RoR: Forum

I don't quite understand this. Rand has her heroes in Atlas Shrugged refer to themselves as the "betters" of the people they abandon in their strike, and that apparently reflected Rand's own views about human inequality. Does Rand mean that the existence of superior people implies the existence of supernatural beings?

Post 1

Sunday, October 23, 2005 - 12:17pm

Mark, maybe what Rand was saying here is not that others can't be superior to others, but that others should not accept on blind faith that others are superior. One can be "superior" but that doens't absolve the other from thinking for oneself.

Post 2

Sunday, October 23, 2005 - 3:03pm

Quite right mark, thinking for oneself and striving to acheive rather than failing to strive and living in the shadow of others.
(Edited by Daniel Roy McNaughton on 10/23, 3:06pm)

(Edited by Daniel Roy McNaughton on 10/23, 3:09pm)

Post 3

Sunday, October 23, 2005 - 4:30pm

This shows one of the dangers of taking a quote out of context.

Here is the paragraph from Galt's speech:

A mystic is a man who surrendered his mind at its first encounter with the minds of others. Somewhere in the distant reaches of his childhood, when his own understanding of reality clashed with the assertions of others, with their arbitrary orders and contradictory demands, he gave in to so craven a fear of independence that he renounced his rational faculty. At the crossroads of the choice between 'I know' and 'They say,' he chose the authority of others, he chose to submit rather than to understand, to believe rather than to think. Faith in the supernatural begins as faith in the superiority of others. His surrender took the form of the feeling that he must hide his lack of understanding, that others possess some mysterious knowledge of which he alone is deprived, that reality is whatever they want it to be, through some means forever denied to him.

If the context were given properly in a single line, the quote would read:

"In the mental development of mystics, faith in the supernatural begins as faith in the superiority of others."

Michael

Post 4

Monday, October 24, 2005 - 2:47pm

In the mental development of mystics, faith in the supernatural begins as faith in the superiority of others."

And, while I understand the situation (as has been played out many times over the ages), this shows exactly how limited AR's understanding of mysticism was.

Post 5

Monday, October 24, 2005 - 6:24pm

Rich, I sure would like some clarification, maybe an example, that illustrates what you mean. My personal explorations into religion and faith are pretty varied and extensive and I feel that AR has a pretty good grasp. It seems to me that in cases where reason is introduced into mysticism there is a break in faith to some extent. An indicator, I think is the large number of Christian denominations. Even among faiths that claim to follow the bible as literal authority, new denominations spring forth as a result of denying the authority of previous doctrine. Same infallible bible, new doctrines.

What I really love is the hubbub in choosing a new pope. Conservatives and liberals all campaign for the guy that will make pronunciations they are comfortable with yet according to doctrine, the pope is infallible in all matters of faith. Rooting for a certain pope implies that they want their views to be infallible pronunciations! In essence it is dissent before the fact. I'll never understand those fish eaters.
Hell, I know Southern Baptists who were earring , make-up, and dance, and thats the men. When I was a kid they shunned all of that as evil but a little common sense wittled away at that.

Sipes

Post 6

Monday, October 24, 2005 - 6:39pm

"Conservatives and liberals all campaign for the guy that will make pronunciations they are comfortable with yet according to doctrine, the pope is infallible in all matters of faith."

Very "Gail Wynand"...

Post 7

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 - 9:07am