Second handers

"Second hander" is a term that I trace back to Ayn Rand. My late Grandfather gave me a copy of The Fountainhead when I was about 14, with the warning that the first half is very boring, but that some great insights come through in the second half. Just as he said, I found the first half of the book immensely tiring and boring; the second half was gold.

Perhaps I was too young to read it, but it seemed to express ideas that I had always believed tacitly, and much of the philosophy of Objectivism I subsequently integrated into my outlook on life. Fortunately, I grew up a bit and started noticing the limitations of the philosophy, but I remain stuck with a few concepts that I still really like!

A 'Second Hander' is someone who lives for others, not someone who serves others because they want to, but someone whose system of values and motivations are given to them by others. Rand regarded these people as being the lowest of the food chain, arguing that we should all, instead, think for ourselves and do what we want to do.


Have you ever met someone who was intelligent enough, though driven by ambition enough to know that if she sucks up to the right people and tows the 'party line', she will get somewhere? This is second-handed, as most people aspiring for power and significance usually are. Rand noted that those aspiring for power over others are usually the worse second handers of them all.


Sometimes I wonder how to handle such people. Part of me wants to pop their delusion of living a life of perceived significance and help them realise that the only meaningful life is one that is internally driven. Another part of me wonders whether such a desire is more founded upon wanting to prove other people wrong and prove myself right - upon my own ego and my own fears and my own doubts.

• Is this person really happy? And, if they really are happy, should I interfere?
• How can I judge whether they are really happy?
• What if I interfere, and force them to accept the complexity and confusion that so much of life has... Surely their life would be easier and simpler if they stayed 'plugged in', rather than actually really thinking for themself?

A dilemma...

Emma Leung

Great work to Emma Leung, who appeared this week on the SBS programme, Insight. Emma is an ambitious, articulate and attractive young law student from The University of Sydney, who rose to President of their Golden Key Chapter and was elected as the Asia Pacific Student Representative for that organisation. If you're interested in what she said, checkout the transcript of the show and look around a third of the way down.

Her publicist is going overtime, last year even scoring her a spot in a fashion competition of sorts where the downside is that you score $200 in clothes!


Perhaps interestingly, she used a classic hypnotic device to show that she'd finished saying anything. "I think I'd rather make a decision based on solid information, based on statistical scientific evidence." The device is referred to as deleting a referential index, and she used it when she said that she would 'rather' do something, without providing an alternative against which her later statement could be compared. Ironically, in this case, her comment reflects conservativism that some might suggest would reduce her capacity to make a decision, outsourcing the thinking to those presenting the evidence. Interesting...


It was great fun lining up against her and her aristocratic pronunciation back in January - congratulations and good luck, Emma!

Creation vs Evolution in the infinite

That evolution is improbable does not make it impossible. Indeed, the very fact that something is acknowledged to be improbable (ie having a low chance of occuring) makes its occurrence absolutely certain.

Strange, but true.

What if you roll a die? The probability that any one side comes up is 1 in 6. The probability that a 6 will come up if you roll the die twice is pretty close to 1 in 3; and if you roll it three times, it gets pretty close to 1 in 2 or 50%. Now, if you roll that same die 1000 times, you'd guess that it's pretty much a certainty that a '6' will come up at least once, right?

It's the same thing with evolution. If you assume that the probability for evolution occurring is 1/10000000000th of 1%, that means that it probably won't happen today. Indeed, it probably won't happen for a long long time. But, if you have an infinite period of time, its occurrence at some stage becomes certain.

It's easy to say that we don't have an infinite amount of time - which is true. But the Universe - and God - does. If there really is just one world and one God, it's not like it's waiting for anything or anyone to use the Universe next!


In my opinion, religion is great, and I sincerely hope that you find a religion that works for you. We ought remember that God made us to worship and adore him without superstition... Religions, through their rituals and symbolism sometimes allow us to forget that, and in doing so lead us away from the Truth.


To deny evolution is to deny facts. To blindly accept evolution without noting its limitations is to believe in things that have not been proven - which is just another religion.

In my opinion - and please accept my right to be wrong - God wants us to pursue truth.

Truth to yourself...

"My mother said to me, 'If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.' Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso."

Do your thing... not my thing, not your parents' thing, not your friends' thing... Do your thing.

Basic principles and values?

I was just thinking about some of the things that I regard as important in life...

Firstly, balance between work, rest and service to our community.

Secondly, our conscience and understanding of the ramifications of our actions must be cultivated so as to allow our self-awareness to purify our thoughts and actions.

Finally, it is by education and discipline that we are rendered fit members of any well-organised society.


One thing that I find disturbing is the way that an honest person is often frightening in the modern world. So many of those who strive to ascend the commanding heights have hidden agendas that they fear that the talented individuals called to ascend those difficult cliffs, through the trials, are similarly motivated. There remain those of us who value integrity, virtue and honour... and a few of us who still value those things above rank and fortune.

Perhaps we ought remember that great people are those who have a burning a desire. Paraphrasing Maslow, these are people who must be what they can be.

If you could do anything, and you can, how close are you living today? What have you done today to make your life extraordinary?
How many times have you stumbled over greatness yet picked yourself up and carried on their way?
Perhaps we all do - perhaps the measure of a man or woman is how often they have actually answered the call that has gone out for them...

What do you feel called to do?

Uplift, empower and inspire

What if our schools and parents would uplift, empower and inspire our children...

• Uplift
  Go beyond the ordinary; do something that they wouldn’t have thought that they could have done otherwise... open the mind to the limitless possibilities that exist in the world.
  
• Empower
  Build self-efficacy, the willingness to consider that something is possible and the strength to make it real.
• Inspire
  Go beyond reality and what is perceived as possible, to see the world as it could be rather than remaining fixated upon how it is.

What a different world we would live in... how different it would be to the frightening picture painted by some (like here).
Surely, we should strive to live in a world that is free and powerful and exciting and interesting... one where we can live how we want to live so far as we are able?

Surely we are not going to be parties to a hidden Objectivist conspiracy...