Excuse Me For Being A Hypocrite
by William Anthony Bardel
I sometimes wonder if it’s only me that has changed in these past few years. Undoubtedly I have changed quite a bit, but it seems that the world around me has changed much more than I, and for the worse.
Where are all the intelligent people? I remember being young and looking up to a lot of people and saying to myself, ”Wow! They are really smart. I want to be like them.” Where did those people go? They seemed to be all over the place before, and now it seems they are a scarce minority.
I look forward to the days I can have a real conversation with someone about things that matter, things that are important. I constantly look for people worth talking to, people who can understand even a small part of what life is. I drop ideas into boring conversations, fishing for some kind of intelligent reaction.
For the past few years I’ve talked about how I hate stupid people ... how, if there was one thing that really bothered me, it was the idiots out there. I’m beginning to realize how bad it really is. When I have to take my car back to the shop three times before the mechanic can adjust my new rotors correctly, and then remind him to bleed the brakes so that I can stop. When I have to compensate for every idiotic driver out there who tries to go 100 mph through traffic. When I have to compensate for every idiotic driver out there who doesn’t know that they can’t go 53 mph in the left lane on the highway when there’s no one in the right lane. When I feel like Dagny Taggart, longing for the tiniest spark of ability in anyone and am continually disappointed. When, even after explaining someone’s serious problems to them, they refuse to believe everything I just helped them realize about themselves. When I can’t stand to look at some people because of the look of complete stupidity on their faces. When even the simplest of tasks is too hard for so many people to do. I could go on, and on, and on ...
Are we living in the world of Atlas Shrugged? A world where the majority doesn’t know how to use the mind, and refuses to besides? A world where the leaders of what should be a great nation change the slogan of their ideological war to “The Struggle Against Violent Extremism," and people accept it?! A world where the economy of a should-be great nation is almost on the brink of collapse?
How much longer can this last? How much longer can anyone last in this blind society? How can anyone live?! By being a damn John Galt, or Howard Roark, or Dagny Taggart. By being a hero.
Some people say that they are just ideals, and unrealistic. Well fuck that!
I may not be a hero yet, but dammit, I will be one. And no less a hero than any of those aforementioned. Everyday I work towards my highest potential, I spend all day thinking. In the past six months I’ve learned more than in the rest of my life. No one will stand in my way, not one or a billion people can stop me. But I do still have a lot to learn, and that’s why I’m here at SOLO.
There’s been another positive thing here at SOLO: there are people who will think, and think well! I will not lie, there are also people here who don’t know what the word means, and yet proclaim to be Objectivists.
So what are the rest of you doing here? Lately, I’ve seen complaints, and whining, and unimportant bullshit spewing out of some very intelligent people. People who know much much much more than I do about so many different things, and yet they don’t do anything, they don’t say anything. What the hell?!?!
Why are so many men of the mind wasting their time? Why are so many people settling for what the world is? Why do so many people say that we won’t see Atlantis in our lifetime?! Dammit, if you’ve read Atlas Shrugged, why aren’t you trying to achieve your fullest potential? Why are only some trying to be great?
As this is an uninvited call for some of you to change, or improve, or what-the-fuck-ever, this article is in the wrong. Just as I said it was wrong for Phil Coates to try to improve others no matter how much he wants to, it’s also wrong for me to do so. Call me a hypocrite, I don’t care today. I’m not perfect yet, so I’ll let myself slip.
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