Lay Down Your Whims and Weapons I’ve said in several places on social media now that Rand does not grant you permission to defend yourself. Of all issues, I get rebuked by Objectivists, “That is blatantly false!” No, dudes. Rand does not let you defend yourself. Here’s the quote: There is only one basic principle …
Author Archives: Rebam98
If you achieve that which is the good by a rational standard of value, it will necessarily make you happy. Right.
Shrugging Objectivism As noted, I’ve come a long way since shrugging Objectivism. As noted, I think it’s because I don’t think happiness is an achievement. Rand’s explicit position is that happiness is an achievement of one’s values and achieving your values “necessarily” makes you happy. From Rand, But the relationship of cause to effect cannot …
Objectivists on Education
Objectivists on Education In education, Objectivism is especially poor. Everything comes down to cognitive knowledge and hierarchy in Objectivism. They take no look at children and how they might best learn. They think they do, and that makes it worse. They think they understand the epistemological processes of the brain–comparing this and that, developing concepts–and …
The Fallout Of Objectivism’s Morality
The Fallout Of Objectivism’s Morality The fallout of this is enormous. Rand passes such heavy moral judgment on so many things as to shut down curiosity into many areas of human life. On the subconscious alone, she makes this sweeping statement: The enormously powerful integrating mechanism of man’s consciousness is there at birth; his only …
What Happens When You Judge Your Emotions as Rational or Irrational
We. Control. Emotions. Something I find most interesting is that Rand only talks about emotions prolifically when she talks about art. I re-read almost all of Rand’s non-fiction again to write Towards Liberalism. The only places I found she discussed emotions were in in Galt’s speech in Atlas Shrugged, “The Objectivist Ethics” in The Virtue …
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The Objectivist View on Emotions: Setting Happiness to Serve You
As I write on the main page of this site, Ayn Rand has you dominating and programming your emotions. Your only choice, according to her, is taking the reins over this process or letting it happen haphazardly. Your values, again according to Rand, determine your very emotions: how you respond to life events: with joy, …
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Objectivist Rationalizations
As I’ve written Towards Liberalism: A Challenge to Objectivist Ethics, I’ve gone head to head with several Objectivists about their philosophy. Some have thanked me for “helping to clarify their thinking.” While I want to take pride in doing that, I have found I am not at all helping them evolve in their thinking. Instead, …
Abuse Lives Because It is Morally Sanctioned: Moral Paradigms Matter
This is a chapter in The Moral Bias of Objectivism Moral Paradigms Matter As I wrote this book and took its message to others, I realized I am challenging such deeply held views about human nature, moral paradigms, and abuse, that it’s necessary to address the widely held assumptions about these issues right away. There …
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Defining the “Rational” as “Moral” is The Fertile Soil for ABUSE
First, as I argue, at Check your Tools, Rand doesn’t just push “reason” to be a “tool to study reality.” She pushes it to be a “way to be in all waking hours for all decisions.” She writes: The virtue of Rationality means the recognition and acceptance of reason as one’s only source of knowledge; …
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“It’s Objectivism or communism” — Ayn Rand
I don’t make this shit up, loves. This appears in the chapter “Check Your Tools” in The Moral Bias of Objectivism. Objectivism Needs to be “Better than Communism” When I challenge Objectivism, people sniff, “And what about all the GOOD that it does? Why can’t you focus on that?” They typically point to Rand’s devastating …
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