The virtue of selfishness, online
Me, Myself and My Avatar(s)
As I finish reading Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, I’m still trying to unravel what Objectivism proposes. I enjoyed that she chose fiction to convey her philosophy, and I’ll admit it challenged a lot of my beliefs on ethical behavior and social good.
It was a long, complicated book; I’ll keep this post short. My only objective here is to marvel at the difference in Rand’s fictional reality, where public opinion is corruptly generated by an elite group of master critics in the form of Ellsworth Toohey; and the reality of the internet, where literally everyone can find a platform to stand on and one’s critical authority can be earned by page rankings.
I liked the book’s portrayal of Gail Wynand’s New York Banner as a kind of daily bandwagon of sensational news and opinions, everyone jumping on and off together with the tide of popularity. Wynand held its existence as proof that integrity does not exist; that money can buy anything, including one’s sense of ethics or philosophical grip. Objectivism proposes that we think and act entirely for ourselves; that our egos should not be denied in the name of altruism, but exalted as that which propels humanity forward. The internet provides a platform for individual voices to espouse opinions, debate, report on their surroundings – a multitude of perspectives on display for anyone to peruse and pick through.
Does weighing in on #buzzwords count as a pursuit of one’s interests? To put it in Rand’s language, is the internet a tool for production and prosperity, that we might deal with one another as traders of ideas and knowledge to mutually beneficial ends? Or do we sacrifice our privacy and our individuality by taking on avatars, operating within social networks and laughing at LOLcats?
On the one hand:
“Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.” -Ayn Rand
On the other hand:
“Privacy is dead, deal with it.” -Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy
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Here’s an interesting article on Ayn Rand from Vision magazine.
And another from WSJ by Ayn Rand Institute president and executive director Yaron Brook.