Objectivist Clubs and the Four Basic Human Needs

Objectivist Clubs and the Four Basic Human Needs
by Luke Setzer

As the designated Club Coordinator for the Rebirth of Reason™, I find myself tasked with the monumental charge of creating a global network of Objectivist clubs. Such a monumental charge demands a monumental article. Although I am not religious, I certainly accept as a timeless truth the verse from the Book of Proverbs that informs us, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." This article explores the core working premises one should use from which to arrive at a vision for a global Objectivist club network, an organization "as it might be and ought to be."

Philosophy and the Four Basic Human Needs

Why do people study ideas? What needs could this effort possibly fill?

Ayn Rand herself answered this question in her book Philosophy: Who Needs It when she wrote:

"As a human being, you have no choice about the fact that you need a philosophy. Your only choice is whether you define your philosophy by a conscious, rational, disciplined process of thought ... or let your subconscious accumulate a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions ...."

Such a "junk heap of unwarranted conclusions" clutters the minds of masses of people today. Much of this garbage spews forth from the ivory towers of universities and floods the minds of helpless students. The software bromide "garbage in, garbage out" describes what happens to these unfortunates when they attempt to interpret and evaluate critical events in their lives.

Sadly, most extracurricular alternatives to classroom dogma offer nothing more rational. Campus activist clubs not devoted to leftist agendas, e.g., "Save the Planet," typically fall into the category of religious tenets, e.g., "Campus Crusade for Christ." Interestingly, many people who grow disenchanted with the cultural left do eventually involve themselves with mainstream religion. Why?

To answer that question demands identifying the basic categories of human needs. Books like The Eighth Habit by Stephen Covey and The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz categorize these needs as:

1. Spiritual:    The need for meaning and purpose
2. Emotional: The need for bonding
3. Mental:       The need for useful knowledge
4. Physical:     The need for life-supporting physical action

Analysis of the objective merits of any proposed philosophy must necessarily examine how well that philosophy satisfies these needs.

Religion and the Four Basic Human Needs

Loaded with religious precepts, the bestselling book The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren should give all Objectivists a cause to pause and wonder: Why has this mysticism-filled book sold so well? Why do masses of people feel drawn to purchase this text and to apply the principles within it? An examination of how well it satisfies the four basic human needs can shed light on these questions:

1. At the spiritual level, the author provides a methodology for assigning a positive spiritual meaning to events large and small through reference to an eternal God and eternal life.
2. At the emotional level, the author speaks freely about meaningful bonding with God and fellow human beings.
3. At the mental level, the author elucidates a body of God-given timeless principles he considers rock solid and not subject to change of era or culture.
4. At the physical level, the author quite unapologetically employs moral certainty to pronounce moral judgment and thus to offer moral guidance regarding right and wrong actions.

Although the author does not break his book down in this fashion, the bottom line remains the same: With clarity and certainty, the author paints a glowing picture in the minds of his readers of how life might be and ought to be, even if his concept of "life" means eternal life. He satisfies their four basic needs to their satisfaction by taking advantage of unquestioned premises based on faith rather than fact.

Likewise, churches have for many generations employed the same methods as Rick Warren to confuse parishioners into virtual slavery to false ideas. Through their appeals to the natural core of these believers, i.e. their desire to live forever, the churches trick them into believing that religion genuinely satisfies their needs. Such a false sense of satiety reinforces the church's influence over their minds.

Freethought and the Four Basic Human Needs

For over two centuries, the tradition of Freethought has opposed dogmas of all variants in favor of reason. Famous freethinkers include Thomas Jefferson and Robert Ingersoll among many others. Unfortunately, Freethought organizations today find themselves plagued with vacuous attempts to fill the four needs:

1. At the spiritual level, a lack of meaning and purpose;
2. At the emotional level, a lack of bonding;
3. At the mental level, a lack of timeless principles;
4. At the physical level, a lack of moral certainty to guide their actions decisively.

Influencers such as John Dewey and other pragmatists and "Progressives" helped to entrench these vicious traits into the secular mainstream. Today, organizations like the Center for Inquiry (CFI) have a broad range of self-styled "freethinkers" such as animal rights radical Peter Singer shaping their content and conduct. Since these notions violate basic human needs, no one should feel surprise that people in droves turn to religion for an anchor in a rough and stormy world.

Objectivism, with its adherence to timeless principles, can reverse this trend in the world of Freethought. As a result, it has the potential of creating a sound alternative to religion for those seekers of timeless truths. It also has the potential to draw secularists weary of moral relativism, uncertainty and general misanthropy.

Global Objectivist Club Network and the Four Basic Human Needs

Beginning with its inception as a formal philosophy in 1958, Objectivism has touched the lives of millions of readers. In its heyday in the 1960s, the Nathaniel Branden Institute (NBI) offered live and recorded lectures as well as newsletters and other instructive literature to thousands of customers. Groups dedicated to discussion of the philosophy sprang into being around the United States.

Since that time, the philosophy has remained essentially unchanged, though its marketing methods have undergone significant roller coaster rides. The dissolution of the NBI in 1968 led to a sharp decline in venues for studying and living the philosophy. Only with the founding of the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) in 1985 did a new, organized, central engine develop for helping people of all ages to grasp this profound way of life.

Sharp disagreements with ARI management over both content and presentation schemes led David Kelley and his friends to form the Institute for Objectivist Studies (IOS) in 1989, now called The Objectivist Center (TOC). While ARI has focused its club efforts on fostering and supporting campus Ayn Rand Clubs, TOC has lent its support both to campus and to community Objectivist clubs. In fact, it has interviewed the operators of several successful local clubs and published its findings at its Web site as well as in its monthly magazine.

Despite these recent steps forward, no integrated, systematic and universal approach yet exists for anyone to start, run or even participate in a local Objectivist club. This shortcoming hinders potential Objectivist club leaders at all four levels of human need. Mere "affiliation" with ARI or TOC will not do. Just as a good parent guides a child into fully functioning adulthood, so a good club franchise guides a club franchisee into fully functioning "clubhood." This colossal need for a franchise system necessitates a well-reasoned plan that deliberately addresses the four basic human needs via Objectivism.

To cast a wide net and garner a broad appeal for a campus or community Objectivist club demands an overwhelming and obvious satisfaction of the four basic human needs. Our philosophy already does this but seldom do its adherents "sell" it in this fashion. The following four basic requirements of a good Objectivist club network flow from the four basic human needs.

The club network shall help each member to cultivate within himself:

1. At the spiritual level, a love of life on this Earth -- a sense that one's own self is one's highest value to spend in accordance with the following three values that drive human consciousness.
2. At the emotional level, an earned sense of self-esteem, i.e. firmly bonding with the self and then using that as a basis for truly meaningful bonds with others.
3. At the mental level, a reverence for reason as well as a growing mastery of it. This shall include a sound understanding and full acceptance of the timeless principles of basic axioms, induction, deduction, synthesis, analysis, common informal fallacies, etc.
4. At the physical level, a clear and unifying sense of productive purpose in life to guide all of one's actions.

Conclusion

A global Objectivist club network needs to stand apart from both religious and secular organizations with its comprehensive yet fully secular and rationally egoistic philosophy. More importantly, it needs to satisfy the four basic human needs in such a powerful way as to make all other alternatives look utterly laughable. Can such an abstract concept become a concrete reality? In the words of John Galt, "The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours." Future articles will outline the steps needed to make this vision real, possible, and yours.

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