| | Indeed, Steve.
Even something so comparatively fruitless as an Atlas sanction (or a private RoR mail) can be something which, in retrospect, is understood to be what it was that turned a person around from a life of never-ending despair ... to one of boundless joy.
Actually, I'm probably taking a little rhetorical liberty with those words, but my point remains. I have spoken with several folks on the brink of despair -- e.g., several folks contemplating suicide -- who, in retrospect, point back to a circumstance in which another individual served as a either friend or as an inspiring model and induced within them the contagious passion to grab life by its reigns and chart out their own course that much more efficiently.
Because there are always 2 things going on -- we are on the one hand (1) doing things, and on the other we are (2) witnessing ourselves doing things (and self-evaluating) -- it is important to think of what we do as not just an "efficient (material) cause"; as Mike apparently does -- but also as something deeper or more important than that. Rand talked about bridging -- and, therefore, abolishing -- the dichotomy between body and soul (or mind), between the material and the spiritual.
When you recognize folks as also spiritual beings -- it is assumed that everyone recognizes everyone else as a material being -- then life becomes more colorful and flourishing than it ever was before. In this respect, anything good that you do -- any value you act to gain or keep (at any level) -- can be seen in a positive light.
This is not to say that a spectrum of relative fruitfulness ought not be recognized, just that the notion of immediate and material results is not the correct standard for human moral action. That kind of thinking idolizes pragmatism at the expense of something more true.
Ed
(Edited by Ed Thompson on 2/13, 10:09am)
|
|
