| William Blake Jr. 2006-04-10, 11:29 am |
| The evolutionary theory supposes that man has evolved both as species
and as self. That is, man exists as part of humanity and as his own
unique self, and interests of both are combined. Man competes against
other men, but he also serves mankind. The error made by tribal, or
statist, or religious ideologies, is to claim man as solely part of
humanity; the error made by Ayn Rand and Nietzsche is to claim man as
solely himself. Both are half-right. Man exists as himself and as part
of humanity.
Which means the following: That man's orientation to the world consists
of self-interest and other-interest. Both are absolutely legitimate and
natural and, as I've shown, worthwhile. Currently in America we are
seeing the worst possible combination of the two. The other-interest is
to attack in man all that is original and all that is his own and all
that is different from that of his neighbor - in essence, all things
that a man stands to contribute and all that in him makes for
meaningful liberty and existence worth having. The self-interest
meanwhile, under the rubric of liberty - the liberty that I've just
shown the same people to deny others in any meaningful form - is used
to attack man's ability to engage in any collective political or
philanthropic action to improve the lot of one's fellow man. The
concept of "selfishness" gained from collectivist ideologies is misused
to attack all meaningful liberty - especially anyone whose thoughts,
beliefs, feelings and interest differ from that of those who claim to
represent social interest. Meanwhile the concept of liberty gained from
capitalist ideologies - the liberty that, as I've just shown, is denied
in any meaningful manner - is misused to attack any collective action
that seeks to give people a way to a better existence. Thus we have the
worst of all possible arrangements: People formulated on the inside,
with all meaningful freedom and goodness and originality and beauty
forbidden - and the fear of collective action denying people political
power necessary to actually improve their condition, while forcing
these people to compete against one another and be isolated from one
another and being more and more ensnared in a culture of consumer
coercion that claims to give liberty while essentially binding the
person for life.
Ayn Rand offered a way out of this arrangement: Complete self-interest
and interaction among people based on even exchange within the
framework of rule of law. Socialism offers another way out of this
arrangement: Collectivization of all economic activity and unified push
for common good. I offer something better than both.
I offer making the best of self-interest and the best of
other-interest. I offer putting the two where they belong:
Respectively, in the sphere of self-action and the sphere of
other-action. And what I offer is this: Self-interest leading to
complete self-determination, with freedom of thought and freedom of
feeling and freedom of self-creation - with acquisition of wisdom and
knowledge from many cultures and ways of thinking and personal
experience and social insight giving a person a way to completely shape
himself or herself and a life that he or she chooses in an informed and
open manner (including the options that are not a part of his
upbringing) - and other-interest leading one to do good deeds for one's
fellow man. What I offer is this: Self-interest determining self-action
and other-interest determining other-action. What I offer is this:
Complete and meaningful liberty of the individual - and philanthropic
work by the individual that leads to improved lives and a better state
for humanity.
What I offer indeed is arranging existents in a way that makes the best
existence. What I offer is the best of capitalism and socialism:
Meaningful liberty, with freedom of thought and feeling and being and
choice - and philanthropic activity that does actual and noticeable
good to the people who live now or are yet to live. What I offer is
making the best of one's life and the best of what one does for
humanity.
I offer removing the false strands of misconceived other-interest from
the person's mind, soul, heart and existence in order that he or she
can choose in an open and informed and free manner what to be, how to
think, how to feel and what to make of himself or herself. And I offer
removing the misinterpreted concept of liberty from political and
social arena so that it becomes possible for people to do good for
others and organize for common good. Liberty does not mean every man
for himself without any organizing objective; liberty means freedom to
think how one chooses to think, feel how one chooses to feel, be what
one chooses to be and relate to the world in the way one chooses to.
And common good does not mean turning the people into replicas of
oneself or destroying in them what they themselves uniquely are capable
of being or dictating to them what they can be or how they can live; it
means doing philanthropic work, teaching children how to think,
pursuing scientific knowledge, taking care of the elderly, producing
great works, helping those who are not advantaged to have a shot at
existence worth having, and pursuing goals that actually lead to
improvement in lives of humanity. It means being of service to others
and to one another; while allowing for each other complete freedom of
thought, feeling and being - and, from this position of true, actual,
meaningful liberty, to interact as actually free people who rightfully
see the need for improving life for the existing and the yet-to-exist.
In essence then, the concept of liberty and the concept of common good
must be redefined, from the worst possible form we've seen in 1980s and
1990s to a form that makes the best life for man and the best life for
humanity. Instead of the enslaving and short-sighted models of thought
we have seen, will be necessary models of thought that are liberating,
benign, prudent and leading to the best life, both for the existing and
the yet-to-exist. The self-interest will consist of passionate embrace
of life and liberty, along with knowledge and wisdom and understanding
- the freedom of thinking, of feeling, of being and of existence that
is required to make the most of self and most of life. The
other-interest will consist of prudent economic activity, education,
science, art, clean technology and philanthropic work that direct
other-interest in ways that are actually good for real people and good
for humanity.
It is through this arrangement of existence that life can be elevated
to a state worthy of that which is man and that which is mankind.
I do not believe in treating everyone the same. I do not believe in
treating everyone the way I want to be treated. I do not believe in
introjecting my needs, wants and personality into everyone around me
and bludgeoning them into being carbon copy of myself.
I do not believe that the world is made best by there being 6 billion
Ilya Shambat's, or Mike Tyson's, or George Bush's, or
Dilbert's, or Beaver Cleaver's, or Joe Blow's. I believe in human
individuality and as a result of it different needs, wants and mindsets
that are to people most natural and most enhancing of them expressing
their potentiality.
As such, I believe in treating the next person the way they, not I,
want to be treated.
And that is the categorical imperative that I seek to serve.
The world of individuals, all of them able to be the maximization of
their potentiality and their propensities for the good of themselves
and the good of the next person.
The world of people making the most of both their self-interest and
other-interest.
All able to be themselves completely and all willing and able to
contribute to the good of the next person and the good of humanity.
And all contributing to a world that is rich, colorful, passionate and
resplendent. That is made that way through the efforts of people toward
making it so - and through people being allowed to be the best that
they can be themselves.
And that involves the following:
Seeing and respecting and nurturing human individuality.
Recognizing that different things work for different people.
Recognizing that mindsets that are right for some are not right for
others.
And putting the mindsets into a framework of competition and
checks-and-balances.
Resulting in best outcomes produced through competition among mindsets;
freedom achieved through checks and balances among mindsets; and people
achieving fulfilling existence by finding the way to contribute within
the mindset and the resulting path that is to them most natural and
most right.
Ilya Shambat.
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