The Page of Reason

Objectivism: The Philosophy of Reality Integrated Reason

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The Page of Reason

Third Edi­tion: Inte­grat­ing 2600 Years of Ratio­nal Inves­ti­ga­tions

Objectivism: The Philosophy of Reality Integrated Reason

Eight-Parts in Eight-Pages

Part 5 is The Page

A Brain is Free. A Mind is Earned.

Orrin Smith

thep​a​ge​of​rea​son​.com

 

Welcome to The Page of Reason

A sem­i­nal essay for the ratio­nal-self-inter­est of each able indi­vid­ual,

and for the cul­tures and civ­i­liza­tions that they will glo­ri­ous­ly enrich.

The Great Persuasion

A par­tic­i­pa­to­ry project to enrich ratio­nal­i­ty,

with­in all cul­tures and civ­i­liza­tions, all around the Earth.

The Declaration of Intent

From all of my life expe­ri­ence, from all knowl­edge that I have ever acquired from a mag­nif­i­cent array of gen­er­ous knowl­edge pre­de­ces­sors, I assert that Objec­tivist Prin­ci­ples are the only pos­si­ble prin­ci­ples for inci­sive pur­suits of sur­vival, pros­per­i­ty, and hap­pi­ness, for all humans, all around the Earth. With­in The Page of Rea­son, I will make my case.

 

The Preface

Since the advent of primeval lan­guages, our human minds have been assault­ed by ever-more, ever-var­i­ous, ever-con­tra­dic­to­ry, and ever-eva­sive irra­tional ideas. And on count­less occa­sions through­out the ages, will­ful­ly cho­sen and enact­ed to their final social con­clu­sions, irra­tional ideas have caused vast des­ti­tu­tion, destruc­tion, and death.

Our primeval natures will always be with us. How­ev­er, irra­tional ideas are just sim­plis­tic con­cep­tu­al errors. They are just ideas that have become entan­gled with the per­sis­tent and per­ni­cious primeval prin­ci­ple that: any­thing-goes!

With great counter-destruc­tive effect, we are able to counter-assault primeval any­thing-goes ideas by wise­ly employ­ing our ratio­nal skills. And it is only by such ratio­nal counter-assaults that we will ever become able to con­sis­tent­ly cul­ti­vate our pur­suits of hap­pi­ness.

Ratio­nal­i­ty has always been our dis­tinc­tive human attribute, our prin­ci­pal moral virtue, and our fun­da­men­tal tal­ent. Nev­er­the­less, it has only been with­in the most recent 2600 years that we humans have engaged in mean­ing­ful inves­ti­ga­tions of ratio­nal­i­ty. Thus, with­in the prodi­gious­ly long dura­tion of human his­to­ry, we have only just recent­ly begun to actu­al­ize the vibrant­ly good life that ratio­nal­i­ty offers.

Why? has this inves­ti­ga­tion only just recent­ly begun, and then evolved at such an excru­ci­at­ing­ly slow pace? For four pri­ma­ry rea­sons:

  • One: Rationality’s fun­da­men­tal impor­tance must become rec­og­nized.
  • Two: Rea­son, rationality’s method of work, is a set of vol­un­tary skills that can only become per­formed with­in indi­vid­ual human minds.
  • Three: Ratio­nal-work (non-con­tra­dic­to­ry inte­gra­tions of obser­va­tions and con­cepts by log­i­cal rea­son) must become per­formed.
  • Four: Cul­tur­al­ly sig­nif­i­cant ratio­nal-work depends upon present states of lit­er­a­cy and infor­ma­tion tech­nolo­gies.

It is only with­in indi­vid­ual human minds that rea­son­ing skills and con­cep­tu­al knowl­edge can exist and devel­op. How­ev­er, at birth, our minds became formed devoid of such con­tent. Nev­er­the­less, since our births, our minds have become slates, upon which, by choice, we can write and rewrite to the very end of our con­scious lives.

By my choice, for twelve years, I direct­ed my mind towards impor­tant, pur­pose­ful work:

  • First: I worked hard to sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly inves­ti­gate, and to rea­son­ably assim­i­late, a very broad knowl­edge con­text.
  • Sec­ond: Once I came to under­stand its utter­ly cru­cial impor­tance, I then worked hard to acquire an inci­sive under­stand­ing of fun­da­men­tal ratio­nal knowl­edge.
  • Third: Begin­ning with a lim­it­ed set of writ­ing skills, I then worked very hard to fur­ther devel­op, hone, and pol­ish those skills.
  • Fourth: Dur­ing four-and-a-half years, as I worked on those writ­ing skills, I com­posed The Page of Rea­son, the final pur­pose of which is to com­mu­ni­cate fun­da­men­tal ratio­nal knowl­edge to you, and to each oth­er able indi­vid­ual, on Earth.

With­in The Page of Rea­son, I have done my utter best to com­mu­ni­cate the essen­tial facts and prin­ci­ples of fun­da­men­tal ratio­nal knowl­edge.

  • For inci­sive pur­suits of sur­vival, pros­per­i­ty, and hap­pi­ness, on Earth, fun­da­men­tal ratio­nal knowl­edge is absolute­ly nec­es­sary.

I invite you to now embark with me upon this brief great­est ever pos­si­ble adven­ture, and to then employ The Page of Rea­son, as a potent tool, with­in your own endur­ing great­est ever pos­si­ble adven­ture. You and I have much to dis­cuss: me with­in my ratio­nal text, you with­in your own ratio­nal mind.

$Free Read­ing: Enjoy read­ing the com­plete essay from the web­site:

  • The Web­Text page: A stan­dard html web­page.
  • The PdfText1 page: An embed­ded pdf file, in the orig­i­nal 8‑point font.
  • The PdfText2 page: An embed­ded pdf file, in a larg­er 11-point font.

Eight-Parts in Eight-Pages is a self-imposed, one part per page, artis­tic con­straint that is imple­ment­ed in an 8‑point font, on legal-size pages, with­in the mas­ter doc­u­ment. Dur­ing four-and-a-half years’ worth of ratio­nal-work, I employed this artis­tic con­straint to sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly pre­vent tex­tu­al bloat, while pro­gres­sive­ly enrich­ing, refin­ing, and tight­ly pack­ing tex­tu­al con­tent, most par­tic­u­lar­ly with­in Part 5, the part that drove the need for the 8‑point font. Some indi­vid­u­als will find one of the larg­er font pre­sen­ta­tions to be more read­able.

Copy­right © 2020 Orrin Smith

 

The Page of Reason

Part 1 of 8: The Preliminary Introduction

Some ages, brow did sweat.

Some pages, brow did whet.

From dust came pages, brow, and sweat.

And to dust they shall pay their debt.

But not, just, yet.

Section 1: The Principal Themes

  • Rea­son con­sti­tutes the essen­tial tool for the sur­vival, pros­per­i­ty, and hap­pi­ness of each human indi­vid­ual.
  • Objec­tivism con­sti­tutes the phi­los­o­phy of real­i­ty inte­grat­ed rea­son.
  • Each able indi­vid­ual, on Earth, would most cer­tain­ly ben­e­fit from an inci­sive under­stand­ing of Objec­tivism.
  • Objectivism’s essen­tial facts and prin­ci­ples have been inci­sive­ly defined on a sin­gle page of about 2000 words (Part 5: The Page).

Section 2: Reality Integrated Objectivist Principles:

The absolute­ly sub­lime, eas­i­ly under­stood, ratio­nal prin­ci­ples that are nec­es­sary for inci­sive pur­suits of sur­vival, pros­per­i­ty, and hap­pi­ness:

• Ratio­nal Real­i­ty and Knowl­edge •

• Ratio­nal Ethics, Virtues, and Rights •

• Ratio­nal Free­dom, Lib­er­ty, Jus­tice, and Gov­ern­ment •

• Ratio­nal Artis­tic Pur­pose •

Phi­los­o­phy is not a bauble of the intel­lect, but a pow­er from which no man can abstain. Any­one can say that he dis­pens­es with a view of real­i­ty, knowl­edge, the good, but no one can imple­ment this cre­do. The rea­son is that man, by his nature as a con­cep­tu­al being, can­not func­tion at all with­out some form of phi­los­o­phy to serve as his guide.

Peikoff, Leonard. Chap­ter 1, “Real­i­ty.” Objec­tivism: The Phi­los­o­phy of Ayn Rand. New York: Merid­i­an, 1993. Page 1, para­graph 1.

Section 3: Reason, Integration, and Pursuits of Happiness

Through­out the ages, to achieve ben­e­fi­cial out­comes, humans have rearranged bits and pieces of cause-and-effect nat­ur­al real­i­ty. How­ev­er, not being nature’s cre­ators, to achieve those cause-and-effect rearrange­ments, it has always been nec­es­sary for us to first grasp nature’s non-con­tra­dic­to­ry truths. And just as non-con­tra­dic­to­ry rea­son ever has been our tool for grasp­ing those truths, it will ever be just so.

Nature is only to be com­mand­ed by obey­ing her.

Sir Fran­cis Bacon. First Book, Apho­rism 129. Novum Organum. 1620.

Rea­son is a set of vol­un­tary skills that can only become pro­gres­sive­ly mas­tered by punc­tu­at­ed ratio­nal-work with­in indi­vid­ual human minds. And to inte­grate is to assem­ble valu­able parts into a non-con­tra­dic­to­ry pur­pose­ful whole. The pur­pose of non-con­tra­dic­to­ry rea­son is to inte­grate obser­va­tions of real­i­ty into non-con­tra­dic­to­ry knowl­edge; from non-con­tra­dic­to­ry knowl­edge, to inte­grate non-con­tra­dic­to­ry val­ues and judg­ments; and from those, to inte­grate non-con­tra­dic­to­ry actions.

Close eval­u­a­tions of knowl­edge, val­ues, judg­ments, and actions will dis­close that, to the degrees well-inte­grat­ed, they are ulti­mate­ly employed with­in pur­suits of hap­pi­ness. More­over, it is from these inescapable facts of every­day life that the fab­ric of each individual’s life becomes com­posed.

Section 4: Contradictions, Consequences, and Corrections

With­in objec­tive real­i­ty, con­tra­dic­tions are not known to exist. How­ev­er, with­in sub­jec­tive real­i­ty, irra­tional ideas, con­cep­tu­al con­tra­dic­tions (same things), are cer­tain­ly known to exist. And ideas do cause con­se­quences. At min­i­mum, they sim­ply con­sume pre­cious time. How­ev­er, at worst, on count­less occa­sions through­out the ages, will­ful­ly cho­sen and enact­ed to their final social con­clu­sions, con­cep­tu­al con­tra­dic­tions, irra­tional ideas have caused vast des­ti­tu­tion, destruc­tion, and death..

Except­ing sim­ple acci­dents and inno­cent knowl­edge deficits, such ideas are: the root caus­es of all human gen­er­at­ed tragedies. And ulti­mate­ly, such ideas can only become cor­rect­ed by ratio­nal-work (non-con­tra­dic­to­ry inte­gra­tions of obser­va­tions and con­cepts by log­i­cal rea­son), not by suf­fer­ing fur­ther con­tra­dic­tions.

I present The Page of Rea­son, as a potent tool, to sub­stan­tial­ly cor­rect con­cep­tu­al con­tra­dic­tions: to there­by dimin­ish human gen­er­at­ed tragedies.

Choic­es are required. Time and work are also required. How­ev­er, this is not par­tic­u­lar­ly dif­fi­cult work. And it is vir­tu­al­ly guar­an­teed to become extra­or­di­nar­i­ly reward­ing and plea­sur­able work. Our choic­es. Our time. Our work. Our rewards. Our plea­sures. Rea­son is noble. Wel­come! And I am pleased to meet you here.

Section 5: Understanding The Page of Reason

The Ini­tial Pur­pose: My work to com­pose The Page of Rea­son began with a desire to ratio­nal­ly inte­grate a lifetime’s worth of per­son­al expe­ri­ence with a broad range of impor­tant knowl­edge to which I had recent­ly been apply­ing years of sys­tem­at­ic study (p4, s4). Towards that pur­pose, I have worked con­sis­tent­ly to make this text a work of inter­nal con­sis­ten­cy. How­ev­er, …

A fool­ish con­sis­ten­cy is the hob­gob­lin of lit­tle minds.

Emer­son, Ralph Wal­do. Self Reliance. Para­graph 14. 1841.

Clear­ly, Ralph would judge my mind to be: a fool­ish lit­tle hob­gob­lin mind.

From the very first page of my writ­ing, I employed a self-imposed one-page con­straint. I sensed a pur­pose­ful need to tai­lor a big mem­o­ry, full of big ideas, into a fash­ion­able hat of a con­sis­tent tex­ture and style that would com­fort­ably fit my own fool­ish lit­tle hob­gob­lin mind.

Fur­ther­more, also from the very first page, I employed the prin­ci­ple that I should com­pose in a con­sis­tent tex­ture and style that would con­sis­tent­ly com­mu­ni­cate my ideas to you. If I could con­sis­tent­ly com­mu­ni­cate my ideas to you, then I would like­wise con­sis­tent­ly com­mu­ni­cate them to my own fool­ish lit­tle hob­gob­lin mind.

Oh Ralph, Ralph, Ralph Wal­do! Take a hike! Slump along now, and hump your fool­ish, incon­sis­tent, mis­fit ideas into some stinky, slug-plumped swamp—somewhere, light-years away. Dump ‘em there. And then, sprint back to us—unburdened and refreshed.

The Long Project: I began com­pos­ing this text on Octo­ber 15th of 2015 as a novice author who pos­sessed rea­son­ably well-devel­oped ver­bal lan­guage skills. How­ev­er, I did not pos­sess any sig­nif­i­cant writ­ing expe­ri­ence, and I most def­i­nite­ly did not pos­sess the lan­guage and com­po­si­tion­al knowl­edge and skills that were nec­es­sary to pro­duce this work. There­fore, I had to acquire, hone, and pol­ish much of that, and that work con­sumed con­sid­er­able dos­es of time and effort.

Judg­ing it com­plete, I first pub­lished The Page of Rea­son on April 1st of 2016. How­ev­er, I was then unable to restrain myself from author­ing fur­ther sub­stan­tial refine­ments. On July 4th, I called a final halt. Then, on August 15th, fol­low­ing numer­ous re-reads, I embarked once more! (Then, again, again, and again!)

The Parts: I began com­pos­ing this text with Part 5, and com­posed Part 4 in par­al­lel with it. And through­out my long writ­ing project, I worked assid­u­ous­ly to make those two parts easy to read, easy to under­stand, and inci­sive­ly accu­rate. How­ev­er, my self-imposed one-page con­straints exclud­ed fur­ther, impor­tant and valu­able, infor­ma­tion and con­text. There­fore, once I had resolved to share Parts 4 and 5 with you, I then con­cur­rent­ly com­posed the addi­tion­al parts and sup­ple­ments.

Part 5 con­sti­tutes an excep­tion­al­ly inde­pen­dent sub-essay. How­ev­er, to estab­lish impor­tant con­text, the com­plete essay should first be read in sequen­tial order. Once that con­text has been estab­lished, then Part 5’s val­ue becomes great­ly enriched, and all oth­er parts and sup­ple­ments become sub­stan­tial­ly inde­pen­dent sub-essays.

  • Nev­er­the­less, ratio­nal def­i­n­i­tions do reside on each page.

The Razor: Part 5, Orrin’s Razor, con­cludes my attempt to for­mu­late an utter­ly essen­tial, one-page, inci­sive def­i­n­i­tion of Objec­tivism. I am con­fi­dent that indi­vid­u­als who pos­sess sig­nif­i­cant pre­knowl­edge of Objec­tivism will find Part 5’s def­i­n­i­tion to be extra­or­di­nar­i­ly accu­rate and valu­able. How­ev­er, con­cern­ing such con­clu­sions, each Stu­dent of Objec­tivism must for­mu­late their own judg­ments.

The Emo­tions: Though I am most def­i­nite­ly not an emo­tion­al­ist, each time that I have read through this text, I have expe­ri­enced impor­tant emo­tion­al respons­es. I can there­fore hon­est­ly tes­ti­fy that one’s ratio­nal efforts to grasp the truths of real­i­ty, knowl­edge, the good are not cold, dry, and remote.

Well-inte­grat­ed knowl­edge con­sis­tent­ly caus­es appro­pri­ate, noble, well-informed, and well-nuanced emo­tions. Val­ue judg­ments con­sti­tute con­se­quen­tial sub­sets of our knowl­edge. And vig­or­ous­ly, sub­con­scious­ly, at light­ning fast speeds, our minds match our var­i­ous­ly direct­ed, var­i­ous­ly focused, lim­it­ed obser­va­tions with our pre­formed val­ue judg­ments, and there­by cause our emo­tions. (p5, s3, p10).

  • Ratio­nal knowl­edge enrich­es and refines val­ue judg­ments, and there­by enrich­es and refines emo­tions.

Should you choose to read the com­plete essay, then know that I will be engag­ing in a no holds barred effort to com­mu­ni­cate to you: the essen­tial facts and prin­ci­ples of fun­da­men­tal ratio­nal knowledge—with all of the emo­tion­al pow­er that my fool­ish lit­tle hob­gob­lin mind can pos­si­bly muster.

The Cul­ti­va­tors: Here are four facts that each able indi­vid­ual should know:

  • Objec­tivism con­sti­tutes the present­ly unsur­passed cul­ti­va­tor of fun­da­men­tal ratio­nal knowl­edge.
  • The Page of Rea­son, cou­pled with The Great Per­sua­sion, con­sti­tutes the present­ly unsur­passed cul­ti­va­tor of Objec­tivism (my inten­tion).
  • By choice, one can cul­ti­vate one’s own con­cep­tu­al mind: to there­by cul­ti­vate one’s own pur­suits of hap­pi­ness.
  • Prodi­gious­ly few adults are ever thor­ough­ly unable.

The Final Pur­pose: Too often, our lives become swamped, by treach­er­ous assaults, of mul­ti­far­i­ous kinds, from copi­ous-cadres of death-wor­ship­ing, death-deal­ing, any­thing-goes mis­fits.

Dis­tinct­ly counter-assault­ing such evils: Objec­tivism inci­sive­ly iden­ti­fies, defines, and explains the only known full-set of fun­da­men­tal ratio­nal prin­ci­ples that are absolute­ly nec­es­sary to estab­lish ratio­nal order with­in each of our cul­tures and civ­i­liza­tions: for the life-enrich­ing ratio­nal-self-inter­est of each human indi­vid­ual.

There­fore, due to Objectivism’s unri­valed impor­tance, amongst all pos­si­ble earth­ly ideas, I absolute­ly intend that The Page of Rea­son become shared with each able indi­vid­ual, on Earth. Then, for each one, to read, or not to read: that be the choice. To ascend to the moun­tain top, or not: that also be a choice.

Section 6: Interregnum: Reproduction Rights

Copy­right © 2020 Orrin Smith. All rights reserved. Nei­ther The Page of Rea­son text nor any oth­er con­tent on thep​a​ge​of​rea​son​.com (the web­site), may be repro­duced or dis­trib­uted, in whole or in part, in any form or man­ner, with­out pri­or writ­ten autho­riza­tion from Orrin Smith.

  • The defin­i­tive autho­riza­tion state­ments reside on the website’s Reprints page.

Briefly: Repro­duce this text only from the website’s Reprints page. On that page, you will dis­cov­er the pdf files for unlim­it­ed read­er pub­lished reprints of these texts on Legal, Let­ter, or a4 paper, in small to medi­um sized fonts. A small roy­al­ty fee will usu­al­ly be required:

  • Pref­ace Fly­ers: $Free, sin­gle-sided, one-page fly­ers for Let­ter and a4 paper.
  • Part 1 Intro­duc­tions: $10.00 for 100. These include the full title/​preface page.
  • The Com­plete Essay: $10.00 for 10. For many indi­vid­u­als, an in-hand com­plete essay reprint can be prefer­able to web­site read­ing. In any case, it can become an exquis­ite, well-appre­ci­at­ed gift.
  • The Com­plete Essay: $2.50 for one, if that is all that you might want or need.

 

The Page of Reason

Part 2 of 8: The Outline

Noth­ing Can Be Ratio­nal­ly Known to Exist That Is
More Mag­nif­i­cent, More Impor­tant, or More Glo­ri­ous
Than One’s Own Con­cep­tu­al Mind.

  • Part 1: The Pre­lim­i­nary Intro­duc­tion
    • Sec­tion 1: The Prin­ci­pal Themes
    • Sec­tion 2: Real­i­ty Inte­grat­ed Objec­tivist Prin­ci­ples
    • Sec­tion 3: Rea­son, Inte­gra­tion, and Pur­suits of Hap­pi­ness
    • Sec­tion 4: Con­tra­dic­tions, Con­se­quences, and Cor­rec­tions
    • Sec­tion 5: Under­stand­ing The Page of Rea­son
    • Sec­tion 6: Inter­reg­num: Repro­duc­tion Rights
  • Part 3: About Orrin Smith and The Page of Rea­son
    • Sec­tion 1: Ear­ly Work His­to­ry: Respect for End-to-End Evil-Force-Free Trade
    • Sec­tion 2: Ear­ly Edu­ca­tion His­to­ry: Mod­er­ate Achieve­ments: Dribs and Drabs
    • Sec­tion 3: Intel­lec­tu­al Bedrock: Just Anoth­er Guy (With an Every­day Light!)
    • Sec­tion 4: Mid­dle Pro­fes­sion­al His­to­ry: Adept, Pro­duc­tive, and Respect­ed
    • Sec­tion 5: April Fools’ Day of 2008: The Secret Plan: Blend Tasty Lemon­ade
    • Sec­tion 6: The Accom­plish­ments: Yes! Yes! and a Vibrant Sprint-In-Progress!
    • Sec­tion 7: Refresh­ment Time! A Superbly Blend­ed Batch of Tasty Lemon­ade
  • Part 4: The Crit­i­cal Intro­duc­tion: A Dis­cov­ery of Objec­tivism
    • Sec­tion 1: Objec­tivism and The Page
    • Sec­tion 2: Mas­ter­ing Any Sub­ject
    • Sec­tion 3: Mas­ter­ing the Sub­ject of Ratio­nal Phi­los­o­phy
    • Sec­tion 4: The Sweat of His Brow: Orrin’s Great Big Ratio­nal Chew
    • Sec­tion 5: Com­ments on Key Objec­tivist Lit­er­a­ture
    • Sec­tion 6: Table of Key Objec­tivist Lit­er­a­ture (with brief com­ments)
  • Part 5: Orrin’s Razor: His One Page Def­i­n­i­tion of Objec­tivism
    • Sec­tion 1: The Require­ment: A Vig­or­ous Phi­los­o­phy for a Vibrant Life
      • The Root: Real­i­ty: “What defines con­cep­tu­al real­i­ty?” Plus: Knowl­edge: “What defines con­cep­tu­al knowl­edge?” (An inex­tri­ca­bly inter­twined pair.)
      • The Trunk: Ethics: “What defines good indi­vid­ual judg­ment?”
      • The Branch­es: Pol­i­tics: “What defines good social judg­ment?” And: Esthet­ics: “What is beau­ti­ful, wor­thy of admi­ra­tion, wor­thy of emu­la­tion?”
    • Sec­tion 2: Real­i­ty: “What Defines Con­cep­tu­al Real­i­ty?”
      • Note: With­in zero to absolute degrees of cer­tain­ty, our con­cep­tu­al minds pos­sess only real­i­ty per­spec­tives. And to the degree that a con­cept is ratio­nal­ly valid, is ratio­nal­ly cer­tain, it is a fact. Ideas, propo­si­tions, def­i­n­i­tions, etc. are inter­min­glings of con­cepts, each of which must pos­sess valid­i­ty.
      • Objectivism’s Three Axiomat­ic Con­cepts: The imme­di­ate­ly observ­able, mutu­al­ly inte­grat­ed, and ratio­nal­ly irrefutable, human real­i­ty per­spec­tives.
        • Exis­tence: The human uni­ver­sal, spher­i­cal real­i­ty per­spec­tive.
        • Iden­ti­ty 1: The human dif­fer­en­ti­at­ing real­i­ty per­spec­tive.
        • Iden­ti­ty 2: The human cause-and-effect real­i­ty per­spec­tive.
        • Con­scious­ness: The human iden­ti­fi­ca­tion real­i­ty per­spec­tive. Plus: Objectivism’s Pri­ma­cy of Exis­tence Corol­lary.
    • Sec­tion 3: Knowl­edge: “What Defines Con­cep­tu­al Knowl­edge?”
      • 1. Per­cepts: The orig­i­nal raw data: for all high­er-ani­mals.
      • 2. Con­cepts: Pos­si­ble knowl­edge: for human high­er-ani­mals, only.
      • 3. Per­cept Range: From an indi­vid­ual human mind’s all-inclu­sive iso­la­tion to its poten­tial tur­bo-charg­ing from civ­i­liza­tions’ rich intel­lec­tu­al lega­cies.
      • 4. Con­cept Pow­er: Ratio­nal-work shuf­fles sym­bol­i­cal­ly named mem­o­ry files to pack, unpack, and repack evolv­ing con­cept def­i­n­i­tions, there­by empow­er­ing indi­vid­ual humans with gar­gan­tu­an advan­tages.
      • 5. Gen­e­sis: A brief inte­gra­tion of the pre­ced­ing ratio­nal prin­ci­ples with impor­tant ratio­nal pro­gres­sions: the gen­e­sis of ratio­nal knowl­edge.
      • 6. Valid­i­ty: The roots of valid con­cepts reside exclu­sive­ly with­in non-con­tra­dic­to­ry cause-and-effect objec­tive real­i­ty.
      • 7. Just Know­ing: By spew­ing tur­bu­lent clouds of smoke and fog, mem­o­ry fac­to­ries sub­tly fuel alleged forms of “just know­ing.”
      • 8. Lan­guage: Rea­son is per­formed exclu­sive­ly in intro­spec­tive lan­guage, and lan­guage is pri­mar­i­ly a tool of rea­son, only sec­on­dar­i­ly of com­mu­ni­ca­tions.
      • 9. Emo­tions 1: Their three impor­tant func­tions: attach­ment, report­ing, and moti­va­tion.
      • 10. Emo­tions 2: Their one essen­tial cause: obser­va­tions matched with pre­formed val­ue judg­ments.
    • Sec­tion 4: Ethics: “What Defines Good Indi­vid­ual Judg­ment?”
      • 1. Irra­tional­i­ty: Irra­tional­i­ty is the prin­ci­pal root cause of human gen­er­at­ed tragedies.
      • 2. Judg­ment Tree: Root: indi­vid­ual human life; trunk: virtues; branch­es and leaves: sub­or­di­nat­ed val­ues, laws, rules, and options.
      • 3. Virtues: The trunk of impor­tant, life-enrich­ing, and root inte­grat­ed prin­ci­pal moral val­ues for good judg­ment guid­ance.
    • Sec­tion 5: Pol­i­tics: “What Defines Good Social Judg­ment?”
      • 1. Rights: Rights con­sti­tute the bridge between ethics and actions with­in social con­texts: indi­vid­ual rights to employ evil-force-free, life-enrich­ing actions. Plus: Del­e­gat­ed, restrict­ed, group rights.
      • 2. Evil-Force: Any human gen­er­at­ed force that is aimed towards abro­gat­ing any valid, non-self-abro­gat­ed, indi­vid­ual human right is pro­hib­it­ed.
      • 3. Gov­ern­ment: Its only source, pur­pose, and oblig­a­tion: indi­vid­ual rights. Its only meth­ods: civ­il adju­di­ca­tion and retal­ia­to­ry force jus­tice.
    • Sec­tion 6: Esthet­ics: “What Is Beau­ti­ful, Wor­thy of Admi­ra­tion, Wor­thy of Emu­la­tion?”
      • Artis­tic Pur­pose: Weav­ing affir­ma­tions, inspi­ra­tions, and moti­va­tions for bound­less evil-force-free pur­suits of sur­vival, pros­per­i­ty, and hap­pi­ness.
    • Sec­tion 7: The Deliv­ery: A Vig­or­ous Phi­los­o­phy for a Vibrant Life
      • Real­i­ty Inte­grat­ed Log­i­cal Rea­son: The only pos­si­ble razor for valid­ly cul­ti­vat­ing knowl­edge, val­ues, judg­ments, and actions.
      • Real­i­ty Inte­grat­ed Objec­tivist Prin­ci­ples: The sub­lime, nec­es­sary, and eas­i­ly under­stood ratio­nal prin­ci­ples for sur­vival, pros­per­i­ty, and hap­pi­ness.
      • Objec­tivism: The only known inde­struc­tible map to ratio­nal human life.
  • Part 6: The Crit­i­cal Analy­sis: Objec­tivism in Con­text
    • Sec­tion 1: Objec­tivism in Knowl­edge Con­text: About Con­cept Def­i­n­i­tions
    • Sec­tion 2: Objec­tivism in His­toric Con­text: Our Fun­da­men­tal Axiomat­ic Race
    • Sec­tion 3: Objec­tivism in Learn­ing Con­text: Inci­sive­ly Cog­niz­ing Objec­tivism
  • Part 7: Ratio­nal Knowl­edge Resources
    • Sec­tion 1: Time and Choice
    • Sec­tion 2: Objec­tivism: Key Objec­tivist Lit­er­a­ture
    • Sec­tion 3: Objec­tivism: Ayn Rand: The Philoso­pher
    • Sec­tion 4: Objec­tivism: Dr. Leonard Peikoff: Ayn Rand’s Cho­sen Heir
    • Sec­tion 5: Objec­tivism: The Objec­tive Stan­dard
    • Sec­tion 6: Objec­tivism: The Page of Rea­son
    • Sec­tion 7: The Great Cours­es: The Deep Well-Chewed News
    • Sec­tion 8: The Great Cours­es: A Vibrant Foun­da­tion­al Enrich­ment
    • Sec­tion 9: The Great Cours­es: A Broad Knowl­edge Con­text
    • Sec­tion 10: The Great Cours­es: A Vast Con­cep­tu­al Hier­ar­chy of His­to­ry
    • Sec­tion 11: Objec­tivism: A Brief Nom­i­na­tion of Addi­tion­al Virtues
  • Part 8: John Galt, God, Jesus, Can­dide, and The Huck­le­ber­rys!
    • Sec­tion 1: The Irra­tional Night­mare: Ghosts and Zom­bies Galore!
    • Sec­tion 2: Inter­reg­num: Betwixt the Night­mare and the Dream
    • Sec­tion 3: The Ratio­nal Dream: Your Very Own Noble Prize
    • Sec­tion 4: And Thank You for Rea­son­ing
  • Sup­ple­ment 1: The Great Per­sua­sion
  • Sup­ple­ment 2: The After­word and The Post­scripts

• • • What’s in your phi­los­o­phy? • • •

 

The Page of Reason

Part 3 of 8: About Orrin Smith and The Page of Reason

Section 1: Early Work History:
Respect for End-to-End Evil-Force-Free Trade

Hel­lo. My name is Orrin Smith. I became a very small indi­vid­ual in August of 1953 in Macon, Mis­souri, usa. My very first remem­bered expe­ri­ence was one of light and shad­ow. Those who have known me from that first expe­ri­ence of light and shad­ow, and through my ear­ly col­lege years, cus­tom­ar­i­ly call me “Hoke.”

In 1949, my par­ents estab­lished Mis­souri Oxy­gen Com­pa­ny (mo-ox). Over the sub­se­quent forty years, they rea­soned very care­ful­ly, worked very hard, and built their busi­ness into a pro­duc­tive weld­ing sup­ply oper­a­tion that, by stores and route trucks, served most of non-met­ro­pol­i­tan Mis­souri. Start­ing at the age of five, at five cents per hour, and then well into my 34th year, I will­ful­ly trad­ed large por­tions of my ear­ly life for gain­ful employ­ments in var­i­ous aspects of their busi­ness.

I there acquired my first edu­ca­tions in respon­si­bil­i­ty, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, and self-respect. I also observed many oth­er indi­vid­u­als who each worked hard for their own sur­vival, pros­per­i­ty, and hap­pi­ness. From those and sub­se­quent obser­va­tions, I even­tu­al­ly acquired my knowl­edge that: By end-to-end evil-force-free trade (rea­son, labor, prod­ucts, ser­vices, etc.), we can, each with each, engage in mutu­al­ly enrich­ing enter­pris­es; and that evil-forced trade, of any nature, is nev­er a bet­ter choice.

Section 2: Early Education History:
Moderate Achievements: Dribs and Drabs

Sup­ple­ment­ed by church edu­ca­tion, I acquired a non-reli­gious, most­ly pub­lic, ear­ly edu­ca­tion. Then, dur­ing five-and-a-quar­ter years, by inter­mit­tent pri­vate col­lege study, I final­ly earned a Bach­e­lor of Arts degree in Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Stud­ies. That was a catch-all to final­ly escape degree title.

That edu­ca­tion, in com­bi­na­tion with the broad­er con­text of my ear­ly life expe­ri­ences, sup­plied my mind with a large col­lec­tion of hodge­podge ideas: many con­tra­dic­to­ry under­stand­ings of real­i­ty, knowl­edge, the good. And with­in those times, I earned mod­er­ate scholas­tic scores (over­all aver­age: about a B‑minus).

It might have been bet­ter, or worse, or dif­fer­ent, but those are just the facts.

How­ev­er, I did learn much that was ratio­nal­ly impor­tant. I imbibed what I could, and I acquired an abid­ing inter­est in knowl­edge, an inter­est which has con­tin­ued to evolve through­out my life. Nev­er­the­less, before April 1st of 2008, my ratio­nal knowl­edge only evolved in fits and starts, in just dribs and drabs.

Section 3: Intellectual Bedrock:
Just Another Guy (With an Everyday Light!)

At wet birth, I became a whol­ly new indi­vid­ual (an undi­vid­ed, indi­vis­i­ble enti­ty). My mind was then devoid of rea­son­ing skills and con­cep­tu­al knowl­edge: it was a blank slate. And all fun­da­men­tal ideas that I have ever pos­sessed, I acquired lat­er in life, and I acquired them exclu­sive­ly from oth­er human indi­vid­u­als. Fur­ther­more, except on a few rare and incon­se­quen­tial occa­sions, I have nev­er been an activist, an author, a teacher, or any oth­er type of pub­lic intel­lec­tu­al or leader.

With­in my life’s ear­ly peri­ods, I expe­ri­enced many of the same twists and turns com­mon to oth­er indi­vid­u­als of my times, cul­ture, and back­ground. From those expe­ri­ences, my mind imbibed its ear­ly ideas, judg­ments, and atti­tudes. And from those imbibe­ments, my mind evolved into a some­what ratio­nal, some­what irra­tional mind. My mind became sub­stan­tial­ly imbued with tur­bu­lent clouds of ever-con­tra­dic­to­ry, ever-eva­sive, any­thing-goes, smoke and fog.

Con­se­quent­ly, oth­er than with­in var­i­ous realms of high­ly spe­cif­ic ratio­nal ideas (com­mon work, tech­nolo­gies, sci­ences, etc.), iden­ti­fy­ing the ulti­mate sources, mean­ings, truths, false­hoods, and con­se­quences of com­plex­ly abstract ideas became a vir­tu­al­ly impos­si­ble propo­si­tion. And I was most cer­tain­ly not equipped to ratio­nal­ly eval­u­ate fun­da­men­tal irra­tional ideas, of any kind. Such thoughts became squelched by the require­ments and influ­ences of every­day life.

As it ever has been and ever will be for each indi­vid­ual, my mind con­sti­tutes the essen­tial foun­da­tion of my self-iden­ti­ty. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, with­in those ear­ly peri­ods, my mind had come to con­sti­tute a painful self-iden­ti­ty that seemed impos­si­ble to ratio­nal­ly inte­grate—should I have ever then con­tem­plat­ed such a rad­i­cal idea!

I had become a pet­ty ruler with­in the small realm of a painful hodge­podge mind. (Hodge­podge: a het­ero­ge­neous mix­ture, a jum­ble, of unre­lat­ed ideas or parts.) How­ev­er, I now know, for cer­tain, that to be a pet­ty ruler with­in the small realm of any hodge­podge mind is no longer nec­es­sary, for any able indi­vid­ual: any­more.

In Jan­u­ary of 2012, I began par­tic­i­pat­ing in week­ly meet­ings of a local Objec­tivism meet­up group. Lat­er in that year, one meet­up orga­niz­er remarked to me: “At first, I thought that you were just anoth­er guy.” Accu­rate enough, since her thoughts did not imply that I had trans­mo­gri­fied into some high-brow “thing.” It was just that I had come to know that each able indi­vid­ual pos­sess­es the absolute right to become the sov­er­eign ruler with­in their very own mag­nif­i­cent, impor­tant, and glo­ri­ous, ratio­nal­ly inte­grat­ed mind, and that she had sensed my efforts to per­form the nec­es­sary work that is required to earn my own mind’s ratio­nal inte­gra­tion. Work!?

  • From just anyone’s very first day, the only pos­si­ble tool for such work is rea­son. Rea­son is the human light, and you will see that it is good: every! day.

Section 4: Middle Professional History:
Adept, Productive, and Respected

In Feb­ru­ary of 1987, dur­ing my 34th year, I launched one more assault on high­er edu­ca­tion at DeVry Uni­ver­si­ty in Kansas City, Mis­souri. Dur­ing most of that assault, I worked nights, full time, for a bank data-pro­cess­ing oper­a­tion. Then, in Octo­ber of 1989, by less than three years’ worth of hard work and study, I earned a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence degree in Com­put­er Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems, with Hon­ors. That achieve­ment launched me on a new and prof­itable career.

My career pro­gres­sive­ly bloomed. On April 1st of 1998, I began con­tract­ing my ser­vices to the infor­ma­tion sys­tems depart­ments of major Wall Street finan­cial firms. I worked with large, glob­al­ly dis­trib­uted teams to build, enhance, and repair, large and com­plex, finan­cial data-pro­cess­ing sys­tems. (April Fools? Not!)

Then, on March 31st of 2008, at four o’clock p.m., my hard-earned, high­ly pro­duc­tive, and sharply honed career became sharply ter­mi­nat­ed. (April Fools? Not!)

Over 21 years, from 1987 to 2008, by punc­tu­at­ed ratio­nal-work, I grad­u­al­ly acquired new pro­fes­sion­al knowl­edge, and I pro­gres­sive­ly honed my rea­son­ing skills. With­in my work, I became pro­gres­sive­ly able to simul­ta­ne­ous­ly exhib­it the virtues of qual­i­ty, speed, and focused pur­pose. There­by, with­in my work, I pro­gres­sive­ly became ever-more adept, pro­duc­tive, and respect­ed. And I even­tu­al­ly earned my very own place amongst that class of work­ers who are known to be most able.

Nev­er­the­less, the finan­cial cri­sis of 2007–2008 was a ram­pag­ing rav­en­ous bear. And all major finan­cial firms elect­ed to cut their expens­es, as rapid­ly as pos­si­ble, and by any fea­si­ble method. As a direct con­se­quence, my knowl­edge and skills con­tract became ter­mi­nat­ed. My kind of hero had become passé.

How­ev­er, that ter­mi­na­tion had not come as a sur­prise. For quite some time, off-shoring and H1B visa hold­ers’ des­per­ate on the job train­ing had been wobbling along. And on about Jan­u­ary 2nd, I had received an infor­mal ter­mi­na­tion notice. Dur­ing the ensu­ing three months, sev­er­al con­tin­ued employ­ment options were offered, each of which I reject­ed. My final rea­son for reject­ing those offers was that I had already con­ceived for myself: the great­est ever pos­si­ble rad­i­cal offer!

Sharp ter­mi­na­tion day sprout­ed a sharply clear, warm, spring after­noon. I said good­bye to good friends, many of whom I might nev­er see again. Nev­er­the­less, it was with a light heart and a pock­et full of change that, at four o’clock p.m., I stepped out onto the side­walk at 24th and Park. I reck­oned to light out for the ter­ri­to­ry ahead of the rest. They had tried to siv­i­lize me one more time, but I just could not stand it: any­more!

  • This Huck­le­ber­ry had been there, been there, been there before!

By care­ful rea­son­ing and good jackrab­bit sense, I had made my choice. On the very next day, I would embark upon: the great­est ever pos­si­ble adven­ture!

Section 5: April Fools’ Day of 2008:
The Secret Plan: Blend Tasty Lemonade

On April 1st of 2008, I was in my 55th year. In my own lan­guage of that time, I had final­ly come to under­stand that: “My entire life expe­ri­ence resides behind my eyes and between my ears.” I had also final­ly come to under­stand that to be a ratio­nal­ly irrefutable fact for each oth­er indi­vid­ual.

As those two explic­it under­stand­ings solid­i­fied, I con­ceived two relat­ed knowl­edge goals. And then, fol­low­ing some peri­ods of care­ful rea­son­ing, I final­ly con­clud­ed that work­ing towards their achieve­ments was cru­cial to my own con­tin­ued pur­suits of hap­pi­ness. Here are those two goals (in my present lan­guage):

  • Knowl­edge Goal #1: To sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly inves­ti­gate, and to rea­son­ably assim­i­late, a very broad knowl­edge con­text.
  • Knowl­edge Goal #2: If ever, ever pos­si­ble, to dis­cov­er and employ a method by which to ratio­nal­ly inte­grate my knowl­edge.

Though I might nev­er dis­cov­er a method by which to ratio­nal­ly inte­grate my knowl­edge, I judged it wise to begin by acquir­ing the very best qual­i­ty knowl­edge avail­able, and in the most effec­tive man­ner pos­si­ble. Since ear­ly 2007, while work­ing full time, I had already com­plet­ed 43 of The Great Cours­es. There­fore, iden­ti­fy­ing an effec­tive method by which to achieve Knowl­edge Goal #1 was a knock-down cinch. The Great Cours­es fit that bill, to a T.

It has been said: “When hand­ed lemons, make lemon­ade!” I heard! I heard! There­fore, on that April Fools’ Day, I resolved to boot­strap my mind, to start all over again, to begin an aggres­sive explo­ration of knowl­edge. And I did secret­ly rea­son that some­day, just pos­si­bly, I might become able to blend a batch of tasty lemon­ade.

  • As fear and trem­bling beset me, but curios­i­ty over­whelmed me, I chose to risk all, to fol­low rea­son, to see just where it might take me.
  • And though April Fools’ Day might often be fun­ny, it isn’t always stu­pid, or at least now, as I fly away on the wings of a dove, I do so judge. (~Psalm 55.)

Section 6: The Accomplishments:
Yes! Yes! and a Vibrant Sprint-In-Progress!

Goal #1: High Expec­ta­tions Great­ly Exceed­ed: By the end of 2014, I had com­plet­ed 330 plus 48 repeats of The Great Cours­es. I stud­ied most cours­es on DVDs, which usu­al­ly con­tained 6 30-minute lec­tures each. That com­prised a con­ve­nient study unit, so on many days, I stud­ied 6 or 12 lec­tures, and on some days, 18.

Because I did not know where my stud­ies would even­tu­al­ly take me, I employed that extrav­a­gant approach. If one has the desire and the time, a ver­sion of that same sort of study work could be both valu­able and plea­sur­able. How­ev­er, it is not nec­es­sary, and I do not rec­om­mend it to every­one. We will dis­cuss this issue fur­ther, along with some well-con­sid­ered advice, in Part 7: Ratio­nal Knowl­edge Resources. (The Great Cours­es pro­vi­sion a most excel­lent knowl­edge resource.)

Goal #2: Vir­tu­al­ly Impos­si­ble Goal Superla­tive­ly Exceed­ed: For evi­dence of this accom­plish­ment, I refer you to The Page of Rea­son Part 5. That part, well-informed by the crit­i­cal work of Part 4, was pri­mar­i­ly com­posed, as a potent tool, to ratio­nal­ly inte­grate my own con­cep­tu­al mind.

Once I had achieved good progress towards Goal #2, I recon­ceived from mem­o­ry, and explod­ed with prodi­gious pur­pose, a third knowl­edge goal:

  • Knowl­edge Goal #3: To prop­a­gate Objec­tivist Prin­ci­ples to each able indi­vid­ual, on Earth.

Goal #3: A Vibrant Sprint-In-Progress: The Page of Rea­son was sec­on­dar­i­ly com­posed, as a potent tool, for any able indi­vid­ual who might choose to pur­sue their own pro­gres­sive mas­tery of Objec­tivist Prin­ci­ples. For valid evi­dence of Goal #3’s vibrant sprint-in-progress, I refer you to the website’s effects reports.

• • • Section 7: Refreshment Time! • • •
• • • A Superbly Blended Batch of Tasty Lemonade • • •

My fool­ish lit­tle hob­gob­lin mind has done its utter best to hon­est­ly inves­ti­gate the faint glow of rea­son, and to pro­duce a mag­nif­i­cent work of fun­da­men­tal ratio­nal knowl­edge, of Objec­tivist Prin­ci­ples. And I am now mag­nif­i­cent­ly proud to be shar­ing with you: This superbly blend­ed batch of tasty lemon­ade.

 

The Page of Reason

The Supplement Outlines

Supplement 1: The Great Persuasion

  • Sec­tion 1: Intro­duc­tion
  • Sec­tion 2: Apoc­a­lyp­tic Con­clu­sions
  • Sec­tion 3: Con­text Keep­ing
  • Sec­tion 4: Cap­i­tal­ism and Pol­i­tics
  • Sec­tion 5: Squawk­ing with Great Par­rots 1: A Jere­mi­ad for Jus­tice (squawks includ­ed)
  • Sec­tion 6: Squawk­ing with Great Par­rots 2: The Great Par­rot High-Brow Squawks
  • Sec­tion 7: Squawk­ing with Great Par­rots 3: Our Mid­dle-Brow Gold­smith Counter-Squawks
  • Sec­tion 8: Sat­ur­day Night Knock­down! Able Rea­son vs. Killer Cain! — Round xxx999
  • Sec­tion 9: Cause-and-Effect: Our Big Cos­mos Real­i­ty
  • Sec­tion 10: Cause-and-Effect: Extract­ing Pure Gold
  • Sec­tion 11: Cause-and-Effect: Choic­es and Prin­ci­ples
  • Sec­tion 12: Cause-and-Effect: Human Insti­tu­tions
  • Sec­tion 13: Cause-and-Effect: Human Gen­er­at­ed Tragedies
  • Sec­tion 14: The Mega-Legions of Mid­dle-Brow Gold­smiths
  • Sec­tion 15: Our usa Project
  • Sec­tion 16: Our usa Sub-Projects
  • Sec­tion 17: Ratio­nal-Self-Inter­est Ser­vice Fees
  • Sec­tion 18: Our Pro­gres­sive Con­quests of Evil
  • Sec­tion 19: Glim­mer­ing Pearls and Gems
  • Sec­tion 20: I Rest My Case

Supplement 2: The Afterword

  • Ayn Rand: The Philoso­pher
  • Dr. Leonard Peikoff: Ayn Rand’s Cho­sen Heir
  • The Page of Rea­son: Three Impor­tant Seeds of Its Incep­tion

Supplement 2: The Postscripts

Post­scripts are brief def­i­n­i­tions, com­men­taries, and remarks on the fol­low­ing sub­jects.

  • Objec­tivism
  • Objec­tivists
  • Objec­tivist Thun­der
  • Abet
  • Abro­gate
  • Action and Rea­son
  • Ad Hominem
  • Anchors
  • Archimedes
  • Auto­di­dact
  • Bonus Ben­e­fits
  • Can­dides and Huck­le­ber­rys
  • Col­lec­tive Knowl­edge
  • Col­lec­tivism
  • Con­cepts 1: Abstrac­tions
  • Con­cepts 2: Evo­lu­tion
  • Con­cepts 3: Pic­tures
  • Con­cepts 4: Pow­er
  • Cor­rup­tion
  • Ear­ly Edu­ca­tion
  • Earn­ings
  • Ego­ism vs. Ego­tism
  • Emo­tions 1: Ill-Judged
  • Emo­tions 2: Evi­dence
  • Evil
  • Evolve
  • Explic­it vs. Implic­it
  • Fire-and-For­get
  • Frauds
  • Genius
  • Gov­ern­ment: Intel­lec­tu­al Dis­course
  • Gray Def­i­n­i­tions
  • Ground Zero
  • Hap­pi­ness
  • His­tor­i­cal vs. His­toric
  • Huck­le­ber­ry
  • Huck­le­ber­ry Cap­i­tal­ist
  • Human Prod­ucts
  • Humans and Nature
  • Inci­sive
  • Ini­ti­ate
  • Knowl­edge
  • Mas­ter Doc­u­ment
  • Objec­tive vs. Sub­jec­tive
  • Orrin’s Great Big Ratio­nal Chew
  • Par­rots 1: Def­i­n­i­tions
  • Par­rots 2: Masks
  • Per­pe­trate
  • Pol­i­tics 1: Ide­olo­gies
  • Pol­i­tics 2: Pur­suits of Hap­pi­ness
  • Primeval 1: Humans
  • Primeval 2: Lan­guages
  • Punc­tu­at­ed Study
  • Rea­son
  • Richard Hal­ley
  • Rights
  • Sanc­tion
  • Valid
  • Val­ue
  • Vast Des­ti­tu­tion, Destruc­tion, and Death
  • Vibrant
  • Vig­or­ous
  • Virtue
  • Wealth 1: Mate­r­i­al
  • Wealth 2: Ratio­nal
  • Will­ful Eva­sions
  • Smoke and Fog

• • • Wel­come to the Age of Per­sua­sion. • • •