| | (Google search here has not been working for me the past few days, claiming "automated queries" from my IP. If the Search here works for you, find "Metaphysical Impossibilities" by Stuart Hayashi. Then read Kate Gladstone's "challenge" again.)
Everyone around you is an Objectivist, except for the fact that they all howl at the full moon and you cannot talk them out of it. Basically, that is what she asked: You share all values except tribalism. The challenge is based on a fallacy.
Moreover, you will never find anyone who shares all of your chocolate-versus-vanilla "values." Existentially, we are all alone all the time.
The solution to the problem is that values are hierarchical. In the case of Equality 7-2521 (Prometheus), none of his values was shared by anyone around him. He discovered Liberty 5-3000 (Gaia) who shared his most basic value when she, like him, struggled to express her sense of individuality - "We who are one and alone..." - something no one else did; though after he escapes he does allude to a few odd-balls and misfits who might make good friends. But none did before this.
Generally speaking, we all tend to share most of the values of most of the people around us most of the time. We are social creatures. The essential problem, though, is not whether or not you are pleased by the sight of trim lawns and a win by the home team. The problem is that most of the people around you (around me) have never thought much through very deeply. -- And, dude, I live in Ann Arbor. These people are all educated. -- So, they may not share your (my) value for the independence of mind that we call individualism based on reason and the discovery of fact. That is to say that Objectivists are few and far between.
Gratefully, as Isocrates said, the name "Greek" refers not to a people, but to a state of mind. The epistles of Paul tied together a far-flung society of shared values. Today, we have the Internet. The invention of language generally and writing specifically allowed us to create virtual tribes across time and space. Merchants met at markets. Philosophers had their dinner parties (symposia), groves (Academy; Lyceum), and porches (Stoa) before they created universities. Universities were founded as intentional communities of shared values with their own laws governing their own members. Guilds functioned the same way. Today's professional societies cross national borders. To address the basic fallacy again: we are not just born into tribes, we create our own societies.
You can assume that most of the people in the RoR tribe share your basic values.
(Edited by Michael E. Marotta on 7/04, 7:27am)
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