"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Tea Party hardliners have lately embraced Rand's libertarian philosophy as embodied in this scurvy little germ of a saying as an intellectual and moral validation of what many a wise man have called mankind's basest tendency -- mainly, frigid self-interest. So often our choices are not between good and evil, but between easy and hard. The truly vile thing about this little bon mot is that it appeals to the temptation to pursue the easiest path, that of cruel narcissism and indifference to our fellow man, and somehow manages to sound righteous about it. But this season of all seasons shines a harsh and unforgiving light on this jaundiced worldview, by reminding us of the inexorable truth stridently articulated in a truly ubiquitous literary classic that will likely outshine that small, self-serving nugget for some time to come...
"Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"
- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
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