The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

As per the very vocal suggestions of a good friend, I'm starting with The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.

Ch. 1-3
Knowing a little (very little) about Ayn Rand, I seems obvious from Howard Roark that this book will be about the merits of individualism/individuality v. the those of working for the common good - acknowledging and working within the structures we have collectively inherited. I really enjoyed the beginning set-up of this dichotomy in Roark's discussion with the Dean. In it Roark contends that, "Here are my rules: what can be done with one substance must never be done with another. No two materials are alike. No two sites on earth are alike. No two buildings have the same purpose. The purpose, the site, the material determine the shape. Nothing can be reasonable or beautiful unless it's made by one central idea, and the idea sets every detail. A building is alive, like a man. Its integrity is to follow its own truth, its one single theme, and to serve its own single purpose."

This is countered by the Dean who says, "But all proper forms of expression have been found long ago...We must learn to adapt the past to the needs of the present. The voice of the past is the voice of the people. Nothing has ever been invented by one man in architecture. The proper creative process is a slow, gradual, anonymous, collective one, in which each man collaborates with all the others and subordinates himself to the standards of the majority."

The ideas presented here are ones that I have been struggling with in my own life. What to life for? What to do - to follow my own (what could be called) whims or callings or live and work for something (that could either be called) a greater purpose or martyrdom. I've done a lot of meditation these past few years, and along this process I've developed a very interesting relationship with my thoughts. I'm just not as locked into believing that anything I think (even if I think it habitually) is 'me'. They're just thoughts. So in that, I've begun to wonder about my 'callings' and interests. Where did they come from? Why are they repeating around in my head? And even if something is rattling around in my head, is it something that I want to act upon?

Additionally, there's another whole layer to this and that is that I've begun to notice with more and more clarity when I'm in different 'modes' (happy, sad, pathetic, exuberant, little girl, passionate...) there is just a whole different type of thought that comes along with that mode. What ones do I want to act upon? Which ones do I want to bring into being more and which ones do I want to be sure NOT to act upon and give no more strength? And can I be conscious enough to ensure I only strengthen the ones I would ideally like to embody?

In referencing this to Roark, I couldn't agree more that every human life is entirely individual and unique: different mixes of culture, family, experiences, schooling, etc (some even say different moons and stars), and in that every human will have their own unique set of challenges and gifts. No one should be forced into anyone elses box, because everyone IS an individual.

But at the same time, I find a lot of validity in what the Dean is saying too. There are no ideas, nor creativity that can stand alone. They all arise from a milieu with everything else. (Well, I've heard that Descartes did some crazy thought experiments in attempts to have an original thought. That's for later though...) I was listening to a podcast this morning (Dan Carlin's Hardcore History - it's good, check it out) where the author was illustrating the elaborate point that EVERYTHING is connected. Yeah, yeah, we all know, everything is connected, right? But the way that Dan illustrated the point and flushed out how entirely different everything would be if many of these 'minor' (let alone major) events had turned out differently.

(But does that even really matter to think about? If things were different, they'd be different, and we'd never know the difference. So maybe it should be less in the category of 'oh my god, what if X,Y & Z' but 'so what')

My point is that everything IS slow, collective and anonymous. We are all part of a great soup of evolving and changing reality (makes me think of Tolkien's 'Simarlion'). Any 'individuality' within us is still arising within the context of our cultural medium. How 'individual' is that anyway? And I do see value in working for the common good, acknowledging the framework and context within which we all live, but living in a way that takes those things into accord, but without breaking the singularity of purpose about which Roark so eloquently speaks.

This point in the dichotomy brings to mind a series of classes I recently took that are affiliated with EnlighteNext and Andrew Cohen. The class is called 'Evolutionary Enlightenment' and holds as it's rough premise that the universe is continuing to evolve and at this point of evolution is the point at which the universe is becoming aware of itself through humans. (That might sound wierd in the short hand version, but it's a very interesting body of work.) I'm not going to go into it all now, but I just wanted to make one point about framework from the class that I appreciate.

I often hear about dichotomy's and begin thinking about how to blend them, integrate them, do justice to both sides... The class gave the illustration of two parallel lines that do not ever meet as a visual example of something similar. Parallel lines cannot be integrated b/c they do not ever meet. You can be inhabiting one, or the other. Not both.

I wonder here how much common structure and individual 'whim' can be integrated versus how much they are just on separate parallel lines, fated never to intersect.

And how does that influence your choice on how to live, in this very moment?

Welcome

I've heard about blogging for a long time, but now it's finally my turn. This is both my adventure in putting myself 'out there' on the web, learning a bit of internet geekery, but mostly an avenue and structure to facilitate a promise to myself to read more and educate myself. Reading and thinking about new ideas is only so great in your own head, there's soooooo much more to be learned through sharing. So, I encourage you to read along with me, discuss what you've read, &/or compare the concepts in what I'm reading to other things you've read or learned about along the way. Enjoy!!