Thursday, May 14, 2015

Secular books that changed my life, part one


Two secular books that changed my life:

Righteous Indignation by Andrew Breitbart-This is the Generation X bible for former liberals who got disenchanted with their own philosophy. I’m still mourning the death of Breitbart. Before reading this book I thought I was alone in being a news junkie, conservative/libertarian who spends his time searching for original copies of bootleg punk concerts and watches countless videos of the The Queers on Youtube. Nope. Andrew showed us we aren’t alone.  His description of going online for the first time with an old ISP in the early 90’s brought me back to doing the same thing. All us punks of any type owe Andrew a huge thank you for getting our voice out there. We all were alone before him.

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand-Before you throw up, hear me out. Yes, Rand is overrated. Yes, her followers are sort of cult like.  Of course I disagree with her atheism and I admit she’d probably hate me. All that is irrelevant. Her protagonist in the book, Howard Roark says, “It’s not about who is going to let me, it’s about who is going to stop me” People misread this. No, objectivists don’t think they can do what they want and ignore you. Quite the opposite. A true objectivist would accept your right to do what you wish as long as it doesn’t inflict on the rights of someone else. The other amazing quote in this book that changed my life? “In order to say I love you, one must first say I”. That was Ayn Rands way of saying “You can’t love until you love yourself’. Even if you disagree with her on everything you should read this book, just to see why you disagree with her. She changed my views on love, society and culture all with this book. 

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