I have burned everything left in me.

[atlashead]

Dagny Taggart still had something to do; a railroad to run. I could continue to make things BUT I won't do it anymore. Men work for their living, if you are John Galt, you earn it from the earth; but John Galt, I am not. So I'm leaving it where I stand, take over, it is yours.

[Peter]

Forrest Gump jogged across America. Reese Witherspoon's burned out character in a recent movie walked a mountain trail. I remember feeling like that after my third, different high school because my Dad was in the Navy.

[KorbenDallas]

"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it's yours."

-Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

[Peter]

I am back from a two mile walk. It was a bit windy but 68 degrees. I think one easy step to recharging your batteries is to step outside. Experience some mild exertion in the sunlight or even in the snow with a hood over your head. Just do something physical . . . outside.
Peter

[anthony]

What good advice from you two fellows. One 'spiritual' - one physical. (Now if one can only envisage the fire in the snow...)

All that you may be needing is to reconnect with real things again, looked at with freshly clear sight, atlashead. The mind comes alive again. Like one's life requires a sort of second surge (and a third and a fourth, oh yeah) at these times such as you could be going through.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Atlashead,

I shrugged in life. Brilliant conducting career, then brilliant record producing career. I threw it all in the toilet in a massive shrug because of what I thought was integrity.

It was painful as hell and guess what?

I did not find Galt's Gulch. (I did find drugs, but that's another story.)

Instead I wasted precious time I will never get back. Years and years. And I made no difference to the world or to myself when I was checked out.

Shrugging was not worth it.

Coming back was painful, too. More painful that I imagined it would be. Somehow my skills got rusty during my absence and I had a lot of catching up to do. Even elementary level skills. But I gritted my teeth and did it and it was worth it.

When I think if my previous shrug, I get resentful against myself, then remember I did come back. So it's good now. But how could I have been so goddam stupid?

I don't blame anybody but me for that. And I used to blame everybody but me.

That's a cop-out, though. I'm the one who did it.

I'm not saying my case is equal to yours. I hope you find a way to serenity.

I don't know you, but you're probably a wonderful person.

Be good to yourself...

Michael

[atlashead]

John Galt, in the book, never erred.

[atlashead]

John Galt, in the book, never erred.

But I'm of the belief he didn't know it until the end

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

John Galt, in the book, never erred.

Atlashead,

John Galt in the book also never existed in reality. He is an archetype, not a real human being.

You are organic, not static. You must grow, peak and decay like all living things. John Galt in the book is only portrayed during the peak time.

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

Dagny Taggart still had something to do; a railroad to run. I could continue to make things BUT I won't do it anymore. Men work for their living, if you are John Galt, you earn it from the earth; but John Galt, I am not. So I'm leaving it where I stand, take over, it is yours.

There was a truck driver in Galt's Gulch. He wasn't a John Galt either--or was he?

--Brant

please give up being some kind of a victim; it's unseemly and undignified and unworthy and unearned and pretentious (true victimhood can't be earned)

you're really pissed off about something, but you've repressed it (anger) so you've ended up depressed

[atlashead]

John Galt, in the book, never erred.

Atlashead,

John Galt in the book also never existed in reality. He is an archetype, not a real human being.

You are organic, not static. You must grow, peak and decay like all living things. John Galt in the book is only portrayed during the peak time.

Michael

How, then, did an imperfect human portray an impossible archtype?

Edit: Rand said people's art is a projection of their beliefs. How did the characters SHE regarded as PERFECT err in Any way?

Edit 2:I do believe free will exists.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Atlashead,

Ha! Imperfect men have invented impossible gods since the beginning of human history.

I say this with a great deal of tenderness because I recognize your sentiment.

You have to use your mind, your eyes, your conclusions, not Rand's. Learn from her, yes. Be amazed if that's the case. Be grateful. Dream big. Hell, even imitate her heroes. All of it.

But if you see something that does not align with what she said, you must think this through, not simply assign her the right and your own eyes the wrong. Your mind is all you've got and your eyes provide it with direct information. So trust them.

Rand wrote many beautiful and profound things, but she is not you. Her words can never become a replacement for that precious thing you have called your will and your own honest thinking. Never.

And that's OK.

It's OK to be you. You don't have to be Rand or Galt to be good. You can become great without being them. As a matter of fact, you can only become great by not being them, but by being you.

You are precious and irreplaceable.

That's the starting point.

And you grow from there. If you allow it, you can grow to become anything you want to be.

It's a hard road to use first-hand awareness constantly, especially when you screw up, but there is nothing like it on earth and nothing better. Not for humans.

Michael

[KorbenDallas]

Objectivism recognizes that humans are fallible--not as an inherent fault, as religious doctrines might convey, but are fallible sometimes. Peikoff says most of the time it is due to going out of focus, not having knowledge, or a misjudgment. Objectivism's view on moral perfection is not the christian view of perfection in christ's image, an individual must realize his context--the options available to him, his capacities, his potentialities--and be a moral warrior for himself first, as he can realize his potential, in his lifetime, and on Earth.

Peikoff also mentioned the Objectivist truck driver in a lecture. He said that if that is all the intellectual abilities that that person would have, then that's what they are, yet he can strive to be a moral person, and if he accomplishes that, then it would be quite an achievement because most people cannot, and do not. Peikoff then spoke at one point about his own potentialities--he said that he wasn't the genius, that Ayn Rand was.

Then Ayn Rand, after Atlas Shrugged was published, "..fell into a deep depression and chided herself for not being more like her ideal man. 'John Galt wouldn’t feel this,' she wrote. 'He would know how to handle this. I don’t know.'" (ref. http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/60120/index1.html )

So even Ayn Rand, a champion spirit as there ever was, who Binswanger considers a "once in a millennium genius" (ref. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Binswanger#cite_note-McConnellScott-2), had looked at her own character and chided herself.

I'm also reminded here of Aristotle's not-thing. A person is the not-thing before he is the thing. (Physics I.7) "A man who was unmusical becomes musical." "Some bronze (which was shapeless) becomes a statue." Ayn, was not the Ayn we know before she became the Ayn we know. Galt, was not-Galt before he became Galt.

and to quote MSK, above:

It's OK to be you. You don't have to be Rand or Galt to be good. You can become great without being them. As a matter of fact, you can only become great by not being them, but by being you.

[turkeyfoot]

By the time you posted this, youve already have gone through mountains of internal discourse. Im sure you can support your position, and probably skillfully. So Ill skip to something that helped me.

Dr. Hurd offers by phone, email or in person consultation.

In the last year I reached a point when I emailed him. I asked him whether he thought it helpful to provide a lot of background because I considered my problem and the symptoms accompanying it would seem petty without context. And I had a lot of context without which it didnt make sense, imo.

He replied, that any and all information would be useful.

I composed my thoughts and wrote a pages worth of stuff and then sat on it for a day knowing what I said had to convey precisely what I meant or the opportunity I was giving him for being helpful would fall short.

I wrote more and the more I wrote I found the irrational, absurd, consistent, self pitying, rationalized, confirming, reality checked, substantive pieces of junk floating in my head. I was anchored to what I expressed until I understood that I wanted to revise it. It had nothing to do whatsoever about Objectivism or John Smaltz. It was more about keeping emotions in check and wanting and needing someone to support or agree with me.

I havent paid a cent for his services, yet.

Its rare when anyone agrees with your choices. Especially in personal matters and especially if they dont know you and even more when they dont know in detail how you hold the matter/concern/problem in your head.

I have no idea what youre really thinking. Its couched in goobledygook about Galt. So get real!

Oh, by the way you can likely find a supportive piece in his archives that can provide perspective.

[turkeyfoot]

dup

[PDS]

Dagny Taggart still had something to do; a railroad to run. I could continue to make things BUT I won't do it anymore. Men work for their living, if you are John Galt, you earn it from the earth; but John Galt, I am not. So I'm leaving it where I stand, take over, it is yours.

There was a truck driver in Galt's Gulch. He wasn't a John Galt either--or was he?

--Brant

please give up being some kind of a victim; it's unseemly and undignified and unworthy and unearned and pretentious (true victimhood can't be earned)

you're really pissed off about something, but you've repressed it (anger) so you've ended up depressed

Brant: this is good advice for anybody, not just Atlashead.

[anthony]

And that's OK.

It's OK to be you. You don't have to be Rand or Galt to be good. You can become great without being them. As a matter of fact, you can only become great by not being them, but by being you.

You are precious and irreplaceable.

That's the starting point.

And you grow from there. If you allow it, you can grow to become anything you want to be.

It's a hard road to use first-hand awareness constantly, especially when you screw up, but there is nothing like it on earth and nothing better. Not for humans.

Michael

Good stuff.

Like now I sometimes observe a paradox: Objectivism can be overpowering to impressionable youth -- except -- the same young and sensitive will benefit from It most, early on.

What I see as the fundamental error: Objectivism being held as end-in-itself.

No way - It is purely, always, a means to one's own end. Only your life is an end in itself.

[Brant Gaede]

And that's OK.

It's OK to be you. You don't have to be Rand or Galt to be good. You can become great without being them. As a matter of fact, you can only become great by not being them, but by being you.

You are precious and irreplaceable.

That's the starting point.

And you grow from there. If you allow it, you can grow to become anything you want to be.

It's a hard road to use first-hand awareness constantly, especially when you screw up, but there is nothing like it on earth and nothing better. Not for humans.

Michael

Good stuff.

Like now I sometimes observe a paradox: Objectivism can be overpowering to impressionable youth -- except -- the same young and sensitive will benefit from It most, early on.

What I see as the fundamental error: Objectivism being held as end-in-itself.

No way - It is purely, always, a means to one's own end. Only your life is an end in itself.

At your best.

--Brant

I'm impressed, Tony (yeah, yeah--the other guy too)

[atlashead]

Thanks for the replies.  I have a new thing to rant, and it's quick:
From the first instant one does something profound, the leeches surround.  They seek to destroy the creator, his invention.  They seek to take it, to use it;to claim credit for it.  And thay seek to torture you, not in the previously mentioned acts, but for that PRIME MOVE.

[KorbenDallas]

42 minutes ago, atlashead said:

Thanks for the replies.  I have a new thing to rant, and it's quick:
From the first instant one does something profound, the leeches surround.  They seek to destroy the creator, his invention.  They seek to take it, to use it;to claim credit for it.  And thay seek to torture you, not in the previously mentioned acts, but for that PRIME MOVE.

Atlashead,

Have you read Rand's Age of Envy article?  Might be of interest given the above