Purveyor of Truth (Part 1) – Definitions: Guardians of Rationality

“Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.” The words of a man of towering character: George Washington.

The truth is what conforms to reality. Objectivism holds that in all aspects of human existence, man achieves his values only by making his decisions consonant with the facts of reality. (More here)

Ayn Rand said: “Definitions are the guardians of rationality, the first line of defense against the chaos of mental disintegration… A concept or mental integration is not arbitrary; it has a basis in reality… Definitions are determined by the facts of reality within the context of one’s knowledge.”

Destroyers insidiously attack definitions.

It is an old trick, devised by the champion of altruism - Immanuel Kant’s “noumenal” world is unknowable; it is the world of “real” reality, “superior” truth and “things in themselves” or “things as they are” — which Ayn Rand described as: things as they are not perceived by man.

Kant originated the technique required to sell irrational notions… your conclusion must be brazenly clear, but your proof unintelligible. Your proof must be so tangled a mess that it will paralyze a reader’s critical faculty — a mess of evasions, equivocations, obfuscations, circumlocutions, non sequiturs… — all of it resting on a zero: the absence of definitions…

- Philosophy: Who Needs It, 116

Unable to rule nor influence individuals who accept no guilt in their desire to live and pursue happiness, sacrifice-profiteers destroy the concept of one’s concern for oneself, i.e. selfishness, by declaring it synonymous with callousness and malevolence.

Champions of slavery invoked Liberty:

“We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor.

Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny."

- Abraham Lincoln

Advocates of anarchism call themselves, not Anarchists, but, Libertarians.

When nature clobbers global warming, Al Gore changes its name to climate change.

Rights are rights to action. Individuals have equal rights. Collectivists invalidate Rights by trumpeting rights to man-made values (e.g. right to healthcare), and by advocating special rights for a particular class of citizens (e.g. feminist rights, affirmative action).

Tyrants flourish by labeling coercion: freedom – e.g. free competition must be enforced! Coercion masquerading as liberty has annihilated rights and freedom. The spectacularly successful are rightless – evidence: the Antitrust law. Undefined, elastic laws are used to jail or dragoon job creators – proof: unfair use in Insider Trading. Regulations void the presumption of innocence doctrine, e.g. “The White House and the US Congress must make businessmen and doctors honest.”

Theocracy masquerading as liberty is surging.

The destruction trick is also employed by the anti-choice movement, describing itself as pro-life. It negates life and justice by using the term murder in relation to that with no brain activity, i.e. a thing not alive, e.g. a zygote. One who blanks out the life of the pregnant and who champions destroying the life of an actual human being – is certainly not pro-life. One who advocates force – advocates forcing a human being to go through a lifetime paying for a mistake – does not cherish the sanctity of life. One who imposes a tortured life on another is a monster.

When called upon to do good by force – to be King of the United States – George Washington took offense, calling it “abhorrent!”

Those who live by the facts of reality accept these truths: man has free will, and individuals have equal, inherent, inalienable rights. Those who go by the truth advance their moral values by using reason and persuasion. Never by force.

A purveyor of truth is on the side of reason and rights. Like Thomas Jefferson, he avows, “I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”


[Next article: Purveyor of Truth (Part 2) - Fox News Channel’s Credibility at Stake]