Well prompted by some of the posters here I decided to remark on things that are both of a political and philosophic nature. There has been and probably will be for quite a while much discussion about Ayn Rand and her contribution to philosophy, her philosophy of “objectivism” and “selfishness”. It seems to me that although she was born in Russia, she was born with an American soul. The American soul has become quite a horrible thing. Selfish, self absorbed, money hungry, volatile, you don’t have to think too much to realize why David Bowie wrote a song a few years back called I am Afraid of Americans. It has really gotten to the point where I really cannot deal with anyone that lives in New York City (I am from Long Island). I can only describe New Yorkers as blood thristy vampires, and no one realizes that Sex and the City the hit HBO show is really a barrel of malarky. Real life is definitely more like the Metro channels Single in the City where you see darlings manipulating five men to see who will tweak out first out of jealousy or a Lara Croft lookalike working for a Private Investigator to nab a cheating yuppie so his wife will divorce him and she will get all the cash.
I really cannot believe what has happened to this world, although I know that New York is a rather brutal and tribal place which is the real reason old Blue eyes (Frank Sinatra) sang “if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere”. I think the real problem with the USA is greed. We are so eager and ready to hunt out Communists, so we can open another superstore filled with a trillion more items then we can possibly ever need to buy ever, especially since the store next door carries the same things. I am not for Communism because I don’t think it accords with man’s nature but perhaps something in between Communism and Capitalism would be good because this is getting disgusting.
I understand the term “filth pigs” and perhaps most people are pigs but I believe that is a sad reflection of mankind. I refuse to look at other people as pigs, we are or should be beyond that. Our animal nature is the absolute worst and most distasteful part about us and this is not coming from some intellectual snob, but a regular Joe who is just about fed up with all the bullshit that I see. Capitalism wants pigs, television wants pigs. People are scared to do anything but consume, because someone told them that life wasn’t for them. I believe however that life was once about the Common Joe but he gave it away. I am currently reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac and I am utterly surprised at how he always found a nice person to give him a lift so he could get on to his destination. I don’t know, maybe New York has made me too hard, but I would bet that in these days Americans from anywhere are probably too scared to pick up a stranger in need of some free miles. Perhaps I am too cynical but I think all of these Law, Court, Police, Crime, Murder television dramas are brainwashing the populace into being afraid of everyone and into not trusting a soul. I mean how often do these crimes that you see on CSI actually occur in real life? I could be dead wrong here but it seems strange I never read about any of it in the paper. Maybe I read about 1 crazy murder a month like the case of the California man who killed his wife and unborn baby. That wasn’t even a New York crime. Why do I hardly ever hear about minority gang war fatalities? Do they exist? All I know is that every few days some American or Europeans are dying senseless deaths guarding Iraqi art museums. That gets reported, thats news.
But I promised philosophy and not just politics. Is the death of good-will and good feelings in the community a step towards totalitarianism. Was the “specter” of Socialism hidden in the ships that discovered America? Could that be what that new movie The Pirates of the Carribean is really symbolically about, or is it just another fantasy tale talking about people that have never and will never matter in the history of civilization. For me, things are not always what they seem. And what of the lack of trust? It seems to be that the lack of trust is the most conspicuous problem in America. Most of the people that I have known in my life either have covertly or overtly hold dearly to the motto “trust no one”. Now on one level this is good common sense but on another and perhaps deeper level, is it even worth living in a world where you can’t trust anyone? Now maybe I am taking things a bit to literaly but its really just to make a point. In my eyes, if you can’t trust people, you will never be an important person. Throughout my life, people have always been able to tell me anything with the confidence that I would protect their message and that I wouldn’t share it with bad people. That is perhaps the best feeling in the world, simply when someone trusts you because they know who you are. Honestly, I don’t know how people live without that feeling but they do. These people are barely breathing and they are a scourge to the earth.
What can be done? I think that the people on the bottom of society in America as well in Europe are there because they are selfish and self-absorbed. Once you climb out of your needs and wants for even a short time you realize that there is a bigger world out there that needs improvement and it is your responsibilty to do it, which may in fact come at the price of some sacrifice. Ayn Rand is the first to preach about foregoing sacrifice and just saying me, me, me, and the last to realize that she made some serious sacrifices to get wealthy (she was never happily married or never had kids). Perhaps “objectivism” is really just about turning the world into an object to be consumed. For the fact that 9 out of 10 educated and non-educated females hate to be objectified by men, it really disgusts me that Ms. Rand would push this load of sloth upon us.
I don’t feel there needs to be radical solutions in order for change and progress of a different kind to occur in America and around the globe. Radical solutions rarely ever change anything as evidenced by Hannah Arendt’s cruelly telling remark that “the most radical revolutionary is a conservative a day after the revolution.” This means that the angry black oppressed man can become the fat greedy “white devil” caucasian with the drop of a hat. Of course no one wants to see this so they can keep their pockets full with excuses, ready to defend their mind with a “ruthless stubborness” (yes, a play on the Nazi’s famous line “ruthless toughness”) against anybody with a new point of view.
Change comes gradually and always superiorly through peacefull and intelligent moves. Change also comes slowly in small measured increments. Trying to change too fast leads to many people feeling resentment. So to reiterate the question: what can be done to make an unbearable world more bearable. Perhaps we should all slow down a bit and do somemore thinking and figure out a way to get out of our heads and into the real world, where real things are going on. American Idealism has polluted the world long enough, it is high time we focus on the practical, on what we can do for others. I believe it was Winston Churchill who said, “Ask not what your country can do with you, ask what you can do for your country.” I know for most people struggling to survive and that means the poor and middle class, the common Joes, this quote has become a source of enfuriation. What I am saying is that perhaps it shouldn’t. Perhaps we should temper our anger and rage and anxiety and see if we can get beyond the “me, me, me” syndrome and find out what people and our country really need from us.
