 I mean, Ryan asks, what are your thoughts on the Golden Rule? Well, I mean, I don't have any thoughts about the Golden Rule because the Golden Rule is uninteresting for a very similar reason. It's not what life is about. And I'll talk more about the Golden Rule, so that won't be my last time, but there will also be two Golden Rules, I like one better than the other. But it relates, it doesn't deal with morality, the Golden Rule is just kind of a rule of thumb of how to behave in certain circumstances, but that's not morality. Or it can have, that could be a piece of morality, it could be part of morality, but it's not what morality is about. It doesn't tell you what and how to live, but it doesn't tell you why you should do what you do. It doesn't give you a goal and it deals only with your relationship with other people, which is the least, not the least interesting, but just one of a lot of definitions you have to deal with in the context of morality. Because for Iron Man, again, morality is about articulating a moral code, articulating a philosophy of morality was for her about being able to describe the ideal man, to be able to define the ideal man, to be able to characterize the ideal man. Now, what does that mean? And what is the purpose of morality in that context? What's to tell us? It's to tell us, it's to teach us, it's to guide us, it's to help us live an ideal life, live a great life, live a successful life, live a fantastic life, you know. It's to teach us, to guide us on how to live the best life that we can live, to live an ideal life. It's to help shape, help us shape our own character, the kind of person we want to be, the kind of person we want to be. It's about applying your will, making choices, not choices about strangers, not choices about other people, I mean other people are part of it, but not primarily choices about other people, not choices about how to treat your neighbor or whatever, but making the choices that are going to shape who and what you are, who and what you are, the kind of human being you are going to be, and that you are going to make yourself into. Notice that morality is directly related to the idea of free will, without free will it's all, you know, it's meaningless. What kind of life, morality helps you, what kind of life do you want to leave, live, what kind of human being do you want to be, what kind of character do you want to have. Inland has an essay, the on-card I discussed a little bit at Okon in The Romantic Manifesto about moral treason, moral treason is in the title and the on-card talks about this in the video I referred to. It's a powerful essay, it's one of the most moving essays here of the road, I highly, highly encourage you to read it, it's about the shaping of character and how morality shapes a character and how the default conventional morality in the world out there betrays us because it doesn't really provide us with guidance on how to live a good life, with guidance on how to become ideal human beings, how to become heroes, how to be crumb great people. You know, when you ask a little kid what he wants to be when he grows up, he might say it's always something kind of heroic right, he might say a fireman or a doctor or a policeman or a superhero or some kind of hero that he's read about. He wants to be something bigger than life, larger than life and he's usually discouraged from that. Oh, you know, that's just for kids, that's idealism generally, striving towards an ideal, striving towards being good, striving towards being heroic, striving towards being bigger than life. Oh, that's just silly, you'll grow out of that, that's just kid stuff. This is what this essay describes, a conventional culture crushes that among kids, it provides them with entertainment in the comic books and in the movies, and then at home it gets crushed, at school it gets crushed, it gets suppressed. And of course, even the heroes that it presents, it never unfortunately are today, never presents us with bigger, better heroes, I mean, we're stuck at superheroes, there's nothing more than that. And that's shallow and great for a 10 year old, but not great for 16 year old and 18 year old, who are now looking for real meaning in life, for real substance, they're searching for how to achieve this ideal that they know is possible, or at least they think they know is possible. And it's a logic that modern art betrays this, modern art exactly does the betraying, because what modern art does is it doesn't present us with the ideal, it never shows these kids what is possible. But think even, you know, think about successful children's books, I mean, again the connection to art, and art and royale are very, very connected, because one of the things art does is projects to us a moral ideal. Good art, decent art, reasonably good art, I mean think even of children's books that are popular, like Harry Potter, Harry Potter is popular for a reason because it projects a real hero, a hero who's got a particular character who deals with real issues, issues both of growing up, of being a child and growing up, and of issues of good and evil, but the two are connected. Part of what happens when you grow up is you learn that there are real choices to be made. There's real questions to be asked. And what art provides is at least a glimpse of an answer, and a glimpse of an opportunity of possibilities. Harry Potter is heroic and he makes good choices and he develops a good character and a lot of the books are about the inner conflict within him and how, and the choices that he makes about the character, the kind of person he wants to be, isn't going to be brave, isn't going to be, isn't going to cower, isn't going to take the easy road, or is he going to struggle for the truth and the heart about, is he going to face reality, or is he going to evade it, is he going to accept the truth, whether it's convenient or not. I mean real moral issues are raised in Harry Potter as I think in all good young adult literature. And young adults love it because it's exactly those questions that they're asking themselves. It's exactly those challenges that they're facing themselves. So morality fundamentally is about living. It's about how to live. It's about living the best life that you can live. Ayn Rand does not start her questions about morality with the metaethics. I mean she starts morality with John Galt, the metaethics, metaethics is like the fundamental philosophical explanation of her ethics, right? The fundamental question one asks in morality and her answers to them. No, she starts with what she knows is a good life. What she knows is a successful life. She starts with a happy person who has no contradictions, who faces no contradictions is a whole and integrated whole. That is the good. That is the moral. That is what is right. And then how to understand that from a philosophical perspective, then you do the philosophy. But she is not, the greatness of Ayn Rand is she's a novelist and in many respects she approaches philosophy from a novelist perspective, again from the perspective of what's an ideal man. So what is the purpose of morality? Why be moral? You should be moral because you should want to be the best that you can be. You should want to live the best life that you can live. You should want to be happy. You should want to be John Galt. You should want to be how it, to be how it works. You should want to be excellent because that's what a human life is. That's what living is. You only have one shot at living. I say this often, right? What you want is to make the best of it. What you want is to make the most of it. And then the question is, how do you do it? And you see that in kids. Kids want to be, to live. They want to figure this out. They want to be, they want to have a meaningful life. They are searching for meaning and what are the phenomena out there that, you know, the Jordan Peterson kind of phenomena is, yeah, people are searching for meaning. They want, they want to live a good life. They want happiness. Not Jordan tells them happiness is fleeting. It just happens by accident. Good luck with that. But you have to cope here. Let me give you some ways to cope. And the things that he suggests, you know, we'll talk, we can talk about them, but you know, kids start with that vision of, of what they can be, at least if they're exposed to some decent art when they're young. So why should, why, why should one be bald? Because one wants to live a good life. Because one wants to be happy. And that predates one's understanding of philosophy. And of course the sad thing with most children is they, they live in, they live in a surrounding where their, their parents are not necessarily particularly heroic. They live in a surrounding where their parents are not necessarily achieved anything or succeeded or not happy or not consistently happy. Don't project happiness. Some of them bury themselves in art. In the old days we used to read, I used to read a lot. Maybe today they watch movies or other things and some of those are good and a lot of them are garbage. And they were often told, oh, get your head out of that book. You know, that's just silly idealism. That's not what real world is like. And that desire to live well, to live a successful great life is slowly stepped on. It's slowly crushed. And one of the ways in which I think all of us respond to Atlas Shrugged at the fountain head is what it rekindles in, in, in, in, in us is, is that maybe out of childhood that idea of, oh, wow, life can be like this. Not that I knew it could be like this, but I had a sense generally. I wanted it to be like this. I had a sense that greatness was possible in here. She's giving me greatness. She's giving me the kind of human beings that yeah, I want to be before the politics, before the philosophy. You fall in love with the agony, you fall in love with weird and you fall in love with, with this, this Francisco guy, what's, what's he all about? You fall in love with John Goll. You fall in love with a character. You fall in love with their virtues. You fall in love with the values that they pursue. So it's morality is primarily a guide to living that life. And it gives you a set of principles, not a set of commandments, a set of principles. That if followed lead to a well integrated, whole, successful, spiritually successful life to a happy life, that is its purpose. Well, he's not about teaching you how to sacrifice. Well, he's not about teaching you how to relate to other people. Well, he's not about teaching you how to behave, which is what the Golden Rule is, particularly with other people. Morality is not about teaching you whether to pull the lever or not to pull the lever on the trolley. Morality is about teaching you how to live a good life. And why be moral? You should be moral because you want to live. We have choices. You can live all kinds of lives. If you've read Einwren's novels, you can be a Peter Keating. You can be a Winand. You can be a Dominique. You can be a Howard Rock. And you can be a thousand other different types of people. You can be your parents. You can be your cousins. There are lots of models out there. You can be the teacher in Breaking Bad. You can be Harry Potter. But what kind of life do you want to live? Well, you want a life that is meaningful to you that leads you to being happy. So morality helps you define those things, define the things that are going to lead to that. Define what is going to lead you towards happiness. Somebody said in the chat, live happily, just living is not enough. It is enough just to live if you put the emphasis on living. Yes, just to live as a biological entity is not enough. That's not living to the fullest potential as a human being. It's not living as a human being. But that's not living. It's dying slowly. That's the point Iron Man talks about. She talks about, you know, morality is for survival. But what does she mean by survival? She means survival as a human being. And anything short of a fully flourishing, fully integrated moral person, living happy, integrated life is not living. I mean, they're tempted that it's not living. It's dying slowly. It's dying in a particular. There's only two choices, life or death in everything. And to choose life means to choose to be the best that you can be. Because that's what human life is about. It's to be the best human being you can be. To living as your nature dictates. And of course, your nature is as a rational being. And therefore it's to exercise your reason. That's what living means. And that's what leads to happiness. And it's by living a rational life, by living a integrated, thoughtful, but thoughtful in a sense of introspective, understanding your values, understanding what your choices, understanding your life is what leads to happiness. It's about constantly integrating every aspect of what is happening in your life, constantly integrating your different virtues, constantly integrating your values. And when you find a conflict between values, when you find a conflict between virtues, resolving that conflict, figuring out what's wrong, we all make mistakes. What is the mistake involved? And I'm doing it, getting it right. So, Murali's there to help you answer the question, what should you do? What should you become? Anko also wrote a fantastic essay in the book Greg Salamiri and Alan Godfelf edited on... I've got it here. No, that's the wrong book. On Ayn Rand, and if, you know, I'm blanking out on the name of the book, somebody in the chat will give it to me. Anyway, Anko wrote a beautiful essay in that book about creating your own soul, shaping your own soul. What Ayn Rand means by shaping your own soul, creating your own soul. And why that is essentially what morality allows you to do. What living a good life is about. It's about choosing and understanding, shaping and molding and directing your consciousness based on your rational values and achieving not just those values external out there, but also achieving this happiness which is, Ayn Rand defied it, the state of non-contradictory joy. But that requires that everything be integrated into a whole that is not contradictory. Alright, so think about the contrast with this with other forms of morality. I mean, when we're growing up, we get a hodgepodge. We don't actually get morality. We get a hodgepodge of stuff. We don't lie. Why? Because I told you so. Because you want to hear the Golden Rule. You wouldn't want to be liked to use, don't like other people. Well, wait a second, just because I don't want something. Why should I not do it to other people? How's that true? You know, make your bed. Why? Because I told you so. Because I don't know. Having an organized room is a sign of an organized consciousness. Really? Stand up straight. Because that projects confidence. But if I'm not confident or does, is what's important in life projecting confidence? What we get when we're growing up is a set of rules, a set of dictates. And maybe if we take Bible study, or if we go to church or synagogue, we get a glimpse of a Ten Commandments. You shouldn't murder. Why? Because God said so. You shouldn't... Well, unless God tells you to murder and then it's okay. Right? You shouldn't murder, unless God says to murder. You know, you shouldn't covet your neighbor's wife. Why? You shouldn't lie. Why? Because I told you so. That's morality. That's what's presented as morality. You should generally do what's good for other people. Wait a minute. Why? And that's why most people don't take morality seriously. Most people think morality is for suckers. Or, you know, they kind of live life without even thinking about it. And then when they do get into a problematic situation, they're usually pragmatic. Well, will I get away with it? Can it work? Won't it work? Most people don't think about, and this is the tragedy of mankind right now, the seven billion people who don't think about, how do I, how do I shape my own soul, shape my own life to live the best life that I can live? How do I, what kind of choices should I make? We'll get to your super chat questions in a minute. I think they're interesting and illustrate some of what I'm talking about. So most people, you know, maybe they asked the why's when they were kids. Why shouldn't I do this? Why shouldn't I do that? And again, morality is typically the way we absorb it as a random, unintegrated, unexplained set of what thou shalt not do. Objectivism, Einstein's philosophy presents you with a set of principles that it demands you understand and completely integrate on what you should do. It's not about what you shouldn't do. It's about what you should do. And it tells you why you should do it. Why? Why be moral? So you can be happy. So you can live the best damn life that you can live. That's why you should be moral. So it's a completely revolutionary set of ideas. It's a completely revolutionary way of thinking about the world. Rand is, there's a reason why philosophers don't take it seriously and there's a reason why she is marked and ridiculed by so many because she's so radical. She's so different. She's so, she's so not like anything else that's out there but she is a life giver. She is a life giver. And I know that a lot of you out there who listen to my show who have not read, I read, well I don't know if a lot but there are quite a few of them of you because I get emails from you and I get comments from you. Go read Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead. Don't wait. Don't read my books. Read, I read, I mean you can read my books later. Go read the virtue of selfishness but first read the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged because it starts with the novels. Her morality is in the novels in the way her heroes live, in the way her heroes think, in the way her heroes achieve values. That's what her morality is. That's what it's about. The technical aspects, the actual list of virtues. That's crucial and important in shaping your life, in helping you find the guidance to make your life the best life that it can be and understanding its roots and the method, in the metaethics, its connection to survival, to happiness, all of that is crucial to fully understanding the why you should be moral or the why this particular morality. But it is the novels that will inspire you to do it, to find in yourself that childhood passion, to find in yourself that childhood idealism, the childhood idealism that made you wanna be heroic at some point in your life, that made you wanna be successful at some point in your life and maybe it's still there, maybe you've lost it. All right, so go read the novels if you haven't yet. Okay, a few of these, what are the thoughts in the golden rule? So think about the golden rule, thou shalt do to others what do you want them to do to you, something like that. But that's not true, right? I mean, you know, if somebody is a rapist and a murderer, the things I wanna do to him are not what I wanna do anybody to do to me because justice, which is the virtue that relates to how to treat other people is related to dessert. So how you treat other people is based on dessert and based on how much they deserve, what they deserve. It's not, I should treat everybody else the way I expect them to treat me. I mean, in principle, I want them to treat me justly. So I will treat them justly. But then that begs the question, what does justice mean? What does it mean to treat somebody just? He said, doesn't really give you any guidance and it only deals with one little sliver of morality, which is how to treat other people. But morality is far broader than that. Morality is primarily how to treat yourself and how to deal with reality. Human beings just being one part of that reality. But most of reality comes before other human beings. Most of reality is about me and the world out there. How to treat the world out there. How to treat facts. How to think, whether to think. How to deal with my emotions. How to live, how to act to other people with other people on a desert island. And in this part of the shocking part, for land, morality is for a desert island and for a society and for every part of life. Every part of life. The only point in which morality is not that important in a sense of it's not that relevant is exactly on the like boat scenario where whatever you do sucks. It's not about living anymore. It's about what kind of animal do you wanna be and that's not what morality deals with. So it's exactly where modern morality, modern philosophy wants to deal with morality. It's exactly the place where for land, that's not interesting. 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