven't tested their own IQ they might have a higher chance of inflating their own intellectual value by associating inappropriately with the extreme cases in the group they identify with. I see this with people who are interested in Objectivism, who obviously have no where near the intellectual capacity of Ayn Rand, attempting go exert some authority by using her words. At the same time, extremely talented individuals who belong to any group you identify with have the power of being role models you can understand, and you may improve your own intelligence by learning what you can from each of them.

Unrealistic expectations kill any chance at a meaningful relationship with friends, partners, or family. In the beginning people look for virtue signaling, and red flags. If she is a single mother, she may be struggling with her own responsibilities. If the father of her child has been irresponsible, she may not be handling her emotional damage as well as she would like. Women have a much shorter fertility window, so if she wants another child she may be in a hurry to find someone who seems to really want to be with her. She may not want to seem needy, as though a man is doing her a big favor by taking on a family that isn't biologically his. A lack of fatherly tendencies a man shows toward potential step children are huge deal breakers as well. The impact of biological forces and hormones can be overwhelming to clear cognitive function in some. If you can see and treat her like a real human being regardless of your sexual desire, it is a sign of strong frontal cortical activity and executive brain function. Sexual desire placed above the value of the individual most often leads to a pattern of cheating. Humans have only had sexual equality for a hundred years in a small part of the world, so we are all still trying to figure out how to be ok with each other. In the past a woman wasn't allowed to be friends with a man unless he was her brother or cousin. Establishing true friendships with the opposite sex has provided me, and individuals I know with valuable insight, it raises your standards. If you know any happy couples in healthy relationships you might want to spend time communicating with both partners about how they negotiate the challenges they have faced. If you want a lasting relationship you need an honest reliable partner who is going to be there through health issues, tragedy, misunderstanding. Overwhelming insecurities and unwillingness to communicate will lead to many problems down the road. Think of this as a valuable learning experience. Relationships are not going to be pain free, that is one reason we test each other in the beginning.

Have you ever had a personal sentimental item, attached to the memory of a person who is gone, stolen from you? I have. No amount of shouting in the street about what is fair is going to stop human malevolence and ignorance. If I want to approach fair human interactions, I've got to build my own foundation, inspire the cretins to educate themselves, and not waste time bloviating to a choir of one. I come here to find real, unique, interesting intelligent human beings, who happen to adore Ayn Rand for reasons she might have appreciated. I am not here to run around in circles with puppets who spout ideologies with no thought of what any of it means to them personally, individually here and now in the real world.

There is a difference between equalization of opportunity and equalization of outcome. Equalization of opportunity means keeping the starving masses from uprising and destroying the system, while fostering social mobility so that talent can rise from poverty. The loss of millions of individual lives has already shown that we can not force/guarantee equalization of outcome. Working to fight unearned second hand theft is important. Outliers in society are a fact, do you want them to steal your car, or a portion of your paycheck, some portion of your time addressing their source and reduction? There is a problem, it has always been a problem, something is going to happen, which do you choose? People often use portions of Ayn Rand's text without fully integrating her entire philosophy. They haven't earned it. It isn't proper to tell someone what to do, it doesn't work. What one ought to do, and I try, is to be very careful in choosing words. Human societies (including Objectivism) are based on hierarchies. Ayn Rand is at the top, there are varying degrees of competence within the structure of individuals who volunteer to take part in this particular hierarchy. Just as in America, where Objectivism was born, there are conservative and liberal objectivists. When an individual in this social space goes to an extreme each individual chooses how he or she wants to deal with it.

Questions I am asking myself within the context of education: What would a modern alternative comprehensive online school look like? In what context would you be willing to contribute to such an enterprise? What does it mean to read a book a day? What role does humor play in the development of consciousness? How does a call to "Responsibility" and "Meaning" affect the rising generation? How does one develop a balance between ones own body and mind in healthy integration? How does one practice speaking in a compelling way that keeps the interest of your audience? What is the value of self awareness? Do others find you self aware in an argument? How do you hone your skills toward a contentious audience? How do you organize vital information to recall in crucial situations? When you think, do you develop arguments within yourself in order to prepare to meet your opposition? How much effort have you made to improve your writing skill? Who is your target audience? Ayn Rand wrote for herself, but was also reaching toward her ideal man. Would your ideal man have any critical feedback for the way you conduct yourself in the world? Do you have some sense of what you don't know? Have you set goals for what you want to accomplish? In what ways do you abdicate the responsibility toward your aspirations? In what ways do you create meaning in your life? Are there disciplines that have become corrupt that I think I might be interested in and able to take on? What are the common conditions that lead to war? Are there good ways to direct my skills toward entrepreneurial pursuits? What have I learned through the phenomena of social media? Why leave those venues to my adversaries? What are the consequences of recent technological breakthroughs? How can I develop creatively in all aspects of life? Has the quality of life of the people I value and love (and who love me) been sufficiently improved by my presence in their lives? Considering Existence and Consciousness are corollaries: What symbolic void is being left in the world by me not attempting living up to my potential? How do I quantify the education I have acquired? How can I find a way to travel and visit more of this planet in a more intimate way? How can a person be taught to read, think, speak, present, and negotiate in a more efficient manner? What is the Intellectual Dark Web? Clinical Psychologist, and Evolutionary Biologist Jordan Peterson is working toward the development of a less expensive online school. Considering hierarchies are biologically linked to achievement, how do I develop my own competence hierarchy that benefits me as an individual?

I wonder specifically where the distinctions of Jordan Peterson's view of objective reality differ from Objectivism. Ayn Rand used terms like 'God No' and 'God bless you' not because she believed in a literal God, but because she liked what those phrases meant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZMIbo_DxJk&t=1139s

"You don’t think through another’s brain and you don’t work through another’s hands. When you suspend your faculty of independent judgment, you suspend consciousness. To stop consciousness is to stop life. Second-handers have no sense of reality. Their reality is not within them, but somewhere in that space which divides one human body from another. "-Ayn Rand, For The New Intellectual A living person is to parrot someone who has died... for a philosophy of life? I don't believe any living Objectivist claims to be Ayn Rand. Only you can direct the action you take to quote her. If it were all quotes it would be like she was just here talking to herself...

Where did the last three weeks go? Went on a road trip; Idaho, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, and back to Wyoming. I've been painting a lot since I got back. Its a different part of my brain I use while painting... visual language. I get good at one thing, and push myself to try to challenge myself in a different way and it turns out horrible. Getting over my false pride, so I can earn some real pride is messy and it takes too long, but I am trying.

I appreciate the time each of you has taken to respond. Writing it out and engaging like this is helping to clarify it in my mind. I can send the 21 photos back without buying, technically it seems like no obligation... the obligation is in the emotional manipulation. The garbage waste of so many printed photos is weird; when I was a kid, having your photo taken was a luxury. A photo of your child is a sentimental treasure, even if he is making a loopy face, it sucks throwing them out. It is awkward confronting the photographer, and the school, the time spent doing so, and my son being in the middle of it. You never know who is someones relative, I shouldn't care, but small town drama sometimes bleeds down to the kids. I also don't mind picture day in general, I am buying him a year book, I just don't like the way they are going about it. If I complain they might not take his photo at all. Thinking of burning them is a symbol of rebellion to the whole situation. Maybe it is a risk the photographer wants to take. I know from working for a couple years reproducing fine art, the material cost is probably $3-$5. They can recoup their cost if 20% of parents are susceptible (or interested) enough to pay, which is easier than raising a stink, especially when you don't have a philosophical foundation to consider. At his last school in Salt Lake City, the photographer had three shots, several backgrounds and a variety of sizes to choose from, they were available for order online before printing. Working to make picture day at school more objective is not as challenging as taking on the big problems of the world... I don't know... maybe I will take him down to the river for a photo shoot and print some good ones out myself.

My kid came home with a package of school photos. There is a note with a price list that says: choose the photos you want, and send a check, and send back what you don't want. The package includes a calendar, book marks, key chains with my son's picture on them, 21 photos all together for $36. I don't like the photos, the photographer doesn't do a good job. My kid doesn't understand why I am upset, he is taking it personally, and will be embarrassed to return to school with them, saying his mom doesn't want photos of him. I didn't give them permission to do this. I also don't want to send the photos back, because I don't want them having photos of my kid. What are they going to do with them? Its such a waste and I just want to burn them. We take natural fun photos with our phones all the time, we don't need these. Should doing business this way be illegal? I would appreciate any recommendations on what I ought to say to the photographer, the school, or a higher official.

I am very physiologically affected by emotion, my own and the emotion of others. I don't want to change that about myself because I think it teaches me something. My mind returns to difficult emotions because I want to understand human nature. Objectivism helps me bring emotion into conscious terms. Ayn Rand once said "I very rarely had an emotion that took me more than a couple days to get to the bottom of." I am seeing more objectively the way emotions can be manipulated by or blamed on others. I was listening to an audiobook last year that was interesting. There is a space between what you experience, and how you react. In that space is the story you tell yourself. I can't remember the title.

The Virtue of Selfishness is a 173 page book. According to me... It means self esteem, self respect, trusting myself, introspection, keeping my own counsel, doing the best I can, calling myself out on my own BS, learning. I don't always know if I made an irrational decision, when I notice or when someone I respect points it out, and I agree, then I correct it. Your self is your body/consciousness/memories, a sum total of everything you are and have been. I believe I am a Self first, the -ish follows. If I want to value rational values it is my self that chooses, and I gain confidence on that path. I don't agree with mullahs. Every woman I know has had their body trespassed upon by a man at some point. Having been inappropriately touched by strange men several times in my life brings painful clarity. In theory it is true that it is the man who needs to correct his behavior, not the woman who needs to cover up. But I won't risk my body to prove that point. I choose the level of protection I need for a given situation. Sometimes a bikini, sometimes layers and a weapon. A woman wearing a Burqa believes it is a symbol of honor, it ought to be her own choice, I wouldn't force her to wear it, nor tear it off of her. I believe in this world, as an objective reality, an orange is an orange and not my imagination. This reality contains irrational people and mystics who believe in other worlds. An Objectivist forces no one, but if forced, will respond with force. http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/selfishness.html

Ayn Rand has redefined selfishness, you are using the definition of selfishness that is used by the majority of society, originating when mystics accused the self as the source of all evil. When a person acts against their rational self interest it is a loss of self that they experience. This confusion and disorientation happens to everyone, clarity and fog, integration and disintegration. Humans learn concsiousness by putting attention into returning to the path of rationality. It is painful, I would be horrified to witness that in person, and would probably have nightmares about it. In that moment it is in my self interest to do everything in my power to rationally talk them out of it. I cried once when I saw a video of a large man grab the back of this small girls sweater and pull her off of a ledge of the Golden Gate Bridge. I honestly can't say I think he was wrong. She appeared young and healthy, the possibility of her discovering a value worth living for is there. In another context some people suffer for years with chronic pain making it impossible to really live, if there is no hope of recovery, why force them to continue suffering? As an artist, I think the human body is beautiful, and have enjoyed nudity in a safe family friendly hot springs. I think of a similarity with taxes. Objectivists believe tax is theft, but we still pay our taxes, because we live in a society still largely dominated by mystics. It is a process of development. With greater rational freedom and responsibility nudity would become safer and more common. Women are at risk of being raped even when they wear cloths, the risk would increase when there is no physical barrier. It is a management of available resources. Humans are omnivorous. Where population density increases the incidence of vegetarianism increases, in some places the higher classes would ban eating meat in order to reduce competition for that resource. The further north you travel, the less vegetation available, the more dependent on meat those cultures are. A rational argument will not stop the irrational. Crimes happen every day that can not be stopped. Irrational selfishness has a way of creating enemies, and you risk retaliation. Objectivism is a philosophy chosen through self respect, if you want to be rational.

This is interesting, I often worry that my needs should not be a burden to anyone around me. I know the value of writing in a journal, but hadn't thought of it from the angle of unmet needs. I have avoided seeking a psychologist because of how friends had talked of their experiences, and the Zen/socialistic/egoless perspectives they took. I have some pride about figuring out my own problems for myself, its lonely.

A relationship that can recover from a struggle will be stronger for it. There is an art to genuine apology.

These are great points

Mixed Premises... Yes Elon Musk chooses to be interested in societies concerns more than most Objectivists do. That is his choice, he has earned it. He is an engineer, a prime mover, an energy generator. If you want to believe he is your enemy, at least give him the respect of being an intelligent formidable enemy, rather than a straw man.

SpaceX is making superior rockets at a quarter of the cost of NASA's bureaucracy. The US Government had been buying cheaper satellite launches from other countries, SpaceX is bringing that business back to the US. SpaceX is also on the way to launching Astronauts, which hasn't been possible in the US since 2011.

Musk was on the forefront of developing and coding online map city guide software, and naively sold it for $22 Million. Paving the way for Billions in U.S. revenue through the use of similar guides that took his ideas. Musk built PayPal and made a mistake choosing his co-founders, then had it sold out from under him for $165 Million, the company is worth $100 Billion today. The US Government has earned billions off of the products of his mind. They didn't steal from tax payers, they took his money, loaned a small percentage of it to him and he paid it back to them again with interest. In this story by the LA Times (a publication for the collectivist agenda) they are patting themselves on the back, shifting credit, inducing the public to believe that he still owes them something.

Getting states to compete with each other for who is going to fleece his companies the least (tax breaks) seems like the beginning of an Objective approach. The other subsidies are loans paid back with interest. The government needs him more than he needs them. Where were Objectivists when these companies were looking for investors? If a staunch Objectivist alive today wants to get to Mars, is it possible? It seems ambitious to envision your companies on the way to producing a quarter of a percentage of the GDP... Thats about $46 Billion. The technologies that need to be developed in order to get to Mars have a huge impact on advancing the technologies we use here on Earth. I think Ayn Rand's work has directly and indirectly inspired producers to defend their value, and rise to challenges. Unfortunately you make yourself an unnecessary target to collectivists who hate the version of her in their head, and it seems Objective to not throw your pearls before swine, and admit openly to being influenced by her. Edit:Typos

Take what you want and pay for it. The phrase isn’t “steal what you want”, but ‘steal’ is a connotation. If I want to steal I pay by being caught and having my hand chopped off, or by living with the self hatred of knowing I have betrayed reality. I pay for it with fear, with evasion with a loss of efficacy. I pay for it by not being able to look someone squarely in the eye. She could never take anything without paying for it. Take what you want is a challenge Ayn Rand made to her potential. Rand is giving herself a powerful abstraction that propels her toward the immense task of philosophically taking on the entire world. Taking on the dangerous challenge of defying mysticism, where many great minds have succumbed to tragedy. It gave her the fuel to reach for the culmination of every aspiration she valued, and she paid for it with endless hours of hard work, she paid for it by pushing herself to do better, to go deeper, to make things more clear, more concise. She paid for it with the pain of leaving her family to die in Russia. With every rise and fall she paid. She took what she wanted from life, she told herself she could, she challenged herself to it. And if she ever wanted to give up she knew she would pay for that also. You are in a grocery store you want an apple and some water, you take it to the counter and pay for it. To let the phrase be even that simple. It has a calming effect over fear, and doubt. Taking this all together as a broad abstraction has a focusing effect on the mind. She didn’t say it for you or me anyone else. Volition is an act of choice with knowledge of as many possible alternatives as one can hold in context and integrate. For 8 words to mean this much and more. Want one interpretation and pay for it with the loss of perspective on all others. Affected by a phrase that covers so much ground. A phrase that leaves room for each person to choose what they will attempt to see in it. A consistently rational person ought to be able to explore all of the possibilities of what something could mean and then choose from there. Sleeping with Nathaniel Love is the most personal, dangerous, and tragic… sometimes rewarding… experience anyone can engage in. It takes a great deal of courage. Do you care to share the tragedies of your love life with the public? Yes a price she definitely gets charged for. Forcing others is going against their volition, and they will irrationally rebel from a forced rationality. The only way to rationality is through volition. Why create a philosophy that forces people to be rational? Would it work? Knowing that people can be irrational, it seems rational to be as rational as you can without hitting them over the head. Especially when mystics are just waiting for any sign of aggression to give them an excuse to attack.

Welcome Enlightenment Now I think your context is a little different, but this led me to a thought I had. When Ayn Rand said she never met her match in a debate... I contemplated that she possibly debated herself at times in order to prepare for a hostile or complex question from a member of an audience. To think through an argument thoroughly enough to consider the opposing position, to be ready to answer thoughtfully.

Hi Sonic & Knuckles, welcome to the forum. I don't believe "They can do it, but I wouldn't." is a contradiction. It allows freedom to both parties. Gives them room to learn for themselves. If you legally restrict vices it only insights people to produce an underground rebellion, which feeds into an illusion of being smarter than the controllers they resent. I think it is more effective to appeal to a person's intelligence than it is to try to wrestle with their evasions, and lack of the context of their entire lives. Also, developing a healthy sense of life, and a conscious philosophical foundation is a lot of work, important work. The vices of others can be a distraction, especially from looking at my own inner contradictions.

I am curious about the evidence of this? I had the understanding that car companies were forced to take government loans as part of the bank bail outs in 2008, and Tesla paid the loan back quickly with interest. SpaceX is profitable from private companies who need satellites launched. SpaceX has developed ideas that are reducing government spending by having companies compete to reach benchmarks, and awarding more efficient companies with contracts. Ayn Rand was supportive of the military where these contracts are coming from.