I'm losing hope for the future

[John Tate]

Well, I appreciate the advice but it looks like I'll be leaving Objectivism in any organized fashion. I am tired of so many things, the first being that whenever I meet an Objectivist it seems they think I am not and only because I was never very good at the second-hander game. I can't repeat and emulate Ayn Rand as accurately as they can, and so I am seen as not being an Objectivist. It is pretty annoying if you ask me, we might as well assume because for someone pretending they are only fooling themselves. Objectivism as a philosophy seems as dead as all of the others. I believe the culprit is that useless people, too useless to even be hairdressers are attracted to philosophy. They can't practice what they preach.

Worse still, nobody seems to understand my problem. I thought a group of Objectivists would be the last place I'd hear the "you're just depressed" line when talking about the Government. Especially a foreign Government with no bill of rights, no individual rights in its constitution, and so on. I should have never mentioned my mental illness, because as soon as I've mentioned that people assume its an emotional issue and isn't real. Why post at all at that point? I'm not going to listen. It seems absurd, because I'd have got a decent response if simply I had lied in the first place. I apologize, sarcastically, for not treating some people here like the idiots that they are.

I love the suggestion to join the Marines, as if I am just a brute. I bet that person has never finished anything technical on his own in his entire life. I have, and that is what I am sick of. Objectivism can't help me, because its clearly been flooded with unskilled and gossipy people wherever I go. As an organized movement, it is about as useful as the Buddhist Temple I left when I read Anthem. I am a highly skilled programmer, my biggest sadness being that I don't know any others. Well, I now know after weeks of trying that I am not going to find particularly skilled people anywhere near Objectivism. Maybe they are all on strike! I wish that were true.

I'm sick of it, I can't express my problem well enough and nobody can understand it. We've all wasted our time it seems in this discussion. Everybody seems to make assumptions about me too easily and what the problem is. Really, I might as well turn to Kantianism. I am looking for a method by which I can evade fears which are factually founded. Sounds perfect!

[caroljane]

[quote name='John Tate' timestamp='1297497531' post='12472

I believe the culprit is... useless people, too useless even to be hairdressers...

Objectivism can't help me, because its clearly been flooded with.... people wherever I go.

I think we have identified your problem.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

John,

I came to a point like where you are once. And I melted down big time.

Then I decided if I truly wanted to change the world, I had to start by changing myself. The first thing I did was take stock of what "myself" was. Not what I thought I could be if it weren't for all those other jerks out there in my way. I had been blaming others so much in fiery moral denunciations that I had blinded myself to my own shortcomings.

Once I looked at who I was with fresh eyes, I saw I had a butt-load of work to do. So I got started. And I forgot everybody else for a while.

What happened after that was I actually started making a difference for the better.. For real. A small one, granted, but the difference came from me.

It worked.

You're free to reflect on this experience from my life or ignore it as you will.

Michael

[BaalChatzaf]

John,

I came to a point like where you are once. And I melted down big time.

Then I decided if I truly wanted to change the world, I had to start by changing myself. The first thing I did was take stock of what "myself" was. Not what I thought I could be if it weren't for all those other jerks out there in my way. I had been blaming others so much in fiery moral denunciations that I had blinded myself to my own shortcomings.

Once I looked at who I was with fresh eyes, I saw I had a butt-load of work to do. So I got started. And I forgot everybody else for a while.

What happened after that was I actually started making a difference for the better.. For real. A small one, granted, but the difference came from me.

It worked.

You're free to reflect on this experience from my life or ignore it as you will.

Michael

It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[sjw]

I'm sick of it, I can't express my problem well enough and nobody can understand it. We've all wasted our time it seems in this discussion. Everybody seems to make assumptions about me too easily and what the problem is.

Well, I'm quite sure that I didn't do that, and if I recall I don't think Philip did, and there are probably some others too who didn't.

If you're not going to be reasonable about all this, why bother reasoning?

Shayne

[Brant Gaede]

Some people gloom onto Objectivism for the wrong reasons. It's the philosophy superficially understood respecting actual human beings. It was one of Rand's big mistakes, partially because she was so smart. Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand was Ayn Rand in toto, the whole ball of wax. Everybody else should live their own lives. That's what she did, in spades.

--Brant