Objectivism & Hinduism a la Ayn Rand
Hello Everybody
I just finished reading Ayn Rand's famous book, The Fountainhead. Before I progress to reading Life of Pi, I wanted to share some thoughts with you that Miss Rand expresses. These tie up unmistakeably to Hindu Philosophy, especially Swami Jee's views on the calm eternal peace of mind being the supreme state of being.
Ayn Rand's philosophy is called Objectivism which seeks to establish the fact that humans are better off when they live lives entrenched in unequivocal ideals, but hearts dispassionate and unaffected by the villainy and torment that plagues the capitalistic world around us.
She argues that in such a state, we are unaffected by the those around us whom she slanders and represents collectively as a generation of "second-handers." These are people who have no love of their own, no values and thus no preferences either. They adhere to certain causes simply because someone else has associated a remarkable glamour to the cause, only because someone ELSE has associated glamour to the cause and so on...however, in the end no one really knows WHY they're doing it. No one really knows WHAT THEY LIKE? They merely adopt other people's beliefs who in turn have adopted these from some other people and the strange vicious cycle goes on along a bizarre toroidal.
She advocates extreme selfishness, albeit only to what we, altruistically believe in.
In this ironic fashion, Rand disposes off some of the fundamental truths that are hardest for us to accept. Hinduism is perhaps a lot gentler in its approach than her.
Other things learnt from the book:
--
Raghav Kapoor
QAable (pronounced kwaa-ble) | The Only place where knowledge is traded
A question & answer enabled knowledge-exchange
Never Stop Questioning!
I just finished reading Ayn Rand's famous book, The Fountainhead. Before I progress to reading Life of Pi, I wanted to share some thoughts with you that Miss Rand expresses. These tie up unmistakeably to Hindu Philosophy, especially Swami Jee's views on the calm eternal peace of mind being the supreme state of being.
Ayn Rand's philosophy is called Objectivism which seeks to establish the fact that humans are better off when they live lives entrenched in unequivocal ideals, but hearts dispassionate and unaffected by the villainy and torment that plagues the capitalistic world around us.
She argues that in such a state, we are unaffected by the those around us whom she slanders and represents collectively as a generation of "second-handers." These are people who have no love of their own, no values and thus no preferences either. They adhere to certain causes simply because someone else has associated a remarkable glamour to the cause, only because someone ELSE has associated glamour to the cause and so on...however, in the end no one really knows WHY they're doing it. No one really knows WHAT THEY LIKE? They merely adopt other people's beliefs who in turn have adopted these from some other people and the strange vicious cycle goes on along a bizarre toroidal.
She advocates extreme selfishness, albeit only to what we, altruistically believe in.
In this ironic fashion, Rand disposes off some of the fundamental truths that are hardest for us to accept. Hinduism is perhaps a lot gentler in its approach than her.
Other things learnt from the book:
- Clarity in life leads to an immense strength of character
- Never compromise...seriously, Never!
- Sense of humour can be a very effective weapon. When strength is limited: the sheer power of ridicule, when multiplied with popular support you can amass can be indomitable
- Altruism coupled with guilt can be used to manipulate the highest of people.
- Selflessness can be incandescent - it is there, in fact it can be there to the highest degree - but invisible to the naked eye.
- The Fountainhead can make you cry - at least twice
--
Raghav Kapoor
QAable (pronounced kwaa-ble) | The Only place where knowledge is traded
A question & answer enabled knowledge-exchange
Never Stop Questioning!
posted by Raghav at 1:47 AM
2 Comments:
I agree with you on that Objectivism has a resemblance to the philosopies of hinduism. In Hindu philosophy, stress is given to the Self or Atman, which is often misinterpreted by many as selfishness. Contrarily, it actually means that everything arises from the inside of one's soul and any act that is deemed selfish is actually only a natural phenomenon of cause and effect.
Nice post! :)
This may be of interest to you....
http://nirmala-km.blogspot.com/2006/02/fits-bill-indian-billiards-ayn-rand.html
http://nirmala-km.blogspot.com/2006/10/principles-and-values-lifes-life.html
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