First of all, I juxtapose feeling fractured and fragmented now with those times in the past when, as an objectivist myself, I felt wholly in sync with the “real me” in sync with the “right thing to do.” Both in a God and then in a No God frame of mind. And I clearly remember the level of comfort and consolation that provided me. In particular, I remember how, even when those who were “one of us” lost, I was still able to remind myself that we were the good guys. For example, when I worked my ass off day and night for the George McGovern campaign.
Secondly, my argument is aimed at those who embrace one or another rendition of objectivsim still.
For two reasons:
1] I think moral and political objectivism can be dangerous when those who embody it gain access to power and, as authoritarians, are hell bent on either rewarding those who are “one of us” or punishing those who are “one of them”. The guy in the White House for example.
2] I always acknowledge the possibility that my own frame of mind here is wrong. That in fact there is a way to think myself out of believing that this…
If I am always of the opinion that 1] my own values are rooted in dasein and 2] that there are no objective values “I” can reach, then every time I make one particular moral/political leap, I am admitting that I might have gone in the other direction…or that I might just as well have gone in the other direction. Then “I” begins to fracture and fragment to the point there is nothing able to actually keep it all together. At least not with respect to choosing sides morally and politically.
…is a reasonable assessment.
Like you said, I have everything to gain.
On the other hand, if you were to come closer to my own frame of mind instead what do you have to lose? A whole lot, right?
But the only way it makes sense to explore this is by focusing in on my own value judgments as an existential construct derived from the experiences in my life coupled with my attempt to understand those experiences through, among others things, the study of philosophy.
Thus feeling “fractured and fragmented” has come to make sense to me, in part, philosophically. Given my assumption that we live in a No God world. Given the manner in which I have come to understand human interactions given the points I raise in my signature threads.
Now, again, you will either examine your own value judgments as a subjective/subjunctive confluence of theory and practice here with me or you won’t.
Yes, I feel profoundly drawn and quartered in confronting the morality of abortion in a world I have thought myself into believing is essentially meaningless. A world in which “I” am obliterated for all time to come in a matter of months or years.
But: You don’t “get” me here. I don’t “get” you there. We’re stuck.
So, we carry on with the discussion or we don’t. Grappling to figure it all out from the other’s point of view.
On the other hand, one way or the other, it’s not like either one of us are going to lose much sleep over it.
Right?