Johnny Caraveo

Ayn Rand’ book entitled Philosophy: Who Needs It is an excellent introduction to Ayn Rand’s objective philosophy.  She gives many examples on how her objective philosophy allows individuals to live a more practical, rational, and conscious life.  In the book she summarizes her philosophy and explains why other forms of thinking are contradictory and ultimately unpractical.

She boosts reason as the highest human value and goes after those with superficial knowledge:

“Reason is the only objective means of communication and of understaning among men; when men deal with one another by means of reason, reality is their objective standard and frame of reference.  But when men claim to possess supernatural means of knowledge, no persuasion, communication or understanding are possible.”

As is Ayn Rand’s signature, she is always introducing her other projects in her current work. That is something to look forward to in her books.  She always explains her  ideas clearly and describes WHY she thinks that way.  Here is my favorite excert from her other book Atlas Shrugged:

“You seek escape from pain.  We seek the achievement of hapiness. You exist for the sake of avoiding punishement. We exist for the sake of earning rewards. Threats will not make us function; fear is not our incentive. It is not death that we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live.”

In Philosophy: Who Needs It, she takes on many complex problems that have been plaguing humanity: false religion, goverment involvement in economics, government stiffling of individual freedoms, contradictory philosophies, wrong moral codes and plenty of other controversial subjects.  Even though she takes on these hard subjects she never loses her focus on explaing why objective thinking can be the solutions to these problems.

I will state that in her book Ayn Rand predicted the current economic state and blames it on too much government interaction with the economy.  Which logically I would have to agree.

Ayn Rand goes on to show that the current system rewards those who are lazy, unmotivated, and ultimately without integrity.  She brilliantly states:

“Whome would these men fear most, psychologically -and least, existentially?  The brilliant loner -the begineer, the young man of potential genius and innocently ruthless integrity, whos only weapons are talent and truth.  They reject him “instinctively” saying that “he doesn’t belong” (to what?), sensing that he would put them on the spot by raising issues they prefer not to face.  He might get past their protective barriers, once in a while, but he is handicapped by his virtues -in a system rigged against intelligence and integrity.”

The book is an excellent source for those who are interested in thinking clearly, objectively, and those interested in integrity and Ayn Rand’s philosophy.

I am sitting here in at a coffee house named the Jahva house and I am surrounded by joy.  I am waiting for my friend so that we can have a cup of Joe and talk about our favorite subjects.  I sit here and I can’t stop thinking about how great America is.  I wonder what it would be like if we didn’t get to enjoy freedoms such as a simple cup of coffee and freedom of speech. I thank God that I live in America, a country where we can enjoy incredible freedoms like the right to vote in a democracy.  I keep thinking…  America isn’t a race, it isn’t a color, it’s a reality, a great IDEA.  To be American is a CHOICE. For example, I was reading a post about how diverse America is and I found something that was very interesting,

“The story of the American people is a story of the world’s peoples. Throughout American history, hopeful immigrants have arrived to establish new lives. They came for many reasons. Some were fleeing oppressive regimes, seeking economic opportunity or simply pursuing personal dreams. Whatever the reason, each new arrival has made a contribution to the American mosaic.”

~ America.gov

This statement fits in perfectly with the understanding that I have about American people, for example Albert Einstein was escaping an oppressive regime in Nazi Germany because he was a Jewish German, and did not want to support such activities or worse, get killed.  Could you imagine if the Nazi fascists would have killed Albert Einstein?  What a tragic loss that would have been.  I also think about Nikola Tesla and how he immigrated from Croatia to America to follow his vision as a scientist.  He became a very successful inventor and kept his company in America.  On the same article there is another section which is also very interesting.

“Immigrants to the United States continue to find a land of opportunity both for themselves and for their children. The Economic Mobility Project, which profiles factors that make up the so-called American Dream, shows that the children of immigrants attain higher levels of education than their parents, and are even more likely to attain college degrees than the children of non-immigrants. Many experts contend that America is well placed to remain competitive in the world economy because it knows how to accept and integrate a diverse population.”

~ America.gov

I agree whole heartedly with those statements and I am humbled to be an American, thank God I was born here.  Don’t misunderstand me, just because I accept diversity does not mean that I do not hold a very strict standard for immigration policy in America.  I believe that those who break the law should be punished accordingly.

So in conclusion, to me, your not really American unless you choose to be. I choose to be American, a choice by which I gladly live.  The amount of diversity in America is becoming larger than any other countries’ diversity.  We have a large population of African-Americans, Caucasians, Latinos, and Asians and those are just the ethnicities.  I am willing to bet that we have an even larger diversity when it comes to religion and political views. The reason for this is we have more freedom to express those views and everyone is entitled to their own opinion even if it’s wrong.  That’s just one of the reasons America is so great, I didn’t even get into the subject of The Constitution, Democracy, Capitalism (one of my favorites), Justice, and Liberty. This post is only about the pursuit of happiness and that’s theTRUTH.

I have had this book laying around for a while and finally decided it was time to give it a go.  It is written by the late presidect Johny F. Kennedy. I must say the book is a great motivator for young politicians moving into a very harsh political environment.  Kennedy gives examples of people who under great stress, oposition, and danger kept their character and virtues in order to fight for the greater cause.   He  writes and tells about republicans and men of true integrity, he writes about men who fought for their country and those who backed up their ideas to better humanity.

“In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience – the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men – each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient – they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.”  

~John F. Kennedy

This book is a great read for those interested in politics, integrity, and courage.