A short monologue, verging on soliloquy for my mind

"for you, who are a human being, the question 'to be or not to be' is the question 'to think or not to think.'"

The cool breeze flows past my body singing a tune of glee. I sit here in the golden sunshine watching the sea slowly ebb its way down the beach; the gulls whistling their happiness, and the occasional dolphin exhibiting their talents. My time here, this dream of better days is just that—a dream. I bend and twist my thoughts into an imagined world of exaggerated ideals.

The phone at my desk begins ringing, alerting me of where I am, and what I am not doing—where I do not want to be, but am. The ringing of the phone pierced through my minds’ determination to withdraw, and pulled me back to reality—I am at work.

* * *

My fancies, my hopes and my thoughts mean little should I not venture to act on them; not without planning but after appropriate summation of the facts of the objective world. With this I mean that my thoughts amount to nothing if I don’t take that step of turning them into reality. I sit here in my office, observing the clock edge closer to five. I may be attending to my work, but I do not embrace it. I embrace rather what I want to do, and not what I am doing. The harshness of existence requires that we not remain idle for long; otherwise failure and certainly our end will be the consequence.

The nature of dreaming and our very definition of it ascribe an irrational view of possibilities of us and humanity. It is the power of the mind to choose, and ignore the way reality is. But—one thing remains constant no matter how much we think about it: the world is as it is. No matter the ignorance of the mind, we cannot defy reality or make as though something can be altered by will alone.

It is our reconciliation or understanding of the two worlds that are apparent, subjective and objective, but it is always the objective that wins out. We cannot allow ourselves to be foreshadowed with illusory dreams while our life—our being—fades away. We cannot succumb to wishing things out of the earth, drilling for mountains of gold that do not exist. A course of thought based on externalities, one of clear vision, will open larger doors and offer greater fortunes to those who embrace it.

I say look around you—look at the products of our existence—look at the here and now—the environment surrounding you—embrace its cause. The beauty of the world is not to be ignored, and I shall not deter you from dreaming about it, but in wading your way through daily life, you must not ignore the facts. The nature of reality is that with every cause, there is an effect; without causes, without effort—there are no effects. If you do not labour in life, you do not live. If you do not produce, you cease to exist.

To those that scorn man’s expansion, perhaps imagine it without. Should you choose to do so, you imagine your life away. You purge yourself of meaning and extricate reason from reality. Remove the factories, the mills, the roads, the buildings and what is the result? What is the plight of man? Man fades simply because sustenance—action—is determined by the masses to be evil. When man holds his effort to be his greatest value, the expression of his life, he is despised. When he claims ownership over his life and the products of it, he is spat on. Sacrifice on the contrary, is the greatest of virtues according to these destroyers of the mind. They profess that man is not an end in himself. They demand that mankind is the entity of superior need, not the individual men that make it up. One must not live in the interest of himself, but for society.

To those that follow a path of non-effort, they prime the people for self-destruction by looting from the real dreamers, the real men. These real men are the ones that take pride in their work, but pay the price for doing so; no mutual exchanges or acceptance is sought. The majority, deemed by no rational motive to have some form of control, plunder the fruits of these men in order to support the unearned. Under such authority, you become mere automatons—living a life of despotic servitude.

I am a man of principle and conviction. I do not suggest a reliance on mystics or faith; such is a repulsive nature in the unthinking man—to ignore the world around you in order to service extravagant dreams with little grounding. I am a man who believes in reason—this is my principle. The only one I need to endure reality.

* * *

Come five o’clock I begin my escape from the office. I have an old iPod attached to my head playing beats that excite my mind. The sky is just as I had dreamt earlier, a golden sun showering its rays down upon me. The wind is here too. My walk home isn’t an illusion, I’m experiencing it. The cheap rush of here and now pass over me while I pick up the pace. I run up stairs feeling the air draw rapidly in and out of my lungs, and the blood pumping through my body. Scooting through the streets I see life—everything right here in front of my eyes. The people jogging, the trees rustling, the cars moving, the birds flying, these I notice as I slow to catch my breath. Before I approach my home I see constructed houses of varying designs, the old and the new. I think of the labour that went into them. I smell the planted flowers along the hedgerow, the bright yellows and reds catching my interest. At this point, this time in living—now, I am overcome.

Atlas Shrugged part II

Some more of Atlas Shrugged. The first quote delves into the requirement of meaning, and adherence to one's values. The second is a mild attack from John Galt on the irrational behaviour of men. The third quote is Ayn Rand's basic conception of love in her form of romanticism; that values and self-esteem are virtuous and draw two people together (love not being something we leech from the other partner, or that is given out of pity).

I said that the second quote is a mild attack on irrational behaviour, but it is foolish of me to ignore the fact that her entire book, her philosophy of objectivism, and without a doubt her whole life, is a constant and unrelenting attack on all things irrational; reason, and acceptance of it, is the first stage to understanding life and knowledge.

P.780 Dagny Taggard talking to Francisco d'Anconia

"You want to hold me here, don't you?"
"More than anything else in the world."
"You could hold me."
"I know it."
His voice had said it with the same sound as hers. We waited, to regain his breath. When he spoke, his voice was low and clear, with some stressed quality of awareness, which was almost the quality of a smile of understanding:
"It's your acceptance of this place that I want. What good would it do me, to have your physical presence without any meaning? That's the kind of faked reality by which most people cheat themselves of their lives. I'm not capable of it." He turned to go. "And neither are you. Good night, Miss Taggart."

P.798 John Galt talking to Dagny Taggart

"Did it ever occur to you, Miss Taggart," said Galt, in the casual tone of an abstract discussion, but as if he had known her thoughts, "that there is no conflict of interests among men, neither in business nor in trade nor in their most personal desires--if they omit the irrational from their view of the possible and destruction from their view of the practical? There is no conflict, and no call for sacrifice, and no man is a threat to the aims of another--if men understand that reality is an absolute not to be faked, that lies do not work, that the unearned cannot be had, that the undeserved cannot be given, that the destruction of a value which is, will not bring value to that which isn't. The businessman who wishes to gain a market by throttling a superior competitor, the worker who wants a share of his employer's wealth, the artist who envies a rival's higher talent--they're all wishing facts out of existence, and destruction is the only means of their wish. If they pursue it, they will not achieve a market, a fortune or an immortal fame--they will merely destroy production, employment and art. A wish for the irrational is not to be achieved, whether the sacrificial victims are willing or not. But men will not cease to desire the impossible and will not lose their longing to destroy--so long as self-destruction and self-sacrifice are preached to them as the practical means of achieving the happiness of the recipients."

P.852 Dagny Taggart in a radio broadcast revealing her relationship with the already married Hank Rearden

"For two years, I had been Hank Rearden's mistress. Let there be no misunderstanding about it: I am saying this, not as a shameful confession, but with the highest sense of pride. I had been his mistress. I had slept with him, in his bed, in his arms. There is nothing anyone might now say to you about me, which I will not tell you first. It will be useless to defame me--I know the nature of the accusations and I will state them to you myself. Did I feel a physical desire for him? I did. Was I moved by a passion of my body? I was. Have I experienced the most violent form of sensual pleasure? I have. If this now makes me a disgraced woman in your eyes--let your estimate be your own concern. I will stand on mine."
[...]
"I am proud that he had chosen me to give him pleasure and that it was he who had been my choice. It was not--as it is for most of you-- an act of casual indulgence and mutual contempt. It was the ultimate form of our admiration for each other, with full knowledge of the values by which we made our choice. We are those who do not disconnect the values of their minds from the actions of their bodies, those who do not leave their values to empty dreams, but bring them into existence, those who give material form to thoughts, and reality to values--those who make steel, railroads and happiness. And to such among you who hate the thought of human joy, who wish to see men's life as chronic suffering and failure, who wish men to apologize for happiness--or for success, or ability, or achievement, or wealth--to such among you, I am now saying: I wanted him, I had him, I was happy, I had known joy, a pure, full, guiltless joy, the joy you dread to hear confessed by any human being, the joy of which your only knowledge is in your hatred for those who are worthy of reaching it. Well, hate me, then--because I reached it!"

Atlas Shrugged: my highlights

I've picked up 'Atlas Shrugged' again (by Ayn Rand) after putting it down over a year ago. I was 700 pages in, covering the first two volumes. I have only the last part to finish - around 450 pages to go. As I do, a habit has formed where I highlight the bits that stand out to me. There are so many statements pushing Rand's philosophy, I'd simply suggest for everyone to read it!

For my own benefit, I'm putting some quotes up here so I don't forget the impact this book has on me. Although I'm not done with it, I sense the importance of every chapter, every event and turn within this book. It is a complete and easily understood guide to objectivism and living rationally and for one's self. It is a direct attack on altruism and identifies the state society can slide into if it blindly follows big government and a command economy.

The size of the book may push many away, but I guarantee how life changing this book can be to the willing. Let it guide you, for the wisdom this book may present can set you free.

Anyway, as I read through and pick stuff out, I'll feed them into my blog.

The oath to 'Galt's Gulch'

“I swear - by my life and my love of it - that I shall never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine"

Francisco d’Anconia speaking to Dagny Taggart (P. 740)

“But we—we, who must atone for the guilt of ability—we will work to support him as he orders, with his pleasure as our only reward. Since we have the most to contribute, we will have the least to say. Since we have the better capacity to think, we will not be permitted a thought of our own. Since we have the judgment to act, we will not be permitted an action of our choice. We will work under directives and controls, issued by those who are incapable of working. They will dispose of our energy, because they have none to offer, and of our product, because they can’t produce. Do you say that this is impossible, that it cannot be made to work? They know it, but it is you who don’t—and they are counting on you not to know it. They are counting on you to go on, to work to the limit of the inhuman and to feed them while you last—and when you collapse, there will be another victim starting out and feeding them, while struggling to survive—and the span of each succeeding victim will be shorter, and while you’ll die to leave them a railroad, your last descendant-in-spirit will die to leave them a loaf of bread. This does not worry the looters of the moment. Their plan—like all the plans of all the royal looters of the past—is only that the loot shall last their lifetime. It has always lasted before, because in one generation they could not run out of victims. But this time—it will not last. The victims are on strike. We are on strike against martyrdom—and against the moral code that demands it. We are on strike against those who believe that one man must exist for the sake of another. We are on strike against the morality of cannibals, be it practiced in body or in spirit. We will not deal with men on any terms but ours—and our terms are a moral code which holds that man is an end in himself and not the means to any end of others. We do not seek to force our code upon them. They are free to believe what they please. But, for once, they will have to believe it and to exist—without our help. And, once and for all, they will learn the meaning of their creed. That creed has lasted for centuries solely by the sanction of the victims—by means of the victims’ acceptance of punishment for breaking a code impossible to practice. But that code was intended to be broken. It is a code that thrives not on those who observe it, but on those who don’t, a morality kept in existence not by virtue of its sins, but by the grace of its sinners. We have decided not to be sinners any longer. We have ceased breaking that moral code. We shall blast it out of existence forever by the one method that it can’t withstand: by obeying it.”

Francisco d’Anconia speaking to Dagny Taggart (P. 768)

“Of course. Don’t you understand it now? Dagny, every form of happiness is one, every desire is driven by the same motor – by our love for a single value, for the highest potentiality of our own existence – and every achievement is an expression of it. Look around you. Do you see how much is open to us here, on an unobstructed earth? Do you see how much I am free to do, to experience, to achieve? Do you see that all of it is part of what you are to me – as I am part of it for you? And if I’ll see you smile with admiration at a new copper smelter that I built, it will be another form of what I felt when I lay in bed beside you. Will I want to sleep with you? Desperately. Will I envy the man who does? Sure. But what does that matter? It’s so much – just to have you here, to love you and to be alive.”