By: eÆsthete

eÆsthete — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:48:30 +0000

So beautifully, eloquently and thoughtfully said. Thank you for taking the time to comment.

I just started reading Alan de Botton’s ‘How Proust Can Change Your Life‘ (my prelude to Marcel’s 4300 page masterpiece) and found this notion of the pursuit of one’s own happiness that Rand advocated so fervently, cleverly and ingenuously dismissed in the first chapter, the first paragraph:

“There are few things humans are more dedicated to than unhappiness. Had we been placed on earth by a malign creator for the exclusive purpose of suffering, we would have good reason to congratulate ourselves on our enthusiastic response to the task. Reasons to be inconsolable abound: the frailty of our bodies, the fickleness of love, the insecurities of social life, the compromises of friendship, the deadening effects of habit. In the face of such persistent ills, we might naturally expect that no event would be awaited with greater anticipation than the moment of our own extinction.”

This brief and fanciful excerpt does not do this theme sufficient justice, although I think Ms. Rand herself could have found the humor in this from a man (Proust) who lived the whole of his life as an apology. Perhaps she simply required a bit more charm, whimsy, and affection in her own life and may have learned much had she followed the counsel of someone who had difficulty stepping out of bed.

By: David305

David305 — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 17:39:43 +0000

Ethics and metaphysics arise not from thin air, but from the character and attitude of those who propose them. Alas, Rand’s were rather mean, and so she missed the fact that reason is but one of man’s basic survival tools (along with love and insight/imagination); and rationality but one of our highest virtues (along with mercy and forgiveness). A life spent only pleasing oneself is just as unbalanced as a life spent only pleasing everyone else. Through most of human history, man lived tribally. Bonds of love, affection and mutual support sustained our survival at least as much as personal ambition or individual enterprise.

On average, life is not optimally successful by embracing one extreme or the other, but rather by finding balance. Any metaphysics worth a damn seeks a mind at peace, a heart of joy, and a balanced life. To the extent that sole selfishness or sole selflessness fail to enable those goals, they fail as a basis for ethics.

Comments on: Playboy Interview: Ayn Rand

By: eÆsthete

By: David305