The frontiers of Objectivism

[Tonix777]

Hey, I like the picture. I think it's in keeping with AR's 'spirit' and sense of life, and and would make a great poster!

About integration; the belief I have come to is that the person should always be bigger than his, or her, philosophy.

Which means that O'ism should be integrated into you, not you into Objectivism.

I've heard two schools of thought on this - that one should take in O'ism in a single gulp; or, that one should take it in piece by piece. I think they are both half right and half wrong.

The core principal, Rational Individualism, should be 'swallowed at one gulp' imo, and the rest will gradually integrate itself.( With study, thought, and application, over years.)

Ayn Rand said: " I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognises the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows."

(Well... easy to say when one is a genius - the rest of us will continue to need her philosophical aids).

Also, her statement is a fine example of the cruciality of 'hierarchy' in O'ism.

Interesting reflexions... You seem to be a smart guy

I think you are right about that Objectivism should be integrated to you and not otherwise

If you try to do the opposite you will probably lose/debilitate your identity

In my case it was sad to suddenly discover in my 40s that I was somewhat stupid most of my previous life.

Almos all my existence I was close to Objectivism in some basic vital attitudes and thoughts, specially those concerning to Metaphysics (Objective Reality) and Epistemology (Reason), but when it came to Ethics and Politics my mind was a strange mixture that I now regret and even when it could be quite worthless I have to confess my sin: I was more close to the "left wing" in most political and ethical points of view when I was young and even later. I have to say however in my defense that they were inherited ideas and concepts from my family and not from my own intellectual harvest, which doesn't necessarily redeem me from my responsibility anyway.

Over the time I questioned those ideas more and more and my points of view were gradually moving to a more realistic perspective, as long as I confronted myself with questions like: Why being rich "has" to be bad? Why socialist countries were falling one after other? Why the masses "have" to be always right? Where come the wealth from? How I would like to live? Who am I in reality and what I want as values?

So for all that I did and said wrong before, for al the ideas I repeated without deeper researching or getting more first-hand information, for all the people I despised and blamed, for all the things I "thought" without really thinking: I apologize

But then some day, some years ago, it came to my hands a book from Ayn Rand (Thanks to my friend Daniel for this) and since then I finally found myself reflected in a coherent philosophy, my soul found a home.

But still as you said you can't just forget who you are overnight, so it has been a long learning process to integrate Objectivism into "my" mind & life which even included moving from my country to NY (It was at first kinda disappointing that USA is far less Objectivist than I imagined, but this is another topic). When I first saw the golden statue pointing the skyscrapers in front of the Central Park I quietly cried thinking that Aynd Rand lived there...

But in the end we are humans, we have moods, and "stages" in our lives. We have also some cycles of good an bad times, etc. so John Galt is just a ideal to follow, sometimes it amuses me when some people get disappointed when realize that they can no be "The perfect Objectivist" they can not be John Galt. But for me the secret is to try hard everyday to be better than yourself whoever you are, having in any case John Galt a beacon in the horizon, but trying also to be the hero in the movie of your life in your own way

Edited May 14, 2010 by Tonix777