Will

I have read it. I understand it. Ba'al Chatzaf The following prayer has often been used to explain the importance of this distinction between the metaphysical and the man-made: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer The implications speak for themselves and contribute towards preventing you from being at war with the metaphysical facts of reality. As for QP, I know little, but understand it has philosophical problems, re: Law of Causailty, but it (QP) is of zero interest to me. Will

Thanks for the welcome Michael to you and all. [Apologies for the length of this post here, but it further explains where my thoughts are at now on objectivist ideas, as opposed to how I got here.] Let me add to my initial post by saying that my great attraction to this site was firstly it emphasises "living consciously". That is a great strap line to use on the front page. Wonderful. I totally agree with your comments Michael on Neo-Tech and Wallace. Indeed, as you suggest, perhaps those within the Objectivist academic circle could learn to market these ideas better and be more agressive in showing how the ideas do relate to practical issues of day-to-day living. Of course, marketing / business are not the strong suit of academics and so it is the businessmen (such as Wallace) and artists (such as my countryman, Nicholas Dykles) who need to carry this particular responsibilty forward along with the rest of us, even the non-artists, like myself (I am an accountant by profession). It would be fantastic to see a greater fictional representation of the ideas of objectivism than currently exist, especially in the movies and in theatres, but where are these objectivist artists who can inspire? That for me is the challenge. Perhaps ARI's school program will tempt young people of today to be those future artists who can demonstrate the ideas of what it means to live life as a human being. There is some hope at least through that tremendous value and unfortunately I can only dream of the day when Rand's fiction appears in our school classrooms. At this point I am pleased to say I have had the pleasure of reading Nicholas Dyles's novel, "Old Nick's Guide to Happiness" this summer. I see he has recently joined this site also. It brought me great joy to see explict philosophical ideas expressed in layman terms within a fantastic story. The writing style was a beautiful example of how ideas can be explained and it is a book to include on all your gift lists this Xmas. I must also recommend Ed Cline's Sparrowhawk series, another superb demonstration of objectivist ideas though the actions of great characters. Somehow, we all need to come up with a myriad of ways to demonstrate the practical use of these ideas we support, by creating products for people to buy that will help guide or inspire them to better actions. A pincer attack through business and the arts woud increase our challenge against the modern yet distorted and threatened society we live in. Of course, for those of us not so creative in business or the arts, the option of intellectual activism is always there. Despite what I have said about the lack of intellectual comment in the UK, it is pleasing to report to all of you Stateside that Ayn Rand's name has been receiving great coverage in the broadsheet press over here this summer against the background of the financial crisis. Indeed, BBC Radio Four (our nationwide intellectual radio station - left-wing of course) recently dedicated a 30 minute programme to Rand presented by a well-known former politician who maintains a high profile. So, there is some hope this side of the pond, and perhaps you will be happy if I can provide this site with evidence of the increasing exposure to Rand in the media as and when it occurs here in England (Britain). Finally, I would like to add that for me, whilst I am interested in ideas, I am less interested in the personailities behind the ideas, and by this I mean whether people such as Rand, Branden or Piekoff, are/were, or are/were not, consistent in living by the ideas they "promote" [i am sure there is a better word than "promote" but I am sure you get the gist]. It's the businessman in me. This is one reason why I have not joined an objectivist discussion forum before. I am aware of the schism(s) in objectivism, but for me, the focus must always be on promoting ideas that are beneficial to human life. I have read the two Branden books on Ayn Rand, as well as Valliant's book, out of biographical interest, than what thye all think of each other, but quite frankly, I do not care too much for what they have to say about each other. The only important thing in life is being true to living by ideas that are beneficial to you, and testing those ideas for yourself, rather than taking sides in a school playground fight that does no credit to anybody; merely presents the media with a chance to smear and attack rather than evaluate. Again, please accept my apologies for this lenght of post, but at least you all know where I am coming from and perhaps any further thoughts on how to market these ideas we love should be taken to a separate thread. Best regards Will

Hi, my name is Will, and introducing myself to you from England, a geographical region you will all be familiar with, though perhaps what you will not know is that it is an area that is no longer politcally recognised by the bastion of bad deeds full of (some) good intentions, the European Union. England does not exist! Even our weathermen refer to the weather of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, but never of England, but rather the so-called EU denoted regions of England (EU link) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/publ...amp;language=EN So to say I am from England is my small act of politcal rebellion which I hope you will appreciate. Alas Europe (old & new) is an area of the world that is an intellectual wasteland for new ideas in the realm of philosophy. Yes, the intellectual standard of most English folk is as bad as their teeth! So why am I here, what is my background and what was my journey to Rand? As you will gather from my intro my main interest is political, and in this respect I was attracted to Ayn Rand's work after finding out about her existence and her viewpoint that favoured a limited government philosophy though the early objectivist-based writings of Frank R Wallace and his Neo-Tech works. Like yourselves Mr Wallace viewed that objectivism should be an open-system, and his writings were responsible for my interest in philosophical matters beyond capitalism. And so it was that I was I was introduced to writings on objective moral standards, on the proper purpose and role of emotions, on metaphysics, on the proper role of concepts and on objective versus subjective laws. This point in my life was my intellectual awakening after being only interested in football (soccer) throughout my years of state education, a period in which my brain was dulled with the bordeom of what passed for teaching. My exposure to pro-capitalist writings was driven by a desire to understand business whilst working on a business college course prior to attending University for a business related degree. I could see the inherent good in profits without necessarily understanding why they were good and it is safe to say that I was never a socialist in spirit. What my parents lacked in child-raising skills, they at least did not foist on my brain the drivel of religion and I was a born and raised a quiet skeptical atheist that never thought of God, and had an innate dislike for any religious element in Wedding cermonies or funerals I was dragged along to attend. I still struggle to enter a Church to this day even though I do appreciate the technical skills of the stonemason and architect who built these structures 900 years ago. My atheism these days is of the strong kind and I will happily, confidently assert "God does not exist" if asked. I was pretty much a capitalist before arriving at the open objectivism of Neo-Tech and the natural progression that it took me to thinking about what political arrangment was conducive to promoting capitalism. After reading The Neo-Tech Discovery, and then the more useful Neo-Tech Reference Encyclopedia I was led to read the works of Rand and Branden, both of whom were equally praised by FRW. I proceeded to read, in an order solely determined by availability in UK bookshops: The Fountainhead, We The Living, Anthem and then Atlas. Once the internet avenue was opened up to me I was then able to access Branden's books on Self Esteem which were not (and still not?) on sale in UK high street bookshops. The Rand non-fiction library followed quickly thanks to Amazon.com. Other great books read at this time included George H Smith's Atheism: The Case Against God and Julian Jaynes: The Origin of Consciousness, the latter a fabulous thesis that introduced the Bicameral Mind concept to my understanding of human relationships and how people allow their minds to be controlled by others thinking. In the space of five years or so, combined with studying for my degree, I had travelled a huge distance in self-education and one that continues to this day. Anyway I think that is enough for now and thank you for your time. I look forward to being amongst you all. Best regards Will