A Sense of Life

I have just seen a documentary about Ayn Rand, writer and philosopher. I have always liked her books, Atlas shrugged is in fact one of my huge (in every aspect ;) favourites. I remember, reading it gave me such a feeling of power over my own life, I felt like I could move mountains if that was what I wanted to. Also I think why I partially like her ideas, is that she is looking for moral, and individuals taking responsibility for themselves, their own acts and their own "happiness". (Here I can´t help thinking of Erich Fromm, who opposed to Ayn - who states that every individual is responsible only for himself - expresses that love consists of a few basic elements, and one of them is responsibility for others...Also, according to Ayn, romantic love is an act of pure selfishness, you love someone because there are certain values that you get from that person. Fromm says that you need someone, because you love them, and don´t love them because you need them.)

Having seen the documentary have left me with mixed feelings. I found it very interesting, and I could only recommend it, but it really made me think. She was born in Russia, 1905 and growing up there made a great impact on her and her philosophy. She was totally anti communistic, rejecting altruism as something evil (according to her altruism is self sacrifice, and that is just sooo wrong! After all the woman has written an essay called The virtue of selfishness :)).

I felt throughout the doco, that I should really let myself being inspired by her thoughts, and perhaps become a bit more balanced...Hehe, she would have hated me, considered me as the Evil herself, if she has seen all the emotions I bring up without considering the consequences. Of course, I would have argued with her a bit, since it really is an act of egoism, no altruism there at all :D
She preaches for individualism, objectivism, independence, self-esteem and integrity.
Oh, I found this perfect description on objectivism :

1. Reality exists as an objective absolute—facts are facts, independent of man's feelings, wishes, hopes or fears.
2. Reason (the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses) is man's only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival.
3. Man—every man—is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
4. The ideal political-economic system is laissez-faire capitalism. It is a system where men deal with one another, not as victims and executioners, nor as masters and slaves, but as traders, by free, voluntary exchange to mutual benefit. It is a system where no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force, and no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. The government acts only as a policeman that protects man's rights; it uses physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use, such as criminals or foreign invaders. In a system of full capitalism, there should be (but, historically, has not yet been) a complete separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.

Although it partially clashes with my own ideas and perhaps ideals, it does give food for thoughts, and since I haven´t exactly found happiness in my own way of living I might consider coming up with something called "mixology" and live happily ever after? Anyway, it´s just me trying to be funny here, if you have the opportunity, do watch the doco, it´s very interesting.

What I am noticing is that I do come across lots of inspiring books, movies, ideas, signs but I'm just too restless to spend any appreciable time with following through any specific thread. Instead, everything is bubbling and fermenting somewhere in the back of my mind and suddenly I got certain insights (or outbursts of reactions) , but don´t have a clue how or what is causing them. God, I wish I was more disciplined!