Im sure you all remember Ayn Rand from the BBC documentary All Watched Over by
Machines.
She challenged Alterism (man must sacrifice himself for others) with her theory of Objectivism (man must follow his self interest, uninhibited by others). What resonated with me was when she said that "all you need is yourself, because you're the world" as well as "I will not die, its the world that will end."
She seems like she can not be controlled. The Randyan Hero she creates are isolated individuals who are "free" to do as they wish. Not forcing others or being forced by others. She was a supporter of laissez-faire economics. This is where I start to wonder...
Conforming to contemporary market systems does not promote mans freedom to do as they wish. Isn't the current market system more like: "You can have whatever you want, as long as its on the menu"? Is it freedom if you force someone to participate and then tell them that they are free to do as they wish?
I feel like her words carry a lot of value to the individual, do they hold the same weight when applied to a group? A fictional example may be video game titled BioShock which takes place in the ruins of a city which was governed by logic and self-interest.
Bio shock intro with heavy Randyan influence
The speech by Andrew Ryan at around the 3 minute mark is what is significant.
Cheers
Wow Dmitrie, great post!
ReplyDeleteThe inventors of the networked society imagined a world where the individual would be empowered by the "self-motivating exhilaration" of being a part of a network in the imagined communication society. Look at the the Apple 1. It was a Utopian imaginary the freed people, only to have them physically locked at a desktop.
Although your post is rather abstract, I acknowledge that the Randyian hero is an isolated networked individual, however on a very basic level, technology constricts the movement (you cant use said desktop if its not in reach). Therefore, we are being forced by others to conform to someway in order to be part of the network.
Yes, I agree that the current market system does revolve around the ideology of people being able to do whatever they want as long as it is on the menu. However I do believe it is freedom because people are given the option to live within the society that was created, or if they wish they can go elsewhere and create their own society with their own rules. Ayn Rand and Andrew Ryan challenge altruism. “Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his ground? No says the man of Washington it belongs to the poor” (Bioshock, YouTube, November 30 2014). Ryan explains his rejections of the ideologies he believes to be socially constructed. This ties with Rand’s theory of objectivism which has to do with self-interest. The society we are accustomed to living in does not live by these values. If everyone lived in their own self-interest there would be no charities, no doctors no police and everyone would have to fend for themselves. This is a mind state that does not allow societies to grow because everyone is thinking of themselves.
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