Dec

21

I thought this was a good article:

"Ray Dalio says read Ayn Rand to understand Trump's economics. Here's what that means"

Jeff Watson writes: 

Ayn Rand's "Virtue of Selfishness," contains many nuggets of wisdom IMO. It has roughly influenced the blueprint and road map of my life. A big lesson it taught me, among many other things, was that it is good to put myself first. Here's a copy of it.

Ralph Vince writes: 

I find her books (and I have not read "Virtue of Selfishness") hollow. It speaks of the effects and actions, I find, without the driving force, the motivation (save, except for vague notions of "profit," or "doing something worthwhile," or good, or improving things). It could be that I've missed those things in what of hers I have read. I think, however, it may be because it is an interpretation done by a woman, Rand herself.

By this I mean the following. It is vital that a man find his over-arching purpose in life, and find it before he is thirty, the single, solitary purpose that is the reason he lives his life, his telos.

Yes, taking care of family and other "obligations," and "responsibilities," one must live up to in life must be addressed, but aside from that he must find what he is here to do. His number one priority as a man is to find his purpose in life, his destiny, and pursue it with all he has outside of his responsibilities and obligations. (And it is on this point that modern education fails males, and it is on this point that inner city youths are left, abandoned to life).

Until a man has found this out, he should not commit to something, a job, a marriage, a city, etc. A man's purpose must be something he is crazy passionate about. Yes, a man can know success and/or monetary gain without ever figuring this out, yet it is the discovery of his telos that is where he draws his energy, and his joie de vivre, absent which, he is merely existing, merely a slave. It provides something he can do for the rest of his life, and make a living at. It provides something he would do if he were "retired." This is the ultimate form of success – getting paid to do what he loves to do and never having it feel like work. (This is why people so envy pro athletes, because they have found this at a young age). A man needs this to be happy.

Finding what he is meant to do with his life makes him powerful.

It is my belief women follow an entirely different existential path than this. I do not claim to know what that is, I am merely an outside observer, but it is a fallacy perpetuated by an ideology devoid of terrestrial and important motivations to assume genders are the same or even mirror images of each other - there is an inexplicable mystery involved that an outsider can never know. Rand was such an outsider, and as deeply as her writings resonate on the topics she wrote of, I say they are hollow as they seem to perceive what I have pointed to here as an outsider, which, to the world of males she necessarily was (and, in fairness, her works could never have been written by a man, else they would have, and that provides a unique perspective and beauty to hers).


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6 Comments so far

  1. ED on December 22, 2016 2:56 pm

    I think the thing is nature doesn't "care" if most men succeed in their "path" beceause one man can impregnate so many women, and apparently did so back in the day. In the old days most men failed to reproduce. So men have a urge to take risks to overcome the feeling they are not needed, have to create a purpose or an urge to do so. Women don't have that urge because historically they could "play it safe" and still reproduce with high odds. I think this is why even if women are often smart my opinion of women is
    they are on average not very creative - just don't have that urge the
    same way a man does, who always feels uneasy and "without purpose" which
    drives to secure more offspring

  2. armidal7 on December 22, 2016 4:29 pm

    As a woman and editor of this site, I can tell you you are incorrect about women following an entirely different existential path. They follow the exact same path of searching for their purpose and work they are passionate about in order to find ultimate fulfillment, even though they are sadly encouraged by all to give up their own dreams to serve as support to their children and husband. If a woman wants to follow her dreams and find ultimate fulfillment, happiness, and power she must take care of the children IN ADDITION to finding her purpose, which makes it infinitely more difficult. But know that women derive the exact same benefit from finding work they love that men do and feel existentially compelled to find it in the same way you have described above.

  3. Anonymous on December 25, 2016 8:53 pm

    If a lady wants to follower her authentic dream, great. but most careers are banal and plodding and quite frankly not wroth “dreaming” for. Its always a risk in making a generality that you are addressing the 1 - 100 odds, but it doesn’t happen often. I consider passing on the better genes a noble act for the future of humanity, far more than most “professions” yet sadly it is more often the better woman who rebels and the cretin who “does her duty”. If this research proves to be true, I will be vindicated 2X:

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/children-intelligence-iq-mother-inherit-inheritance-genetics-genes-a7345596.html

  4. Andre on December 31, 2016 11:32 am

    After reading atlas shrugged and fountsin head virtue of selfishness was a good refresher of her theories and i agree with deriving self esteem through competence and this seems to be what ralph vince is saying.most people are too scared to find this and muddle along bending to everyone around them. I am personally having to choose myself over aging parents with problems this is difficult choice but they are coercing instead of compromising.

  5. Andre on December 31, 2016 8:51 pm

    But, there are people who justify their narcissism with ayn rand i believe.

  6. Anonymous on January 29, 2018 3:06 pm

    THIS IS STUPIDDDDDDDD

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