By Ayn Rand
Whether we believe in God or karma, ethics is the foundation of every religion.
My first big mission for UNICEF in Ethiopia was just to attract attention, before it was too late, to conditions which threatened the whole country. My role was to inform the world, to make sure that the people of Ethiopia were not forgotten.
It’s that wonderful old-fashioned idea that others come first and you come second. This was the whole ethic by which I was brought up. Others matter more than you do, so “don’t fuss, dear; get on with it.”
I decided, very early on, just to accept life unconditionally; I never expected it to do anything special for me, yet I seemed to accomplish far more than I had ever hoped. Most of the time it just happened to me without my ever seeking it.
Poverty is multidimensional. It extends beyond money incomes to education, health care, political participation, and advancement of one’s own culture and social organization.
In the investigation of a neurotic style of life, we must always suspect an opponent, and note who suffers most because of the patient’s condition. Usually this is a member of the family.
If I didn’t have this affliction, I would be the first. As a rule the if-clause contains an unfulfillable condition, or the patient’s own arrangement, which only he can change.
Like every other good thing in this world, leisure and culture have to be paid for. Fortunately, however, it is not the leisured and the cultured who have to pay.
Ethics and aesthetics are one.
I’ve handled color as a man should behave. You may conclude that I consider ethics and aesthetics as one.
We have not invaded anyone. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them.
Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.
Culture: the cry of men in face of their destiny.
A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.
The myths underlying our culture and underlying our common sense have not taught us to feel identical with the universe, but only parts of it, only in it, only confronting it – aliens.
