Writer, screenwriter and philosopher Ayn Rand has been frequently mentioned during her lifetime, but remains a subject of controversy today. While some are regarded as a philosopher who changed the lives of millions of people with their Rational Selfishness, for others, communism is an enemy of capitalism and its ideas do not represent philosophy, but only American propaganda. So what does Ayn Rand say? What is this Objectivism and Rational Selfishness?
Rand's philosophy strongly rejects above all waiver and sacrifice: she says that one should put herself and her life as individuals individually and live with confidence, as a whole, rational, constructive and productive effort.
Mind is the only tool human has to survive. Of course, every person makes their own choices, but it is an issue that needs to be considered for what they should make. It is not moral to act according to one's feelings and temporary ambitions. Morality is the best way to follow the path of mind.
When emotions clash with logic, your mind should be chosen by using force against emotions if necessary. Emotions can be in the interests of the human or sometimes in the face of others; whereas logic gives the effort to make the most appropriate choice regardless of feelings. In this feeling and conflict of mind, he talks about love as follows: “Love is a selfish feeling. Love is the choice of a person as a great value, and what you fall in love with is again these meat and bones. ” Love is an agreement reached by the two sides offering something to each other, and according to Rand and when the terms of the agreement contradict the individual's logical selfishness, there should be no or should not.
One should not see the selfish person as someone who says “I do what my life wants without caring”, the selfish person recognizes the rights of others and says:
“I will not manage anyone's life, and I will not let anyone take mine. I will not manage or be governed by anyone. I will not be the master, nor the slave. I will not sacrifice myself for anyone and not sacrifice anyone for myself. ”*
Every individual is unique and his originality comes to mind. There is no such thing as a collective brain. There is no such thing as collective thinking. The consensus reached by a group of people can only be called concessions of individuals. Each individual should shape his thinking on his own: a meal can be divided among a group of people but not digested in a single stomach.
As can be seen, it is not at all strange that what he said, especially considering the years of his emergence, had a sense of anti-communist propaganda. In the preface to his first novel, We The Living, he used the following: “When I heard that the communist principle at the age of 12 during the Russian revolution said that man should live for his state, no matter what methods are applied, its consequences are only evil. I thought it would be. ”
It is definitely a remarkable move that he always put the individual in front of the society during his lifetime and accepted the mind as the primary guide in the years when he was advocated by many circles that reason was a limited tool. The fact that his books are still selling today and his supporters are many proof of how much he was accepted and respected, contrary to what he supposed.
*A New Textbook Of Americanism