In "Atlas Shrugged", Ayn Rand said, "A man's life should not be a circle. It should be a straight line". And this sentence triggered some thoughts in my mind...
A circle defines a boundary. A straight line represents an arrow, it points to your goal.
Life like a circle means a secure life. You have made both ends meet and now you are living a happy life. No more struggles. Things beyond this circle are not known, and hence not disturbing. Your life is confined to the boundaries of the circle. You keep traveling round and round on the circle. You live a life called as "regular".
Life like a straight line means progression. You are constantly fighting to move ahead. Every new step is an adventure. Life for you is not just about making ends meet. It is much more. You keep setting new targets for yourself and you keep moving along a new path.
Living life in a straight line is like living with the time. You move ahead with time. Things of the past are left behind. Time also always moves ahead in a straight line.
Living life in a circle means living a closed life. Bound with some rules and regulations. People who live life in a circle are more traditional, more conservative.
If you look around, most of the people live life in a circle. It takes a lot of guts to live life in a straight line. And this is a mark of a great man.
9 comments:
Ayn Rand's philosophy usually falls apart if you examine it closely.
For starters, consider this - man is probably the only species where his normal state of being is dis-ease, lack of ease with what is, and a continuous desire for what is not yet. Then after a point, the path the person is on does not matter - straight line or circular :)(I have personally tried both and many other paths and was an Ayn Rand bhakta in school)
Why limit life to geometric progression? Even if its only a metaphor..
For me, the idea of advancement would be an infinitely expanding continuum. No directions no shapes no lines. Just time and space.
@anonymous:
this is my 2nd blog where i have written "my own" views, but by giving some context from ayn rand's books. and to both the blogs i have got comments from some anonymous persons who seemed to be too big ayn rand bhakta & got offended that i havent written about the "exact philosophy" that ayn rand wanted to convey...
really funny. :)
i guess i must now try writing what i feel about ayn rand's philosophy, i am sure it will attract a lot of ayn rand's bhakt's comments :)
@thinker girl: true, i agree with you :)
but u see, in geometry, you have basically 2 shapes: a closed figure and an "open" figure. in the blog, what i meant by a "line" is that it is any figure which is not closed - the ends do not meet. and the "circle" stands for a closed shape.. :)
dear muktaaa,
misunderstanding!
no no no ... no offence meant!
and btw, I ---used--- to be an ayn bhakta .... till I formally studied philosophy.
and what I meant was ...
try examining your own beliefs deeper. for example, consider ... the desire for greatness and continuous progression in a certain direction has a cost. that cost can't be paid for by society or the human body forever. the obsession with advancement is a recent phenomenon. consider the costs is all I was saying ... and what I said was kinda against what Rand advocates.
the reason I am anonymous is that it is a generally unsolved problem for rationality as to who I am in a very precise sense. just a meme maybe. a wave in an ocean of assumed forms. so anonymous is a convenient name. minimum baggage.
the comment was also a kinda warning to not take rand too seriously as far as ideas of 'advancement' and progression are concerned.
she committed suicide.
:)
@anonymous:
yes now i got ur point. maybe you are correct...
but just look at this simple, day-to-day scenario: there are some people who prefer to play safe. and hence they do not do venture out on anything. even the food that they buy - it is from the same shop. they do not try out anything new- no new fashion, do not like to adapt to anything other than what they call as "regular".
so, in a very simple day-to-day life also, you can decide to try out different stuff, or you can decide to be "regular". eg: in studies, one can come up with different ways of studying, than studying by the conventional way.
your daily routine & living the same routined-life everyday is like traversing the same path each day. i have seen such people closely & many such people do exist.
i do not like the regular life & do not like routine. but i am not like one of those "atlas" mentined in ayn rand's book either. (yes, here is am again contradicting ayn rand's statement in the book about there being no "middle path", that everything is absolute.) but the point here is, talking in simple terms: in we can life an extra ordinary life everyday, but without incurring that "extra cost"!
btw - me too did not agree to all of ayn rand's philosophy & thats why i thought that whenever i sopke about it, people kept arguing with me :)
@anon:
<-snip
the desire for greatness and continuous progression in a certain direction has a cost. that cost can't be paid for by society or the human body forever. the obsession with advancement is a recent phenomenon.
->snip
I strongly object. In fact, almost any example of greatness stems out of obsession. In fact, point me an example of a great person who is *not* obsessed with his work. I think you won't find many.
@anonymous: are your sure ayn rand committed suicide? she died of heart attack.
we must improve ourselves & we must live a life of progression. there is nothing wrong in progression. and the cost you are mentioning abt: health, monetary & social - its upto a person as to how much of this cost he can pay... the "regular" ones dont pay anything. while the great men do pay a lot.
the gist of this blog is: one must try to improve himself & not life a standard routine life. your life should have meaning. living a standard life is easy - and just how we must not live!
mukta, write more circle articles. bloggggittt!
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