Response to Objectivist seeks fellow survivalists

Certainly, Chris. Objectivism is the philosophy that was created by Ayn Rand, the Russian-American novelist-philosopher most famous for her masterpiece Atlas Shrugged. In the appendix to Atlas, she summarized Objectivism as follows: "My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." Objectivists uphold objective reality and the primacy of existence, affirming that A is A, existence exists, things are what they are no matter what anyone thinks or hopes or believes. This metaphysical outlook precludes any belief in mysticism, including God, superstition, voodoo, magic, or anything else supernatural, since these things amount to metaphysical contradictions. In epistemology, Objectivism advocates reason as the only means of knowing reality, and asserts that ideas and concepts can indeed have actual referents in reality. Each man's highest value, according to Objectivism, is his own life. Objectivism rejects the traditional ethical ideal of self-sacrifice, instead urging each man to act in his own interest based on virtues and values dictated not by some higher authority, but determined instead by his nature as a rational being. And in politics, Objectivist advocates completely abolishing initiation of force from human relationships, since laissez-faire capitalism is the only system by which people are free to act in their own interests without being coerced into sacrificing their values.

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