It’s said to be money... but it’s something far more basic.
(Sarah, if you’re reading my blog still, don’t read this until you’re done Atlas Shrugged at least, and preferably after you’ve finished Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology because you need a really good handle to understand this and not get upset by it. But make no mistake, you desperately need to read this.)
The Root of All Evil is supposed to be greed. Or that’s what our Religious leaders would have you believe. On the contrary, it’s something far more basic. For my entire life I’ve never been able to understand racism or sexism or religion or socialism (Yes, I put all of those on the same level). They make no sense to me. None. I’ve never been able to figure them out. I would examine them, read their books, do my best to understand their position and for the life of me, I just couldn’t get it. Then, while watching Lost (A very thinly veiled Objectivist show, only slight more veiled than 24) it became clear. What is our fundamental fear?
It isn’t death. Although that is one of them but that fear is a side effect of the primary one. It isn’t being poor or homeless or anything of the sort (all of these are side effects). The fundamental fear of almost every human being is irrelevance. That they’re lives don’t matter. That in a comparison between dirt and themselves in the grand scheme of things they mean nothing, they are no more important than the pile of dirt that they just turned over so that they can plant flowers.
This fear comes from the innate understanding that we’re small, incredibly small, and that the universe is vast. To the point where we get whole schools of thought around the concept that the universe is unknowable in its vastness and we are ignorant and always will be (Kant).
This realization of our irrelevance, that comes at an early age (around age 2 to be precise), is terrifying to most. When I say age 2, I don’t mean that we fully understand it, but we do act on the innate knowledge. We attempt to possess things. We do this partially because we start to understand the two fundamental laws of the universe (identity and causality) and as a result, start to understand the universe’s nature. So we attempt to possess things, to lay claim to them to increase our level of importance and power in our (small) universe.
Later, in our teen years, after we’ve been well and truly brainwashed by our parents we rebel against the doctrine of society, trying to fight back and claim some sort of relevance in our ever growing universe, some form of uniqueness, to assert control over our lives and thus make a difference. But it is at this time that we also fall victim to the most basic of mistakes in our more developed understanding. We try to matter by finding friends, and others that agree with us. We create cliques and bully people that are not like us. We curry favour and become social creatures. But for only one purpose: To matter; to mean something to someone, anyone; to be more than dirt.
The fundamental problem of course is that it doesn’t help. No matter how hard we try and be popular and matter to others, it doesn’t make us any more important in the grand scheme of things. So what do we do? We invent God. What better way to convince ourselves that we matter than to create an all powerful being that has no reason to give a damn about us, and then tell ourselves that God cares about us more than he cares about other people. That people like us matter more and are loved by this being that shouldn’t care if he steps on us like an ant and everyone else doesn’t matter to God nearly as much as his believers? What a wonderful lie to tell ourselves! It’s the perfect construct. It must be defended no matter what. The key the defending the undefendable is simple: Create a system or circular logic that if someone trys to work out the rational structure of it, just gets confused and keeps turning back on themselves like a maze, until they give up and go back to believing the convenient lie that God cares about them, so that they can believe that they matter.
But what happens when one is educated enough to recognize what the concept of God does and is? That the concept of God is also the perfect control mechanism for men against other weaker men? That by believing in God you open yourself up to all manner of control, and thus inevitably end up doing evil in the name of that God. Time and again, war after bloody war for the entire recorded history of man and likely before, the convenient lie that is God has been used to control and weaponize these poor people looking desperately to matter.
The answer is simple: Fall back to “society”, the God of the majority. Build a cult that puts society first, that makes you mean something as a cog in the wheel of the machine that is society. Create slogans and hand outs and propaganda of all sorts telling you that you matter! That without you the machine will fail! “We’re counting on you!” said Stalin as he marched people to their deaths time and again. But again, society becomes a tool for corrupt men to control the weak. What better way to control those that cannot believe in God but by telling them that if they don’t do something, that they’ll be letting everyone in all of SOCIETY down? What a mind job, to be told that if you stop believing in society you will not only not matter, but be worse than that? You’ll be evil. Against all that matters. A traitor to Society.
Metaphysics? You matter because you’re this unending spirit that keeps learning and getting better and in some indeterminable long number of lives you’ll become something greater that will matter! All you have to do is try harder! Just like being a protestant only better because you get multiple kicks at the can for it!
All lies stem from the need to matter. Every lie we ever tell ourselves or even tell others is the direct result of this overwhelming desire to matter. To mean something in the universe and make the universe a lesser place when we die. Every war we have ever fought, every person ever slaughtered is the direct result of this overwhelming need. And it is no coincidence that the lies that we tell ourselves don’t help at all. Sure they work for a while, but ultimately we’re too smart, even when we wilfully turn off our brains for God or Society and the end result is extreme unhappiness, guilt, or midlife crisis. Pick your poison they’re all the same.
The dirty little secret that we learn when we’re 2 years old is that we don’t matter to the universe. That we’re irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. That when we die, the universe doesn’t even really notice it. And the few people that do notice are so small a number to be irrelevant to the universe too. Sure, some men rise to power and even become Hitler, or Stalin or George W. Bush, and thus matter to more people when they’re finally put down as they well and truly should be, but in the grand scheme of things they just don’t matter.
The point is that all that matters is what you think of yourself. And the problem with your view of yourself is that you can’t lie to yourself about yourself for very long. So how does one matter to themselves?
Through the content of your character. By acting justly, honourably in the pursuit of your own happiness while endeavouring to not physically harm others. By learning and growing. By experiencing as much good as you possibly can in your life and by avoiding as much evil as you possibly can. By standing and fighting for what is right and never betraying what you know to be true and right.
Not so that someone else can clap you on your back, but so that you can look at yourself in the mirror and feel proud of You. That is your purpose. That is the only thing that can fulfill you. You are the only thing you can be or belong to that can ever MATTER. It is only when you love your actions, your deeds and the reasons you do the things, that you can truly feel important and proud of what you are.
And it is only at that moment that it no longer matters if you matter to the universe or even anyone else that you will no longer need anyone but You.
Objectivists understand this concept innately. “Be a purpose in and of yourself” is one of the most basic tenants of Objectivism. While Rand danced around the root of all evils, to my knowledge she never said it. It needs to be said because only in the knowledge of the great lie can one understand all of the other little lies that go with it and thus understand all of those things that seem to make no sense. Only in the understanding of the lie and the only solution to the cause can one free themselves from the enslavement that the lie causes. Only by understanding the great lie, can human beings ever be Free.
It is time that individuality is once again embraced. It is only through SELF that one can reach fulfillment. We need to stop demonizing those that have their own identity and start rewarding them again for the greatness that they are. Because until we do, everyone will continue to get more and more unhappy as they move further and further away from the answer that they are desperately seeking.
Live your life for you. It is the only thing that matters.