I, who am a self-described one or all of the above, do recognize and accept the importance and value I’ve gained—from time to time—in a “social environment”.

Aside from the necessarily private values and interests shared with my wife, I have few friends and don’t see or hear from them often.  In my “desert island”, which is the house I share with my wife, these few friends have seen first-hand that it’s no contradiction to claim the above, and see it’s really not a “desert island”.  And I know the gain to material and spiritual profit between these few friends is reciprocated.  Interestingly, most of my friends are scientists and I’m really stupid in all sciences, but hold great admiration for those who have studied and know the sciences.

The Astronomer
Johannes Vermeer
Oil on canvas
20 x 18”
c. 1668

How does all this work?

“Men can derive enormous benefits from dealing with one another. A social environment is most conducive to their successful survival—but only on certain conditions.

 ”The two great values to be gained from social existence are: knowledge and trade. Man is the only species that can transmit and expand his store of knowledge from generation to generation; the knowledge potentially available to man is greater than any one man could begin to acquire in his own lifespan; every man gains an incalculable benefit from the knowledge discovered by others. The second great benefit is the division of labor: it enables a man to devote his effort to a particular field of work and to trade with others who specialize in other fields. This form of cooperation allows all men who take part in it to achieve a greater knowledge, skill and productive return on their effort than they could achieve if each had to produce everything he needs, on a desert island or on a self-sustaining farm.”

 –Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness, “The Nature of Government”. p. 107 (SC)

 ”Just as egoism does not mean retreating to a desert island, so independence does not mean rediscovering on one’s own the sum of human cognition. The ability to profit from the thinking of others is the time-saver [emphasis mine] that makes human progress possible. One should, therefore, learn as much as he can from others. The moral point is that he actually be learning, i.e., engaged in a process of cognition, not of parroting.

 “In a division-of-labor society, no one produces by himself all the goods and services that his life requires. What he does produce is an economic value he can offer to others in exchange for the things he wants; he produces the value-equivalent of the goods and services he seeks.  A man who deals with others by this method is the opposite of a dependent. He relies on his own power of creativity in order to survive. He counts on the value of his work being recognized by rational men, not on getting favors from any person or clique. He is not restricted to dealing with a clique; potentially, the whole world is his customer.  Nor does he benefit from a policy of conformity. In a free country, intellectual independence and material wealth tend to be concomitant; the more a producer exercises his own best judgment regardless of the momentary notions or passions of the crowd, the more economically successful he becomes.”

–Leonard Peikoff, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, “Virtue”. p. 256-57 (HC) 

The Life Raft
Robert Tracy
Oils on canvas
4 x 6”
2012

I can hear it now.

Sometimes I wonder if the beginning of the government control over every aspect of the life of the individual started, in large measure, with the Surgeon General’s warning against cigarette smoking in 1963.

But this is Art, not propaganda.

Consider this:

“The fact that one agrees or disagrees with an artist’s philosophy is irrelevant to an esthetic appraisal of his work qua art. One does not have to agree with an artist (nor even to enjoy him) in order to evaluate his work. In essence, an objective evaluation requires that one identify the artist’s theme, the abstract meaning of his work (exclusively by identifying the evidence contained in the work and allowing no other, outside considerations), then evaluate the means by which he conveys it—i.e., taking his theme as criterion, evaluate the purely esthetic elements of the work, the technical mastery (or lack of it) with which he projects (or fails to project) his view of life . . . .

Since art is a philosophical composite, it is not a contradiction to say: “This is a great work of art, but I don’t like it,” provided one defines the exact meaning of that statement: the first part refers to a purely esthetic appraisal, the second to a deeper philosophical level which includes more than esthetic values.”

–Ayn Rand, The Romantic Manifesto, “Art and Sense of Life,” p.42 (SC)

One’s life belongs to him. Most know the health risks involved in smoking. For those who condemn one’s choice to smoke, I ask you, why “…the passionate resentment and uncontrollable rage which [you] do feel and exhibit” (–Ayn Rand, The Romantic Manifesto, “Art and Moral Treason”, p.149) toward his choice?

My wife has had one, and only one, cigarette in her life. We were on the highway in Pennsylvania, headed for Philadelphia. It was December 1989. It was approaching midnight. The snow was so hard no one was driving but the big-rigs—and I, who drove through that stuff only to get as far as Harrisburg, some two hours away. My wife says, “I felt I felt like I was suffocating and I think at one point I rolled the window down for some air, but it didn’t stay down long because of the wicked weather. I was upset with my husband because he wouldn’t pull over. But we survived. He did a hell of a job. I certainly couldn’t have done it. My heart felt like it was going to pop right out of my chest. Never had claustrophobia so bad. Once we got there, he pulled off to a gas station for coffee and a Coke for me. First thing I said was ‘give me a cigarette’.” My surprise turned to understanding. That cigarette was, for her, a life raft.

Tell me something I don’t know about the harmful effects of smoking. And I’ll tell you something you ought to know about smoking’s positive effects.

From the book The No-nag, No-Guilt, Do-It-Your-Own-Way Guide to Quitting Smoking by Tom Ferguson, M.D., he writes in his chapter on “Smoking as a Psychological Tool” that “nicotine seems to provide a surprising variety of psychological effects. The net effect is a temporary improvement…that is experienced by the smoker as enhanced pleasure, decreased anxiety, and a state of alert relaxation. And these effects were not only observed by the smokers we interviewed; they have been studied and described by many researchers. It is now a well-documented fact that smoking helps smokers control their moods.” (emphasis in the original) Thus smoking gives smokers a great deal of control over their own nervous systems. As Christen and Cooper write, “The person who has never smoked cannot possibly understand the depth of affective satisfaction derived from this habit.”

–Arden G. Christen and Kenneth H. Cooper, “Strategic Withdrawal from Cigarette Smoking,” CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 96-107, 1979.

“Nicotine seems to help smokers feel less overwhelmed by disruptive or distracting stimulation in their environment and makes it easier for them to concentrate on the task at hand.  Smoking thus provides smokers with the ability to improve concentration and increase their powers of vigilance and attention. Nicotine can help one deal more effectively with stress, giving them a strong sense of control. Smokers smoke because of the very real benefits that smoking provides.” (ibid.)

 Of course one needs water and food to survive the sinking of a ship. If one has survived that, consider that a cigarette might go a ways to surviving long enough to find these. 

“The dollar sign? For a great deal. It stands on the vest of every fat, piglike figure in every cartoon, for the purpose of denoting a crook, a grafter, a scoundrel—as the one sure-fire brand of evil. It stands—as the money of a free country—for achievement, for success, for ability, for man’s creative power—and, precisely for these reasons, it is used as a brand of infamy…Incidentally, do you know where that sign comes from? It stands for the initials of the United States.”