Yogic/ Tantric Philosophy
Be Good- Do Good
Love All- Serve All
Values the combination of intuitive and analytical problem solving
There is an interconnection between all beings. We are all one.
Objectivism Philosphy (As taught by Ayn Rand)
Sees productive achievement and the pursuit of individual happiness as man's noblest activities.
Rejects the ethical doctrine of altruism and embraces selfishness as a life path.
Rejects feeling and intuition as sources of knowledge and values perception, logic and reason
Ayn Rand: “We should not love everyone indiscriminately, not everyone is worthy of love.”
Ayn Rand (1905-1982) was a Russian immigrant who came to this country to escape the oppression of Communist Russia. She worked briefly in film making with Cecile B. DeMille and later wrote the wildly successful books The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Ayn Rand wrote of her philosophical ideas in her books and the tradition she created later came to be called Objectivism. Rand’s philosophy was widely criticized in the US, particularly because selfishness was the antithesis of Judeo-Christian ideals. Objectivism struck a chord within the business community however, especially for bankers and financiers. Many thought so highly of Rand that they would name businesses and even children after her. One long time, devoted disciple of Ayn Rand was Alan Greenspan- head of the Federal Reserve Bank from 1987 to 2006. (The Fed by the way is a private bank. It is about as federal as Federal Express. Since 1913, the Fed has printed currency for the US government and charges us interest to use the money. This idea of a centralized bank was one of the grievances that our founding fathers had with England and one of the reasons the Revolutionary War was fought.)
Alan Greenspan talked President Bill Clinton into using Rand’s philosophy for running the Fed in 1989 (Greenspan later said that he couldn’t believe that Clinton actually agreed). The actions of the Fed are the cornerstone of US economics and markets around the globe respond to its actions as well. Rand’s philosophy on government was the complete separation of economics and state. An unregulated government was the best way to create peaceful cooperation and justice and harmony in her opinion. The US went from 90% regulation on financial products in the 80s to nearly 100% deregulation in the 90s. Alan Greenspan, after the financial collapse of 2008, blamed “infectious greed” and deregulation of derivatives on Wall Street as the primary reasons for the collapse. He admitted “I WAS WRONG.”
The implications of US economics and a significant portion of Wall Street using selfishness as a mission statement for decades are enormous and frankly, this gives me a greater understanding of exactly how we lost our way.
PS: I have a compassionate understanding of how the seed was planted in Ayn Rand for Objectivism. She came from Communist Russia, where altruism was a method the regime used for controlling the citizenry. Mother Russia asked for her citizens to offer all that they had for the greater good of the state- no matter how oppressive that state was. Communist Russia was all about rules and regulations imposed by the government on its people. Ayn was so devastated and bitter from her experience in Russia that she simply could not see a productive, beneficial use for altruism and government regulation so she turned to selfishness as the answer. As with everyone, her past colored her perception and distorted it.
