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"Rite of Passage"


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A man's method of using his consciousness determines his method of survival. The three contestants are Attila, the Witch Doctor and the Producer—or the man of force, the man of feelings, the man of reason—or the brute, the mystic, the thinker. The rest of mankind calls it expedient to be tossed by the current of events from one of those roles to another, not choosing to identify the fact that those three are the source which determines the current's direction.

The producers, so far, have been the forgotten men of history. With the exception of a few brief periods, the producers have not been the leaders or the term-setters of men's societies, although the degree of their influence and freedom was the degree of a society's welfare and progress. Most societies have been ruled by Attila and the Witch Doctor. The cause is not some innate tendency to evil in human nature, but the fact that reason is a volitional faculty which man has to choose to discover, employ and preserve. Irrationality is a state of default, the state of an unachieved human stature. When men do not choose to reach the conceptual level, their consciousness has no recourse but to its automatic, perceptual, semi-animal functions.

— For The New Intellectual, pg. 21

So, as a question to the forgotten producers, what might it take to institutionalize the desire to reach the conceptual level—as a traditional "rite of passage"?

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  • 3 years later...

dream_weaver,

To institutionalize the desire to reach the conceptual level,

all we have to do is read, wait, and watch.

It will take 50 years, but by 2070, the United States government will become a minarchist state.

Military, police, law courts.

Why?

Because the left and the right goes back and forth arguing: "Government is good." "Government is bad."

Eventually, we will realize that neither is true and both are true.

Government serves a purpose. As long as it is serving that purpose, it is good.

The young people of a nation grow older and are a witness to change.

As they witness change they grow wiser, but also more powerful.

With greater wisdom, we will eventually ask the government to concede much of its power to the private sector.

This is what the constitution says: all power not exercised by the federal government is reserved to the states, or to the people. The key is to the people.

People will learn that they have power, and that their power comes the rights they cherish and the wealth they make by their own effort.

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@Sebastien, your addressing this post brings to light the omission of what is a "Rite of Passage". In many cultures, this is a ceremony marking a passage from boyhood to manhood, or a transition from a girl to a woman.

As conceptual beings, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology refers to various approaches young minds take when acquiring new concepts. She outlines several approaches. 

Perhaps what I'm asking potentially amounts to wishful thinking. Still the fact such approaches can be articulated implies a superior approach can be desired and sought after.

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I would suggest that instead of a brief, concentrated rite of passage, we need an ongoing process of pointing children in the right direction by precept and example.

Bad ideas do a lot to hold people back from the conceptual level.  As better ideas spread, we will get better results.

On 9/24/2021 at 7:37 AM, Sebastien said:

all we have to do is read, wait, and watch.

To the extent that we also write and talk, we will help the process along. 

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