[Off-Topic] New Year's Message — Philosophy

This was a long year — personally one of the worst and one of the best all at the same time. One consequence was that I blogged very little, but 2012 should be the year of the comeback. To close the year well, I think this year, with so many new startups and so many new people interested in exploring the opportunities of being entrepreneurs, they should take seriously and understand the true philosophy behind any capitalist venture (truly capitalist and not this mediocre mixed-capitalism that most people practice). Without a proper philosophy, the business world doesn’t go very far.

Obviously, I draw my source from articles by Ayn Rand and Leonard Peikoff. As a light entry, let’s look at the article An Answer for Businessmen, published on May 15, 1962, in an unidentified news magazine found among Ayn Rand’s papers. To finish this introduction, see the main piece, Why Businessmen Need Philosophy, written by Leonard Peikoff, an excerpt from the book of the same name that anyone interested in entrepreneurship should read.

An Answer for Businessmen

If you want to save capitalism there’s only one kind of argument you should adopt — the only one that has ever won in any moral dispute: the argument of self-esteem. Check your premises, convince yourself that your cause is right, then fight for capitalism with full and certain morality.

Today’s world crisis is a moral crisis — and nothing less than a moral revolution can solve it: a moral revolution to sanction and complete the political conquest of the American revolution. We must fight for capitalism, not as a practical dispute, not as an economic dispute, but, with the greatest pride of justice, as a moral dispute. That’s what capitalism deserves, and nothing less will save it.

I’d like to say that you should start by applying to the world of ideas the same objective, logical, rational standard of judgment you apply to the business world. You don’t judge business disputes using emotional standards — don’t do it in ideological disputes. You don’t build factories guided by your emotions — don’t let your emotions guide your political convictions.

Don’t try to fool people in business

You don’t count on the stupidity of men in business; you don’t release inferior products “because people are too dumb to appreciate the best” — don’t do it in political philosophy; don’t endorse or propagate ideas you know to be false, in the hope of conquering people’s fear, prejudice, or ignorance. You don’t fool people in business — don’t try to do it in philosophy: so-called common men are unusually perceptive.

You don’t doubt your own judgment in business — don’t doubt it in the world of ideology; don’t let the unintelligible nonsense of “liberal” intellectuals intimidate or discourage you; don’t conclude: “it must be deep, because I don’t understand it” or “if that’s what intellectual stuff looks like, then all ideas are impractical and make no sense.” Ideas are the greatest and most crucial power on Earth.

You don’t hire men as the heads of your business departments without prior knowledge of the nature of their jobs and how to judge their performance — don’t do it with regard to your public relations department; learn to judge whether what they’re selling you is poison or not. You don’t hire witch doctors as mechanics or engineers — don’t hire them as public relations.

Know your friends and your enemies

Learn to differentiate your friends from your enemies. Know who to support in ideological and political disputes. If you can’t say it freely, if you’re held back and choked by the disgraceful injustice of such evils as antitrust laws — at the very least, don’t praise, spread, or support the philosophy of your own destroyers; don’t give them the sanction of the victims. Think a little about the possibility of establishing a civil liberties union — for businessmen.

And if you have the desire to have a “social” mission or purpose — there is no greater service to humanity than fighting for your own rights and property.