“Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual). ”
~ Ayn Rand
During my holidays I had a keen drive to figure out a political standpoint for myself. You know what they say, “Having a political outlook bestows you with a power uncanny and unsurpassable”. It’s your territorial mark, if you will. (Canadian bears fondly remembered)
Anyway I shouldn’t digress from the topic at hand. On my quest to find a philosophy that defines me in society I stumbled, quite conveniently in fact on a set of books written by Ayn Rand. My friends know how much these books infected me with its intellectual yet poetic literature. As the topic is more about the philosophy than the literature I wouldn’t divulge much.
Objectivism is in fact a school of thought that holds the individual as the centre piece. It regards human endeavor as supreme and any force that threatens freedom of thought as vile. As I read through one of her novels, there was a striking semblance between the characters that the author holds as virtuous. It says man has the right to think freely and decide the price of the fruit of his thought. The characters had just one thing in mind, realization of thought and the sheer work that they were willing to put in to see the same happen. Ayn Rand ridicules fathers of philosophy and Communism like Karl Marx for their disregard for one man. They were all centered around the common good of the society.
Speaking of such matters it quite frankly made me wonder about the current state of affairs in this sweet country of ours. All I can see are a bunch of puppets puppeteering even more gullible beings, the threads being false promises of equality and the notion that poverty is a disease – and diseases require pity, don’t they? Our leaders are just again puppets controlled not by us but by innumerable false notions of right and wrong.
All the matters mentioned in the article might seem pretty lofty and maybe frankly makes the reader wonder “Where O’ Where is the ethical dilemma?”. Well see the dilemma is quite simple – The existing political system speaks of the common human good, rich providing for the poor and whatnot. Well Capitalism, quite akin to the ways of the objectivist begs to differ. It states that one should hold himself, his virtue and his thought as supreme and divine. As vile and quite crudely put, evil as that sounds, think about it though. If an entire society lives by the principle(paraphrasing) “I shall not live for the sake of another man, neither will I ask him to live for my sake”. As impractical as that sounds a society that follows this principle is pretty flawless. A group of people striving for excellence is perhaps the cure we need rather than a bunch of babbling baboons. Capitalism rectifies its one flaw, the lack of a conscience by stating that one can help another for the enrichment of ones own “moral and divine being”. It’s pretty much a win win prospect. The purpose of this article is to suggest or instigate a change in the common mans perception.
If the author has succeeded in musing the reader, making him or her ponder on this awhile, the article has served its purpose.
About the Author
Arun Abraham John is an engineering student from the Vellore Institute of Technology, who aspires to become a content creator and a designer. He has written a number of plays for both inter and intra events and has also done design work and write-ups for MUN’s.
