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Your thoughts on this personal dilema?

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vasquezg

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Suppose a man was desperately seeking to find the woman with whom to spend the rest of his life. He begins to look at thousands of profiles of many different women in different parts of the world. He saves all of the files into CD’s and eventually categorizes them into different subcategories. Based on an intellectual analysis he assumes that only 2 of the women will read Rand’s novels. He proceeds and sends both, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged to the 2 girls in Russia. One of the girls read the novels while the other one never even took sight of them. He eventually reaches the conclusion that even though she had read the novels, it would be really difficult for the two of them to establish a relationship, due to many different factors.

Time passes… his ex-girlfriend tries to get into contact with him. It seemed like if life’s circumstances had forced her to read and apply to her own life Objectivism. They begin to talk again, as she decides that the best thing for her is to leave everything behind, she chooses to move in with him. One day she comes upon the thousands of photos and files, which he had never thrown away. She approaches him and asks why he had kept all the files and recorded them into different CD’s. He says that they do not MEAN ANYTHING. But that he keeps them in case he may ever need them again. He does not let her talk and proceeds to say that he would never throw away one of his books under any circumstances.

One chooses to buy and collect books that further enhance ones knowledge and that do not contradict ones ideas. Why would you throw away a book? If it is useless the best thing to do is to sell it on E-bay or Amazon. In any case, I do not see how the two topics can be compared, but my view of the matter is that there is no sense in keeping things that do not mean anything to you. Why would you want to keep other women’s photos if they do not mean anything to you in the first place? Why would you consider the instance of one day needing them again? Who is right and who is wrong in this case? It is clear to me that somebody has to be mistaken and that is not the girlfriend?

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Sounds like a personal situation, not a hypothetical....hmmmmmm.

It was probably hard work to compile all of that information...regardless if he may or may not need them, he's still probably pretty proud of the fact that he worked so hard and long on the project.

If I was creepy enough to go to such a strange extent, I would be proud of that work and keep the stuff.

But I do think all that cataloging would be a bit excessive and creepy.

~Michael

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If this man and his girl are in a serious relationship (which, being Objectivists, they should know that's the only kind worth pursuing), then they should own each other completely. The man might be reasonable in keeping his "collection" for a week or two at most, until he knows the girl well enough. After that, he needs to make a decision: the collection or the girl. Simple as that.

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