Initiative - Labor Day 2004

Initiative

On Labor Day we celebrate in Ayn Rand’s words, “Productive achievement as man’s noblest activity.” In August, 2000, the objectivist writer, Edwin A. Locke, wrote that, “each man gets what he earns and has no moral claim on the property of others…man at his best is a man who is free, independent, responsible for his own life, proud of his achievements and unwilling to be sacrificial fodder for those who would enslave him.”

Our friend is a single parent who has raised three children. Her youngest, a daughter, did well academically in high school. Upon graduation, she told her mother she doesn’t want to go to work or go to college. She arises at 3 PM and hangs around the house. She doesn’t go anywhere or do anything in particular. Has the parent made life so easy that the child knows she does not have to make it on her own? Will mom continue to struggle and work two or three jobs to support her daughter and the house in which they reside?

The dictionary definition of the word initiative, a noun, is 1) the power or ability to begin or to follow energetically with a plan or task: enterprise and determination. 2) A beginning or introductory step; an opening move; took the initiative in trying to solve the problem. Where is the daughter’s initiative?

In mythology, Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals in their dark caves. The gift of divine fire unleashed a flood of inventiveness and productivity. The name Prometheus means “Forethought.” Where are the young girl’s fire, inventiveness and productivity?

Another Prometheus is the protagonist in Ayn Rand’s Anthem. Prometheus comprehends that to exist is to possess identity. He discards the collective “we” and uses the word “I.” He realizes he is responsible for his own education. Our friend’s daughter has not learned about Prometheus in either mythology or philosophy. She is oblivious to her mother’s struggle for their survival. A comparison can be drawn to Emma in Jane Austen’s Emma wherein the fictional character’s schemes and perceptions prove false.

Our friend faces a moral crisis. She has been conditioned by years of sacrifice for her children yet her daughter’s stated aim in life is to do nothing. Are parenting and initiative mutually exclusive or mutually dependent? If the parent solves all problems, provides for her daughters every need, does that reduce initiative in the offspring? Is it counterproductive to independence or does it foster a desire to retain the quality of life to which one has become accustomed?

The mother queries, “What happens if I am not here?” That is a false argument. The mother isn’t facing reality. She hasn’t taught her daughter a whit about productive achievement. The daughter demands that her mother produce while she, herself, produces nothing. The daughter exhibits a cardinal sin – greed. What criteria motivate the offspring for a better life? Why has the desire to achieve been diminished? Is this an isolated situation? Are there few achievers? Is it that producers are just a quirk?

One is reminded of John Galt’s speech in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. Paraphrasing, “We are bombarded with dictates - that you are to serve the welfare state but not to serve your life or your pleasure. You have been taught that any moral code must be designed against you, not for you, not to further your life but to drain it. The unceasing creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties created this moral crisis. This moral duplicity is based on the claim that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of the incompetents. A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality. Man’s life is the standard of morality, but your own life is its purpose. Your life belongs to you. The good is to live it.” The mother should have taught her daughter to hold her life as a value; she must learn to sustain it by initiative and choice. This Labor Day, know that if one believes that “productive achievement is man’s noblest activity” then one must live life for oneself, not others and not the welfare state.