Personal Objectivist History

Sorry about the delay between posts. I am finding that it is harder to 1) think of things to write about and 2) find time to write them in the same day. I tip my hat once again to all objectivist bloggers who post multiple times in a week.

This weekend I was busy entertaining my parents for their first trip to Chicago to visit me. It was a lot of fun and I had a great time. When I talk about how I got involved in objectivism I usually say that I was always an objectivist but didn't know it until I read Rand's novels. I never realized that my philosophy in life had one name. Therefore, when I studied Rand and her philosophy it was as though there was an echo of my own knowledge but also a more cohesive, well-thought system in place. For this I am indebted to Ayn Rand.

I never thought that the objectivist thoughts came from anywhere in particular. I gave myself the benefit-of-the-doubt of the realization in the way things should be. Spending time this weekend with my parents and having many conversations about the state of things I realized that I actually was raised in an objectivist home. I wouldn't call either one of my parents objectivists; my father I would describe as "Republican" and my mother "Democrat". Around election times they often joke that they just cancel each other out.

To my own credit, though, I was able to pick out the ideas of objectivism from both and piece them together in my own philosophy that was a hybrid. Of course, the freedom of business and smaller government is typical of the Republican party and the more secular system including gay rights and the right to abortions is from the Democrats. In this way I was removing contradictions from both views and forcing them to make rational sense. I don't ever remember this taking a lot of time, thought, or effort on my part; it was an automatic process. For similar reasons I imagine this is why my little sister says she is an objectivist as well. I can see seeds of objectivism in my older sister as well. This was an interesting realization for me and it was neat to talk to my parents and either wholly agree with my dad on subjects (i.e. stimulus package, bailouts, ridiculous "green" energy, etc...) or wholly agree with my mom (i.e. poking fun at religious ceremonies). There wasn't much crossover.