"We are clever creatures. Too clever. We can build Hadron Colliders, fly to the moon, and perform heart surgery. But when it comes to applying our cleverness to our own Philosophically problematic psyches, everything goes downhill faster than you can say, 'I am envious of my Dad's dick.' Because Freud said so.” As if that's the only explanation necessary."
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If my own experience of life is anything to go by, it really doesn't matter what anyone thinks, only what you think. For several years I've followed the Objectivist philosophy of man as the hero of his own story; production as his noblest virtue; reason as his only absolute; happiness as his highest moral value. No one can tell anyone how to be happy, it's the individuals responsibility to find it if he can.
I regard strength training as the "productive" part of the objectivists equation and if you came to that conclusion honestly for your own sake, not because what others think, then that completes the rational part of the equation. The 'happiness' part is the bit which tells you that you succeeded in the other two parts, it a by-product of self-esteem, a result of an emotional tally system.
Trying to find happiness-something common in today-is hedonism. Many try to short circuit the requirements for self-esteem through hedonism, by trying to cheat reality, but it always fails, it's putting the cart before the horse.
Anyway, I enjoyed the article, it has the feel of an authentic explorer of life.
Someone like Ayn Rand's writings...(not that there's anything at all wrong with that)Quote:
Originally Posted by Nockian
Indeed. In the context of Mr Oakes writing, he appears to have come to the same conclusion about life as Rand did; that the purpose of our lives is to live it for ourselves, not for the sake of other people, nor through the eyes of others. He got a dog because he wanted a dog and he started strength training because he wanted to pursue the value of strength-both for purely rational and selfish reasons.Quote:
Originally Posted by MarinePMI
