Lesson 50: "I join Ayn Rand, educating spiritually."
Government worshippers are in control of most universities, virtually every public school system, and almost every major media market. The general public has been thoroughly brainwashed to believe that if there is a problem, or the illusion of a problem, government solutions are the answer ... a new government program, a new government bureaucracy, more power to government.
Because almost all avenues of education and information have been under the control of government worshippers, the vast majority of people are stuck in thinking habits which will never for long periods of time serve liberty.
Because people's underlying thinking habits will rise to the surface again and again, any libertarian political victory can only be short-lived ... unless people's underlying way of thinking is changed.
As much as I might hate to admit it, thorough re-education of the public cannot not be a number one priority for libertarians.
The question is: what to teach?
The answer is given by Ayn Rand. It's not about politics or economics. It's about mankind's life-enhancing spirit vs. mankind's death-serving ego. It's about Ellsworth Toohey's ego trying to utterly destroy Howard Roark's creative spirit. It's about James Taggart's ego trying to belittle as "old-fashioned" his sister's innocent and wondering spirit. It's about Lillian Reardon's ego trying to twist the laws of nature 180 degrees and somehow render immoral Hank Reardon's benevolent and heroic spirit.
It's about life vs. death. Religious people would have allegorically identified the issue as God vs. Satan or the Christ vs. the Devil. But there is no reason to be allegorical. Mankind does have a heroic spirit and egos are determined to diminish this spirit and destroy it altogether if possible ... whether these egos be government henchmen, union henchmen, corporate henchmen, or just plain thugs.
Can I hope to educate the vast majority of people to the truth of the real battle going on using intellectual articles or philosophical treatises? Only in my dreams!
Can I expose ego destroying spirit as Ayn Rand did with novels, plays, and screenplays made into movies? Now I'm being realistic!
Do I need to myself become a novelist or playwright? Not unless this is my truest heart's desire and my guidance from within. Ayn Rand has already done sufficient work for starters. I can make a huge difference for liberty in the world, lighten and enlighten the world, merely by selling and promoting the work Ayn Rand has already done.
It's not that Ayn Rand's philosophy is 100% correct. When she philosophizes she sometimes gets herself trapped in the same cobwebs spun by all intellectuals. My purpose is not to create a million and one robotic Objectivists who lock step to the same tune and end up being stumbling blocks to the cause of true freedom.
It is not Ayn Rand's philosophizing that makes her work valuable to my cause but her sense of life and spiritual seeing. My purpose is to sell her sense of life and her vivid understanding that the forces opposing the spirit of mankind are the forces of death itself.
With an earlier lesson of this course, I spent an entire week coming up with novel ideas for selling liberty. This week I want to expand the same exercise. I want to come up with 101 fresh ideas for selling Ayn Rand's work, especially her greatest novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
As I did with some earlier lessons, this week I retire each day with pen and paper by my bedside. Before retiring I ask my subconscious mind to give me new or rejuvenated ideas for promoting the work of Ayn Rand. I might say to myself aloud a few times a statement like:
"As I sleep, I am open and ready to receive a dozen possible ideas for promoting Ayn Rand's work."
Whatever ideas come to mind during my sleep I add to my list. I'm shooting for 101 different ideas this week.
During each day I take my usual 20 minute meditation breaks, more and longer if possible. Again I ask my subconscious mind to give me novel ideas or enhancements of previous ideas. I might even start my meditations by saying aloud to my mind:
"Subconscious mind? Are you listening? You KNOW the best way to educate people is to sell Ayn Rand's work. Give me even more new ideas about how to accomplish this goal."
Nothing is more sure than that my subconscious mind will do my bidding if I ask with sincerity, putting all my heart and soul into my asking. Obviously if I were to ask with no great expectation, I would not get the results I really want.
All during the day each day this week I want to use a mantra, which is merely a statement used to focus the mind. In this case I want to focus on the goal of this lesson, so I might use statements like:
"I'm going to educate the public by really selling people on reading Ayn Rand's work."
"For most people, Ayn Rand's work is like a course in miracles. It will change their thinking and their lives."
"I am not going to let the ego defeat the spirit. I am going to use Ayn Rand's work to teach people the difference."
Using these kinds of statements I will begin to feel a sense of wonderment as I prepare for the next night and the next day. I will have found an added purpose in life which fits perfectly with my other life's purposes.
Each day this week I allow myself to feel immense gratitude that I do not have to be like the mythical Atlas, weighed down by a heavily pressing world. Instead, I can think of the world as being like a beach ball. It is light and fun. I throw it around, shape it, play tag with it, and use it to kiddingly bounce off the heads of a few stuck-in-old-thinking liberals and conservatives, maybe knocking some old ideas loose ... with Ayn Rand's help.
Speaking of "lifting higher", for the last election year studied (1998) some of the highest percentage of votes for Libertarian Party candidates were for candidates who had been studying free of charge the lessons of: Course in Political Miracles
For a great discussion on Christianity vs. State Socialism see: Christianity vs. State Socialism
“I did not understand what made me free, nor what my freedom is, nor where to look to find it. Father, I have searched in vain until I heard Your Voice directing me. Now I would guide myself no more. For I have neither made nor understood the way to find my freedom. But I trust in You. You Who endowed me with my freedom as Your holy Son will not be lost to me. Your Voice directs me." (Prayer from A Course in Miracles)
Comments
Keep up the good work friend!
I like all the words spirit, ego and soul and it has always been tough to distinguish between them with precision.
Good luck with your effort.
To me, "ego" designates "false identification of self based on limited perception." It's not who I REALLY am.
In "V for Vendetta," she was willing to die rather than sell our her integrity. She reached an awareness that she was not her body; she was her integrity, her wholeness, her spirit, her mind. She was much more than she had previously thought. She was much more than her ego identification.
Maybe all that we recognize as "heroic" is beyond ego.