Objectivism is the way of life!

The world portrayed by Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged can be real!

I come across people like Jim Taggart and Hank Rearden very often in my life. And I think that it is the same world around us that is slightly exaggerated in Atlas Shrugged only to highlight the significance of the point the author is trying to make, in an otherwise mundanely unobserving world.

I think, we all contain some fragments of one character or the other from Atlas Shrugged. It may be hard to accept since sometimes it may make us realize some of our negative traits, but actually we are all governed by the same basic rules defined by Ms. Rand.

Objectivism is the most puritanical way to life.

Riding the "BRAND" Wagon.

I have always maintained that I am my own brand. It's me who defines myself and not the brands that I wear, or use in any other consumer sense. For example, does my wearing Armani make me a better me, than my wearing a local Tailor-made suit, that has a fabric of my choice and body fit that highlights(or hides) the parts my physique in an appropriate manner?
Likewise, do I gain a social status if I shop at Shopper's Stop instead of some local readymade garment shop where I get better variety and my taste.

Why is the current generation so crazy after brands, irrespective of the quality of service and customization provided by them.

I fear, this brand dependence is going to make our younger generations slaves of these brand mongers. And eventually loose their true identity, and the concept of individualism.

Neoriz.
"Victory of Mind over Matter." Will newer generations ever achieve it?

To Love A Woman!

Excerpt:

If you tell a beautiful woman that she is beautiful, what have you given her? It's no more than a fact and it has cost you nothing.But if you tell an ugly woman that she is beautiful, you offer her the great homage of corrupting the concept of beauty. To love a woman for her virtues is meaningless. She's earned it, it's a payment, not a gift. But to love her for her vices is a real gift, unearned and undeserved. To love her for her vices is to defile all virtue for her sake -- and that is a real tribute of love, because you sacrifice your conscience, your reason, your integrity and your invaluable self-esteem.

Ayn Rand in "Atlas Shrugged", through the character of Lillian.

Musings:

This is a profound statement offered by the character of Lillian, who is an unloved and unattended wife of Hank Rearden, the Steel Giant. She is devoid of all the love and attention she expects from her husband to satisfy her vanities. At least in the context of the book it appears to be a cry for acknowledgement from a remorseful wife.

However, the underlying concept of loving your woman (I am talking from the perspective of a man since I belong to this gender and thus am not offering a generalized or biased view in any sense of the word whatsoever) is essentially the act of creating a mystical world of fairy tale where your beloved is the central character and the entire world revolves around her. This is not to say that you should call an ugly woman beautiful, no sir! A woman (of substance that is) will take anything but a dishonest flattery. Because a woman knows herself the best, inside out. So to tell a woman how she looks like or what she wants is like teaching water how to flow. But if you do fall in love with a woman (without caring about her physical appearance) what you must do is make her believe what it is that you really fell for. And show her her true beauty. Even if it means showing water how to flow. You have to understand one thing, a woman's true nature is to blend into the true nature of her surroundings. She is more mutable than a man, and not in necessarily in a negative sense. A higher mutability is also a sign of higher adaptability (professionally, personally and psychologically).

I have digressed from the main course of discussion (without regrets of course because it was meant to be.) So, here the character of Lillian is suffering from insecurity and neglect but she deserves it by all means. She tries to use the status of her husband as an instrument for her social progression, but is not willing to appreciate the fact that her husband has put his mind, body and soul into his work and thus has reached a social status that can afford the extravagant lifestyle of his family.

This woman expects a lot but is not willing to understand her husband and his ambitions. So in such case a woman is not worthy of your love or affection. But most of the times, a woman who really loves you (although she may not understand you) is willing to learn about you and she may happily spend her life trying to be the best woman for you, but for that what is required of you is to give her a position that you have given no one else. The position to influence your decisions, the position to interrupt you at any given time and the position to speak for you when you are not there to speak for yourself. Of course, a real woman of substance is one, who appreciates the importance being placed at such a positions and executes her rights and privileges in a just and sensible manner.

If you find such a woman (which is highly hypothetical) and she may not be the most beautiful woman in the world, and she may not know how too make herself look sexy for you and she may not know how to understand your language without words, the only way you can love her is by loving her for her vices, for defiling the concept of virtues and vices. By corrupting the idea of beauty and by sacrificing your self esteem and conscientiousness.

To love a woman is to forget everything else.

Birth and Death of an Idea!

Humans are the most efficient super computers with excellent cognition skills. This is as much a curse as it is a blessing. Our minds are capable of generating brilliant ideas and at the same time we can think of all the adverse conditions that may prove to be stumbling blocks in the pursuit of those ideas. And many big ideas have been scrapped because of the fear of failure.

I would like to debate for the point of view that these over-cautious tenedencies in human beings are the most unwanted attributes and once we learn to conquer these traits, we may be able to achieve more than we can currently dream of.

I have been gifted with an above average imagination and since childhood I have had plenty of ideas. Unfortunately, most of my ideas were laughed upon, ending up in discouragement and self imposed humiliation. It was not until recently, (about 5 years back) when I realized that my ideas are my brainchildren and thus don't need anybody's approval or disapproval. That is when I started keeping my ideas to myself and stopped sharing them with anybody. The reason for my conduct was that I thought I would implement my ideas myself and then the significance of those ideas would be acknowledged by this world.

Over the years of struggle and experimentation, I have now come to realize that not all of us who can dream, are capable of accomplishing their dreams by themselves, even when they give their hundred percent. And the reason for that is, we can not be an expert on everything. We have to depend on the social structure in order to fulfil our dreams. And thus whether we want it or not, we have to depend on others up to some extent to accomplish what we set out for.

Now, the most important thing that needs to be taken care of, is how to share or express your dreams in order to be taken seriously, in order to gerenate faith in people whose assistance you will require, in order to be heard and understood exactly as you intend to.

There are a few practices that you need to imbibe so that you become effective in pursuing your goals. Following are some points that you must focus on before moving ahead towards realizing your dreams.

1. Take time to think and re-think on your ideas. Haste makes waste.
2. Try to put them down on paper, to the very minutest detail level that you can think of.
3. Focus and Identify the "must-haves" and keep aside the "nice-to-haves" when you begin.
4. Identify contingencies as early as possible, because that will allow you to think about a holistic mitigation plans.
5. Never let your enthusiasm be bogged down by the skepticism, of others or your own.
6. Don't confine on your ideas by the resources you have. It will be practical to slice your entire idea in to small phases or modules ( if there is a shortage of resources) but never slash an idea because of a current unavailability of resources. Tomorrow when you have more resources you can work on the next phase or module, but if you cut down today, tomorrow you will regret it.
7. Don't be scared to think radically. People who think like others have never made a difference and they never will. Be original.
8. Don't fight for your idea, fight for your beliefs. Because it is your belief that will give you strength and inspiration, not your ideas per se.
9. Never set a limit to what you can achieve, only set a time limit for every achievement.
10. Don't give up. Because you will never know how close or far you were from your goal.
11. Don't let others define for you what you can achieve.
12. Listen to others' point of views only as if you were reading a newspaper, to retain what makes sense to you and to ignore what doesn't.
13. Have the strength to break all the rules, including the ones mentioned above.

I believe if these basic guidelines are kept in mind one can become self-reliant and can understand the importance of his/her own ideas. I have seen many great people go down with their brilliant ideas, just because they couldn't follow their hearts and stand up for their beliefs. I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to put in words, what makes the brilliant ideas be born and die without ever being noticed.

Don't let your ideas die prematurely.

Wishing you good luck.

Regards,

Neoriz,

"Victory of Mind over Matter."