No more convincing others. Or whining here. Laser focused on finding like-minded people to associate and transact with
When I was new to Objectivism - in college - I became quite the proselytizer. Late night discussions in the dorm, campus events, starting a current events newspaper, buttons, stickers...
After college when the internet became more accessible, I created websites and spent a lot of time online trying to be a positive, effective, and persistent advocate for the ideas that form the basis of this unique community.
But those efforts started more than 20 years ago -- closer to 30.
While it provides significant motivation and rewards from the size of the challenge and the target-rich environment of opportunities, I also realized this humbling fact:
this work will NEVER be complete.
So how much time, effort, and money is rational for this effort? Especially when I consider that I see have many personal and family needs that are being directly compromised or threatened by unethical forces?
Then I considered who I associate with as friends,acquaintances, and business partners. If I wasn't entirely satisfied or proud of that, isn't that more important to change than strangers' philosophies who I haven't even met yet and probably never will?
I am grateful for having this online Gulch so that we can connect and interact with other like-minded people. Life is too short and precious to spend it with people who don't share your values and interests.
I've been absent here for the past few months because I've been laser-focused on taking care of some serious challenges to myself, my family, and our values.
Now I'm back - just briefly - to say that I'm re-committing to making my world into the one I want to live in. With people who share my values and orientation of the world. (The number of people not fully "awake" to what is happening around us has become a more essential issue and factor, IMO.)
We don't need the entire world to be objectivist-friendly. We can't - because it ain't ever going to happen.
After trying quite earnestly at it for many years - and watching many other people try a whole lot harder than me since the 1960s' - I can confidently say that we aren't ever going to even be close to a majority opinion.
So what is more rational - a goal achieve that ideal state of utopia?
Or - to create the best world of relationships and partnerships we can with the people who already share our world view and philosophy?
In darker or more stressful moments we may wonder when we will see a complete collapse as in Atlas Shrugged. Or another SHTF scenario that seems to have many varieties given all the threats and craziness in our world today.
If and when that happens, the smart (or "lucky") ones will have already prepared themselves and their families to have a place, a community, and a means to continue living.
That will be a Gulch of some type. Thanks to our internet, now it doesn't have to be 100% physical.
I've grown to believe that our biggest issue and need is not persuading more people that we need to live rational, productive, ethical, and peaceful lives. Rather, it is that we need to better identify and connect those of us who already share these values NOW so that we can build trust, success, and happiness amongst ourselves now - while we can enjoy all of these benefits. If and when things get more ugly - then we will all be better off too.
No fear. No regrets. And no time to waste.
If you live in northern California, or do business online and think you or others would be worth connecting with, I hope you'll reach out to me.
If you are on the Marketplace here, I know about you. :-) I encourage everyone to go to the Marketplace page, learn who is there, and think about how you can do business with them. I've done that and hope to see more people and businesses joining over time.
In future posts - possibly Marketplace listings - you'll likely hear from me again on topics related to this mission. High on my priority list is finding medical and health professionals who work on a DPC basis (Direct Primary Care). Outside of health insurance companies, in other words. They are out there, and there is a growing number of healthcare professionals who are sick and tired of becoming slaves to medical insurance companies and plans. Healthcare is something everyone has a rational reason to care about for themselves and their families too.
My name is Brett Hoffstadt. I am quite easy to find online other places if you want to. I'll be glad to hear from you here, but please understand I won't be spending much time here. Too much exciting and important work to do in other places...
My greatest enjoyment comes from making Galt's Gulch a practical reality for my life. Not for convincing others of this need or value. And there is a lot of fun work to do -- with a much more exciting and practical result.
After college when the internet became more accessible, I created websites and spent a lot of time online trying to be a positive, effective, and persistent advocate for the ideas that form the basis of this unique community.
But those efforts started more than 20 years ago -- closer to 30.
While it provides significant motivation and rewards from the size of the challenge and the target-rich environment of opportunities, I also realized this humbling fact:
this work will NEVER be complete.
So how much time, effort, and money is rational for this effort? Especially when I consider that I see have many personal and family needs that are being directly compromised or threatened by unethical forces?
Then I considered who I associate with as friends,acquaintances, and business partners. If I wasn't entirely satisfied or proud of that, isn't that more important to change than strangers' philosophies who I haven't even met yet and probably never will?
I am grateful for having this online Gulch so that we can connect and interact with other like-minded people. Life is too short and precious to spend it with people who don't share your values and interests.
I've been absent here for the past few months because I've been laser-focused on taking care of some serious challenges to myself, my family, and our values.
Now I'm back - just briefly - to say that I'm re-committing to making my world into the one I want to live in. With people who share my values and orientation of the world. (The number of people not fully "awake" to what is happening around us has become a more essential issue and factor, IMO.)
We don't need the entire world to be objectivist-friendly. We can't - because it ain't ever going to happen.
After trying quite earnestly at it for many years - and watching many other people try a whole lot harder than me since the 1960s' - I can confidently say that we aren't ever going to even be close to a majority opinion.
So what is more rational - a goal achieve that ideal state of utopia?
Or - to create the best world of relationships and partnerships we can with the people who already share our world view and philosophy?
In darker or more stressful moments we may wonder when we will see a complete collapse as in Atlas Shrugged. Or another SHTF scenario that seems to have many varieties given all the threats and craziness in our world today.
If and when that happens, the smart (or "lucky") ones will have already prepared themselves and their families to have a place, a community, and a means to continue living.
That will be a Gulch of some type. Thanks to our internet, now it doesn't have to be 100% physical.
I've grown to believe that our biggest issue and need is not persuading more people that we need to live rational, productive, ethical, and peaceful lives. Rather, it is that we need to better identify and connect those of us who already share these values NOW so that we can build trust, success, and happiness amongst ourselves now - while we can enjoy all of these benefits. If and when things get more ugly - then we will all be better off too.
No fear. No regrets. And no time to waste.
If you live in northern California, or do business online and think you or others would be worth connecting with, I hope you'll reach out to me.
If you are on the Marketplace here, I know about you. :-) I encourage everyone to go to the Marketplace page, learn who is there, and think about how you can do business with them. I've done that and hope to see more people and businesses joining over time.
In future posts - possibly Marketplace listings - you'll likely hear from me again on topics related to this mission. High on my priority list is finding medical and health professionals who work on a DPC basis (Direct Primary Care). Outside of health insurance companies, in other words. They are out there, and there is a growing number of healthcare professionals who are sick and tired of becoming slaves to medical insurance companies and plans. Healthcare is something everyone has a rational reason to care about for themselves and their families too.
My name is Brett Hoffstadt. I am quite easy to find online other places if you want to. I'll be glad to hear from you here, but please understand I won't be spending much time here. Too much exciting and important work to do in other places...
My greatest enjoyment comes from making Galt's Gulch a practical reality for my life. Not for convincing others of this need or value. And there is a lot of fun work to do -- with a much more exciting and practical result.
Previous comments... You are currently on page 3.
Moabites and Hittites could never get along, they struggled constantly, and to my knowledge none of them survived. I've never seen one anyway...
To the proselytizers I care about, I invite them to imagine they have convinced the world of their all their points of contention, and ask what they would do? Many cannot answer because bickering has become their life. Others sit back and come up with something. To which I answer, why not go do that now?
If you want some other virtual communities I have some suggestions for you. Best for us to talk over phone or video first so I can understand more about you and what would appeal to you. Let me know if you are interested in following up on that.
I think of collectivism as similarly working for bands of hunter-gathers. It stayed in place after agriculture. The value was in the land, and religious people taught that we find ourselves on this world with limited resources and the good people among us will share those resources, putting others ahead of themselves.
This system is incompatible with reason and doesn't work in a world of plenty where people can save some of what they produce, mix it with hard work, and create unlimited wealth. But the religions of the world carry on preaching selflessness. Selfishness is up against millennia of tradition.
When I observe that the Enlightenment didn't lead to widespread Objectivism, I accept that it's a slow process. Even compared to 100 years ago, the average person today understand better than their life is theirs, they are free to make stuff and keep it for themselves, it's wrong to hit and steal, and it's wrong to deny someone these rights on account of their physical attributes.
Also, some of the collectivist bromides are things people say without meaning them. Someone who says, “you should always put others before yourself in a business deal,” may actually mean, “you should be honest and not cheat or steal.” It's similar to people saying, “maybe it's part of God's plan,” even though they know the rational explanation.
So I think you're absolutely right to find the people who appear to be operating rationally and selfishly (in the Ayn Rand way) and not focus on problems. The collapse at the end of AS is an allegory, not something happening in our world. Despite the evil in the world, people are generally freer now, and it's leading to amazing prosperity.
If you find physical or virtual communities of people using the amazing freedom and opportunity in the world to their own benefit and not spending too much time bemoaning the problems, invite me to visit.
It isn't true that Ayn Rand's ideas will never dominate. It depends on how they spread among rational people, one mind at a time. But it won't happen in the foreseeable future, such as this lifetime. The Dark Ages looked pretty bleak, too (and it was), but eventually Aristotle's influence resurfaced and we got the Enlightenment and this country. In the meantime, philosophy is necessary as a guide for the life of the individual, no matter what else happens around him that affects him in different ways. Having the right philosophy makes you better off, within the context of what is possible, no what what else happens, which is what you are doing now.