Tag Archives: Objectivism

The Wisdom of Ayn Rand on Man

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Just as religion has pre-empted the field of ethics, turning morality against man, so it has usurped the highest moral concepts of our language, placing them outside this earth and beyond man’s reach. “Exaltation” is usually taken to mean an emotional state evoked by contemplating the supernatural. “Worship” means the emotional experience of loyalty and dedication to something higher than man. “Reverence” means the emotion of a sacred respect, to be experienced on one’s knees. “Sacred” means superior to and not-to-be-touched-by any concerns of man or of this earth. Etc.

But such concepts do name actual emotions, even though no supernatural dimension exists; and these emotions are experienced as uplifting or ennobling, without the self-abasement required by religious definitions. What, then, is their source or referent in reality? It is the entire emotional realm of man’s dedication to a moral ideal. Yet apart from the man-degrading aspects introduced by religion, that emotional realm is left unidentified, without concepts, words or recognition.

It is this highest level of man’s emotions that has to be redeemed from the murk of mysticism and redirected at its proper object: man.

It is in this sense, with this meaning and intention, that I would identify the sense of life dramatized in The Fountainhead as man worship.

It is an emotion that a few—a very few—men experience consistently; some men experience it in rare, single sparks that flash and die without consequences; some do not know what I am talking about; some do and spend their lives as frantically virulent spark-extinguishers.

Do not confuse “man worship” with the many attempts, not to emancipate morality from religion and bring it into the realm of reason, but to substitute a secular meaning for the worst, the most profoundly irrational elements of religion. For instance, there are all the variants of modern collectivism (communist, fascist, Nazi, etc.), which preserve the religious-altruist ethics in full and merely substitute “society” for God as the beneficiary of man’s self-immolation. There are the various schools of modern philosophy which, rejecting the law of identity, proclaim that reality is an indeterminate flux ruled by miracles and shaped by whims—not God’s whims, but man’s or “society’s.” These neomystics are not man-worshipers; they are merely the secularizers of as profound a hatred for man as that of their avowedly mystic predecessors.

A cruder variant of the same hatred is represented by those concrete-bound, “statistical” mentalities who—unable to grasp the meaning of man’s volition—declare that man cannot be an object of worship, since they have never encountered any specimens of humanity who deserved it.

The man-worshipers, in my sense of the term, are those who see man’s highest potential and strive to actualize it. . . . [Man-worshipers are] those dedicated to the exaltation of man’s self-esteem and the sacredness of his happiness on earth.

This view of man has rarely been expressed in human history. Today, it is virtually non-existent. Yet this is the view with which—in various degrees of longing, wistfulness, passion and agonized confusion—the best of mankind’s youth start out in life. It is not even a view, for most of them, but a foggy, groping, undefined sense made of raw pain and incommunicable happiness. It is a sense of enormous expectation, the sense that one’s life is important, that great achievements are within one’s capacity, and that great things lie ahead.

It is not in the nature of man—nor of any living entity—to start out by giving up, by spitting in one’s own face and damning existence; that requires a process of corruption, whose rapidity differs from man to man. Some give up at the first touch of pressure; some sell out; some run down by imperceptible degrees and lose their fire, never knowing when or how they lost it. Then all of these vanish in the vast swamp of their elders who tell them persistently that maturity consists of abandoning one’s mind; security, of abandoning one’s values; practicality, of losing self-esteem. Yet a few hold on and move on, knowing that that fire is not to be betrayed, learning how to give it shape, purpose and reality. But whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man’s nature and of life’s potential.

The Wisdom of Ayn Rand

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Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter.

The government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.

When I disagree with a rational man, I let reality be our final arbiter; if I am right, he will learn; if I am wrong, I will; one of us will win, but both will profit.

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter.

There is no such thing as a lousy job – only lousy men who don’t care to do it.

The Wisdom of Ayn Rand: Civil Disobedience

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Civil disobedience may be justifiable, in some cases, when and if an individual disobeys a law in order to bring an issue to court, as a test case. Such an action involves respect for legality and a protest directed only at a particular law which the individual seeks an opportunity to prove to be unjust. The same is true of a group of individuals when and if the risks involved are their own.

But there is no justification, in a civilized society, for the kind of mass civil disobedience that involves the violation of the rights of others—regardless of whether the demonstrators’ goal is good or evil. The end does not justify the means. No one’s rights can be secured by the violation of the rights of others. Mass disobedience is an assault on the concept of rights: it is a mob’s defiance of legality as such.

The forcible occupation of another man’s property or the obstruction of a public thoroughfare is so blatant a violation of rights that an attempt to justify it becomes an abrogation of morality. An individual has no right to do a “sit-in” in the home or office of a person he disagrees with—and he does not acquire such a right by joining a gang. Rights are not a matter of numbers—and there can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions forbidden to an individual, but permitted to a mob.

The only power of a mob, as against an individual, is greater muscular strength—i.e., plain, brute physical force. The attempt to solve social problems by means of physical force is what a civilized society is established to prevent. The advocates of mass civil disobedience admit that their purpose is intimidation. A society that tolerates intimidation as a means of settling disputes—the physical intimidation of some men or groups by others—loses its moral right to exist as a social system, and its collapse does not take long to follow.

Politically, mass civil disobedience is appropriate only as a prelude to civil war—as the declaration of a total break with a country’s political institutions.

From “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal”

Wisdom of Ayn Rand: The Trader Principle

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There is no conflict of interests among men who do not desire the unearned, who do not make sacrifices nor accept them, who deal with one another as traders, giving value for value.

The principle of trade is the only rational ethical principle for all human relationships, personal and social, private and public, spiritual and material. It is the principle of justice.

A trader is a man who earns what he gets and does not give or take the undeserved. He does not treat men as masters or slaves, but as independent equals. He deals with men by means of a free, voluntary, unforced, uncoerced exchange—an exchange which benefits both parties by their own independent judgment. A trader does not expect to be paid for his defaults, only for his achievements. He does not switch to others the burden of his failures, and he does not mortgage his life into bondage to the failures of others.

In spiritual issues—(by “spiritual” I mean: “pertaining to man’s consciousness”)—the currency or medium of exchange is different, but the principle is the same. Love, friendship, respect, admiration are the emotional response of one man to the virtues of another, the spiritual payment given in exchange for the personal, selfish pleasure which one man derives from the virtues of another man’s character. Only a brute or an altruist would claim that the appreciation of another person’s virtues is an act of selflessness, that as far as one’s own selfish interest and pleasure are concerned, it makes no difference whether one deals with a genius or a fool, whether one meets a hero or a thug, whether one marries an ideal woman or a slut. In spiritual issues, a trader is a man who does not seek to be loved for his weaknesses or flaws, only for his virtues, and who does not grant his love to the weaknesses or the flaws of others, only to their virtues.

The symbol of all relationships among [rational] men, the moral symbol of respect for human beings, is the trader. We, who live by values, not by loot, are traders, both in matter and in spirit. A trader is a man who earns what he gets and does not give or take the undeserved. A trader does not ask to be paid for his failures, nor does he ask to be loved for his flaws. A trader does not squander his body as fodder or his soul as alms. Just as he does not give his work except in trade for material values, so he does not give the values of his spirit—his love, his friendship, his esteem—except in payment and in trade for human virtues, in payment for his own selfish pleasure, which he receives from men he can respect. The mystic parasites who have, throughout the ages, reviled the traders and held them in contempt, while honoring the beggars and the looters, have known the secret motive of their sneers: a trader is the entity they dread—a man of justice.

The trader and the warrior have been fundamental antagonists throughout history. Trade does not flourish on battlefields, factories do not produce under bombardments, profits do not grow on rubble. Capitalism is a society of traders—for which it has been denounced by every would-be gunman who regards trade as “selfish” and conquest as “noble.”

Ayn Rand on the Welfare State

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“Morally and economically, the welfare state creates an ever accelerating downward pull. Morally, the chance to satisfy demands by force spreads the demands wider and wider, with less and less pretense at justification. Economically, the forced demands of one group create hardships for all others, thus producing an inextricable mixture of actual victims and plain parasites.” -Ayn Rand on the Welfare State

Americans Must Know that Democrats Support the Riots

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often see conservative commentators, both on TV and on social media, asking for Democrats to condemn the rioters or to at least state why they will not do that. While I am sure that those commentators are well-intentioned, they are obviously missing the point. Democrats have not condemned the riots and will not do so because, unlike conservatives and the independents that value the rule of law and private property, they do not cherish or even respect Western norms. In fact, they hate Western civilization. Therefore, I think it is fair to say that Democrats support the riots that are burning down America’s greatest cities.

Well, perhaps “greatest cities” is a bit too far. Chicago is full of corruption and crime, New York has been controlled by leftists for decades now, and the cities on the West Coast that have seen such high levels of Antifa violence are, well, cities on the West Coast. But, other than that, I think that everything I just said is absolutely true; Democrats support the riots and, as a result, will not condemn them.

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Examples of Ways That Democrats Support Anarchism and Rioters

We can see that Democrat support for anarchism and riots in many aspects of life.

Example 1: Their Messaging and Refusing to Condemn Anarchy and Violence

The first, and most obvious one, is their refusal to condemn the violence of the Antifa thugs and BLM Marxists. Whereas Republicans and Independents have stood against a complete breakdown of law and order, Democrats seem to have stood in support of that breakdown and have even egged it on.

Whenever and wherever there is a shooting of a black person, whether that person happens to be armed or not, Democrats step in to spread the seeds of chaos and attack the foundations of law and order, which is tantamount to attacking civil society. They use lies, deceit, and highly emotional speeches to urge people to commit acts of violence.

In any case, whatever tactics they use to start riots, it is obvious that Democrats support the riots because their support for the rioters is as vociferous and ubiquitous as it is uninformed and reality-defyingly stupid.

They step in to defend the people burning down Targets and other stores and describe them as “peaceful protesters.” When the media has a chance, it and its allies on the left fan the flames of Antifa’s riots. And every single time they have an opportunity to mourn the death of a career criminal, they do so. At no point while doing those things do Democrats ever condemn the riots or even express sympathy for the business-owners whose lives have been ruined by these vast orgies of destruction.

All of that is evidence that the Democrats support the riots and cases of domestic terrorism that are raging around America right now. They stand on the side of criminals, not the side of law-abiding Americans. Their messaging shows that.

Example 2 of How Democrats Support the Riots: Democrats Support Defunding the Police

The next example of why it is so obvious that Democrats support the riots is that they support defunding the police and leaving our communities at the mercy of rabid rioters that seek to do nothing more than to loot and destroy.

If anyone in the Democratic Party wanted to stop the riots, or at least slow them, they would be calling for increases in spending on the police right now. Like Republicans, they would want to defend the police and send them the necessary equipment to keep rioters in check.

However, Democrats support the riots so that is not what they want nor is it what they call for. Instead, Democrats support defunding the police. They want to turn Michigan into Somalia. Portland into the Wild West. New York into post-invasion Baghdad, the utter hell of which is well-documented in The Great War for Civilization. Those places were or are anarchic because there is no effective police force to defend the natural rights of citizens. If Democrats get their way and defund the police, America’s cities will resemble them.

So, that’s another great reason of why I know that Democrats support the riots. If they wanted to stop those horrific actions and prevent rioting, they would defend the police. But they are not. Instead, they are trying to remove the thin blue line between law-abiding Americans and the criminal elements of society.

Example 3: Democrats Want to Attack and Redistribute Private Property

Like other good socialists, Democrats hate the idea of private property. That is why they support unconstitutional wealth taxes. It is why they want to increase the regulatory state and make it harder for you to start a business and earn money. Their hatred of private property is what drives their agenda.

(Un)coincidentally, it also is what drives the BLM and Antifa rioters, almost all of whom are communists. They hate the idea that people who work hard and follow the simple path to success in America could possibly earn more than they do. So, to “correct” that “injustice” they burn down small businesses, loot luxury goods, and steal from and attack law-abiding citizens.

How does that show that Democrats support the riots? Because they have openly defended those actions! The always incompetent and idiotic AOC, for example, recently described BLM looters that were stealing plasma screen TVs as people simply taking “bread to feed their starving children.” Yes, she really said that. As usual, she was wrong. They were not taking bread. They were stealing goods.

And what if they were stealing bread? Would that be permissible? Is need the only payment necessary? No, of course not! In America, we value private property. As Ayn Rand says in Atlas Shrugged, there is no justification for taking private property simply because you “need” it. Civil society is dependent on respecting private property and the government punishing those that do not. Hence why governments that are just have always defended the property of their citizens.

But Democrats support the riots, not justice. Hence why they are attacking private property and encouraging the looters to engage in theft.

Conclusion

In my mind, there is no possible justification for rioting. Peacefully protesting is one thing, although even that is something I disagree with if it means that commerce is in any way restricted. But rioting and looting is evil. It is, in effect, placing your wants at the pinnacle of human existence and denying your fellow citizens their rights in the process.

So, Americans need to see that Democrats support the riots and are doing everything in their power to spark more riots and advance their ideology of anarchism. We need to understand that they are not just an opposition party with slightly different beliefs about what America should be like. In reality, they are a party of looters that wants to rob Peter to pay Paul. Professional looters in D.C. and amateur looters on the streets of every major city.

By: Gen Z Conservative

The Wisdom of Ayn Rand

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“Productiveness is your acceptance of morality, your recognition of the fact that you choose to live–that productive work is the process by which man’s consciousness controls his existence, a constant process of acquiring knowledge and shaping matter to fit one’s purpose, of translating an idea into physical form, of remaking the earth in the image of one’s values–that all work is creative work if done by a thinking mind, and no work is creative if done by a blank who repeats in uncritical stupor a routine he has learned from others–that your work is yours to choose, and the choice is as wide as your mind, that nothing more is possible to you and nothing less is human–that to cheat your way into a job bigger than your mind can handle is to become a fear-corroded ape on borrowed motions and borrowed time, and to settle down into a job that requires less than your mind’s full capacity is to cut your motor and sentence yourself to another kind of motion: decay–that your work is the process of achieving your values, and to lose your ambition for values is to lose your ambition to live–that your body is a machine, but your mind is its driver, and you must drive as far as your mind will take you, with achievement as the goal of your road–that the man who has no purpose is a machine that coasts downhill at the mercy of any boulder to crash in the first chance ditch, that the man who stifles his mind is a stalled machine slowly going to rust, that the man who lets a leader prescribe his course is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap, and the man who makes another man his goal is a hitchhiker no driver should ever pick up–that your work is the purpose of your life, and you must speed past any killer who assumes the right to stop you, that any value you might find outside your work, any other loyalty or love, can be only travelers you choose to share your journey and must be travelers going on their own power in the same direction.”

― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

“Do you know the hallmark of a second rater? It’s resentment of another man’s achievement. Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest someone’s work prove greater than their own – they have no inkling of the loneliness that comes when you reach the top. The loneliness for an equal – for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire. They bare their teeth at you from out of their rat holes,thinking that you take pleasure in letting your brilliance dim them – while you’d give a year of my life to see a flicker of talent anywhere among them. They envy achievement, and their dream of greatness is a world where all men have become their acknowledged inferiors. They don’t know that that dream is the infallible proof of mediocrity, because that sort of world is what the man of achievement would not be able to bear. They have no way of knowing what he feels when surrounded by inferiors – hatred? no, not hatred, but boredom – the terrible, hopeless, draining, paralyzing boredom. Of what account are praise and adulation from men whom you don’t respect? Have you ever felt the longing for someone you could admire? For something, not to look down at, but up to?”
“I’ve felt it all my life,” she said.”

― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received — hatred. The great creators — the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors — stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.”

― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead