About Objectivism, Superheroes and Lions
Okay so this is me using the Gutenberg editor on my website for the first time. Just playing. So bear with me if it looks horrible 😉 Unleashing my creativity here haha 😉 But this post is not about the editor, it is about being our unique selves and not let ourselves be edited! But to what extend that is the question.
So in the past weeks I have noticed a certain theme coming up again and again. I pay attention and somehow the themes always end up making sense astrologically as well. Ofcourse collective themes trigger something within me and is then mirrored back at me, back and forth, this time through theater and film.
Unapologetically being your authentic self. Or radical self responsibility.
Last week I went to see a play based on the book The Fountainhead and this unleashed a bit of a discussion on Facebook about Objectivism. That this is all about free-market fundamentalism and selfishness. And yes she has some shady followers. Objectivism distilled by her as the belief that “man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself to others, nor sacrifice others to himself”.
“Listen to what is being preached today. Look at everyone around us. You’ve wondered why they suffer, why they seek happiness and never find it. If any man stopped and asked himself whether he’s ever held a truly personal desire, he’d find the answer. He’d see that all his wishes, his efforts, his dreams, his ambitions are motivated by other men. He’s not really struggling even for material wealth, but for the second-hander’s delusion – prestige. A stamp of approval, not his own. He can find no joy in the struggle and no joy when he has succeeded. He can’t say about a single thing: ‘This is what I wanted because I wanted it, not because it made my neighbors gape at me’. Then he wonders why he’s unhappy.” – The Fountainhead
She had lots to say about everything else too – an avowed atheist, she was dismissive of any knowledge that was not rooted in what you could see in front of your eyes. She had no patience for ‘instinct’ or ‘intuition’ or any form of ‘just knowing’. Now that I agree to disagree with totally as I am a firm believer of intuition and clair cognizance is my strongest developed ‘gift’! I feel that intuition is actually the seat of creativity, that spark of intuition.
“Self-sacrifice? But it is precisely the self that cannot and must not be sacrificed.” – The Fountainhead
Rayn also believed that we only exist for our own happiness. I strongly disagree, but I also do not believe (yes one of those beliefs, be wary of those!) that we are here just to bow to the collective and be good little slaves to the system. Life is not so black and white. So to what extend can we live our lives in true expression of our (dare I say it) Soul’s calling and to what extend should we compromise to what the collective needs (and wants)?Ofcourse both can go hand in hand, but for total free expression we should not let others direct us. Objectivism condemns sacrifice and irrationality, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help each other, it only means others are not entitled to our help. I feel Rand has been misinterpreted a lot also (and perhaps especially) by her so called following.
So coming back to Objectivism or any other -ism, philosophies need to be challenged always. One should never accept or reject an idea at face value. Very often ideas are misinterpreted and we have to ask ourselves if this is because of a lack of understanding or a choice made to back up support existing belief systems? So The Fountainhead post on Facebook received a lot of negative responses on Rand and her work, but I wonder if they ever read any of her books or just look at individual interpretations of her work who used Objectivism as an excuse for their own corrupt behavior. A lot of people just parrot the opinions of others. Do your own research and decide how you feel about it.
Individual freedom
Now I don’t follow anyone blindly and I don’t mind my believes being challenged (I try to have as little of them as possible). All I can say at this point is that I am a believer in altruism, but always in balance. Sacrificing yourself for the collective will not make this world a better place. I do believe that we can make the collective stronger by showing up as our unique selves. True creation can only come from the inside without outside pressure or expectations. Now The Fountainhead/Ayn Rand has been said to have enforeced selfishness and stated that the poor deserve to die. Now she never claimed this, in the contrary as she addresses the elite, corporations and the oppressive government in her writing. And selfishness has a negative connotation, but Rand doesn’t condemn this but argues that this often drives people to create, it’s about individual freedom. She believed that charity by the choice of the individual is prefered above redistrubution of wealth by a corrupt government.
“Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.” – The Fountainhead
So this is what I understood from the book (I read it as a teenager), and the play I just saw. For me it is about the individual creative person versus the compliant mass, the sheeple. Objectivism is to live by your own free will. The artist must suffer if he wants to remain honest with himself, because the masses will do everything to destroy him. Out of misunderstanding. Out of fear. Out of jealousy. Are you going to be a whore to the masses by drawing inside the lines or do you dare to color outside the boundaries society has put up for you? Do you dare reach great heights but perhaps also pay the greatest price for this? That dilemma that is what The Fountainhead is about for me. In short, see the Fountainhead and decide for yourself what you take out of it, without any other people’s interpretations or opinions.
What is your Superpower?
And on Sunday I went to see Glass and for me this is also about owning our superpowers (our creativity) and letting our uniqueness shine. In this film the powers that be try to squash this quite literally. This film smartly deconstructs the superhero origin story with a supervillain who takes the oversimplified morality he sees in comics, and tries to apply it to the real world. We also see plot in for example the television series The Gifted.
In this film the powers that be/were try to squash these unique gifts quite literally. This film smartly deconstructs the superhero origin story with a supervillain who takes the oversimplified morality he sees in comics, and tries to apply it to the real world. We also see plot in for example the television series The Gifted.
Spoiler alert
Early on in Glass, the main characters are brought to a mental health facility that has recently fallen under the purview of a psychologist Ellie Staple with the belief extraordinary abilities are a sickness of the brain and must be cured. I am not going to spoil it all, but these so called superheroes in the film were filmed and the footage released on the interwebs to inspire others with similar powers (or what I read into it, unique creative superpowers) to emerge, and in the film an organization is trying to prevent that from happening throughout human history. No one must awaken to their true potential as that can be dangerous. Now chew on that. What do you think?
It’s amazing to meet you. It is simply extraordinary. Maybe this will all make sense if I explain who I am. My name is Dr. Ellie Staple, and I’m a psychiatrist. My work concerns a particular type of delusion of grandeur. It’s a growing field. I specialize in those individuals who believe they are superheroes. – quote from Glass
Now sounds great, everyone living their own superpowers, but what if these harm others? What is troubling for me about these films (as this is a trilogy) is the suggestion that your trauma is your superpower — that in a sense, it’s people who have experienced horrific things (particularly in childhood) who are best suited to survive in the world. And ofcourse we often see that our shadows become our super powers, we can turn whatever heartbreak we have gone through into something good. But ofcourse this also very often results into negative behavior if these shadows are not addressed and integrated. Another believe for example is that an artist must suffer for their art, etc. Is that true though? So again a grey area, free will versus protecting the collective. Is it a good thing for individuals to have free will and expression? If you say yes but only if they do good, than that is not free will, or is it? Do you get my dilemma. I so believe in the goodness of (most of) mankind and I am all for individual freedom, but I also see the problems with this. And this is good as it makes me question my own beliefs. Again life is never black and white.
Hero or villain?
So unfortunately Mr. Glass fighting the freedom of these so called unique superheroes turns into a super villain himself. And here again, we must find balance and never do harm to others. If others squash our creative uniqueness we must find another way to express ourselves. I feel the change comes from us all. If we are all, as a collective, more acceptant and less fearful of differences, and other people’s strengths, than we would live in such a beautiful world where we all support each other to be our best selves, to excell.
We are often so afraid of other people’s potential because it makes us feel less than. The main challenge I think is that people see others as competition. We are afraid of other people’s greatness. We like to keep them small so we don’t feel so inadequate.
That being said, you’ve got to appreciate M Night Shyamalan’s commitment to tell a unique story. He was always trying to tell superhero tales from his own wonderfully weird perspective, and even though he faltered at the finish line, the trilogy itself is pretty good.
I like the idea that we could all have a little superhero inside of us. Right now, we already have the power to help those in need. Comic books and their movies are guides for heroism. We love how they make us feel. We should channel that energy into action.
And this is what I believe is key, to find the balance between expressing our true selves and not harm others. There is a fine line between selfishness and self expression. If the collective is more acceptant of unique individuals than there wouldn’t be so many suppressed talents with all sorts of trauma playing out.
Let me hear you roar
And yes that is what Leo is now calling us to do, express ourselves uniquely.
And now to tie it all together, we have just experienced a Full Moon Eclipse in Leo! Tada!! Leo has a desire to feel worshipped and loved. One of the main wounds that the Leo Moon opens is our fear that we are unworthy and not good enough.
This is the time to let out a wild roar and release this pain in a healthy and nurturing manner. It is time to make room for your own unique inner being, to embrace this unconditionally so it can express outward in a loving and authentic way. Give yourself permission to to take up the space next to others, not below or above. We are in this together and we can all be superheroes together. Equality and freedom are key words for this time we are living in. Just look at the world stage and the struggles around these aspects. We can heal this by showing and strengthening everyone’s unique gifts. No longer separate from each other and divided, but hand in hand. Make a difference between ego expression and expression from the heart. Why do you create what you create? And for whom? Time to shake your manes and show yourself….fully. You are needed.
Be brave and courageous
