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Question: Ayn Rand vs "The Giving Tree"!?
Ayn Rand believed that selfishness is a virtue!. Self-sacrifice was something she saw as self-destructive or wasteful!.
The complete opposite of that (objectivism) is the example of the story, "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein!. The story is a moral ideal of self-sacrifice!. The tree, which could be symbolic of a person, gives to another in order to provide happiness!. The boy (in the story) is the selfish character who takes and has his best interest at heart!. The tree is the giver who loses everything (physical) but sustains her charitable spirit!.
Is the tree pathetic!?
Was Ayn Rand correct about selfishness being a virtue!?
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Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
"Self-sacrifice," as the term is meant by Rand, is an interesting concept!. Rand uses self-sacrifice to characterize actions in which one acts against his own rational self-interest!. As Rand believed the promotion of one's own rational self-interest (what she called selfishness) was the highest good, she naturally found acts of self-sacrifice wasteful!.
However, this is not to mean that Rand advocated a world in which everybody stepped on number two so as to look our for number one!. In Atlas Shrugged, Rand's heroes make a daring raid in order to secure the safety of their friend!. Some would call this selfless!. Rand, hwoever, would not, for these individuals believed that saving this friend was in their own best interest!. I suspect anyone who has had to cope with the death of a good friend would understand why!.
Now, one looks to the tree and wonders whether its giving of itself so as to provide happiness was in its own rational self interest!. To the extent it is not, Rand would ridicule its charity as wasteful!. To the extent it is, Rand would say that no sacrifice was made at all, merely a transaction of value for value, the happiness of others for the satisfaction of having provided it!.
There are instances in which we see wasteful self-sacrifice in society at large!. The classic example is the woman who stays in an abusive relationship for fear of what life would be like if she left!. This woman has, under Rand's logic, engaged in wasteful self-sacrifice!. Against this waste, I am inclined to agree with Rand!. As she defines it, selfishness is indeed a virtue!.
Interesting question!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
I love your comparison of Ayn Rand and the Giving Tree!. But think of life on a scale, where Ayn Rand stands at one extreme and the Giving Tree at the other!. Hopefully things in life will fall between these two extremes, where sometimes the situation calls for selfishness and other times selflessness!. The true virtue is knowing the difference of when to be one over the other!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Ayn Rand's theory is okay , provided growth due to selfishness will help others too !. Even self sacrifice is a form of selfishness only since it gives a pleasure to the one who commits it !.Www@QuestionHome@Com
It is a wonderful illustration that perfectly demonstrates the hypocrisy of conventional morality and how using a little bit of logic can completely fly in the face of everything we've been brainwashed to believe!.
People like Tyler's Mate live with the mindset of the apologists of dictatorships, that people exist to be parasitic off of one another; and that all human interaction is a zero-sum game!. No tyranny in the history of the world has ever preached the values of individualism and self-interest, they always preach the virtue of sacrifice and loyalty!. The dictator believes that people ought to sacrifice them self for the greater good of society, which of course really means the greater good of their regime!. That's why tyranny is so omnipresent in history; people like him are quick to justify them!.
In such a relationship between the man and the tree, the man demanded that the true sacrifice himself for his sake, and in the end, it cost the tree his life!. What will happen when the man wants more!? He'll probably have to find a new tree to parasite off of!. That is the zero-sum game of sacrifice; one person wins, one person looses!. It could be argued that the tree was acting out of its love for the boy, but if that was the case, the love was surely unrequited!.
Ayn Rand demanded that we do not treat our relationships as zero sum games rather, that our relationships with others should be mutually beneficial!. An example: in The Fountainhead, the protagonist Howard Roark treats one of his workers to lunch, as well as bonuses!. Roark wants to keep the employee working for him, and the employee receives the benefits!. Everyone wins, there is no sacrifice!. John73 had a good analogy with the pivotal scene of Atlas Shrugged, and that anyone who believes that Ayn Rand advocated a dog-eat-dog world of cutthroats is clearly not doing their homework!.
Ayn Rand is commonly thought of as being right wing, but anyone who lumps her there clearly has very little (if any) understanding of her philosophy, which was Atheistic and rejected the role of faith in a person's mind, be that faith in God, or faith in governmentWww@QuestionHome@Com