I don’t usually do introduction threads anymore, but I absolutely had to make an exception for this forum.
I am an undergrad junior in college. I’ve read Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, Anthem, parts of We The Living (though honestly I found it boring, so I kinda stopped), Philosophy: Who Needs It, The Anti-Industrial Revolution, and Selfishness: The Unknown Ideal.
I am honestly thankful that this forum exists. In my life, I’ve been betrayed by three people who’ve read and agreed with Rand’s philosophy.
One of them joined a frat (a brotherhood of non-values, as I come to understand it) and basically ignored what it means to be responsible for one’s word. I don’t know what happened to him.
One of them flunked out of college and decided not to come back when he had the capacity to work hard and get at the very least passing grades.
One of them is basically an airhead who, albeit works hard, uses her femininity to try to get men to do things for her. She assumes that her wanting something will allow her to get it.
I look around me, and the other people I’ve come to associate with are people who have no regard for morality or scruples, or who just don’t know what to think about life (lightly religious but otherwise friendly folk). Thankfully, I have a wonderful and loving girlfriend who’s slowly getting more into objectivism and has always agreed with Rand.
I understand that one’s background is not very important, so in case you didn’t read any of the above, I’d just like to thank you again for letting me know that people like you do exist, and that you are capable of so much honesty. I think I’m going to be happy here. I’ve got some catching up to do to the large majority of you on applying objectivism to situations (from observation of how you reply to posts), but I plan to get there very soon.
In the mean time, I think I’ll lurk the forums and absorb the knowledge that I can. I’ll start posting a few questions of some possible contradictions that I saw with Rand’s argument. I’d like to see how they can be deconstructed, if they can be at all.
One of them flunked out of college and decided not to come back when he had the capacity to work hard and get at the very least passing grades.
How is that a “betrayal” of you? It’s his life and perhaps he finds modern college to be particularly obnoxious. A person doesn’t necessarily give up their brain if they drop out of college. Ask Bill Gates (though I’m sure he didn’t flunk, he just had better things to do.)
I should have clarified. It wasn’t me specifically who they were betraying, but their principles that they held on to be so dear.
That being said, I knew him very well. I’d argue that he was my best friend. He loved it here at Penn. He was essentially a genius (160-something IQ, may not in itself say anything, but is an indicator that he wasn’t braindead), and he was very disappointed to go. He said that he would return in one year, after his academic probation was over, but after a few months of staying home, he just gave up. Worst of all, he didn’t even bother TELLING my roommate and me about his flunking out, and we had to hunt him down through roundabout phone calls to get him to admit that he wasn’t coming back, a few weeks after we had heard of his decision. You’d imagine that if you have good friends who are anxiously awaiting your return (and we were), you’d at least give us a notice that you aren’t actually returning.
You’d imagine that if you have good friends who are anxiously awaiting your return (and we were), you’d at least give us a notice that you aren’t actually returning.
If he’s in a normal state of mind. Perhaps he’s depressed?
But therein was the root of his betrayal. I could understand and accept that he chose to not go back to school; it’s his decision. However, in not informing us of either his dropping out or his not coming back, he has essentially neglected the very minimal responsibility of owing up to his own actions. Regardless of whether he has depression or not, he ought to at least tell his friends what he is doing instead of pretending that we’d go away if he ignores/avoids us.
Major depression is a psychologial illness. If you don’t care whether you live or die it’s really hard to give a damn whether you’re keeping up with your friends on the phone.
Fortunately, it’s also usually treatable with some combination of medication and therapy, although I don’t know about curable.