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 choice is to drive it or be driven by it. (The Romantic Manifesto, 27)
That’s a hell of a statement and one totally errant, in my research and study. I study the age-related stages children go through. The subconscious is not a malicious thing that we need to take the reins over before it does damage. It’s a powerful, healthy thing that does the lion’s share of mental development in a child and is where most human life actually lives. It speaks to us in the emotions it bubbles up in us and our children. If we trust it and respect it, life goes better. But Rand, a philosopher who wrote fiction books, who never studied any actual people, and never had a successful psychology practice, makes this sweeping statement. This is why I think philosophers are to psychologists what alchemists were to chemists.
Rand directly says you have no reliable instincts or intuition to guide you. Any little voice in your head guiding you is damned as mysticism. Any work into intuition is thus halted. The handiest way to refute Objectivism is to start studying Carl Jung. Jungian psychology says we have ancient wisdom etched in our collective consciousness. We are born with the stories of our ancestors somewhere in us. When you study human’s dreams, children’s imaginary friends and the repeat cycles human put themselves in, it becomes hard to deny Jung’s theories. Jungian analysts do a tremendous amount of good in the world. They are constantly trying to get people to understand their natural personality. Dr. Aron, who wrote The Highly Sensitive Person, is a Jungian analyst. Dr. Pinkola Estes, who wrote Women Who Run with the Wolves, also is one. These are excellent sources to start to get away from Objectivist thinking. Study formal Jungian psychology itself. They stand in open opposition to blank slate theory.
Amber is actually willing to explore systems outside of and even different than Objectivist thought. See her book in the making The Moral Bias of Objectivism.