I or We? The Middle Path!

One of my favorite books is “The Fountainhead” authored by Ayn Rand. It was a book written by her in the 1930s. It has reinforced my belief in individualism. I had read the book when I was 22, while I was still under the influence of communist thought.

However, I realized that in promoting individualism and in turn capitalism, she went too far. She rejects any form of altruism saying “where there's service, there is someone being served.”

This attitude of hers could be attributed to her early life spent in communist Russia. Every form of writing of Ayn Rand is a revolt against external interference upon an individual’s own interests, be it by society, family or any other group or institution. Conforming to a government and society that force individuals to live for the society while suppressing their own goals and interests had made her revolt against any form of external interference upon the individual. We can trace the origins of her theory of objectivism to her early revolt. She escaped from the oppressive society and fled to the US, the haven for individual freedom. She condemned the use of force as immoral and opposed all forms of collectivism and statism, instead supporting laissez-faire capitalism. She believed no-holds barred capitalism was the only social system that protected individual rights.

While I respect her insistence on fierce individualism, I do not support her promotion of self-centrism and selfishness. In my opinion, if an individual lives only for oneself, s/he would be equivalent to an animal. I distance myself equally from the two opposing poles of communist thought and the theory of objectivism. I am all for the cause of individual liberty, but at the same time I insist that an individual has a responsibility towards her/his fellow beings and the society at large.

I wish to elaborate on this further in a future post. Chanting of Ayn Rand's name by people like Ramgopal Varma and glorification of the ego-centric attitude rankles me. Though I believe India has a long way to go in terms of individual freedom, we don't really need to teach people to be self-centric.  Most people are already more selfish than necessary.  There is no harm to anyone or to the world at large if people are more altruistic than necessary.  However, if more and more of them turn ego-centric and are ready to go ruthlessly to any length for achieving their own goals irrespective of what damage it might cause to the rest of the world, then it will only trigger chaos in the society.

However, I admire Ayn Rand's take on the concepts of originality and secondhandedness, how the world is full of mediocre morons, and how zealously the society worships mediocrity.  More on this in a future post!!!

Seawards Ahoy!

The memory and joy of watching the sea from the shore for the first time had left an indelible impression on my mind.  My age then was 20 years.

I was born in a coastal district of Andhra Pradesh, one of the states of peninsular India.  The Bay of Bengal is hardly 150 km from the village where I spent the first seven years of my life.  However, my family being not one of those that toured or traveled much, I could not go near the sea during those years. And then our family left for Hyderabad when I was 7.  Hyderabad is situated on the Deccan Plateau.  Now, the distance from the sea to the place where I lived increased to 350 km.  The geography of the city narrowed my chances of watching the relentless march of waves on to the shore.

I did not miss the sea all those years.  It was when I started reading novels on sea faring men like Moby Dick that I began to long to go on the sea.  Reading the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, the 19th century Scottish writer, I grew up admiring daring sea pirates and even wicked characters like Long John Silver, and their escapades.  However, the tale of Robinson Crusoe who was marooned on a lonely island and who had to fight savage cannibals to survive did not fail to fill me with a sense of fear and awe of the oceans.

The sea held a lot of romance and mystic for me those times.  I read with great interest Thor Hayerdal's account of the Kon-Tiki expedition.  He led a motely group of a handful of men on a sailing expedition on a raft made of balsa, the lightest wood.  They started from the shores of Peru and sailed through the rough Caribbean waters to reach the Polynesian archipelago.  Ever since reading Thor’s recounting of the expedition, I dreamed of sailing on a self-made raft on the Caribbean waters, surviving solely on rain water and the marine life.

I have always been awed by the extent of intrigue the sea held.  The sea voyage is a metaphor for life.  Shipwreck is a sign that the inherent power of the sea cannot ever be mastered by mere mortals.

I became a huge fan of the movie series “Pirates of the Caribbean.”  I knew, by heart, all the dialogues of Captain Jack Sparrow.  I knew Jack’s little secret – of how he successfully got out of a marooned island.  It was simple – wade into the shallows and strap sea ............  I was no longer afraid of the sea!

When I was 20, my uncle’s family moved to a coastal village of Andhra Pradesh.  Finally, my chances of watching the sea grew manifold.  My dream of feeling the sea, hearing the drone, letting the waves touch my feet, swimming on the shallows, walking on the sands on the shore was soon going to become real.

I was as excited as I ever thought I would be on going close to the sea.  That day is one of the best days of my life so far!