Commonplace 51 George & The Lure of Objectivism or What Henry Ryecroft Really Thought.
George dabbled in Socialism and Positivism but never really felt at ease with groups that put 'social responsibility' at their centre - hence his dalliance with Pessimism. Such movements requiring passionate commitment and selflessness were not for him - George did not do that sort of thing. As we know from Demos, his own peculiar distaste for the common woman/man hampered his thinking, This precluded him from having a claim on being able to speak for anyone other than himself and his own narrow perspective - after all, to follow a philosophy requires the assumption that the basic tenets it puts forward apply to everyone, not just the lower middle class educated male.
So, which of the twentieth century's philosophies might have appealed to the Victorian George? Objectivism might. Let's forget for a moment it was devised by a woman...
Ayn Rand is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. I couldn't possibly do her justice (mostly because I don't much agree with her!) so I will use her words to demonstrate what I imagine George might have agreed with. In fact, some of these words could have come forth from a slightly pissed George stomping up Exeter's Fore Street ranting and telling it like he really thinks it is for a change, and not patronising his readership into thinking he's being authentic when he devolves to his cod alter ego, Henry Ryecroft to do his 'authenticity' for him.
All quotes can be highlighted and googled. For a video introduction to Ms Rand's mind, click
Ayn Rand, she say:
Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows.
Man—every man—is an end in himself, not a means to the ends of others; he must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself; he must work for his rational self-interest, with the achievement of his own happiness as the highest moral purpose of his life.When the common good of a society is regarded as something apart from and superior to the individual good of its members, it means that the good of some men takes precedence over the good of others, with those others consigned to the status of sacrificial animals.
Neither life nor happiness can be achieved by the pursuit of irrational whims. Just as man is free to attempt to survive by any random means, as a parasite, a moocher or a looter, but not free to succeed at it beyond the range of the moment—so he is free to seek his happiness in any irrational fraud, any whim, any delusion, any mindless escape from reality, but not free to succeed at it beyond the range of the moment nor to escape the consequences.
When one observes the nightmare of the desperate efforts made by hundreds of thousands of people struggling to escape from the socialized countries of Europe, to escape over barbed-wire fences, under machine-gun fire—one can no longer believe that socialism, in any of its forms, is motivated by benevolence and by the desire to achieve men’s welfare.
When a man declares: "There are no blacks and whites [in morality]" he is making a psychological confession, and what he means is: "I am unwilling to be wholly good—and please don't regard me as wholly evil!"
A genius is a genius, regardless of the number of morons who belong to the same race—and a moron is a moron, regardless of the number of geniuses who share his racial origin.
The moral precept to adopt...is: Judge, and be prepared to be judged
Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.
Art is man’s metaphysical mirror; what a rational man seeks to see in that mirror is a salute; what an irrational man seeks to see is a justification – even if only a justification of his depravity, as a last convulsion of his betrayed self-esteem.
A culture is made — or destroyed — by its articulate voices.
Aristotle may be regarded as the cultural barometer of Western history. Whenever his influence dominated the scene, it paved the way for one of history's brilliant eras; whenever it fell, so did mankind.
The human race has only two unlimited capacities: one for suffering and one for lying. I want to fight religion as the root of all human lying and the only excuse for human suffering.
All progress is the work of individuals.
Selfishness does not mean only to do things for one's self. One may do things, affecting others, for his own pleasure and benefit. This is not immoral, but the highest of morality.
The second handers offer substitutes for competence such as love, charm, kindness - easy substitutes - and there is no substitute for creation. [They are] always concerned with people - not facts, ideas, work or production. What would happen to the world without those who think, work, and produce?
For a heated debate on all things Ayn Rand click
And, finally:
'We should not expect individuals to produce good, open-minded, truth-seeking reasoning, particularly when self-interest or reputational concerns are in play. But if you put individuals together in the right way, such that some individuals can use their reasoning powers to disconfirm the claims of others, and all individuals feel some common bond or shared fate that allows them interact civilly, you can create a group that ends up producing good reasoning as an emergent property of a social system. This is why it's so important to have intellectual and ideological diversity within any group whose goal is to find truth (such as an intelligence agency or a community of scientists) or to produce good public policy (such as a legislature or advisory board). [The Righteous Mind, p.90].
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| Le Violon d'Ingres by Man Ray 1924 |
So, which of the twentieth century's philosophies might have appealed to the Victorian George? Objectivism might. Let's forget for a moment it was devised by a woman...
Ayn Rand is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. I couldn't possibly do her justice (mostly because I don't much agree with her!) so I will use her words to demonstrate what I imagine George might have agreed with. In fact, some of these words could have come forth from a slightly pissed George stomping up Exeter's Fore Street ranting and telling it like he really thinks it is for a change, and not patronising his readership into thinking he's being authentic when he devolves to his cod alter ego, Henry Ryecroft to do his 'authenticity' for him.
All quotes can be highlighted and googled. For a video introduction to Ms Rand's mind, click
 |
| Ayn Rand |
Ayn Rand, she say:
Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows.
Man—every man—is an end in himself, not a means to the ends of others; he must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself; he must work for his rational self-interest, with the achievement of his own happiness as the highest moral purpose of his life.When the common good of a society is regarded as something apart from and superior to the individual good of its members, it means that the good of some men takes precedence over the good of others, with those others consigned to the status of sacrificial animals.
Neither life nor happiness can be achieved by the pursuit of irrational whims. Just as man is free to attempt to survive by any random means, as a parasite, a moocher or a looter, but not free to succeed at it beyond the range of the moment—so he is free to seek his happiness in any irrational fraud, any whim, any delusion, any mindless escape from reality, but not free to succeed at it beyond the range of the moment nor to escape the consequences.
 |
| Fountain by R. Mutt aka Marcel Duchamp 1917 |
When one observes the nightmare of the desperate efforts made by hundreds of thousands of people struggling to escape from the socialized countries of Europe, to escape over barbed-wire fences, under machine-gun fire—one can no longer believe that socialism, in any of its forms, is motivated by benevolence and by the desire to achieve men’s welfare.
When a man declares: "There are no blacks and whites [in morality]" he is making a psychological confession, and what he means is: "I am unwilling to be wholly good—and please don't regard me as wholly evil!"
A genius is a genius, regardless of the number of morons who belong to the same race—and a moron is a moron, regardless of the number of geniuses who share his racial origin.
 |
| Kiki of Montparnasse film clips by Man Ray and Fernand Leger click for more. And click for more about the divine Kiki. Sorry, can't find full film in English |
Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.
Art is man’s metaphysical mirror; what a rational man seeks to see in that mirror is a salute; what an irrational man seeks to see is a justification – even if only a justification of his depravity, as a last convulsion of his betrayed self-esteem.
A culture is made — or destroyed — by its articulate voices.
 |
| Interior at Paddington by Lucian Freud c 1951 |
Aristotle may be regarded as the cultural barometer of Western history. Whenever his influence dominated the scene, it paved the way for one of history's brilliant eras; whenever it fell, so did mankind.
The human race has only two unlimited capacities: one for suffering and one for lying. I want to fight religion as the root of all human lying and the only excuse for human suffering.
All progress is the work of individuals.
Selfishness does not mean only to do things for one's self. One may do things, affecting others, for his own pleasure and benefit. This is not immoral, but the highest of morality.
The second handers offer substitutes for competence such as love, charm, kindness - easy substitutes - and there is no substitute for creation. [They are] always concerned with people - not facts, ideas, work or production. What would happen to the world without those who think, work, and produce?
 |
| Deutschland ein Wintermarchen by Georg Grosz 1925 click |
And, finally:
'We should not expect individuals to produce good, open-minded, truth-seeking reasoning, particularly when self-interest or reputational concerns are in play. But if you put individuals together in the right way, such that some individuals can use their reasoning powers to disconfirm the claims of others, and all individuals feel some common bond or shared fate that allows them interact civilly, you can create a group that ends up producing good reasoning as an emergent property of a social system. This is why it's so important to have intellectual and ideological diversity within any group whose goal is to find truth (such as an intelligence agency or a community of scientists) or to produce good public policy (such as a legislature or advisory board). [The Righteous Mind, p.90].
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