Spot On

Ayn Rand, on Page vii of her book, The Virtue Of Selfishness, wrote this: "It is not a mere semantic issue nor a matter of arbitrary choice. The meaning ascribed in popular usage to the word 'selfishness' is not merely wrong: it represents a devastating intellectual 'package-deal,' which is responsible, more than any other single factor, for the arrested moral development of mankind." Now, to most people, this Randian claim seems grossly mistaken, if not a sweeping exaggeration. I believe it is neither. First, the moral development of mankind is arrested. We are taught a moral lie based on a colossal misrepresentation. Goodness is selflessness and evil is self-centeredness or selfishness. Rand and I would presuppose, rather, that goodness or love is self-interest, and evil or hate is other-centeredness. I the moderate see this as the moral landscape, more than less. She would so assert dogmatically. Once people are taught the right ethos of egoism while rejecting altruism, then moral development, primarily and directly for each individual, and secondarily and indirectly for all collective entities, will finally become a reality.