Virtue Of Selfishness

concern for my own self interest?

how to apply my own culture; philosophy — to todays issues?

day to day philosophy; day to day photography?

Objectivist ethics

What is ‘good’?

what is morality or ethics? how to guide my choices and actions in life— to give my life purpose and direction?

Ethics of photographer?

Make photography philosophy book?

how can i continue to exist? living organism.

life is an end in itself; we keep living in order to live.

men initially led by pain and pleasure— guardian of my life.

avoid pain; basic survival.

needs of man are more complex; and the range of my actions is wider!

physical function of my body can only perform automatically on the task of using fuel; but i need to obtain that fuel (food and water)

we need higher faculty of consciousness in order to obtain fuel.

man has to hunt; produce fuel!

to live— we need FUEL

how can a plant grow and crawl from under a rock to reach the sunlight

i cannot act for my own destruction!

how can i go further with my perception skills and faculties?

an animal has no choice in the knowledge and the skills that it acquires; only repeats generation after generation

humans have the choice in acquiring the certain knowledge and skills they want.

i can break tradition of past generations.

animals don’t know about speeding trains

man; highest living species on earth— consciousness has an unlimited capacity for gaining knowledge.

volition/volo/i wish

i can wish my own thinking

‘conceptual knowledge’

abstract knowledge?

to identify and integrate unlimited amount of knowledge and concepts — extending beyond the immediate perceptions of reality.

integrate every event and observation into a context; grasp relationship, differences, similarities, and abstract them into new concepts. to draw inferences, make deductions, reach conclusions — and to ask new answers; and expand my own knowledge into ever-growing sum.

reason + thinking

thinking requires us to be in a state of full; focused awareness.

we have the option to focus my consciousness

don’t unfocus my awareness and my mind— and let myself drift into a ‘semiconscious daze’ — merely reacting to any chance stills of the immediate moment (TV, social media) t the mercy of his undirected sensory-perceptual mechanism, of any random, associational connections it might happen to make.

don’t trace; draw my own.

an unfocused mind is not conscious

basic means of survival is reason.

nothing is given to man on earth except a potential and the material on which to actualize it.

we are given potential in life; actualize my own self-potential.

we are given materials and tools (laptop and technology) to actualize it; to create it in real life!

how to discover my spark plug; and to use it, and keep it in constant action?

the material is the whole of the universe; no limits set to the knowledge i can acquire and enjoy life and achieve.

everything i need or desire needs to be learned; discovered and produced by me — by my own mind.

seek perfection of my mind.

penalty of unconsciousness; destruction.

we have the power to destroy ourselves (drugs, lifestyle, alcohol, etc).

what are the right goals for us to pursue? that is what can be answered in ethics.

We need a code of ethics.

Photography Code of Ethics

rational being of survival:
1. Thinking
2. Productive work

What is ‘productive work’?

productive creative work?

Virtuous selfishness?

choose to think; don’t just survive by imitating and repeating others like a trained circus animal. don’t learn the routine of sounds and motions from others.

don’t be like a plant; reject locomotion and wait for the soil to feed us.

men cannot survive like an animal; by acting on the range of the moment.

i can alter my choices and free to change direction of my life— if i have freedom.

i need to focus on task of survival.

i must choose my own actions values and goals; to achieve, fulfill and enjoy my own life.

  1. Reason; build my rationality
  2. Purpose; productiveness in my creativeness
  3. Self-esteem; pride in the work that I do.

productive work is the central purpose of my life — how can i keep doing creative productive work that is meaningful?

follow my reason; to do meaningful work.

vice: unfocusing my mind, refusal to see — refusal to know.

avoid anti-mind, anti-life.

productive work; allows me to achieve unlimited achievement— my creative ability; my ambition; my self-assertiveness; refusal to compromise, and to reshape the earth in the image of my values.

consciously chosen pursuit of my productive career— great; on my level of ability.

use the fullest and most purposeful use of my mind.

PRIDE: I have self-made wealth, and self-made soul.

Shape my soul into what I want.

‘moral ambitiousness’

Hold myself in my own highest value; by pursuing my own moral perfection.

fuck ‘unearned guilt’

never resign passively to my flaws

happiness vs suffering in life?

joy vs suffering

blank slate; scraped tablet; tabula rasa

we are born blank slate.

i can program my own mind.

avoid mindless ‘kicks’ like the driver of a hotrod car.

‘this is worth living for’

LIQUID TEXT

Fallacy of hedonism;

KIM = GOLD

‘rational selfishness’

never treat another man as a master of slave— but independent equals

We Are All Equal

expect to get paid for my achievements.

Spiritual

‘spiritual’ — pertain to my consciousness

love, friendship, respect, admiration — emotional response of virtues of others.

how do i feel when i meet a hero?

don’t be loved for my weakness or my flaw; but for my virtue and strength.

‘to love is to value’

keep firm; consistent; uncompromising; unbetrayed values. (seneca; constancy of the wise man)

live in a free; peaceful, prosperous, benevolent, and rational society.

social existence: knowledge and trade
1. contribute knowledge to society
2. trade with others

i can expand my store of knowledge from generation to generation — i gain an incalculable benefit from the knowledge discovered by others.

second great benefit; division of labor. allows me to devote myself to my own field of work; and trade with others who specialize.

don’t try to live on a self-sustaining farm.

politics; don’t use force against others.

what is real capitalism?

laissez-fair capitalism?

don’t be anti-life.

Be full-time philosopher.

  • what do philosophers not do — NNT doesn’t care about business or sponsorship?

‘fuck you money’ — don’t do anything i don’t want to do for money; would I do this campaign or business thing for free?

Mental health; mysticism and self-sacrifice?

how to further my life?

schizophrenia to split the mind

don’t lose touch with reality.

pride in my power to think; and to live!

make myself able to live; and make myself worthy of living.

live extreme.

fuck burning in hell.

Why You Should Become Rich

Ethics of emergencies

first take care of cindy; my mom; and family.

sacrifice vs act of integrity?

only drink coffee and water .

men are born ‘tabula rasa’

Conflict of interest?

what determines my earnings; money and wealth— free market, judgement of men willing to trade for my effort?

he trades value for value.

never seek to get something for nothing.

make the world!

children should not love and respect parents automatically.

nobody owes nobody a living

basic income for creative folks?

‘who would pay for it?’

‘somehow’ always means ‘somebody’

i can achieve my own goals by my own effort.

We can control effort in life; not results.

one does not live by luck; breaks, or favors.

fuck entitlement

Isn’t everyone (already) selfish?

selfish vs self-sacrifice?

who do i try to benefit?

selfish: motivated by concern for my own self-interest.

what is my self-ova?

selfish: refuse to sacrifice myself to lower ones.

selfish; risk death to achieve freedom (in dictatorship).

fight for freedom; what i believe in.

don’t please parents.

son cannot see mothers happiness above his own

soul; my consciousness and my basic motivating values

my soul: being aware of myself— and my moral values in life.

Enjoyment of life:
1. Productive work
2. Human relationships
3. Recreation
4. Art
5. Sex

**To do productive work = JOY! **

To be happier; do more productive work — have a sense of control over my existence, sense of self-efficacy.

have a creative goal, don’t feel helpless.

self-esteem; the universe is open to my effort. profound pleasure from the productive work of my mind.

enjoy life: never stop growing in knowledge and ability — to move forward, more challenges, and overcome them!

Figure how to be more effective in life?

fuck only routine and familiar. avoid living in semi-daze.

‘recreation’

enjoyable activity.

don’t go on a vegetative vacation

Fuck boredom; it is safety, routine, normal.

Demanding pleasure

Demand the use of my mind!

Art: highest potential — potential ; invaluable emotional fuel.

ACTIVE LEISURE ; ACTIVE ART

find intense need to find human beings that i can admire; to find spiritual equals.

why do people want to escape reality and their own mind?

how to gain pleasure in life; authentic enjoyment.

Doesn’t life require compromise?

no compromise between property owner and burglar.

what is a ‘compromise’ between life and death?

Compromise: never betray my own principles.

not all desires have equal moral validity.

difference between basic principles; and specific wishes?

don’t accompany to things i don’t like? don’t allow social conformity

don’t allow suggestive changes

no compromise on moral principles

no compromise between food and poison ; it is death.

doesn’t life require the surrender of my principles?

How to live rational life in irrational society

put my moral judgement on others.

pass moral judgement on others; don’t be tolerant of evil.

don’t have an impartial attitude

don’t accept bribes; or let my personal feeling or emotion obstruct my judgement.

judgement the facts of reality.

follow my own integrity.

a judge puts himself on trial every time he pronounces a verdict

don’t abstain from condemning a torturer.

judge and prepared to be judged.

be okay to let others judge me; but i will also judge others.

i cannot say: everyone is white; or everyone is black.

truth: black and white

irrational people: ‘i don’t agree with you’

okay if people don’t agree with me.

by giving moral judgement; protect my clarity of my perception and reality.

stupor; to be amazed, dazed.

be elite; have good taste.

acknowledge that evil is evil.

avoid evil people. condemn evil.

don’t be a moral coward.

stick to my moral standards; principles, and goals.

The cult of moral grayness

morals: either black or white; no grey

To think of white as evil; and black is good

no grey; grey is a mixture of black and white.

struggle to see what is black and white?

seek to be all black in my heart.

Are you unwilling, or unable?

difference between unable and unwilling?

i am willing to do anything; i might not be able to do everything

i am willing to become perfect; i am unwilling.

avoid middle-of-the-road morality.

i am beyond evil.

don’t sell my soul.

avoid ‘intellectual bankruptcy’

to be extreme is evil— why?

to be ‘extreme’ is to be consistent. — consistent with myself

avoid anti-heroes

avoid anti-role models

yes; there is good guys and bad guys.

Do you think of black and white?

You’re damn right I do.

Collectivized ethics

to whom?

by whom?

what value is science — it should expand, enrich, and protect our lives!

Science which allows me to live longer; and to prevent dying.

my life is better than stuff.

new scientific discovery to have potential value to men.

‘progress’ must help men.

progress can come from my surplus.

capitalism: i am free to function, and constant rise in general prosperity ; of consumption and enjoyment of life.

avoid soviet russia.

Monument builder

BUILD SHIT; build monuments!

abolish poverty; advance general prosperity.

avoid paralysis

become a first-rate power!

don’t perish from hemophilia; losing economic blood.

America: search for freedom

avoid reign of mediocrity!

intellectuals are power hungry; power lust.

fuck ‘prestige’

no such thing as the ‘public’

The public, c’est moi

I am the public; the public is one other individual.

greatness; grandeur— pursue my own epic goals.

whose eyes of prestige?

fuck having eternal ‘prestige’ in eyes of unborn future generations

Temple; palaces— monuments to add ‘prestige’ for future

Why did rome fall?

Emperors built coliseum; fucked it up.

Louis 14 of France; taxed people into state of extreme poverty — and built Versailles

Czar; luxury of champagne-and-caviar of Soviet.

fuck ‘maintaining prestige’

have a modest public monument. functional things with great historical importance.

tattoo should have significant — not to just show off ‘prestige’?

authentic grandeur vs prestige-seeker.

the skyline of NYC is a monument of splendor that no pyramids or palaces will ever equal or appraoch.

Skyscraper; keep raising the standard of living

people in slums; live like luxury vs Egyptian slave, or soviet worker.

promised abundance; what creates abundance, and avoid poverty?

avoid wordless ‘public interest’

avoid ‘face-saving’

avoid re-distribution?

festering vanity of some scared brute; or pretentious mediocrity.

‘free society’ — via individual rights

‘vox populi; vox dei’

‘divine right of kings?’

by the popularity; by the deity?

Pharaoh of god

‘Democracy’ of Athens; welfare state run by emperor of rome

MORAL LAW

US; regards man as an end in himself.

society: allows peaceful, orderly, coexistence of INDIVIDUALS

individuality

how can i have freedom of action?

life; process of self-sustaining and self-generated action.

how to have the right to engage in self-sustaining and self-generating action?

how can i support and further the fulfillment and enjoyment of my own life?

right to live the way i want to; to live in freedom; and to pursue my own happiness.

the right to life!

concept of individual rights is so new in human history; we don’t understand.

as a human, i have right to my own self-identity.

work for my own values; and keep product of my work.

life on earth is my purpose. // nature forbids living irrational.

don’t let anyone physically coerce me to do anything.

government is for men; not men for govenrment

Government: protect my rights from physical violence

150 years; America is close to achieve— ban physical force from human relationship.

right to have adequate food and shelter?

right to a decent living.

right to medical? right to education?

who will provide?

no ‘right to enslave’

right to the pursuit of happiness; not the right to happiness

We have the right to pursue whatever we want to be happy.

i have the right to my work; not the fruits of my labor?

right of free speech: i can express my ideas without getting killed — doesn’t mean i should be given a lecture hall or radio station.

we have a right to build a home; not the right to a home.

what is ‘censorship’

there is censorship by ratings, advertisers, networks, by affiliates that reject programming offered to their areas.

no private action is censorship

people can act in private as they want.

avoid ‘would-be’ playwright; beatnik poet, noise-composer, and nonobjective artist

no government subsidized art?

we need moral code to survive

don’t evade reality

mind; basic tool of survival.

social: knowledge + trade

Government financing in free society

payment for governmental services; voluntary?

The divine right of stagnation

avoid stagnation in life

for every living species; growth is a necessity of survival

life is motion!

biologically, inactivity is death. // if I’m inactive; i die.

expand the range of efficiency, grow intellectually, open door to a road with no end.

transform my environment through productive work.

we discovered fire to keep warm, bow and arrow, shelter of stone, brick, glass, steel, move life expectancy from 19, 30, 40, 60, 70.

‘every achievement of man is a value in itself’ — but also stepping stone to greater achievements and values

never stop achieving; growth; not to move forward is fall backwards.

life = advancement.

every step upward opens to man a wider range of action and achievement.

no final plateau

Survival: require constant growth and creativeness.

Constant growth is a psychological need of man

never stop growing — importance for mental well-being.

firm sense of control over reality, and control over my existence.

allow men to think, act, produce, try untried and new!

don’t be passive.

ambition to do better!

don’t be throttle and suppressed.

constant process of motion, growth, and progress.

Racism

a genius is a genius; regardless of the number of morons who belong to the same race.

a fully free capitalist system hasn’t existed anywhere yet.

racism is strong in controlled economy; weak in free country.

avoid racial quotas!

no man should be penalized for the sins of ancestors!

by what right; by whose standard?

Counterfeit individualism

don’t be a conformist

others: ‘its true because others believe it’

individual : “i believe it because i see in reason that it is true’

seek beauty, happiness, achievement, values, and heroes.

avoid modern art.

who cares if people don’t like you?

people argue via intimidation