…live my life for another

In Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, there is a quotation that always sticks out:

"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine" – John Galt from Atlas Shrugged, page 676 by Ayn Rand

I have written about it before, but it recently came up again on a mailing list. An additional comment about the quote was that it was simplistic, and did not hold up to scrutiny and logical evaluation. I can’t put my message here verbatim because of list rules, but here is what I wrote.

excerpt of post to [email protected] about 03:14:00 05/23/2005 by soulhuntre Actually, the more I think about it the more it continues to make perfect moral, practical and ethical sense.

[A comment that anyone who had children, an elderly or sick family member etc. understood that sometimes you had to "shelve yourself".]

In the context of the statement to live for the "sake" of another is to grant someone, unearned and uncompensated, a claim on your life and your time. An elderly relative has no claim on my time. Our blood relationship is not something that gives them a claim on me. Their illness does not grant them a claim on my. I do not exist for their sake. HOWEVER… an elderly, sick relative who gave me love and support as a child I do owe a debt. I will help them, care for them and support them – they have earned it and my ethics demand it. A similar quote might help clarify:

"I am neither foe nor friend to my brothers, but such as each of them shall deserve of me. And to earn my love, my brothers must do more than to have been born. I do not grant my love without reason, nor to any chance passer-by who may wish to claim it. I honor men with my love. But honor is a thing to be earned." – Ayn Rand, Anthem, page 112

I do not "shelve" myself when I help those who have earned my respect and to whom I owe gratitude. I am living exactly as I must. When I help those who have earned my respect I am respecting myself and my ideals. Shelve myself? I am exalting myself. I am saying "this is what I value; this is what it is worth to me". There was a conversation in Atlas that discussed the concept of family obligation. In context the mother of two brothers is discussing with one (Henry/Hank) that the other (Philip) needs work. Henry is productive, Philip is a skill-less parasite who lives in Henry’s house and insults him constantly for being "greedy" and "materialistic".

Hank: "But he knows nothing about the steel business!"

Mother: "What has that got to do with it? He needs a job."

Hank: "But he couldn’t do the work."

Mother: "He needs to gain self-confidence and to feel important."

Hank: "But he wouldn’t be any good whatever."

Mother: "He needs to feel that he’s wanted."

Hank: "Here? What could I want him for?"

Mother: "You hire plenty of strangers."

Hank: "I hire men who produce. What has he got to offer?"

Mother: "He’s your brother, isn’t he?"

Hank: "What has that got to do with it?"

She stared incredulously, in turn, silenced by shock. For a moment, they sat looking at each other, as if across an interplanetary distance. "He’s your brother," she said, her voice like a phonograph record repeating a magic formula she could not permit herself to doubt." – Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, page 197.