Research Questions

Well, I've been throwing around a bunch of ideas for a thesis statement for my upcoming research paper and wanted to get people's takes on the different ideas. Some questions that I've been looking into include:

• What is the value of digital media in the modern creative process? Are the rules of creativity and innovation changing? 
• What is the role of social media in self-actualization?
• What is the power of an individual to bring about change when armed with digital media?

I am leaning heavily toward the first, though all of them are kind of interconnected, so I could touch on all of them potentially. I feel like the first is most pertinent to my novel, The Fountainhead, but at the same time, it goes in opposition to what is said in the book, so my research would represent a refutation of Rand's ideals. Kind of murky waters for the moment being.

Which topic do you like best? Any ideas for a better one?

Thoughts on Research...

I stumbled upon this article while researching The Fountainhead the other day, and I thought it provided a couple really savvy insights into social response to Ayn Rand's philosophies and works. Among other things, the author talks about Rand's totalist mentality as a source of friction between her supporters and her detractors, and that's an idea that I've been toying with recently in my study of online interactions between Rand's friends and foes. It's been really interesting seeing the dynamics of social involvement in Objectivism, and I am wondering if I might be better off doing my research paper on just that (though it would likely distance me from the actual primary text to some extent). In any case, check out the article! If nothing else, it provides a good overview of Rand's influence and place in modern society.

And, just as some food for thought, an idea taken from Rand's "Man's Rights":

There is only one fundamental right (all the others are its consequences or corollaries): a man’s right to his own life. Life is a process of self-sustaining and self-generated action; the right to life means the right to engage in self-sustaining and self-generated action—which means: the freedom to take all the actions required by the nature of a rational being for the support, the furtherance, the fulfillment and the enjoyment of his own life. (Such is the meaning of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.) . . .

We Need to Talk...

So, this video was posted on an Ayn Rand social networking site, but I still wasn't really sure whether it had been written with one of  Rand's characters in mind. I was able to get in contact with the artist, though, and he affirmed that it was inspired in part by Atlas Shrugged. Anyway I really like the ideas presented in the song... and the vocalist sounds sort of like John Mayer.

I've been digging to try to find some social contacts with regard to The Fountainhead, and I kind of hit jackpot tonight with the social networking/dating service. I actually ran across an obscure reference to it in a scholarly article and thought, "Really? REALLY? They have a dating service for fans of Rand's stuff?" And sure enough, they do.

I feel like it's been somewhat difficult to track down fans of Rand's philosophies because of the nature of her philosophies themselves. One of the primary tenets of Objectivism is that you find meaning in yourself, and you don't really rely on the opinions of other people. That's all fine and dandy, but it just so happens to be a huge obstacle in terms of my efforts to practice social discovery. How are you supposed to use social media to discover others and get social proof when the people whose opinions you're seeking are philosophically disinclined as regards both social discovery and social proof? Well, it's been a struggle, but I feel like I might finally be getting somewhere, little by little.

So, for all you Objectivists out there, send me a message, drop me comment, toss me a +1, just anything to help me know that there really are Objectivists out there using social media. We need to talk...

Living YOUR Dreams

I've had a tough time really trying to express a couple of ideas in my research of The Fountainhead, but I think I've found a quote that kind of sums up a number of my thoughts on the matter:

Listen to what is being preached today. Look at everyone around us. You've wondered why they suffer, why they seek happiness and never find it. If any man stopped and asked himself whether he's ever held a truly personal desire, he'd find the answer. He'd see that all his wishes, his efforts, his dreams, his ambitions are motivated by other men. He's not really struggling even for material wealth, but for the second-hander's delusion - prestige. A stamp of approval, not his own. He can find no joy in the struggle and no joy when he has succeeded. He can't say about a single thing: 'This is what I wanted because I wanted it, not because it made my neighbors gape at me'. Then he wonders why he's unhappy.   -Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

I've been trying to encapsulate this idea the whole time, the idea that an individual can seek his/her own dreams and still contribute positively to society, the idea that we don't have to chase after the age old aspirations of our grandfathers or follow the trends of our neighbors and friends. Each member of mankind is amazing, and each member of society has something special to contribute, some new innovation, some novel creation. It just doesn't make sense to waste our time living out someone else's second-hand dreams when we might, with a little effort, attain that which we ourselves desire more than anything else.

Rand, Roark, and the Digital Media Revolution

I've been thinking a lot about what kind of relationship Howard Roark, the main character of Rand's The Fountainhead, would have had with modern digital media. On one hand, I guess the Internet could have really helped him all those times when he is looking for clientele and trying to make his work more publicly known so that he could build more buildings, but on the other hand, Howard represents one of the most solitary and cold personalities of just about any book that I've ever read, so I have to wonder how much he would have cared for the social aspect involved in modern digital media. He was never one to really care about what other people thought of him or his work, and he was never one to think much about others or their work, so the idea of "Likes" and +1's and views would likely come off as superficial and pathetic to him. I noticed as I was reading that all of Roark's problematic clients insisted upon big, fancy facades, with useless collonades and superfluous ornamentation, and I feel like Facebook pages and profiles and all that would be, to Roark, simply a digital extension of the ostentatious facades proliferated in Classical architecture. Roark is about the real and the now, the stone beneath his fingers, the grass beneath his feet, the eyes that turn away from his unvarying gaze, and it seems to me that the Internet would be, for him, too immaterial, too fickle, too false.

Rand, on the other hand, would have likely utilized digital media as a way to disseminate her ideas. Leonard Peikoff, the leading Randian philosopher and founder of the Ayn Rand Institute, uses all sorts of modern media to teach about Objectivism: he has online lectures, podcasts, videos, etc., and he encourage those with questions to email him. I actually emailed Peikoff asking him about his thoughts on digital media and The Fountainhead, and though I haven't heard back yet, I'll be interested to see what his thoughts are on the matter... What about you? What do you think?

The Family: A Proclamation to the World

In 1995, the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued The Family: A Proclamation to the World, a document containing valuable truths as to man's nature and stating God's word concerning marriage and familial relationships. I didn't really realize how important all this was until I was about sixteen, but then it came to really mean a lot to me, and it in some senses saved me. My family growing up had it's problems, perhaps like every family, but the truths contained in this document have helped us to be stronger as a family unit and have helped me to know what I will need to do as a husband and father to provide for the spiritual, emotional, and temporal welfare of my family. I really do love it. Read the full document here.