Idealism Unrealistic?
What kind of change must take place so that the promise identified and described by Ayn Rand become the underlying principles of society?
Here are three general areas that can be identified. Each opens an almost endless avenues of investigation. The order is not relevant;
1. Social Organization
2. System of Enterprise (Work)
3. Government
How does each or how should each operate so that personal and public goals posited by Rand can optimally work?
Here are three general areas that can be identified. Each opens an almost endless avenues of investigation. The order is not relevant;
1. Social Organization
2. System of Enterprise (Work)
3. Government
How does each or how should each operate so that personal and public goals posited by Rand can optimally work?
Living an Objectivist philosophy and life requires a sternness and internal integrity that isn't easy in a social construct nor can it allow softness toward those that don't wish or accept such teachings.
The question then becomes, how does the Objectivist society deal with the non-objectivist that naturally creeps into that society or those from outside wishing to insert or gain some level of control and benefit?
Until that question is faced and answered, I don't see much hope for the underlying principles of Objectivism to come to full fruition.
Advancement in any one of these areas would move this country or any country for that matter, forward. This would be a relatively limited advancement. Getting two of the three would more than double the the impact of any one. By having all three you would reach levels not contemplated for any civilization. This is because the three are synergistic. Each magnifies the other.
Imagine a society composed of creators ask Howard Roark called them. Each doing his utmost to create his/her dream. The accumulation of art, literature, science, mathematics and philosophy would be almost unlimited. Consider the information explosion of the last 30 years. Now imagine the same explosion in every field of human activity.
The principles of Objectivism can do this in every field of human endeavor. Consider Einstein Theory of Relativity. He had the idea and the general framework but couldn’t get the math to work right. The worked with traditional geometry. That was the issue. He had to use non-Euclidean geometry to get all the equations to work. This was built by others about 15 years earlier. Genius building on genius. Creator working with creator to create some bigger than either could do for themselves.
Now, those that get it and understand the potential of Objectivist philosophy also have a self interest and that is in potential. Potential because nothing has been founded on objectivist principles that has not frightened those who can't see the potential.
I think the home-school and charter-school movement is a start. If we are to create objectivist thinkers, standard education has to be eradicated. It's because education is more concerned with creating a great movable mass that can be led and instituting social engineering than creating leaders that might threaten the self-interested. .
Now, how many involved in the home school experiment are teaching the kind of self reliance that is the foundation of objectivism? Surprisingly quite a few. But we won't see the results of this effort for about twenty years. Many people thought the tea party was a start but every tea party meeting I have been to is filed with seniors. There are no kids and for a movement to have any real legs, it needs youth. Wisdom can come from us ancients but we need youth to carry out the vision.
So social structure, is to me, the most important because from social structure can come the rest of the picture. Without a cohesive social structure based on a firm set of ideas, government cannot form that reflects those ideas. Work becomes little more than voluntary servitude (Involuntary in some cases.) instead of a fulfilling task one can take pride in doing. As the social structure disintegrates further, organizations that influence that structure come into conflict with the government which now imposes on the structure and molds the structure to accept government as the answer to any problems that crop up in the social structure.
intrinsically embrace certain economic policies and structures that sadly most people never learn or comprehend. Understanding and treating economics as a science is key to long term health of a free nation and unfortunately, so many people including objectivists are ignorant in this area.