Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Selfishness: Comments About Ayn Rand

Friday, April 21, 2006

Selfishness: Comments About Ayn Rand

Well, my post don't get nearly as many comments as I would like, but this post about selfishness and Ayn Rand did. You might be interested. Or not.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: Lets see if John Brown answers. I'd like to know how I am being "deceived".
vj; 3:38 PM
Christine said...: Anonymous (vj): I think he meant you were deceived when you said this: "I pray all the time that God will teach me to "TRULY" love people genuinly, without any ulterior motives." I think he was trying to say not only is that an impossible goal, it's an ultimately negative goal, particularly in the seeking of it. That is my guess.

I agree with you, though. I think people deceive themselves when they pretend "Me First" is healthy. In a class of mine in graduate school, my husband and I argued with our classmates concerning whether altruism required a respect for the self or self-denial in a Christian setting. We argued that if you love your neighbor as yourself, but you don't love yourself, you won't show much love for your neighbor. If you respect yourself, you should extend the same respect for your neighbor. (You get the point.) Most of the rest of the class is firmly in the Buddhist stance that self-denial is key. I think the flip of self-denial is self-infatuation, and neither are appropriate goals for any person.; 3:47 PM
Anonymous said...: hello Christy're, thanks for responding to this and yes, that is also what I thought he meant. I like the way you put it,"neither goals are appropriate goals for any person".

I pray for genuine love toward others because: 1. the scriptures teach that(my desire to evolve spiritually), 2. I recognize my own tendency to become self absorbed(my own self awareness.
In my younger years I studied under a ministry wanting to become a missionary. Within myself I was battling a lot of frustration, hurt and anger that I had never had dealt with. I needed to take take care of myself. I understand what John Brown is saying, however, to strive for such a lofty goal as to "truly" love others, in my opinion is still a fine goal. He is right, one must take care of themselves first. That to me is the key to genuinly be effective. It is amazing though, how prayer can change things and enables all of us in ways that we could never do on our own. "Truly" loving others is one of those things. By nature all of us are incredibly selfish. I only know of one avenue that changes that. If our nature has been touched by God's spirit.
~Viola; 7:42 PM

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