New Mind

Hullo all,

I came to this site a few months ago when I started reading The Fountainhead for the essay competition. I never entered the competition, and I actually put the book down for awhile, but recently I've been, almost literally, devouring the book. I started from the beginning and began reading for leisure. The further I got, the more I realized that Howard Roark, Ayn Rand, Henry Cameron, and Steven Mallory were the kind of people that I want to be. I began to think seriously about objectivism and atheism. The more I thought about it, and the principles put forth in The Fountainhead, the more I realized that this is what I've always believed, deep down inside. The Fountainhead is just helping me to understand. I came back to this website to learn more, and I've been struggling to understand the concepts involved with objectivism and atheism. Not because they're so difficult to understand, but because for 18 years now I've been brainwashed with religion and faith, and it's hard to deprogram myself when I find myself naturally reverting to that way of thought. I want to change, however. I'll be going to college this fall, but I hope to be able to come here often to get advice, find answers, and further discover myself. Thank you for this awesome website and I hope that I won't bug you guys too much! by the way, Nix really is my last name. Nix-O-Matic is just a nickname that I have at school.

Post 1

Monday, May 24, 2004 - 3:35am

Hello, Master Nix! You've come to the best place to "deprogram" yourself. We should shortly be adding a new sub-site, SOLO-Youth, where'll you'll meet other youngsters new to the philosophy. There are two young Kiwi boys who are SOLO's Youth Coordinators. They're a bit slow getting underway, but they'll get there in the end! Stay tuned.

Linz

Post 2

Monday, May 24, 2004 - 6:09am

Welcome to SOLO, Nix-O-Matic :-)

Post 3

Monday, May 24, 2004 - 8:53am

Hi Nix,

First, it's great to hear that you've found their way to Objectivism!

If you're looking for a great exposition of Objectivism and a life-changing and entertaining read, I highly recommend Atlas Shrugged. It was the first of Rand's works that I read about two years ago, and it really helped me to discard the religious dogma that I was inundated with.

Nate T.

Post 4

Monday, May 24, 2004 - 3:05pm

Hey again,

Atlas Shrugged is next on my list. I might wait until college, however, because my mom has already been on my case somewhat about reading The Fountainhead, which she called "ungodly literature." I don't know why she said that, because either she just wants me to read nothing but Christian books or she did some research on it, but either way I will be very glad to be out of the house and able to pursue this philosophy on my own, without parently interference.

I'm also very interested in Solo-Youth. That sounds like fun. And Solo-Florida. I saw that it exists, but no one has posted. I'll be going to FSU next year for school, so if there's any objectivists in that area...

Post 5

Monday, May 24, 2004 - 3:36pm

Welcome, Nix! As one who was raised under Roman Catholicism himself, I sympathize with you. Once I reached a certain age, I found it rather easy to cast religion off, however. I even figured out for myself that selfishness was not only not evil, but good. Then I got a job in a bookstore warehouse and decided to look at every single book in stock and choose the best one for me at that point. I started at the A's and never reached S.

In other words, once I got to the Ayn Rand bin and read the cover and end paper info about the books there, I decided to read all of her, and chose a deliberate sequence. I started with The Fountainhead.

(Edited by Rodney Rawlings on 5/24, 3:37pm)

Post 6

Monday, May 24, 2004 - 5:19pm

Nix, Rodney,

I was also a Christian for many years, and found it very difficult to break away. I actually wrote a piece about it all for a recent issue of Free Radical, which might appear on SOLOHQ sometime soon.

MH

(Edited by Matthew Humphreys on 5/24, 5:19pm)

Post 7

Monday, May 24, 2004 - 11:19pm