Per usual, my original assignment took a turn towards random so I have decided to rename it. Honestly I've just been aiming to capture a building towering over me with blue skies and white puffy clouds.
Ok, done. Now, on with the post.
"Each evening he walked the two miles from the quarry to little town where the workers lived. The earth of the woods he crossed was soft and warm under his feet; it was strange, after a day spent on the granite ridges; he smiled as at a new pleasure, each evening, and looked down to watch his feet crushing a surface that responded, gave way and conceded faint prints to be left behind"
"Only when you can feel contempt for your own priceless little ego, only then can you achieve the true, broad peace of selflessness, the merging of your spirit with the vast collective spirit of mankind. There is no room for the love of others within the tight crowded miser's hole of a private ego. Be empty in order to be filled."
"In spiritual matters there is a simple, infallible test; everything that proceeds from the ego is evil; everything that proceeds from love for others is good."
"The man who attempts to live for others is a dependent. He is the parasite in motive and makes parasites of those he serves. The relationship produces nothing but mutual corruption. It is impossible in concept. The nearest approach to it in reality - the man who lives to serve others - is the slave. If physical slavery is repulsive, how much more repulsive is the concept of servility of the spirit? The conquered slave has a vestige of honor. He has the merit of having resisted and of considering his condition evil. But the man who enslaves himself voluntarily in the name of love is the basest of creatures. He degrades the dignity of man and he degrades the concept of love. But this is the essence of altruism."
Ayn Rand was another screen writer turned philosophical figure who's ideas became drastically twisted after her death. Much like L. Ron Hubbard (Scientology) Ayn came to Hollywood with a dream and a script in hand based on her groundbreaking books. "This is the motive and purpose of my writing, the projection of the ideal man. The portrayal of a moral ideal, as my ultimate literary goal, as an end in itself - to which any didactic, intellectual or philosophical values contained in a novel are only the means."
She advocated individualism and rejected alutirism and religion. She was a strong, complicated woman. She stood for everything that I hope is not true. I want to believe that people can truely be altruistic, that we can exist with different people beliveing in their own religion freely and that we can have a partner to live the rest of our lives with...but as I get older and suffer loss, heartache and the ability to trust in another human being I have to wonder if she wasn't on to something.
Ok, done. Now, on with the post.
"Each evening he walked the two miles from the quarry to little town where the workers lived. The earth of the woods he crossed was soft and warm under his feet; it was strange, after a day spent on the granite ridges; he smiled as at a new pleasure, each evening, and looked down to watch his feet crushing a surface that responded, gave way and conceded faint prints to be left behind"
"Only when you can feel contempt for your own priceless little ego, only then can you achieve the true, broad peace of selflessness, the merging of your spirit with the vast collective spirit of mankind. There is no room for the love of others within the tight crowded miser's hole of a private ego. Be empty in order to be filled."
"In spiritual matters there is a simple, infallible test; everything that proceeds from the ego is evil; everything that proceeds from love for others is good."
"The man who attempts to live for others is a dependent. He is the parasite in motive and makes parasites of those he serves. The relationship produces nothing but mutual corruption. It is impossible in concept. The nearest approach to it in reality - the man who lives to serve others - is the slave. If physical slavery is repulsive, how much more repulsive is the concept of servility of the spirit? The conquered slave has a vestige of honor. He has the merit of having resisted and of considering his condition evil. But the man who enslaves himself voluntarily in the name of love is the basest of creatures. He degrades the dignity of man and he degrades the concept of love. But this is the essence of altruism."
Ayn Rand was another screen writer turned philosophical figure who's ideas became drastically twisted after her death. Much like L. Ron Hubbard (Scientology) Ayn came to Hollywood with a dream and a script in hand based on her groundbreaking books. "This is the motive and purpose of my writing, the projection of the ideal man. The portrayal of a moral ideal, as my ultimate literary goal, as an end in itself - to which any didactic, intellectual or philosophical values contained in a novel are only the means."
She advocated individualism and rejected alutirism and religion. She was a strong, complicated woman. She stood for everything that I hope is not true. I want to believe that people can truely be altruistic, that we can exist with different people beliveing in their own religion freely and that we can have a partner to live the rest of our lives with...but as I get older and suffer loss, heartache and the ability to trust in another human being I have to wonder if she wasn't on to something.
Comments