the herd is how we got to here to make stupid comments on youtube - had we been left alone with no collaboration or community we would have died long ago.
@@futures2247 this "INDIVIDUAL" mush live in a big city surrounded by all day to day inputs of other humans ... , but Successfully tri k himself/ herself that *$/he doesn't need anybody ... Often this is a sign of Narcissisam - because narcissists and ( femSSts (! ) enjoy to promote a False individualiy - where they take everything * but their mouth is full of individualism (* Based on the Yearly budget.... of few Trillions of dollars). ... Ask them to recipricate, or hold them in real EQUALITY or accountability ... and you will se this oxymoronic retoric. INDEPENDENCE Is a myth . Reality is only : * Healghy or * Ungealthy InterDEPENDENCE.
I really dont get how any this is an argument against individualism. Individualism has nothing to do with non- cooperation. Individualism is the notion that cooperation work best if volontary.
Don, what does this have to do with individualism? Groups and societies are made of individuals. Groups only matter if the components of the group matter. Individual rights for example are the cornerstone of all rights and privileges. Putting a group in front of the individual components of that group doesn’t make any sense. Also, what’s your motive here? What’s your point?
All those rights come from the group, if the group doesn't exist than the individual is meaningless, although there are Individuals that can lead the group and have influence on it.
Did the people who helped you do so voluntarily or did you hold a gun to their head and force them? I’ve never read anywhere that Ayn Rand advocated anything but the former. Where did the “do everything significant by myself” thing come from? It has nothing to do with Ayn Rand. Did you just make it up for yourself, then realize it doesn’t make sense?
What has someone helping voluntarily or not got anything to do with it?. And metaphorically a gun to the head can mean different things. A parent doesn't have a gun to their head to care for a child, but an innate duty to do so. Is that forced? I think you have an ego that needs to be broken down. I believe for each individual, a lot of luck comes into play also when it comes to success of intelligence and outcomes. As everyone's hand, your place of birth, your upbringing, things that happen out of your control will directly effect each person ability to harbour their own intelligence in a successful manor. To think it's all me, only me, is a fallacy.
@@soulfullcreations7308 "I think you have an ego that needs to be broken down." sounds like something a pedophile would say to get me to drop my guard.
Thanks for the comment. I'm not sure where this "voluntary" vs "involuntary" matter comes from. I don't think I mentioned anything like that in the video. It this some kind of translation issue? Or a flaw in the generation of subtitles? In any case, when I speak of getting help from others I'm talking about the way in which every one of us draws upon the support we get from friends, family, colleagues, and all those down through time who created the intellectual foundations for what we are today. Sorry if somehow this was confusing.
@@donstuart1051 Ayn Rand's individualism is an advocation towards voluntary association. It has nothing to do with being totally alone and isolated and doing everything by yourself. She fled the USSR, which was at the time a paragon of involuntary association.
@@soulfullcreations7308 Every assertion you made was correct as far as I know. You are arguing against something that probably no one actually believes in. Individuals choosing to work together vs compelled association by state force was the dichotomy that Ayn Rand saw, and she argued in favor of the former and against the latter. She fled the USSR to escape the latter, and dedicated much of her life to arguing against it. This is the context of the "individualism" that she argued for. It has nothing to do with achieving everything totally alone.
Susan: I get it that you justifiably take pride in what you have accomplished. We all deserve that. Most of us struggle mightily in life and, blessedly, sometimes it pays off. When it does ,we should celebrate. And those efforts should be rewarded. Rewarding them helps drive the motivation for us and others to do more and to do better. Ayn Rand escaped a badly functioning, repressive, dictatorial and communistic society and felt obvious massive relief upon encountering the freedoms associated with a much freer, less repressive, free market-based society in the West. Her writing reflects that. I fear, however, that many of the responsive comments on my video seem to be using Ayn Rand's resulting writing to self-justify a view of the world that just simply doesn't actually exist in real life. It is comforting to ignore our very real dependence on others. It makes us feel empowered and invulnerable. But, in the end, it isn't very realistic. I appreciate your comment that you wrote seven books all on your own, for example. And you should definitely take pride in that. I take similar pride in the books I have written. But I'd like you (and others of the critics) to try taking a step back and take broader view of that statement. Could you have written those books if 6,000 years ago, some very clever people hadn't struggled (suffered even) to create a phonetic alphabet - then later, if others hadn't invented the movable-type press that makes it possible for you to get your books into the hands of thousands of people. 500 years ago, you simply couldn't have done that. I assume you take pride in your books (as I do) because you feel you have something to contribute that will be of value to others, Someone will surely point out that those advances were the accomplishments of individuals. But if you think about that, I believe that they, too, rested on the shoulders of their families, friends, colleagues, and their forebears going back many generations, This observation is important--simply because it is so easy to forget and yet if we forget it, we lose sight of how important it is to nurture, protect, and fight for a well-functioning society today. It is important that we avoid self-justifying behavior that is destructive of critically important social institutions. That sharing of information is precisely why books became such an amazing catalyst for the innumerable technologies that transformed human life on earth. In a badly functioning society, there's a good chance those books Guttenberg and others printed (including the Christian Bible) (or your books today, for example) could, easily as not, have been simply banned. We're all very fortunate that they weren't. (Yours included) It's why we all feel great relief that we have freedom of press in most of the free world. That we take our essential, unavoidable, and ultimately mostly positive participation in society seriously enough to guide it and protect in from those who'd like to take those freedoms away. I believe in taking pride in what you've accomplished. That is fine, so long as one doesn't, in the process, ignore the very real foundations for what you've done. I know you don't necessarily argue the contrary, but for others who may be reading this reply, I would like to point out that somebody taught you to read and to write. Somebody fed and cared for you, educated you, and launched you into a life that made your writing of books possible. Yes, you did a lot of work to get where you are. But you absolutely didn't do it alone. Moreover, somebody has access to and reads those books you've written. The very purpose of a book is, after all, to SHARE life experiences so we can take the benefit of what others have learned and they and so they can take advantage of what we have learned as well. Thats how we, together, leverage a future that simply wouldn.t be possible without a fully functional, working society. Motivating and freeing up individuals to achieve their best is a terrific goal for all of us. But so is participating constructively in, nurturing, supporting, and sometimes choosing others over the self in the interest of assuring a healthy, freeing, constructive society. Yes, the interests of the self and the interests of society are often at odds. Thus we need to make constant choices. It;s complicated. But such is the nature of being human. Thanks for taking a look at my video and for taking the time to comment.
Society IS intelligence. Just like you are an organism comprised of of semi-intelligent cells, society is a superorganism comprised of semi-intelligent people. Nations and corporations are superorganisms comprised of semi-intelligent societies. And Earth is a superorganism comprised of semi-intelligent nations and corporations.
My brother struggles to understand this. His a successful intelligent man, but his ego makes him believe it was all him, and no one person helped him. Which is far from the truth. I would like to add that luck has a lot to do with a Individuals success also. Luck, that your household was supportive, luck, that the people around you supported you. luck, that no serious accident had derailed your progress. luck, where you were born geographically. So much luck comes into play in each Individuals life helps harbour ones intelligence and success. People who attain that it was all me is a very selfish unaware way of thought. And shows a lack of emotional intelligence as well as self awareness. And will be the thing that holds you back. Ego needs to be disciplined.
The concept of luck is often misunderstood, leading people to believe that it’s a random and uncontrollable force that can either make or break their lives. However, the truth is that "luck" is not something that just happens to you; it’s something you can create for yourself.
@@BobbyJobling In some cases you are correct, But in most cases its forces that are out of your control. Like being unlucky.. you can't have one and then disregard the other. But with good decision making you can create fortunate outcomes. But that's not what I am talking about. I am talking about situations that have come together, "like the planets aligned" type of things. You don't choose where you were born, who your parents were, what abuses if any had happened, what kind of development your psyche attaches to from you environment and development.. You could say anything on the negative end is unlucky, and everything on the positive end is lucky. because as a child you have no idea of the difference you are dragged through what ever you are given. It takes some serious luck, good people and surroundings to get to the point where you are capable of even creating your own fortune. And to disregard any of the beginning luck in anything is being ignorant. Only those who don't want to contribute the help of their success to other people and/or situations believe that luck has nothing to do with it. Which exactly what OP is talking about with the individualism. You can say you played your cards right. But your cards where out of luck. and that's okay, you don't need to have the ego attached to your outcomes.
We are social beings, too. Individualism attempts to ignore that. Those that think only they are responsible for their success most likely grew in sprawl, up on a cul de sac. The suburban experiment has all but destroyed humans and there's no way to fix it.
@@mra4955 I know a lot of people that think (know) that. The suburban experiment is the biggest mis-allocation of resources in the history of the world. It's readily demonstrable. That most people are ignorant of this fact has nothing to do with it. In virtually every socio-economic indicator, America ranks much worse -- usually in the bottom half at best -- than other free world countries that govern on more socialist principles. Just google it.
First 30 seconds I stop right there. My grandfather was one, a self sufficient man never asked for a thing he was entirely capable for he was practiced from birth. You ARE an individual. That’s not a ‘me’ thing that’s a fact of nature for species. Except that species are further ahead than yours. You’re right, few can do on their own. But look at what they’re all doing. 🙄 That’s common sense. That’s where your politics have you under a crunch. Believe me your politics know where they have you it’s taken hundreds and millions of years to get you here. You may be the top of the food chain on land but that means nothing when you live in a box. You have no knowledge of survival. The problem isn’t that Homo sapiens are individuals where they can practice that individual on a specific job that matches their individual talents whoootedo a single thing or any other political scheme the problem is that no one is ‘actually’ educated for survival for they all live in that political box scheme no matter the country it has its own box everyone learning only one thing. My grandparents did everything on their own. When the wild raise their young the parents teach them all they know/survival skills. Your species isn’t allowed that their parents teach their young nothing locks them in a room for their entire childhood to prepare them for the political controllers waiting for them who are forced to be dependent on that system. The wild aren’t dependent on a system. The wild have nature. The wild are individuals too but all are equipped to survive nature allows that. Your politics don’t allow that. Your species is obsessed with control over all of you. The wild don’t try to control anyone they simply need to eat and know how to feed themselves. Your species could be free and feed itself. But your politics won’t allow that for you have kingdoms that want all the glory all the riches all the attention all the control. When stardom set in it followed this same obsession for a piece of that pie. And so on and so forth until all your species followed this path and discovered poor sons. You know that Rich Dad, Poor Dad book? It’s not the city dad that’s rich. He only makes his living from others. Naturally, he’s dependent on others. I had two grandfathers the other dependent on others I saw the real difference. Nature could be available to everyone. But you all focus on egotistical ideas. And it’s gotten you nowhere.
@@Pumbear it should go without saying thaf if you weren’t an individual you’d be a robot. If you weren’t an individual you and everyone you know would all be the same. If you weren’t an individual you wouldn’t be alive.
