just curious...

Introductions and Personal Notes
1

Hello all!

I am the green drow. I have just discovered this forum today and I find it absolutely fascinating… I have heard about Ayn Rand and read some, but for the moment I am more intrigued by the people that believe in her ideas…

So please tell me, who are you? What do you do for a living? Tell me how these ideas made your life better…

I have seen that many of you spend a great deal of time in this forum… How do you manage living a normal life (working, family…) and being such an active member?

2

Hello,

My name is Megan Robinson and I am an undergrad history student at Temple Uniersity in Philadelphia. I plan to pick up a double-major in philosophy, and go to grad school to earn my Ph.D in philosophy. I haven’t had as much time as I used to for the forum (between classes and being hooked on Atlas Shrugged), but the urge to discuss interesting issues with the most intelligent people availible is nearly magnetic.

I would tell you that I am a great admirer of Ayn Rand, but that would be redundant, would it not?

3

Hmm. This thread probably belongs in the Introductions board. The mods will move it if they think it’s in the wrong spot.

The best way to learn about the forum members is to read their posts; there are a couple of good threads for personal history like the “Objectivism Research” one on this (Miscellaneous) board. It’s also good to read some of the Introductions.

The only question I haven’t answered elswhere is “How do I manage living a normal life . . .”

As of the moment, integrating my philosophy IS my life. I engage in a few side activities such as working to keep mind and body together, and the occasional game with some friends so that I don’t begin speaking in tongues.

A lot of the members tend to be pretty young; Objectivism is a philosophy for people that still believe Ideas Matter, and most people start to realize that in their late teens and early twenties.

4

I have seen that many of you spend a great deal of time in this forum… How do you manage living a normal life (working, family…) and being such an active member?

I’m attached to my computer. I work online, I play online, and my *family* is on line, so it’s kinda like asking how I manage to walk and chew gum :slight_smile: Most the time it’s no problem, but every now and again I trip over my keyboard. :smiley:

A question for you though. Do you enter many forums this way? Asking what they are talking about and why they make time to do it? Maybe it’s a research project on forums in general?

5

I’m new here too, but to get to the point I am a business man in the rough. There were many things that I had not named but practiced, Ayn Rand named them and more in Atlas Shrugged.

6

Hello all!

I am the green drow. I have just discovered this forum today and I find it absolutely fascinating… I have heard about Ayn Rand and read some, but for the moment I am more intrigued by the people that believe in her ideas…

So please tell me, who are you? What do you do for a living? Tell me how these ideas made your life better…

I have seen that many of you spend a great deal of time in this forum… How do you manage living a normal life (working, family…) and being such an active member?

Why are you so interested in people who believe in Ayn Rand’s ideas without being interested in Ayn Rand’s ideas yourself?

As to your other question, I don’t think anyone spends more than an aggregated hour a day on this website - which is a perfectly reasonable amount of time to give to a nice hobby. How could you possibly justify that question and the insinuation behind it?

7

Why are you so interested in people who believe in Ayn Rand’s ideas without being interested in Ayn Rand’s ideas yourself?

As to your other question, I don’t think anyone spends more than an aggregated hour a day on this website - which is a perfectly reasonable amount of time to give to a nice hobby. How could you possibly justify that question and the insinuation behind it?

As I already said I asked that because I am simply curious… But I find it interesting that you’re the only one who felt like there was an insinuation…

How come everybody else just answered my questions, while you haven’t answered a single one, but started an attack on my motives… I didn’t ask how much time you spend in the forum; I just asked how you manage being such an active member… I have spent many hours reading the posts yesterday and many members where online for more than 4 hours… I am not saying there is something wrong in it, I just wanted to understand what kind of a life an Objectivist has…

As for everybody else, thank you for answering… The only question I didn’t get an answer to is “How these ideas made your life better?”

8

We get our share of trolls here, so you’ll have to understand that we treat newbies with an amount of suspicion. Don’t be discouraged by the “immigration officer”-like questions; they are asked in order to make sure that the forum remains what it is–a gathering place for serious and honest students of Objectivism.

The only question I didn’t get an answer to is “How these ideas made your life better?”

I think the reason no one has tackled this question is that we do not want to write novels. :slight_smile: But perhaps I can offer you an analogy: Studying Objectivism is like de-misting the windscreen of your car–you can see everything much clearer and get a lot more confident about where you are going.

9

Time: I spend all my working day and much of my non-working time at a computer. So, I keep checking some recreational sites. This is one of them.

10

Allow me to say this: Before I started reading Objectivist literature, fiction and non-fiction, I was a very different person than I am now. Though I was always actively searching for a standard by which to live my life(morality), the content to which I was ascribing cause many problems for me rationally and emotionally, so much so that I went through a time of depression. I was being treated for it with Prozac when I first picked up Atlas Shrugged. By the time I was done with the book, my depression had begun to fade away because I knew I had found the object of my searching. I never took another Prozac again. People I knew asked me what had changed in me. I was generally happier. I started to get along with my parents. Granted, it has still taken me a long time to CONSCIOUSLY integrate the proper concepts into my daily life, but I had found a sense of deeper peace and understanding that everything would be okay if I just kept working on it. That is the short story of how Objectivism made my life better. I’ll write the longer version in my memoirs after my two terms in the White House are over. :frowning:

11

As I already said I asked that because I am simply curious… But I find it interesting that you’re the only one who felt like there was an insinuation…

How come everybody else just answered my questions, while you haven’t answered a single one, but started an attack on my motives… I didn’t ask how much time you spend in the forum; I just asked how you manage being such an active member… I have spent many hours reading the posts yesterday and many members where online for more than 4 hours… I am not saying there is something wrong in it, I just wanted to understand what kind of a life an Objectivist has…

As for everybody else, thank you for answering… The only question I didn’t get an answer to is “How these ideas made your life better?”

“Just curious” is not an answer to my first question. I’m interested to know where is your curiosity coming from. As I see it, it can either be hostility or attraction to Objectivism. So which is it? Don’t worry, you’ll not get banned for admitting you have deep disagreements with Objectivism. But please be honest about it, either way.

As for the “insinuation” I saw in your post - I’m happy to discover it wasn’t intended. I don’t think any of the most active members spend more time here than they can afford.

As to the ways in which Objectivism makes life better. Well… think of it as having a pair of X-ray glasses that allow you to see to the bottom of every issue, and better understand the essentials, the forces that drive people, events, and the history of nations.

In terms of morality, think of never having to feel unearned guilt, frustration, confusion or depression.

In terms of your personal life - think of it filled with things you value, admire, enjoy, and learn from every day. And think that you understand fully WHY you feel the way you do about them, and knowing that it is RIGHT to feel that way.

Think of being at peace with yourself and the world around you, not as a matter of mindless, momentary refuge - but as your constant and rightful state as a moral, productive, rational man living his life on an earth he loves.

Objectivists still need to struggle, they still have problems, pains, and defeats - but they don’t seem to matter as much as what can and ought to be accomplished in this life.

And last, but not necessarily least, think of all the great people you get to meet and share all those values with.