THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS by Ayn Rand
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JOHNLGALT
Well-Known Member
Go down under the article to Open Comments, CLICK on it & you will find 100 interesting comments there. _JOHNLGALT.
https://fee.org/articles/no-ayn-rand-did-not-want-us-to-be-selfish/
https://fee.org/articles/no-ayn-rand-did-not-want-us-to-be-selfish/
That sort of information is a waste of time on a forum like this.
I have found gold and silver stackers to be some of the most selfish people around.
None of them are content with just one or two pieces of the shiny precious metals, instead
they go to incredible length to acquire as much as they possibly can.
JOHNNY GALT if you practiced what you preached I don't think you would be a stacker
I have found gold and silver stackers to be some of the most selfish people around.
None of them are content with just one or two pieces of the shiny precious metals, instead
they go to incredible length to acquire as much as they possibly can.
JOHNNY GALT if you practiced what you preached I don't think you would be a stacker
Rand is not talking about selfishness in the way it is commonly understood, she basically argues that we need to act in a way that is in our best self-interest and ensure that our actions do not harm the best self-interests of others.
Self-responsibility is the first step, don’t play a victim and don’t play a fraud.
Self-responsibility is the first step, don’t play a victim and don’t play a fraud.
Ta for the link JG. Something to listen to whilst dealing with Sydney traffic. Probably long enough to cover a week's general driving.
JOHNLGALT
Well-Known Member
Don't be selfish now, tell the other drivers.
One day you will be 72 Y/old & be able to stay home with the heater on, (sorry, the pension won't be there though). _JLG.
JOHNLGALT
Well-Known Member
That sort of information is a waste of time on a forum like this.
I have found gold and silver stackers to be some of the most selfish people around.
None of them are content with just one or two pieces of the shiny precious metals, instead
they go to incredible length to acquire as much as they possibly can.
JOHNNY GALT if you practiced what you preached I don't think you would be a stacker
If you disagree with Ayn Rand & Her Philosophy, you may want to poke a knife into an electrical power point & see if her objectivist & rational points are valid.
She told you that to live, you have to be rational & make rational choices. if you disbelieve this theory, pick up a knife & try it out. Nope, I thought not.
@Stoic Phoenix they’re good reads mate. I’d recommend starting with “Anthem”, it’s a novel about self-awareness and the value of the individual. Then “The Fountainhead “ which is a precursor to “Atlas Shrugged” so basically it’s about refusing to sacrifice yourself to the desires or plans of others.
Then you can look toward the great tome.
Then you can look toward the great tome.
She isn't in the same class as Nietzsche. Rand is an ideologist reacting against the communists in Russia by taking an opposite extreme.
The idea that selfishness is a virtue is almost a contradiction in terms. It is the fragmentation of individualism taken to its logical extreme.
The idea that selfishness is a virtue is almost a contradiction in terms. It is the fragmentation of individualism taken to its logical extreme.
"What have we here laddie, mysterious scribblings, a secret code?"
"No? Poems, no less. Poems, everybody! [class laughs]"
"The laddie recons himself a poet! [class laughs]"
[Teacher recites] "Money, get back, I'm alright Jack, keep your hands off my stack. [class laughs]"
"New car, caviar, four star day dream, I think I'll buy me a football team. [class laughs]"
"Absolute rubbish laddie! [smacks him] Get on with your work!"
"No? Poems, no less. Poems, everybody! [class laughs]"
"The laddie recons himself a poet! [class laughs]"
[Teacher recites] "Money, get back, I'm alright Jack, keep your hands off my stack. [class laughs]"
"New car, caviar, four star day dream, I think I'll buy me a football team. [class laughs]"
"Absolute rubbish laddie! [smacks him] Get on with your work!"
I haven't read any Nietzsche, but I think they were on the same page regarding individual self-fulfilment.
I can't say I agree with you there. Whilst she made it abundantly clear that she was no supporter of communism, there is no mention of it in any of the works I've read. Probably the closest condemnation of it is in her first novel "The Anthem". Neither of her two subsequent novels make any mention of communism, on the contrary, they are chiefly devoted to individual self-fulfilment and the danger that the State poses in democratic societies. Though I'm certain many of her interviews broached the topic.
Now a novel I can highly recommend that does a great job of dispelling the myth of communism is Time Will Run Back: A Novel About the Rediscovery of Capitalism by Henry Hazlitt.
It's a reaction to the notion that altruism is somehow a worthy principle. If one argues that it is morally right to sacrifice oneself for others, then it's a small logical step to also expect that it is morally right for others to be sacrificed for yourself and even more sinister, that it is morally right for others to be sacrificed for others look at Hiroshima or Nagasaki as an example. The latter forms the moral justification for much of the State's violence and plundering, popularised by Marx and others as "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs". In other words it is considered virtuous we sacrifice ourselves to meet the needs and wants of others.
This is what Rand found so distasteful and why she devoted most her life to arguing that if you can't love yourself and meet your own needs, then you can't love anyone else and help them meet their needs.
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