Back Matter: The Egoist in the Danger Zone, from “Can Objectivism Save the World?” by Robert Villegas

 

Below you will find part of a chapter in this book entitled “A Life of Sacrifice or a Life in the Danger Zone.

“What is egoism’s answer to sacrifice? I have written above that: “altruism is a violent attack on the individual that leads to exploitation and death for man. Just listen to any altruist and you’ll see, hidden under protestations of love, a hatred of the individual and anything that he might do to further his life and wellbeing.”

But what is the ultimate sacrifice? Christianity tells us that Christ made the ultimate sacrifice by suffering intensely and giving his life for mankind. This ultimate sacrifice is the symbol of the suffering savior. We see this in Mel Gibson’s movie “The Passion of the Christ” where the suffering is embellished to a cruel degree by the movie maker who had no problem showing us the gore, the blood, the excruciating pain, to make us wallow in suffering, and achieve the ultimate ecstasy of ultimate suffering.

If this vision of Christ is the lesson of Christian morality, how can egoism answer? Is it necessary to answer with the ultimate act of egoism? Yes, I think so.

Where Christianity gives us acts of suffering to gain ecstasy in heaven, egoism must give us the ultimate act of life-serving morality on earth. I suggest that the symbol of the highest moral act must be ultimate rationality. It must be the highest thought applied to action. I expressed it in my poem “The Man with the Computer”:

THE MAN WITH THE COMPUTER

(Based upon “The Man with the Hoe” by

Edwin Markham)

 

Buoyed by the power of his body, he inclines

over his desk, and glares at the screen.

The expanse of centuries in his features,

And on his mind the burden of the world.

Who lifted life from despair to rapture?

A thing that grieves not and never hopes,

plastic, and smooth, a brother to the mind.

Who loosened the pang from brutal toil?

Whose was the hand that jutted forth this brow?

Whose light released the hint that ignited this brain?

 

Is this the object that man has made and gave?

To have dominion over land and sea?

To trace the stars and search the heavens for power?

To feel the passion of infinity?

Is this the dream he dreamed to see the suns?

And mark his way upon the ancient deep?

Down all the caverns of sea to their last gulf?

There is no shape more beautiful than this,

More tongued with promise of the world's vast hope.

More filled with signs and portents for the soul,

More bestowed with marvels of the universe.

 

No gulfs between man and the seraphim,

No pain of labor, this machine to him.

Or Plato and the swing of Pleiades,

Or the long reaches of the peaks of song,

the rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose.

Through this new shape the enduring ages look;

No tragedy is in that furrowed brow.

Through this fine shape humanity is saved,

Not plundered, profaned, or disinherited,

No murmurs to the judges of the world.

For this has fulfilled its own splendid prophecy.

 

Oh, masters, lords, and rulers from all lands,

With this, man can unchain himself from you,

This wondrous tool, made of logic and understanding,

How will you ever tie man down again

and force him to build you monuments?

He's found the upward look and the light;

He'll build in it the music and the dream;

Make right the immemorial infamies,

Perfidious wrongs, and immedicable woes.

 

Oh, masters, lords, and rulers from all lands,

How will the future reckon with this man?

How answer his straight question in that hour

When whirlwinds of rebellion shake all shores?

How will it be with kingdoms and with kings--

and with that thought which shaped him to the man he is--

When his logicality shall rise to judge the world,

after the stillness of the centuries?

So, altruism gives us the man on the cross, egoism gives us the man on the computer. I think this is fitting and shows the difference between man’s suffering mind and his rational mind.

But this isn’t all. Christianity’s hero died for his moral perspective. And  it is true that sometimes an egoistic man dies for his moral perspective and this I call the man in the danger zone.

Ultimately, it is the person who must strive for the highest in terms of technological, philosophical, entrepreneurial, or scientific advances. It is the human being who must fly the next iteration of a supersonic jet, start a great company on a shoe string, drive the most advanced race cars, fight for his freedom, struggle for the championship, win the Indianapolis 500, pitch the perfect game in a World Series, create the perfect philosophy, and strain to go faster, higher, better, to hit the home run, score the winning goal, make the touchdown, achieve the best tackle, find the cure for cancer, go to the Moon, go to Mars, break the track record, and win the highest prize in the smallest millisecond of time. He must be the cleverest, the best, the most skilled, the most physical, the most eloquent, the most erudite, the riskiest of risk takers, the most intelligent. He must go where no man has gone before in his own mind or in the universe.

Entering the danger zone is the egoist’s challenge to himself, it is the realm where what he does, on a moment’s thought, in the knick-of-time, is the very thing it takes to make a difference that makes the difference. But the key is that the man in the danger zone expects to live, has done everything he could to establish the terms of action in favor of life, so he can celebrate the victory, where, by contrast, the suffering savior knows that his ultimate goal is to die as a model for other men.

Who are some of these great achievers who have been in the danger zone? We see their fictional counterparts in movies such as Maverick flying his jets[1], Rudy taking the hits that will make Notre Dame a better team; we see these men and women in virtually every field of study and endeavor. They are the Chuck Yeager’s, the Neil Armstrongs, the A. J. Foyt’s, the Caitlin Clarks, the Don Larsons, the Babe Ruths, the Mickey Mantles, the Fernando Mendozas, the Peyton Mannings, the Elon Musks, and other people of high accomplishment.

The Danger Zone is the ultimate egoists safe place, the zone where he finds both discomfort and pride, striving and stress, victory and peace; and once he enters it and wins, he can’t live until he enters it again. The suffering savior knows he must die while the ultimate egoist knows he must live. So, in the ultimate sense, the zone of ultimate sacrifice and death is met historically with the zone of ultimate accomplishment and life. I dare say that it takes much more to give up life in the egoist danger zone than it takes to give up life for the altruist’s human sacrifice.

Indeed, every time you take an action that is intended to bring you a better life, you enter the danger zone. You also enter the zone of the man with the computer, the zone of reason. Being in the danger zone is not often physically dangerous, but every time you enter the zone of reason, the zone where new thoughts and new ideas are created, where new inductions are made and new conclusions are drawn, where new machines are made, and new life becomes possible, you will likely win the prize of a better life and a higher pride in accomplishment – this means happiness.

Now that you know the difference between altruism and egoism, which zone do you want to live in?

To purchase “Can Objectivism Save the World?” you can ask for it at your local bookstore or find it on Amazon at https://amzn.to/4ywj6S0


[1] This is the movie in which the song “Riding to the Danger Zone is heard. The song bio tells us: “This song challenges the cultural couch potato mentality pervasive at the time (and to this day) that, in the name of safety, holds back countless millions of people from unlocking their potential and exploring who they are in this world. Loggins suggests that not until one’s grazed death door can they know what it is to live.” Lyrics at https://genius.com/Kenny-loggins-danger-zone-lyrics Song found on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siwpn14IE7E&list=RDsiwpn14IE7E&start_radio=1

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