Ω My morality the morality of reason, is contained in a single axiom; existence exists and in a single choice: to live. The rest proceeds from these. To live, man must hold three things as the supreme and ruling values of his life: Reason – Purpose – Self Esteem.
Reason as his only tool of knowledge
Purpose as his choice of the happiness which that tool must proceed to achieve.
Self Esteem as his inviolate certainty that his mind is competent to think and his person is worthy of happiness, which means; is worthy of living.
These three values imply and require all of man’s virtues, and all his virtues pertain to the relation of existence and consciousness: Rationality, Independence, Integrity, Honesty, Justice, Productiveness, Pride…
Rationality is the recognition of the fact that existence exists, that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over the act of perceiving it, which is thinking- That the mind is one’s only guide of action- that reason is an absolute that permits no compromise- that a concession to the irrational invalidates one’s consciousness and turns it from the task of perceiving to the task of faking reality…
Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it- that no substitute can do your thinking, as no pinch-hitter can live your life- that the vilest form of self abasement and self destruction is the subordination of your mind to the mind of another, the acceptance of an authority over your brain, the acceptance of his ascertains as facts, his say so as truth, his edicts as middle man between your consciousness and your existence…
Integrity is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake your consciousness, just as honesty is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake existence – that man is an indivisible entity, an integrated unit of two attributes: of matter and consciousness, and that he may permit no breach between body and mind, between action and thought, between his life and his convictions – that, like a judge impervious to public opinion, he may not sacrifice his convictions to the wishes of others, be it the whole of mankind shouting pleas or threats against him – that courage is the practical form of being true to existence, of being true to truth, and confidence is the practical form of being true to one’s own consciousness…
Honesty is the recognition of the fact that the unreal is unreal and can have no value, that neither love nor fame nor cash is a value if obtained by fraud – that an attempt to gain a value by deceiving the mind of others is an act of raising your victims to a position higher than reality, where you become a pawn of their blindness, a slave of their non-thinking and their evasions, while their intelligence, their rationality, their perceptiveness become the enemies you have to dread and flee – that you do not care to live as a dependent, least of all a dependent on the stupidity of others, or as a fool whose source of values is the fools he succeeds in fooling – that honesty is not a social duty, not a sacrifice for the sake of others, but the most profoundly selfish virtue man can practice: his refusal to sacrifice the reality of his own existence to the deluded consciousness of others…
Justice is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake the character of men as you cannot fake the character of nature, that you must judge all men as conscientiously as you judge inanimate objects, with the same respect for truth, with the same incorruptible vision, by as pure and rational a process of identification – that every man must be judged for what he is and treated accordingly, that just as you do not pay a higher price for a rusty chunk of scrap than for a piece of shining metal, so you do not value a rotter above a hero – that your moral appraisal is the coin paying men for their virtues or vices, and this payment demands of you as scrupulous an honor as you bring to financial transactions – that to withhold your admiration from their virtues is an act of moral embezzlement – that to place any other concern higher than justice is to devaluate your moral currency and defraud the good in favor of the evil , since only the evil can profit – and the bottom of the pit and at the end of the road, the act of moral bankruptcy is to punish men for their virtues and reward them for their vices…
Productiveness is your acceptance of morality, your recognition of the fact that you choose to live – that productive work is the process by which man’s consciousness controls his existence, a constant process of acquiring knowledge and shaping matter to fit one’s purpose, of translating an idea into physical form, of remaking the earth in the image of one’s values – that all work is creative work if done by a thinking mind, and no work is creative if done by a blank who repeats in uncritical stupor a routine he has learned from others – that your work is yours to choose, and the choice is as wide as your mind, that nothing more is possible to you and nothing less is human – that to cheat your way into a job bigger than your mind can handle is to become a fear corroded ape on borrowed motions and borrowed time, and to settle down into a job that requires less than your mind’s full capacity is to cut your motor and sentence yourself to another kind of motion; decay – that your work is the process of achieving your values, and to lose your ambition for values is to lose your ambition to live…
Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of man’s values, it has to be earned – that of any achievements open to you, the one that makes all others possible is the creation of your character – that your character, your actions, your desires, your emotions are the products of the premises held by your mind – that as man must produce the physical values he needs to sustain his life, so he must acquire the values of character that make his life worth sustaining – that as man is a being of self-made wealth, so he is a being of self- made soul – that to live requires a sense of self-value, but man, who has no automatic values, has no automatic sense of self-esteem and must earn it by shaping his soul in the image of his moral ideal, in the image of man, the rational being he is born able to create, but must create by choice – the first precondition of self-esteem is that radiant selfishness of soul which desires the best of all things, in values of matter not spirit, a soul that seeks above all else to achieve it’s own moral perfection, valuing nothing higher than itself- and that the proof of an achieved self-esteem is your soul’s shudder of contempt and rebellion against the role of the sacrificial animal,…
CREDITS:
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand copyright Circa 1952™π
Content hers
Emphasis and arrangement mine own
∑ Ω ∞ $ π ∑
Reason as his only tool of knowledge
Purpose as his choice of the happiness which that tool must proceed to achieve.
Self Esteem as his inviolate certainty that his mind is competent to think and his person is worthy of happiness, which means; is worthy of living.
These three values imply and require all of man’s virtues, and all his virtues pertain to the relation of existence and consciousness: Rationality, Independence, Integrity, Honesty, Justice, Productiveness, Pride…
Rationality is the recognition of the fact that existence exists, that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over the act of perceiving it, which is thinking- That the mind is one’s only guide of action- that reason is an absolute that permits no compromise- that a concession to the irrational invalidates one’s consciousness and turns it from the task of perceiving to the task of faking reality…
Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it- that no substitute can do your thinking, as no pinch-hitter can live your life- that the vilest form of self abasement and self destruction is the subordination of your mind to the mind of another, the acceptance of an authority over your brain, the acceptance of his ascertains as facts, his say so as truth, his edicts as middle man between your consciousness and your existence…
Integrity is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake your consciousness, just as honesty is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake existence – that man is an indivisible entity, an integrated unit of two attributes: of matter and consciousness, and that he may permit no breach between body and mind, between action and thought, between his life and his convictions – that, like a judge impervious to public opinion, he may not sacrifice his convictions to the wishes of others, be it the whole of mankind shouting pleas or threats against him – that courage is the practical form of being true to existence, of being true to truth, and confidence is the practical form of being true to one’s own consciousness…
Honesty is the recognition of the fact that the unreal is unreal and can have no value, that neither love nor fame nor cash is a value if obtained by fraud – that an attempt to gain a value by deceiving the mind of others is an act of raising your victims to a position higher than reality, where you become a pawn of their blindness, a slave of their non-thinking and their evasions, while their intelligence, their rationality, their perceptiveness become the enemies you have to dread and flee – that you do not care to live as a dependent, least of all a dependent on the stupidity of others, or as a fool whose source of values is the fools he succeeds in fooling – that honesty is not a social duty, not a sacrifice for the sake of others, but the most profoundly selfish virtue man can practice: his refusal to sacrifice the reality of his own existence to the deluded consciousness of others…
Justice is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake the character of men as you cannot fake the character of nature, that you must judge all men as conscientiously as you judge inanimate objects, with the same respect for truth, with the same incorruptible vision, by as pure and rational a process of identification – that every man must be judged for what he is and treated accordingly, that just as you do not pay a higher price for a rusty chunk of scrap than for a piece of shining metal, so you do not value a rotter above a hero – that your moral appraisal is the coin paying men for their virtues or vices, and this payment demands of you as scrupulous an honor as you bring to financial transactions – that to withhold your admiration from their virtues is an act of moral embezzlement – that to place any other concern higher than justice is to devaluate your moral currency and defraud the good in favor of the evil , since only the evil can profit – and the bottom of the pit and at the end of the road, the act of moral bankruptcy is to punish men for their virtues and reward them for their vices…
Productiveness is your acceptance of morality, your recognition of the fact that you choose to live – that productive work is the process by which man’s consciousness controls his existence, a constant process of acquiring knowledge and shaping matter to fit one’s purpose, of translating an idea into physical form, of remaking the earth in the image of one’s values – that all work is creative work if done by a thinking mind, and no work is creative if done by a blank who repeats in uncritical stupor a routine he has learned from others – that your work is yours to choose, and the choice is as wide as your mind, that nothing more is possible to you and nothing less is human – that to cheat your way into a job bigger than your mind can handle is to become a fear corroded ape on borrowed motions and borrowed time, and to settle down into a job that requires less than your mind’s full capacity is to cut your motor and sentence yourself to another kind of motion; decay – that your work is the process of achieving your values, and to lose your ambition for values is to lose your ambition to live…
Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of man’s values, it has to be earned – that of any achievements open to you, the one that makes all others possible is the creation of your character – that your character, your actions, your desires, your emotions are the products of the premises held by your mind – that as man must produce the physical values he needs to sustain his life, so he must acquire the values of character that make his life worth sustaining – that as man is a being of self-made wealth, so he is a being of self- made soul – that to live requires a sense of self-value, but man, who has no automatic values, has no automatic sense of self-esteem and must earn it by shaping his soul in the image of his moral ideal, in the image of man, the rational being he is born able to create, but must create by choice – the first precondition of self-esteem is that radiant selfishness of soul which desires the best of all things, in values of matter not spirit, a soul that seeks above all else to achieve it’s own moral perfection, valuing nothing higher than itself- and that the proof of an achieved self-esteem is your soul’s shudder of contempt and rebellion against the role of the sacrificial animal,…
CREDITS:
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand copyright Circa 1952™π
Content hers
Emphasis and arrangement mine own
∑ Ω ∞ $ π ∑
posted by Atlasdn at 9:27 PM
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