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To: Hank Kerchief
“Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself; not what he has or hasn’t done for others. There is no substitute for personal dignity. There is no standard of personal dignity except independence.” [For the New Intellectual,—The Fountainhead, “The Soul Of An Individualist”]

Yes, but what man is and makes of himself in society is vastly different than what man would be or could make of himself if dropped alone and naked into almost any place in the "natural" world.
58 posted on 01/19/2010 11:00:38 AM PST by aruanan
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To: aruanan

Rand is writing about men in society.

“Of course, Individualism doesn’t mean isolation, aloofness or escaping to a desert island. In fact, only true Individualists are fit to associate with other men. But they do it only on the basis of the recognition of each man’s essential independence: each man lives primarily for, by and through himself and recognizes the same right in others; all relations among men are secondary; men are legally and morally free to associate together or not, on any particular occasion, as their personal interests dictate. There is the pattern of a free, moral society, of human cooperation, and of benevolence among men. [The Letters of Ayn Rand, We The Living to The Fountainhead (1931-1943), November 3, 1946]

“The egoist in the absolute sense ... is the man who stands above the need of using others in any manner. He does not function through them. He is not concerned with them in any primary matter. Not in his aim, not in his motive, not in his thinking, not in his desires, not in the source of his energy. He does not exist for any other man—and he asks no other man to exist for him. This is the only form of brotherhood and mutual respect possible between men.” [For the New Intellectual,—The Fountainhead, “The Soul Of An Individualist”]

For example.

Hank


59 posted on 01/19/2010 1:29:01 PM PST by Hank Kerchief
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