Ayn Rand, Anthem, and the word "I"

Her philosophy resonates with me, a physicist, an Elder, an engineer, and a philosopher. I always knew that something was missing until I studied Athem, and realized that Russia had not even approach the highest crimes: knowing and hating nature. I recently heard a popular song with the chorus, "I hate myself for losing you." I made the connection primarily because of the use of the words, "miserable," "I," and "mirror." Athem speaks of Unity... looking at his own reflection and admiring his own face, but this singer looks at her own face's reflection and despises it in misery. So I realized, that the much greater crime is not to avoid the word, "I," as was the theme of Athem, but to know it and hate it with that knowledge. In order to hate oneself, one must say the word "I." Without this step, the next greatest crime is not possible, hating others. With this crime, people use force to effect their agendas upon others, even to their mutual destruction. Finally the greatest crime of all is to hate nature herself .. to know nature and to hate it, even to wish to change her judgments at will .. walking off a cliff and hating the gravity which pulls the body to the ground while desiring that gravity were no more. In a word, "fantasy" is the love of the unreal, which places man against nature herself in a futile rebellion to his own destruction.Thus, knowing and loving the word "I" is only the beginning of the journey, but absolutely essential to the progression in learning and loving others enough to allow them to love themselves as you do. First "Love the Lord thy God as Thyself," and then "Love Thy Neighbor EVEN AS thyself" or I said much better, "Love Thy Neighbors equally to the end that they may love themselves EVEN AS thou lovest thyself" that all may act according to the natures of each. And such love continues to nature, that thou lovest her as she is, desiring nothing contrary to her nature. I believe that the end of the journey is to fully know and love the natures of self, others, and nature. My greatest thanks to Ayn Rand for providing me the tools to better see good and evil in their most basic forms.

Andy Landen
Houston, TX
(832) 477-8327 [cell]
"To\nrest one's case on faith means to concede that reason is on the side of\none's enemies- that one has no rational arguments to offer." - Ayn Rand

"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." - Elbert Hubbard

"To rest one's case on faith means to concede that reason is on the side of one's enemies- that one has no rational arguments to offer." - Ayn Rand

"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man."- Elbert Hubbard