In my circle of family and friends I see the signs. My wife and I have 3 surviving parents – all of them are in hospital. My step-sons father has just had surgery on his shoulder. I have many acquaintances with back problems and various ailments. I don’t know anyone other than myself and my children who are fully healthy!
Depression is rife. All around me people are troubled, anxious and depressed. I know 3 people who are borderline suicide cases, and some so troubled with anxiety they can no longer functionally interact with the outside world. Everywhere I look I see sickness, depression, suffering. And this is just in my small circle.
All around us we see crazy actions taken on the basis of demonstrably false information. In Holland the dutch farmers are being vilified for destroying the environment. Their livestock accused of wrecking the environment from the Nitrogen they produce. At the same time we have a trumped up energy crisis, when in fact there is an abundance of usable coal here in the UK which could easily be burned cleanly. But the false idea that CO2 is harmful to the environment persists in preventing this. We see alternative methods for curing cancer criminalised, with people using methods other than those officially sanctioned suffering under the law and being ostracized from their profession.
The whole ‘science’ of virology is based on the fiction or fantasy of viruses that have never been properly isolated and shown to exist. [The film “Died Suddenly” will be released later in November 2022.] The nonsense of avoiding healthy fats has been with us for 60 or 70 years! The methods of modern livestock rearing are detrimental to both the animals and humans. Water has been routinely fluoridated for many decades in spite of its known toxic effects. The list of problems contributing to undermine human health and well-being is long and extensive.
On and on the madness goes, every where you look. Never mind the Great Reset and the financial problems people face. What is going on? Why is it so hard to find a truly happy person these days? Why is society falling apart?
Brewing a long time
The root causes of our current problems didn’t just begin last year, or last decade. They have been brewing a long time. Consider this analogy. The mycelium of mushrooms in the vegetative stage of growth are unseen for the majority of the life cycle of the fungi, then the fruits become visible only in the latter stages of development. It has been the same with the root causes of the problems of western culture.
Ayn Rand taught me that the direction of a civilisation is determined by the predominant ideas held as true within that culture. Ideas are what motivate humans to act. Just as an idea has to be accepted and integrated into the thinking of an individual man before he acts on it, so it is with an entire civilisation – only the time span is longer.
Since the Renaissance it has been the intellectuals who perform the function of generating ideas. These ideas then disseminate down over time, into the universities and colleges and through the media and the artists, and eventually trickle down to the ordinary man. The Renaissance was the re-birth of reason. Humanity crawling out of the dark ages to once again recognise reason as mans means to knowledge in a knowable objective reality. This was what gave us the scientific and industrial revolutions. This is the root cause of every modern convenience we enjoy today – cars, computers, modern music and recording and amplification, planes, warm homes, etc, etc.
The decline of Reason
But in 1781, with the publication of Emmanuel Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason”, began the undermining of these fundamental ideas that enabled the present modern era. Kant led the attack on reason as our means to knowledge in a knowable universe. He was the original sophist, the original propagandist, sowing untruth and paving the road to the destruction of western civilisation and the return to mysticism and tyranny.
Following Kant’s lead, through the 19th and 20th centuries the intellectuals and philosophers have rejected reason, declaring reality unknowable and man’s mind incompetent. Even while the progress of the physical sciences displayed its success all around, they continued to undermine society in the humanities and with the advance of socialism. The ultimate dead end of the rejection of reason is societal collapse into totalitarianism. It is inevitable. It is the fundamental ideas that steer human lives and human civilisations. Philosophy is the study of these fundamental ideas, and it is false philosophical ideas that led us to where we are today. Only true philosophical ideas can lead us back to peace, freedom and prosperity.
The solution
Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism is the only philosophy based consistently in reason. She was the original freedom fighter and truth seeker. Her ideas smashed the mainstream nonsense that prevailed for 200 years. If you are serious about wanting to understand your world, you must think in terms of fundamental ideas. It is these that motivate men and shape our future. Only by becoming familiar with false fundamental philosophical ideas and the opposite true philosophical ideas can you hope to understand the situation and be a part of the remedy.
Be a part of the solution by getting philosophical. Learn to think in principles and look to the fundamentals. Virology is a great example of a modern so-called science not rooted in the facts of reality. There has never been any proven isolation of a virus that has then been proven to be the cause of any disease. See this.
Nothing will change until the predominant ideas held as true by the majority change. This means a rebirth of reason. Be the change you want to see. Be what Rand called a “new intellectual“.
Nigel Howitt
November 2022
Well said Nigel, very well said.