Овој есеј е напишан во рамки на Школата Џон Галт, Битола која се реализираше во периодот октомври – декември 2019 год. на Правниот факултет во Битола. Студентите имаа задача да напишат завршен есеј на неколку зададени теми со цел да се види нивната перцепција за Објективизмот како филозофија, откако ги ислушале предавањата.
Есеите беа напишани на англиски јазик и испратени до партнерите и поддржувачите на проектот. Авторот на овој есеј е Теодора Спировска.
How can I be perceived as a hero?
I decided to write about a topic that begs the question of my opinion on the philosophy of objectivism at the beginning of the course and my opinion now. Since my introduction to the philosophy of objectivism, incredible changes have happened in my life. I will not be humble and say that the first impression was not good. The first thing that was initially unacceptable to me was the virtue of selfishness. This is because I live in Macedonia, in a fairly traditional and conservative way of life, and have since I have been raised with collective values from a young age.
So starting from that fact, it’s hard to expect that I can accept anything that doesn’t fit into what has been the routine and the basis of my behavior so far. Furthermore, a thing that was also harder to absorb is the concept of a human being perceived as a heroic being. We all start with ourselves and the circumstances we are in, so I started with what is currently happening in our country as a political, legal, economic and social way, we are all, just not heroes. So here’s the question:
How can I be perceived as a hero, when I am restricted by the clutches and shackles of power that stand so strongly behind collectivism while giving me rights on the one hand, but still limiting me to the core of them on the other?
Asking this question, I felt responsible for myself to find the answer, and I found one, in Ayn Rand’s book – The Fountainhead. Here begins what I would call magic for me, a book with a million answers to a million questions asked so far without any rational answer. With the completion of the book and the study of philosophy, I came to a very important conclusion for me. We live in a circle of constant turns, we are born though no one asks us if we want to, we live a life that by the majority we are obliged to worship it, and in the end, we die without being asked if we want to. But there’s a way out of this circle, at least I found it for myself. Nature cannot be changed, it is constant. We will be born again without anyone asking us if we want to, and we will die again without choosing it, but the life we have not chosen we can live as we wish. The morality of altruism leads us to a situation where we are faced with problems with our own identity, starting with the question of whether we do things because we want to or because others expect them to. Forced by the system to suppress our potential to be like everyone, be with everyone – another brick in the wall, victims of the common good. Through the book, but also through philosophy, I have found values placed in a radical way in one man, a virtue of independence, integrity, and a selfish moral ideal. I created a picture of an objectivist who has the power to rule over everyone else, not in terms of fame and money, but in the pursuit of true happiness. At the same time, I realized that the criticism coming from the environment, in the world of an objectivist doesn’t exist, it is a unique critic for himself. Every success in life comes with the price we have to pay, whether we succeed in our dreams depends only on ourselves. To fight with the imposed propaganda that we are made to live together and do things for the common good, ignoring what we want, is the real struggle of the 21st century.
It was time for me to liberate myself mentally from the clutches of collectivism in which I had been captive for much of my life. We are millions in the universe, and we are all ideal in our own way because the ideal is relative and different for each of us. As we grow, we also learn. I have learned crystal clear in my head now I have the concept of my ideal person, a hero whom I could not have imagined years ago to find in myself. The hero I misunderstood in the beginning, a hero with no prejudice and fear of whether it is good for someone else or not, my happiness is only mine.
Author: Teodora Spirovska
University St. Kliment Ohridski, MA candidate
