Something occurred to me recently.
I once heard that you should never read Atlas Shrugged because it will turn you into an asshole for two years. When I first heard that I thought that there was some truth to that, but my sense of the truth to that was vauge.
Now it seems clearer.
I like to say that this book is a piece of art. If it were a painting, it would be painted entirely in black and white. No gray. No color. An enormous painting of intricate tiny details all in black and white. And when you look at the painting, it changes your life for the better. Life, of course, is rich with shades of gray and all sorts of color. But the book had a message to convey. And to include all of life, would have diluted the message, or drowned it out - not to mention that the book would be a hundred times bigger than it is - and it is already a massive book. Back to the black and white thing: each of the characters wore a black hat or a white hat. And throughout the book, the characters with white hats worked hard and did what they could to move their projects forward despite the people wearing black hats that would either try to impede them or take from them.
The book is a rich set of people in black hats saying and doing all sorts of things to get what they want - usually unethically. Over and over, you learn of all the ugly things that people in black hats might say. By the time you are done reading the book, a friend might say something and instantly, a black hat appears over their head. You then start to realize that this person that you thought of as a friend, has just been using you. Friendship has some give and take, but sometimes people pretend to be your friend because they want to take some of what you have. All take and no give. You start to make the connections that a person has been saying black hat things to get you to do stuff for them, or to get you to give stuff to them.
So you stop.
And now, that person comes, says their black hat thing and it doesn't work anymore. You are therefore now an asshole.
I thought there was a meme with me in it saying something about how if you try to please everybody then your progress is limited by the noisiest fool. Found it!
If awful people call you an asshole, might that be a sign that you are doing something good and decent?
I've heard people point to atlas shrugged and say that it is a book the teaches people to be selfish and greedy. I suppose there is some of that. At the same time, "selfish and greedy" appears to be the driving force behind all of the black hat folks. Maybe there are many flavors of selfish and greedy. Here is a weird thought: maybe the people that are saying "the book teaches people to be selfish" mean to say "I used to screw this guy over, but then he read the book and I can't screw him over anymore."
I read the book for the first time at about the same time that I set up permies.com. Which has always been a free site. Further, I have given away youtube videos, blogs, articles, blah, blah, blah. Granted, I have an ulterior motive: I want to grow in this space. I want to talk with others about permaculture ideas in a certain way. I want to
project what I have learned so that there can be growth and understanding in a space where I want it. I want to see the world's population move in a better direction. A permaculture direction. I think that a more permaculture world is a better world for me. I want it. For me. Selfishness.
I get the impression that my
greed and selfishness leads to free artifacts for people. I suppose it is possible that I could have put out all of these artifacts and nobody would look at them. But it turns out million of people have looked at them. I'm not sure if that can be labeled as altruistic. Maybe.
Is it possible that the word "selfish" can come in many flavors? Maybe sometimes "selfish" is when one person robs another. And other times it is when there is barter. And within the fabric of altruism, might there be a thread of selfish in there somewhere?
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