Love and Hate [SFI-5]

The independent individualist does not identify himself by what nationality or race he belongs to, what group or organization he is a member of, or what ideology or movement he embraces; the independent individualist identifies himself by what he lives for, what he does, what he has accomplished, and what he has made of himself.

What a person is reveals itself in what person lives for, what truly matters to them, what they love, and what they hate.

—What you love and what you hate reveal what you are.

—What you spend your time and money on reveal what you truly love and hate.

Rhetorically, “love” and “hate” are perhaps more impressive terms, but my own feeling about “hate” has always been that it is a waste of emotional energy. There is almost nothing in this world that is worth expending the effort on to hate. I prefer the word, “despise,” which means to count as valueless, as useless refuse worthy of no attention or consideration. Most of the things I regard as worthy of hate, I simply despise.

The impulse to hate the evil, like Ellsworth Toohey in Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead is a natural one. It is a kind of emotional defense against what appears to be a threat, but it is a mistake, because evil is truly powerless. The correct response to that kind of evil is not hate, not to waste one’s own emotional energy on a non-entity, but the response of Howard Roark to Toohey’s question of what Roark thought of him. Roark did not say, “I hate you and I’d like smash you with my fist,” he said, “but I don’t think of you!” The evil are not worth hating, they are not even worth thinking about.

What We Love, What We Despise

What we will love and what we will despise is determined by our values, which, if rational and objective, will be those things we know are in our best interest, not because we “desire” them, but because they are morally right, which is why we desire them.

But whether our desires are determined rationally or not, what we will pursue will be determined by what we desire most, those things we truly love, and what we will shun, evade, or simply ignore, will be determined by what we regard as of no value, those things we truly despise.

It is of course, what we are that will determine if those values we pursue or evade are objectively and rationally determined, or subjectively and emotionally determined. The independent individualist will value those things his best reason determines are in his best interest; the second-hander, the collectivist, and the hedonist will value those things he sees others pursuing, or his “group” values, or his irrational whims and desires motivate him to pursue.

Time and Money

“Time and money,” are a metaphor for our resources, all our resources, our minds, our strength, and our energy. Our resources are all that we have to use to achieve or acquire what we value. Whatever resources we use for anything other than that we truly value is wasted. But the truth is, how we use our resources is always for what we truly value, because how we use them indicates what we love and what we despise.

It may be that what we love and what we despise is not determine rationally, but emotionally, and in those moments when we are being most rational, we might regret having “wasted” resources on what we do not truly value. It is obvious that such regret involves a kind dishonesty with oneself, either about what one truly values, or the rationality of those values, which is why a ruthless honesty is necessary.

If one believes they have wasted their resources, they are either mistaken about what they truly value, what they really love and hate, or their values are not objective rational values, and in either case, a need for a ruthless rational analysis of one’s values is in order.

Time, Money, and Freedom

To live, to pursue any values, to achieve anything, an individual must be free, to think, to choose, and to act on his own reason. Freedom is the first necessity of life for a rational objective individual.

If freedom is one’s highest value, it is what he will spend his time and money on, and what all his resources will be dedicated to achieving.

In reality almost no one is truly free, and even those who say they desire freedom above all things spend only a tiny fraction of their resources on the pursuit of freedom. Most waste resources, even when supposedly in the pursuit of freedom, discussing freedom, writing about freedom, joining movements that promote freedom, but no time, energy, or resources on the actual pursuit of freedom in their own life.

If you are to be free, until you have achieved it, all your resources, your time, your effort, your money, and your strength, must be dedicated to that pursuit. If you use your resources in the pursuit of anything else, it is not freedom you love, but whatever other thing or things on which you are spending your time and money that you love.