What Might Your Journey Be Like?

[EdSalti]

(There aren't many senior members in the Forum. I had been looking for a forum to share some of my thoughts and experiences. I have strolled around in here and seen others like me sharing their experiences and others trying to sort out what Objectivism is and how they will use it in their lives. I read THE FOUNTAINHEAD 47 years ago when I was 20 and launched into an intense study of Objectivism for the next 20 years after that. Here's what it all looks like from here.)

As an Objectivist, you will not be hacking your way through unchartered jungle, alone but for your razor sharp machete and your battered fedora. Throughout the rest of your life, you will find yourself strolling the streets and sidewalks with the same people you walked with yesterday. You will still have a great many things in common with them and will love them or hate them, like them or dislike them, despite their philosophy, or yours.

Objectivism is not 180 degrees or even 90 degrees out of phase with the dominant philosophy in our culture which is Christianity. In fact, if you want to put a little scrap of paper in your wallet with an objectivism on it that you can refer to in times of doubt, you can do a lot worse than: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The altruists have hijacked this little gem and perverted it to mean that you go around spring-loaded to "do good" wherever you see good needing done. Its objective interpretation is that you don't do things to other people that you wouldn't want them to do to you. Nearly all of the tenets of Objectivism fit very comfortably with The Golden Rule. Which may be why seven of the world's major religions have some version of it at the core of their doctrines.

So the way you deal with other people will not change much when you embrace Objectivism. You will become more moral because Objectivism does not give you the escape clauses of confessing your sins to the shaman or professing your belief in Ayn Rand on your deathbed and getting absolution. As an Objectivist, you understand that you pretty much have to clean up after yourself as you go. How you apply your morality to the actions of your friends and associates is something you'll have to work out for yourself. My advice is refer to that little scrap in your wallet.

What you can comfortably discard from the Christian load you were assigned to carry is the mysticism. George Carlin had a ten minute rant on organized religion that breaks me up every time I watch it. It's on UTube and is well-worth watching. I'm not going to try to match it in an indictment of the mysticism of Christianity. I'm guessing you have already shed that little bundle, or are in the process of doing so, or you wouldn't be reading this.

What Objectivism will do for you is give you the certainty that you are in control of your life. Of course, things will happen to you that you have no control over; but you will have control over how you respond to them. You will understand that you are indeed worthy of the good things that come your way through your hard work and planning. You will not fret that your good fortune is the whim of some unknowable deity. For me, there is a Zen-like serenity in my relationship to the world around me. I am very comfortable with where I have been, where I am, and how I got here. That last part is very important.

Objectivism is a thought process. It is not a rigid code of behavior. There is not an Objectivist dress code. You are not required to wax eloquent over the heroic strains of some symphony or opera. Hip-hop and rap are definitely not my cup of tea; but, if you enjoy them, wax away. Just don't make more of them than they are. What you enjoy at the art museum is not dictated to you. You have leave to decide if you like something or not. One of the great joys of Objectivism is giving yourself permission to decide for yourself what you will like and how you will behave without consulting the opinions of others.

For those of you who are new to Objectivism, I envy your excitement of discovery. You have a marvelous tool in the Forum here where you can pose your certainties and uncertainties to a sympathetic audience. I didn't have this. I don't know if thrashing things out without it made me stronger or not. I could have done without some of the frustrations, but I like where I am now, so who knows.

Enjoy your debates on the areas where the application of the principles of Objectivism are at variance with popular thinking. It is the way you organize your thoughts and shed your inconsistencies. If you are really interested in selling Objectivism to someone, concentrate on the similarities between it and what they believe. Not killing, not stealing, treating people with respect, being honest, are all concepts they can get behind. If you both can get behind those ideas, the god thing is less important. Unless they start demanding that you gotta believe, then you've got another issue.

That's a very condensed version of what got me to where I am now.

It's just my opinion, I could be wrong. ES

[fletch]

Thanks for the thoughts there, Gramps. I agree with everything you say, particularly this:

What Objectivism will do for you is give you the certainty that you are in control of your life. Of course, things will happen to you that you have no control over; but you will have control over how you respond to them. You will understand that you are indeed worthy of the good things that come your way through your hard work and planning. You will not fret that your good fortune is the whim of some unknowable deity. For me, there is a Zen-like serenity in my relationship to the world around me. I am very comfortable with where I have been, where I am, and how I got here. That last part is very important.

Control over ones life is what Objectivism offers, but it also enables you to develope the self-confidence that that control requires.