Men have been taught that their first concern is to relieve the suffering of others. But suffering is a disease. Should one come upon it, one tries to give relief and assistance. To make that the highest test of virtue is to make suffering the most important part of life. Then man must wish to see others suffer in order that he may be virtuous. --Ayn Rand
Thousands of years ago, the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burned at the stake he had taught his brothers to light. But he left them a gift they had not conceived, and he lifted darkness off of the earth. Throughout the centuries, there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. The great creators, the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors stood alone against the men of their time. Every new thought was opposed. Every new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead, they fought, they suffered and they paid but they won. No creator was prompted by a desire to serve his brothers, for his brothers rejected the gift he offered. His truth was his only motive, his own work in his own way, that was his goal. the creation, not its users; the creation, not the benefits others derived from it. His vision, his strength, his courage came from his own spirit. A man's spirit, however, is his self, that entity which is his consciousness to think to feel to judge to act are functions of the ego. The creators are not selfless. The creator served nothing and no one. He lived for himself and only by living for himself was he able to achieve the things which are the glory of mankind. Such is the nature of achievement. Man cannot survive except through his mind, but the mind is an attribute of the individual. There's no such thing as a collective brain, a collective thought. The primary act, the process of reason, must be performed by each man alone. The creative faculty belongs to single individual men; that which it creates is the property of the creator. Nothing is given to man on Earth; everything he needs has to be produced. Man can survive in only one of two ways: by the independent work of his own mind, or as a parasite fed by the minds of others. The Creator originates; the parasite borrows. The creator's concern is a conquest of nature; the parasite's concern is the conquest of men. The Creator lives for his work; his primary goal is within himself. The parasite lives second hand; others become his prime motive. The basic need of the Creator is independence; to a Creator all relations with men are secondary. The second-hander places the relations first; he preaches altruism, the doctrine which demands that man live for others and place others above self. Men have been taught that the highest virtue is not to achieve but to give, yet one cannot give that which has not been created. Creation comes before distribution. Yet we are taught to admire the second-hander who dispenses gifts he had not produced above the man who made the gift possible. We praise an act of charity; we shrug at an act of achievement.
4:05. Men have been taught that their first concern is to relieve the suffering of others. But suffering is a disease. Should one come upon it, one tries to give relief and assistance. To make that the highest test of virtue is to make suffering the most important part of life. Then man must wish to see others suffer in order that he may be virtuous. Men have been taught that the ego is a synonym of evil and selflessness the ideal of virtue. But the Creator is the egotist in the absolute sense, and the selfless man is the one who does not think, feel, judge, or act. These are functions of the self. Egotism was held to mean the sacrifice of others to self; altruism, the sacrifice of self to others. This tied man irrevocably to other men and left him nothing but a choice of pain: his own pain born for the sake of others, or pain inflicted upon others for the sake of self. This was the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on mankind. The choice is not self-sacrifice or domination; the choice is Independence or dependence. The egotist in the absolute sense is not the man who sacrifices others. He is the man who stands above the need to use others in any manner. He does not exist for any other men and he asks no other man to exist for him.
5:35. This is the only form of brotherhood in mutual respect possible between men. This is the only possible form of relationship between equals. Anything else is a relation of slave to master or victim to executioner. From the beginning of history, the two antagonists have stood face to face: the Creator and the second-hander. When the first Creator invented the wheel, the first second-hander responded: he invented altruism. The contest has another name: the individual against the collective. The common good of a collective, a race, a class, a state was the justification of every tyranny ever established over men. Now observe the results of a society built on the principle of individualism. This, our country, the noblest country in the history of men, the country of greatest achievement, greatest prosperity, greatest freedom, this country was based on a man's right to the pursuit of happiness, his own happiness, not anyone else's. The Savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of its tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. It is an ancient conflict. Now in our age, collectivism has broken loose and is running amok. It has swallowed most of Europe. It is engulfing our country. I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to any achievement of mine no matter who makes the claim, how large their number, or how great their need. I wish to come here and say that I am a man who does not exist for others. It had to be said. The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing. I wish to come here and say that the Integrity of a man's creative work is of Greater importance than any charitable endeavor. Those of you who do not understand this are destroying the world. I wish to come here and state my terms. I do not care to exist on any others. I recognize no obligations toward men except one: to respect their freedom and to take no part in and to take no part in a slave Society. To my country, I wish to give the 10 years which I will spend in jail if my country exists no longer. I will spend them in memory and in gratitude for what my country has been. It will be my act of loyalty, my refusal to live or work in what has taken its place.
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— St. Michael, the Archangel (@aveng_angel) January 28, 2024
