The Power of One (an Ode to the 'Golden Braid')
The Power of One:
To solve the riddles beguiling the world,
. . .deck your ramparts with weapons of logic:
. . .no method besides can conjure the clues.
Cosmic conundrums are caught & unfurled
. . .by disciples of proof. Earthbound magic
. . .spells marvels free of the mystical ruse.
Who fears no relic: to shadow a ghost,
. . .thrills instead to the bounties of nature.
The rational choice, discarded by most:
. . .plain wisdom reveals the wonders that are.
Devotion to science centers the star
. . .who illumines a prosperous future.
Ever-building your civilization,
. . .free minds be wielding the power of one.
~Egopriest, of the
. . .Atlas Spoke Transparency (AST)
To solve the riddles beguiling the world,
. . .deck your ramparts with weapons of logic:
. . .no method besides can conjure the clues.
Cosmic conundrums are caught & unfurled
. . .by disciples of proof. Earthbound magic
. . .spells marvels free of the mystical ruse.
Who fears no relic: to shadow a ghost,
. . .thrills instead to the bounties of nature.
The rational choice, discarded by most:
. . .plain wisdom reveals the wonders that are.
Devotion to science centers the star
. . .who illumines a prosperous future.
Ever-building your civilization,
. . .free minds be wielding the power of one.
~Egopriest, of the
. . .Atlas Spoke Transparency (AST)
"Are you beginning to see who is John Galt? I am the man who has earned the thing you did not fight for, the thing you have renounced, betrayed, corrupted, yet were unable fully to destroy and are now hiding as your guilty secret, spending your life in apologies to every professional cannibal, lest it be discovered that somewhere within you, you still long to say what I am now saying to the hearing of the whole of mankind: I am proud of my own value and of the fact that I wish to live.
"This wish -- which you share, yet submerge as an evil -- is the only remnant of the good within you, but it is a wish one must learn to deserve. His own happiness is man's only moral purpose, but only his own virtue can achieve it. Virtue is not an end in itself. Virtue is not its own reward or sacrificial fodder for the reward of evil. Life is the reward of virtue -- and happiness is the goal and the reward of life."
-Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged," p. 1021 (Plume)