What about the Masses?

[Rdyson]

Hello all,

My name is Rachael Dyson. I have discovered the Fountianhead. I saw it peeking out at me in a book store. Not knowing what it was about I bought it and read it. I fell in love and was sad when I finished it. I read a few more books in between just digesting it. I found myself in luck when I mentioned her name to my great Aunt. She had all the tapes, all the interview and a full two hour biography. She had even subscribed to her magazines which have since been discontinued. I sat fascinated in front of the television for hours as I watched her speak, watched her dodge flaming bullets from the press and public, and watched her live an amazing life. I am currently reading Atlas Shrugged and plan to enter the writing contest for college students.

I am in a graduate program studying mental health counseling. I am naturally curious about people and I am going to be mixed up in the masses and I myself am part of the masses. I am on disability becasue I have SLE Lupus. It has rendered me incapacitated at times. This summer my kidneys failed. After reading Ayn Rand and forming my opinions and understanding of her and her way of relating to the world. I realized that I may fall shy of her standards. This distresses me and I wonder if there could not be an adaptation to her way of thought.

What about the masses. How do we take what Ayn Rand has put forth and spread it to everyone. I understand there is a lack of knowledge, that many people are unaware of their own strength and given their power away to a God, to an ideal, to a corporation, and to an idea of the way they feel they must live their lives.

Education right? But can we educate everyone and is it even our place to educate everyone? Are they even listening? Some people just aren't strong enough to be Roark or Dagney, or Fransisco, or Hank.

I myself strive to be stronge, to be educated, to be right, and true. It to me it is a never ending battle and at the end of my life I just want to feel and know that I saw the world for the worlds sake, that I lived my life as Ayn did, as all our great minds did.

Survival of the fittest. I know that sounds great. I would like to think that is how it should be and maybe it is, it is in nature but then I would have died a long time ago. My body is not strong enough to last in the kind of fight Ayn proposes, but my mind is and my will is and maybe I just answered my own questions. Please don't kick me off the sight for that. I am keeping it. Maybe it isn't your body that has to be strong but your resolution. I am proud of finding that so I am leaving it just the way it is.

I actually tried out a bit of Ayn's thinking in my class last night. I do in my heart believe in her and those who follow her and feel that it is true for me as well. Yep, let me tell you, I was all alone out there. I didn't so much mind and in fact I just kept reaffirming my posotion and repeating what I had said for those who were hearing selectivly. I just kept telling myself, I should get used to being disagreed with.

I want to bring her beliefs into the present. Not just in this forum. I want the art work at the top of the page to change. I want to bring our examples, our stories, our progress to this site and to people in the community. Lets move forward taking what Ayn has said, loving life, loving ourselves, loving what we as men and women can do and help to tell others.

Don't get me wrong. I do not want to spend my life on the stand. I do not want to preach to a crowd about the virtues of loving yourself and holding no bonds. I want to someday be an author, I want to have children, to have a love, a dog, and many beautiful days in which I use my legs, arms, mind and heart. It's really simple and grand at the same time; I just want to live my life, have my practice, teach my children the virtues of selfishness and in my doing so be able to spread by example.

I hope I do not get kicked off. I reviewed all the rules and understand about proof reading but I am just asking for flexibility. Flexibility so that I can learn and others can learn as well. I know I looked at another person's statement who may have been told to leave. He or she expressed regrett.

I will answer my own questions next time if that is what you are after. I don't even know who you are.

[Myself]

Survival of the fittest. I know that sounds great. I would like to think that is how it should be and maybe it is, it is in nature but then I would have died a long time ago. My body is not strong enough to last in the kind of fight Ayn proposes, but my mind is and my will is and maybe I just answered my own questions. Please don't kick me off the sight for that. I am keeping it. Maybe it isn't your body that has to be strong but your resolution. I am proud of finding that so I am leaving it just the way it is.

You have indeed answered your own question as there are many ways of being fit. Accepting reality, choosing to live for yourself, and exercising your consciousness to its limits have indeed put you in the ranks of a fit mind. I think that everyone, once discovering and integrating Ayn Rand's work develops a proselatising stance. I always find it a shame when an obviously rational and logical person is unable to take the next step. In that case the best approach, I've found, is to simply offer to lend them a copy of The Fountainhead. If they respond favorably then they will need no further promptings. IF not well...you may have been mistaken about the logical and rational part. Remember that it is not your responsibility to educate every misinformed person. Some people refuse to listen to logic or simply aren't ready at their point in life to shed the preconceptions imposed on them early on. Living for yourself and not being overly concerned with "converting" the "masses" is the best way to promote Objectivism. I am sorry to hear of your disability, but remember to remain optimistic about the future. In a letter to a fan Isaac Asimov expressed this perfectly:

"You know everyone has a handicap of some sort or other. Some people lack will or are ridden by fear or aren't very bright. Those are really bad handicaps because they are almost impossible to overcome.

If, on the other hand, one has will and courage and, most of all, has a brain, other handicaps can be overcome.

Best wishes on your overcoming."

[Tom Rexton]

Survival of the fittest. I know that sounds great. I would like to think that is how it should be and maybe it is, it is in nature but then I would have died a long time ago. My body is not strong enough to last in the kind of fight Ayn proposes, but my mind is and my will is and maybe I just answered my own questions. Please don't kick me off the sight for that. I am keeping it. Maybe it isn't your body that has to be strong but your resolution. I am proud of finding that so I am leaving it just the way it is.

I believe this ought to be in the Introduction Forum, but regardless, welcome to the forum.

Regarding your disability:

In the world for which Ayn Rand (and we) fight for, you would have the greatest chance of survival. Whatever fallacy you may have imbibed about capitalism being a Darwinist social system in which "the strong survive and weak perish" is wrong. It is precisely capitalism that allows the weak to survive. In an anticapitalist world in which the mind is throttled, forced and negated, only by brute strength can men survive; but in a capitalist world in which the mind is free, it is primarily by thinking that men survive--and flourish.

---[edit, added the following]

I would also like to add further than in capitalism, the competition is intellectual--it is a competition of ideas, with the right ideas winning. In an anticapitalist society, the competition is over who can wield the strongest FORCE, i.e. who has biggest gang with the most brutal weapons.

Edited January 26, 2005 by Tom Rexton

[non-contradictor]

Hello all,

  My name is Rachael Dyson.

Hello Rachael! Welcome to the forum! Please do not worry about getting kicked off. I have not witnessed any instances where a person who followed the rules got kicked off. You seem to be very passionate about Objectivism, just don't get discouraged. As long as you know you are right, it doesn't matter how many of the "masses" disagree.

[AisA]

Hello all,

  My name is Rachael Dyson. I have discovered the Fountianhead. I saw it peeking out at me in a book store. Not knowing what it was about I bought it and read it. I fell in love and was sad when I finished it. I read a few more books in between just digesting it. I found myself in luck when I mentioned her name to my great Aunt. She had all the tapes, all the interview and a full two hour biography. She had even subscribed to her magazines which have since been discontinued. I sat fascinated in front of the television for hours as I watched her speak, watched her dodge flaming bullets from the press and public, and watched her live an amazing life. I am currently reading Atlas Shrugged and plan to enter the writing contest for college students.

Welcome to the Forum. You will find many excellent minds here, most of which will be more than happy to answer your questions.

  I am in a graduate program studying mental health counseling. I am naturally curious about people and I am going to be mixed up in the masses and I myself am part of the masses. I am on disability becasue I have SLE Lupus. It has rendered me incapacitated at times. This summer my kidneys failed. After reading Ayn Rand and forming my opinions and understanding of her and her way of relating to the world. I realized that I may fall shy of her standards. This distresses me and I wonder if there could not be an adaptation to her way of thought.

In what way do you think you might fall short of her standards, and what do you think her standards are? Remember, Roark was not the only moral man protrayed in The Fountainhead. Mike, the electrician, for instance, was fully as moral as Roark, even though he did not possess Roark's creativity and genius.

As you will learn, Objectivism teaches that the moral is the chosen. That which you did not choose, such as the current state of your health, is never to be held against you.

  What about the masses. How do we take what Ayn Rand has put forth and spread it to everyone. I understand there is a lack of knowledge, that many people are unaware of their own strength and given their power away to a God, to an ideal, to a corporation, and to an idea of the way they feel they must live their lives.

Education right? But can we educate everyone and is it even our place to educate everyone? Are they even listening? Some people just aren't strong enough to be Roark or Dagney, or Fransisco, or Hank.

There are many answers to this. I suggest you visit the web site of the Ayn Rand Institute to discover the many activities they sponser to spread Miss Rand's philosophy.

I myself strive to be stronge, to be educated, to be right, and true. It to me it is a never ending battle and at the end of my life I just want to feel and know that I saw the world for the worlds sake, that I lived my life as Ayn did, as all our great minds did.

Survival of the fittest. I know that sounds great. I would like to think that is how it should be and maybe it is, it is in nature but then I would have died a long time ago. My body is not strong enough to last in the kind of fight Ayn proposes, but my mind is and my will is and maybe I just answered my own questions. Please don't kick me off the sight for that. I am keeping it. Maybe it isn't your body that has to be strong but your resolution. I am proud of finding that so I am leaving it just the way it is.

Objectivism does not advocate "survival of the fittest". It advocates that each individual should be free to prosper according to what ability he possess, with each person having the moral right to live for their own sake, neither sacrificing themselves to others nor sacrificing others to themselves.

In fact, Miss Rand is the first thinker to identify how "the masses" benefit enormously from the efforts of relatively few men such as Roark. Come back to this issue when you have finished Atlas Shrugged. I think you will have a different opinion!

I actually tried out a bit of Ayn's thinking in my class last night. I do in my heart believe in her and those who follow her and feel that it is true for me as well. Yep, let me tell you, I was all alone out there. I didn't so much mind and in fact I just kept reaffirming my posotion and repeating what I had said for those who were hearing selectivly. I just kept telling myself, I should get used to being disagreed with.

It takes experiece to learn who is worth talking to and which battles are worth fighting. One of the great benefits of this forum is the opportunity to see a variety of techniques and arguments for presenting Objectivism. There are some people here who are really good at it.

I want to bring her beliefs into the present. Not just in this forum. I want the art work at the top of the page to change. I want to bring our examples, our stories, our progress to this site and to people in the community. Lets move forward taking what Ayn has said, loving life, loving ourselves, loving what we as men and women can do and help to tell others.

Don't get me wrong. I do not want to spend my life on the stand. I do not want to preach to a crowd about the virtues of loving yourself and holding no bonds. I want to someday be an author, I want to have children, to have a love, a dog, and many beautiful days in which I use my legs, arms, mind and heart. It's really simple and grand at the same time; I just want to live my life, have my practice, teach my children the virtues of selfishness and in my doing so be able to spread by example.

Good news: unlike virtually every other philosophy in history, Miss Rand's philosophy is all about living your life to the fullest, here and now, on this earth. You are about to discover the most powerful set of ideas for living your life ever conceived.

I hope I do not get kicked off. I reviewed all the rules and understand about proof reading but I am just asking for flexibility. Flexibility so that I can learn and others can learn as well. I know I looked at another person's statement who may have been told to leave. He or she expressed regrett.

I will answer my own questions next time if that is what you are after. I don't even know who you are.

The rules here are simple and easy. If you question whether or not a post is appropriate, just send a private mail to any of the moderators.

[Marc K.]

Hi Rachael, welcome.

I do in my heart believe in her and those who follow her and feel that it is true for me as well.

[...] I want to bring her beliefs into the present.

Belief or faith is blind acceptance induced by feeling in the absence of evidence or proof. Remember, no knowledge is possible without proof, so I don't think Ayn Rand ever accepted anything on faith. Instead of feeling something is true or "believing in your heart" what you really want to strive for is "knowing in your mind". This may in fact be what you meant and it is a bit of a pet peeve of mine to reject the more common usage of the word "believe".

(Please don't take corrections as rebukes or personal attacks, they are not meant as such. In fact, they may be some of the most precious gifts you recieve here.)

A friendly suggestion: read several threads here before posting too many questions. You'll find that many here are extremely precise in their wording and will accept nothing less in others. This is a good thing, it forces you to train your mind and to express yourself in an exacting manner.

I hope I do not get kicked off.

What do you think you said that could possibly warrant a warning, let alone being banned? Don't worry, no one here expects you to be omniscient or free of mistakes.

At first blush you seem energetic, enthusiastic and willing to learn, all excellent qualities and I'm happy you have chosen to engage in enlightened discussion.

Marc K.

p.s. -- how do you pronounce your first name?

[JMeganSnow]

  What about the masses. How do we take what Ayn Rand has put forth and spread it to everyone. I understand there is a lack of knowledge, that many people are unaware of their own strength and given their power away to a God, to an ideal, to a corporation, and to an idea of the way they feel they must live their lives.

Education right? But can we educate everyone and is it even our place to educate everyone? Are they even listening? Some people just aren't strong enough to be Roark or Dagney, or Fransisco, or Hank.

It is easy to be sad or angry or frustrated because people "just won't listen", but there is no need for it. Every individual must choose for themselves whether to think or not think, whether to accept the beliefs of others or the reasoning of their own mind as primary.

It is the simple truth that Objectivism cannot be indoctrinated into others; they can learn about it from Objectivists but the work has to go on inside their own mind. The best instructor in Objectivism is reality itself.

Welcome to the Forum!

[ChristopherSchlegel]

Survival of the fittest...

It is precisely capitalism that allows the weak to survive.

Excellent reply; right to the point.

But can we educate everyone and is it even our place to educate everyone?

Introducing people to Rand's glorious art & philosophy is a one great way to properly "educate everyone". Spreading the ideas publicly & privately is also. This forum is an excellent manner of info dissemination. In the end though, it is an issue of individual minds grasping the necessary concepts.

You say you are reading Atlas Shrugged so I don't want to ruin it for you, but I don't think this is giving anything away (i.e. spoilers, etc.).

There is a line in it that has long stuck in my mind. It always comes back when I read/hear someone talking about this issue:

"You will not enter it until you learn you do not need to convince or conquer the world."

-John Galt in Atlas Shrugged

I want to someday be an author, I want to have children, to have a love, a dog, and many beautiful days in which I use my legs, arms, mind and heart. It's really simple and grand at the same time; I just want to live my life, have my practice, teach my children the virtues of selfishness and in my doing so be able to spread by example.

That made me smile. You have a great sense of life there in "it's really simple & grand at the same time..." Please continue to read Rand so you can back up your benevolent sense of life with an explicit philosophical foundation.

I wish you well with all your values.

Christopher Schlegel