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Atlas Shrugged: (Centennial Edition) by Ayn Rand …

Posted: June 28, 2016 at 2:56 am

Overview

This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the worldand did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators? Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies, but against those who needed him most, and his hardest battle against the woman he loved? What is the worlds motorand the motive power of every man? You will know the answer to these questions when you discover the reason behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the characters in this story.

Tremendous in its scope, this novel presents an astounding panorama of human lifefrom the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboyto the great steel industrialist who does not know that he is working for his own destructionto the philosopher who becomes a pirateto the composer who gives up his career on the night of his triumphto the woman who runs a transcontinental railroadto the lowest track worker in her Terminal tunnels.

You must be prepared, when you read this novel, to check every premise at the root of your convictions. This is a mystery story, not about the murderand rebirthof mans spirit. It is a philosophical revolution, told in the form of an action thriller of violent events, a ruthlessly brilliant plot structure and an irresistible suspense. Do you say this is impossible? Well, that is the first of your premises to check.

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Encyclopedia of Literature

ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand

INTRODUCTION by Leonard Peikoff

Ayn Rand is one of America's favorite authors. In a recent Library of Congress/Book of the Month Club survey, American readers ranked Atlas Shruggedher masterworkas second only to the Bible in its influence on their lives. For decades, at scores of college campuses around the country, students have formed clubs to discuss the works of Ayn Rand. In 1998, the Oscar-nominated Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, a documentary film about her life, played to sold-out venues throughout America and Canada. In recognition of her enduring popularity, the United States Postal Service in 1999 issued an Ayn Rand stamp. Every book by Ayn Rand published in her lifetime is still in print, and hundreds of thousands of copies of them are sold every year, so far totaling more than twenty million. Why? Ayn Rand understood, all the way down to fundamentals, why man needs the unique form of nourishment that is literature. And she provided a banquet that was at once intellectual and thrilling. The major novels of Ayn Rand contain superlative values that are unique in our age. Atlas Shrugged (1957) and The Fountainhead (1943) offer profound and original philosophic themes, expressed in logical, dramatic plot structures. They portray an uplifted vision of man, in the form of protagonists characterized by strength, purposefulness, integrityheroes who are not only idealists, but happy idealists, self-confident, serene, at home on earth. (See synopses later in this guide.) Ayn Rand's first novel, We the Living (1936), set in thepost-revolutionary Soviet Union, is an indictment not merely of Soviet-style Communism, but of any and every totalitarian state that claims the right to sacrifice the supreme value of an individual human life. Anthem (1946), a prose poem set in the future, tells of one man's rebellion against an utterly collectivized world, a world in which joyless, selfless men are permitted to exist only for the sake of serving the group. Written in 1937, Anthem was first published in England; it was refused publication in America until 1946, for reasons the reader can discover by reading it for himself. Ayn Rand wrote in a highly calculated literary style intent on achieving precision and luminous clarity, yet that style is at the same time colorful, sensuously evocative, and passionate. Her exalted vision of man and her philosophy for living on earth, Objectivism, have changed the lives of tens of thousands of readers and launched a major philosophic movement with a growing impact on American culture. You are invited to sit down to the banquet which is Ayn Rand's novels. I hope you personally enjoy them as much as I did.

About the Books

Atlas Shrugged (1957) is a mystery story, Ayn Rand once commented, "not about the murder of man's body, but about the murderand rebirthof man's spirit." It is the story of a manthe novel's herowho says that he will stop the motor of the world, and does. The deterioration of the U.S. accelerates as the story progresses. Factories, farms, shops shut down or go bankrupt in ever larger numbers. Riots break out as food supplies become scarce. Is he, then, a destroyer or the greatest of liberators? Why does he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies but against those who need him most, including the woman, Dagny Taggart, a top railroad executive, whom he passionately loves? What is the world's motorand the motive power of every man? Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, and charged with awesome questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is a novel of tremendous scope. It presents an astounding panorama of human lifefrom the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboy (Francisco d'Anconia)to the great steel industrialist who does not know that he is working for his own destruction (Hank Rearden)to the philosopher who becomes a pirate (Ragnar Danneskjold)to the composer who gives up his career on the night of his triumph (Richard Halley). Dramatizing Ayn Rand's complete philosophy, Atlas Shrugged is an intellectual revolution told in the form of an action thriller of violent eventsand with a ruthlessly brilliant plot and irresistible suspense. We do not want to spoil the plot by giving away its secret or its deeper meaning, so as a hint only we will quote here one brief exchange from the novel:

embraced the movie. Five months after its release, Mussolini's government figured out what everyone else knew, and banned the movie. This is eloquent proof of Ayn Rand's claim that the book is not merely "about Soviet Russia." After the war, the movie was re-edited under Ayn Rand's supervision. The movie is still played at art-house cinemas, and is now available on videotape.

Anthem (1946), a novelette in the form of a prose poem, depicts a grim world of the future that is totally collectivized. Technologically primitive, it is a world in which candles are the very latest advance. From birth to death, men's lives are directed for them by the State. At Palaces of Mating, the State enacts its eugenics program; once born and schooled, people are assigned jobs they dare not refuse, toiling in the fields until they are consigned to the Home of the Useless. This is a world in which men live and die for the sake of the State. The State is all, the individual is nothing. It is a world in which the word "I" has vanished from the language, replaced by "We." For the sin of speaking the unspeakable "I," men are put to death. Equality 7-2521, however, rebels. Though assigned to the life work of street sweeper by the rulers who resent his brilliant, inquisitive mind, he secretly becomes a scientist. Enduring the threat of torture and imprisonment, he continues in his quest for knowledge and ultimately rediscovers electric light. But when he shares it with the Council of Scholars, he is denounced for the sin of thinking what no other men think. He runs for his life, escaping to the uncharted forest beyond the city's edge. There, with his beloved, he begins a more intense sequence of discoveries,
both personal and intellectual, that help him break free from the collectivist State's brutal morality of sacrifice. He learns that man's greatest moral duty is the pursuit of his own happiness. He discovers and speaks the sacred word: I. Anthem's theme is the meaning and glory of man's ego.

About Objectivism

Ayn Rand held that philosophy was not a luxury for the few, but a life-and-death necessity of everyone's survival. She described Objectivism, the intellectual framework of her novels, as a philosophy for living on earth. Rejecting all forms of supernaturalism and religion, Objectivism holds that Reality, the world of nature, exists as an objective absolutefacts are facts, independent of man's feelings, wishes, hopes, or fears; in short, "wishing won't make it so." Further, Ayn Rand held that Reasonthe faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's sensesis man's only source of knowledge, both of facts and of values. Reason is man's only guide to action, and his basic means of survival. Hence her rejection of all forms of mysticism, such as intuition, instinct, revelation, etc. On the question of good and evil, Objectivism advocates a scientific code of morality: the morality of rational self-interest, which holds Man's Life as the standard of moral value. The good is that which sustains Man's Life; the evil is that which destroys it. Rationality, therefore, is man's primary virtue. Each man should live by his own mind and for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor others to himself. Man is an end in himself. His own happiness, achieved by his own work and trade, is each man's highest moral purpose. In politics, as a consequence, Objectivism upholds not the welfare state, but laissez-faire capitalism (the complete separation of state and economics) as the only social system consistent with the requirements of Man's Life. The proper function of government is the original American system: to protect each individual's inalienable rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. Objectivism defines "art" as the re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments. The greatest school in art history, it holds, is Romanticism, whose art represents things not as they are, but as they might be and ought to be. The fundamentals of Objectivism are set forth in many nonfiction books including: For the New Intellectual; The Virtue of Selfishness; Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal; Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution; Philosophy: Who Needs It; and The Romantic Manifesto. Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, written by Ayn Rand's intellectual heir Leonard Peikoff and published in 1991, is the definitive presentation of her entire system of philosophy.

ABOUT AYN RAND

Ayn Rand was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 2, 1905. At the age of nine, she decided to make fiction-writing her career. In late 1925 she obtained permission to leave the USSR for a visit to relatives in the United States. Arriving in New York in February 1926, she first spent six months with her relatives in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles. On her second day in Hollywood, the famous director Cecil B. De Mille noticed her standing at the gate of his studio, offered her a ride to the set of his silent movie The King of Kings, and gave her a job, first as an extra and later as a script reader. During the next week at the studio, she met an actor, Frank O'Connor, whom she married in 1929; they were happily married until his death fifty years later. After struggling for several years at various menial jobs, including one in the wardrobe department at RKO, she sold her first screenplay, "Red Pawn," to Universal Studios in 1932 and then saw her first play, Night of January 16th, produced in Hollywood and (in 1935) on Broadway. In 1936, her first novel, We the Living, was published. She began writing The Fountainhead in 1935. In the character of Howard Roark, she presented for the first time the Ayn Rand hero, whose depiction was the chief goal of her writing: the ideal man, man as "he could be and ought to be." The Fountainhead was rejected by a dozen publishers but finally accepted by Bobbs-Merrill; it came out in 1943. The novel made publishing history by becoming a best-seller within two years purely through word of mouth; it gained lasting recognition for Ayn Rand as a champion of individualism. Atlas Shrugged (1957) was her greatest achievement and last work of fiction. In this novel she dramatizes her unique philosophy of Objectivism in an intellectual mystery story that integrates ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, politics, economics, and sex. Although she considered herself primarily a fiction writer, she realized early that in order to create heroic characters, she had to identify the philosophic principles which make such people possible. She proceeded to develop a "philosophy for living on earth." Objectivism has now gained a worldwide audience and is an ever growing presence in American culture. Her novels continue to sell in enormous numbers every year, proving themselves enduring classics of literature. Ayn Rand died on March 6, 1982, at her home in New York City.

Recollections of Ayn Rand A Conversation with Leonard Peikoff, Ph.D.,Ayn Rand's longtime associate and intellectual heir

Dr. Peikoff, you met Miss Rand when you were seventeen and were associated with her until her death, thirty-one years later. What were your first impressions of her? What was she like? The strongest first impression I had of her was her passion for ideas. Ayn Rand was unlike anyone I had ever imagined. Her mind was utterly first-handed: she said what no one else had ever said or probably ever thought, but she said these things so logicallyso simply, factually, persuasivelythat they seemed to be self-evident. She radiated the kind of intensity that one could imagine changing the course of history. Her brilliantly perceptive eyes looked straight at you and missed nothing: neither did her methodical, painstaking, virtually scientific replies to my questions miss anything. She made me think for the first time that thinking is important. I said to myself after I left her home: "All of life will be different now. If she exists, everything is possible."

In her fiction, Ayn Rand presented larger-than-life heroesembodiments of her philosophy of rational egoismthat have inspired countless readers over the years. Was Ayn Rand's own life like that of her characters? Did she practice her own ideals? Yes, always. From the age of nine, when she decided on a career as a writer, everything she did was integrated toward her creative purpose. As with Howard Roark, dedication to thought and thus to her work was the root of Ayn Rand's person. In every aspect of life, she once told me, a man should have favorites. He should define what he likes or wants most and why, and then proceed to get it. She always did just thatfleeing the Soviet dictatorship for America, tripping her future husband on a movie set to get him to notice her, ransacking ancient record shops to unearth some lost treasure, even decorating her apartment with an abundance of her favorite color, blue-green.

Given her radical views in morality and politics, did she ever soften or compromise her message? Never. She took on the whole worldliberals, conservatives, communists, religionists, Babbitts and avant-garde alikebut opposition had no power to sway her from her convictions. I never saw her adapting her personality or viewpoint to please another individual. She was always the same and always herself, whether she was talking with me alone, or
attending a cocktail party of celebrities, or being cheered or booed by a hall full of college students, or being interviewed on national television.

Couldn't she have profited by toning things down a little? She could never be tempted to betray her convictions. A Texas oil man once offered her up to a million dollars to use in spreading her philosophy, if she would only add a religious element to it to make it more popular. She threw his proposal into the wastebasket. "What would I do with his money," she asked me indignantly, "if I have to give up my mind in order to get it?" Her integrity was the result of her method of thinking and her conviction that ideas really matter. She knew too clearly how she had reached her ideas, why they were true, and what their opposites were doing to mankind.

Who are some writers that Ayn Rand respected and enjoyed reading? She did not care for most contemporary writers. Her favorites were the nineteenth century Romantic novelists. Above all, she admired Victor Hugo, though she often disagreed with his explicit views. She liked Dostoevsky for his superb mastery of plot structure and characterization, although she had no patience for his religiosity. In popular literature, she read all of Agatha Christie twice, and also liked the early novels of Mickey Spillane.

In addition to writing best-sellers, Ayn Rand originated a distinctive philosophy of reason. If someone wants to get an insight into her intellectual and creative development, what would you suggest? A reader ought first to read her novels and main nonfiction in order to understand her views and values. Then, to trace her early literary development, a reader could pick up The Early Ayn Rand, a volume I edited after her death. It features a selection of short stories and plays that she wrote while mastering English and the art of fiction-writing. For a glimpse of her lifelong intellectual development, I would recommend the recent book Journals of Ayn Rand, edited by David Harriman.

Ayn Rand's life was punctuated by disappointments with people, frustration, and early poverty. Was she embittered? Did she achieve happiness in her own life? She did achieve happiness. Whatever her disappointments or frustrations, they went down, as she said about Roark, only to a certain point. Beneath it was her self-esteem, her values, and her conviction that happiness, not pain, is what matters. I remember a spring day in 1957. She and I were walking up Madison Avenue in New York toward the office of Random House, which was in the process of bringing out Atlas Shrugged. She was looking at the city she had always loved most, and now, after decades of rejection, she had seen the top publishers in that city competing for what she knew, triumphantly, was her masterpiece. She turned to me suddenly and said: "Don't ever give up what you want in life. The struggle is worth it." I never forgot that. I can still see the look of quiet radiance on her face.

Related Titles

Fiction in Paperback Anthem (New York: Signet, 1961). Atlas Shrugged (New York: Signet, 1959). The Fountainhead (New York: Signet, 25th anniv. ed., 1968). Night of January 16th (New York: Plume, 1987). We the Living (New York: Signet, 1960). Nonfiction in Paperback Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (New York: Signet, 1967). The Early Ayn Rand: A Selection from Her Unpublished Fiction (New York: Signet, 1986). For the New Intellectual (New York: Signet, 1963). Philosophy: Who Needs It (New York: Signet, 1964). Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution (New York: Meridian, 1999). The Romantic Manifesto (New York: Signet, 2nd rev. ed., 1971). The Virtue of Selfishness (New York: Signet, 1984). On Ayn Rand and Objectivism The Ayn Rand Reader, edited by Gary Hull and Leonard Peikoff (New York: Plume, 1999). Journals of Ayn Rand, edited by David Harriman (New York: Dutton, 1997). Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, by Leonard Peikoff (New York: Meridian, 1993).

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Atlas Shrugged

The Fountainhead

We the Living

Anthem

a) "It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think."

b) "I wished to know the meaning of things. I am the meaning."

c) "I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them."

Objectivism

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Alan Greenspan

Born February 2, 1905, Ayn Rand published her first novel, We the Living, in 1936. Anthem followed in 1938. It was with the publication of The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957) that she achieved her spectacular success. Ms. Rand's unique philosophy, Objectivism, has gained a worldwide audience. The fundamentals of her philosophy are put forth in three nonfiction books, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, The Virtue of Selfishness, and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. They are all available in Signet editions, as is the magnificent statement of her artistic credo, The Romantic Manifesto.

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Atlas Shrugged: (Centennial Edition) by Ayn Rand ...

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Golden rule (law) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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In law, the Golden rule, or British rule, is a form of statutory construction traditionally applied by English courts. The other two are the plain meaning rule (also known as the literal rule) and the mischief rule.

The golden rule allows a judge to depart from a word's normal meaning in order to avoid an absurd result.

The term "golden rule" seems to have originated in an 1854 court ruling,[1] and implies a degree of enthusiasm for this particular rule of construction over alternative rules that has not been shared by all subsequent judges. For example, one judge made a point of including this note in a 1940 decision: "The golden rule is that the words of a statute must prima facie be given their ordinary meaning."[2]

Although it points to a kind of middle ground between the plain meaning (or literal) rule and the mischief rule, the golden rule is not, in a strict sense, a compromise between them. Like the plain meaning rule, the golden rule gives the words of a statute their plain, ordinary meaning. However, when this may lead to an irrational result that is unlikely to be the legislature's intention, the golden rule dictates that a judge can depart from this meaning. In the case of homographs, where a word can have more than one meaning, the judge can choose the preferred meaning; if the word only has one meaning, but applying this would lead to a bad decision, the judge can apply a completely different meaning.

The rule is usually based on part of Becke v Smith (1836) 2 M&W 195 per Justice Parke (later Lord Wensleydale), which states:

It is a very useful rule in the construction of a statute to adhere to the ordinary meaning of the words used, and to the grammatical construction, unless that is at variance with the intention of the legislature to be collected from the statute itself, or leads to any manifest absurdity or repugnance, in which case the language may be varied or modified so as to avoid such inconvenience but no further.

Twenty years later, Lord Wensleydale restated the rule in different words in Grey v. Pearson (1857) 6 HL Cas 61, 106; 10ER 1216, 1234. He wrote:

[I]n construing statutes, and all written instruments, the grammatical and ordinary sense of the words is to be adhered to, unless that would lead to some absurdity or inconsistency with the rest of the instrument, in which case the grammatical and ordinary sense of the words may be modified, so as to avoid that absurdity or inconsistency, but not farther.

With time, the rule continues to become more refined and therefore to be a more precise and effective tool for the courts. More than a century after Grey v. Pearson, a court added this caveat: "Nowadays we should add to 'natural and ordinary meaning' the words 'in their context and according to the appropriate linguistic register' ".[3]

This rule may be used in two ways. It is applied most frequently in a narrow sense where there is some ambiguity or absurdity in the words themselves.

For example, imagine there may be a sign saying "Do not use lifts in case of fire." Under the literal interpretation of this sign, people must never use the lifts, in case there is a fire. However, this would be an absurd result, as the intention of the person who made the sign is obviously to prevent people from using the lifts only if there is currently a fire nearby.

The second use of the golden rule is in a wider sense, to avoid a result that is obnoxious to principles of public policy, even where words have only one meaning.

The rule was applied in this second sense in In Sigsworth, Re, Bedford v Bedford (1935; Ch 89), where the court applied the rule to section 46 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925. This statute required that the court should "issue" someone's inheritance in certain circumstances. The court held that no one should profit from a crime, and so used the golden rule to prevent an undesirable result, even though there was only one meaning of the word "issue". A son murdered his mother and then committed suicide. The courts were required to rule on who then inherited the estate: the mother's family, or the son's descendants. There was never a question of the son profiting from his crime, but as the outcome would have been binding on lower courts in the future, the court found in favour of the mother's family.

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Golden rule (law) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Golden Rule – New World Encyclopedia

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The Golden Rule is a cross-cultural ethical precept found in virtually all the religions of the world. Also known as the "Ethic of Reciprocity," the Golden Rule can be rendered in either positive or negative formulations: most expressions take a passive form, as expressed by the Jewish sage Hillel: "What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow neighbor. This is the whole Law, all the rest is commentary" (Talmud, Shabbat 31a). In Christianity, however, the principle is expressed affirmatively by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you" (Gospel of Matthew 7:12). This principle has for centuries been known in English as the Golden Rule in recognition of its high value and importance in both ethical living and reflection.

Arising as it does in nearly all cultures, the ethic of reciprocity is a principle that can readily be used in handling conflicts and promoting greater harmony and unity. Given the modern global trend of political, social, and economic integration and globalization, the Golden Rule of ethics may become even more relevant in the years ahead to foster inter-cultural and interreligious understanding.

Philosophers disagree about the nature of the Golden Rule: some have classified it as a form of deontological ethics (from the Greek deon, meaning "obligation") whereby decisions are made primarily by considering one's duties and the rights of others. Deontology posits the existence of a priori moral obligations suggesting that people ought to live by a set of permanently defined principles that do not change merely as a result of a change in circumstances. However, other philosophers have argued that most religious understandings of the Golden Rule imply its use as a virtue toward greater mutual respect for one's neighbor rather than as a deontological formulation. They argue that the Golden Rule depends on everyone's ability to accept and respect differences because even religious teachings vary. Thus, many philosophers, such as Karl Popper, have suggested that the Golden Rule can be best understood in term of what it is not (through the via negativa):

First, they note that the Golden Rule should not be confused with revenge, an eye for an eye, tit for tat, retributive justice or the law of retaliation. A key element of the ethic of reciprocity is that a person attempting to live by this rule treats all people, not just members of his or her in-group, with due consideration. The Golden Rule should also not be confused with another major ethical principle, often known as Wiccan Rede, or liberty principle, which is an ethical prohibition against aggression. This rule is also an ethical rule of "license" or "right," that is people can do anything they like as long as it does not harm others. This rule does not compel one to help the other in need. On the other hand, "the golden rule is a good standard which is further improved by doing unto others, wherever possible, as they want to be done by."[1]

Lastly, the Golden Rule of ethics should not be confused with a "rule" in the semantic or logical sense. A logical loophole in the positive form of Golden "Rule" is that it would require a masochist to harm others, even without their consent, if that is what the masochist would wish for themselves. This loophole can be addressed by invoking a supplementary rule, which is sometimes called the Silver Rule. This states, "treat others in the way that they wish to be treated." However, the Silver Rule may create another logical loophole. In a situation where an individual's background or belief may offend the sentiment of the majority (such as homosexuality or blasphemy), the silver rule may imply ethical majority rule if the Golden Rule is enforced as if it were a law.

Under ethic of reciprocity, a person of atheist persuasion may have a (legal) right to insult religion under the right of freedom of expression but, as a personal choice, may refrain to do so in public out of respect to the sensitivity of the other. Conversely, a person of religious persuasion may refrain from taking action against such public display out of respect to the sensitivity of other about the right of freedom of speech. Conversely, the lack of mutual respect might mean that each side might deliberately violate the golden rule as a provocation (to assert one's right) or as intimidation (to prevent other from making offense).

This understanding is crucial because it shows how to apply the golden rule. In 1963, John F. Kennedy ordered Alabama National Guardsmen to help admit two clearly qualified "Negro" students to the University of Alabama. In his speech that evening Kennedy appealed to every American:

Stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents throughout America...If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he cannot send his children to the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who will represent him, .... then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? .... The heart of the question is .... whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.[2]

It could be argued that the ethics of reciprocity may replace all other moral principles, or at least that it is superior to them. Though this guiding rule may not explicitly tell one which actions or treatments are right or wrong, it can provide one with moral coherenceit is a consistency principle. One's actions are to be consistent with mutual love and respect to other fellow humans.

A survey of the religious scriptures of the world reveals striking congruence among their respective articulations of the Golden Rule of ethics. Not only do the scriptures reveal that the Golden Rule is an ancient precept, but they also show that there is almost unanimous agreement among the religions that this principle ought to govern human affairs. Virtually all of the world's religions offer formulations of the Golden Rule somewhere in their scriptures, and they speak in unison on this principle. Consequently, the Golden Rule has been one of the key operating ideas that has governed human ethics and interaction over thousands of years. Specific examples and formulations of the Golden Rule from the religious scriptures of the world are found below:

In Buddhism, the first of the Five Precepts (Panca-sila) of Buddhism is to abstain from destruction of life. The justification of the precept is given in chapter ten of the Dhammapada, which states:

Everyone fears punishment; everyone fears death, just as you do. Therefore do not kill or cause to kill. Everyone fears punishment; everyone loves life, as you do. Therefore do not kill or cause to kill.

According to the second of Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, egoism (desire, craving or attachment) is rooted in ignorance and is considered as the cause of all suffering. Consequently, kindness, compassion and equanimity are regarded as the untainted aspect of human nature.

Even though the Golden Rule is a widely accepted religious ethic, Martin Forward writes that the Golden Rule is itself not beyond criticism. His critique of the Golden Rule is worth repeating in full. He writes:

Two serious criticisms can be leveled against [the Golden Rule]. First of all, although the Golden Rule makes sense as an aspiration, it is much more problematic when it is used as a foundation for practical living or philosophical reflection. For example: sh
ould we unfailingly pardon murderers on the grounds that, if we stood in their shoes, we should ourselves wish to be pardoned? Many goodly and godly people would have problems with such a proposal, even though it is a logical application of the Golden Rule. At the very least, then, it would be helpful to specify what sort of a rule the Golden Rule actually is, rather than assuming that it is an unqualified asset to ethical living in a pluralistic world. Furthermore, it is not usually seen as the heart of religion by faithful people, but simply as the obvious starting point for a religious and humane vision of life. Take the famous story in Judaism recorded in the Talmud: Shabbat 31:

Forward's argument continues:

Even assuming that the Golden Rule could be developed into a more nuanced pattern of behaving well in todays world, there would still be issues for religious people to deal with. For whilst moral behavior is an important dimension of religion, it does not exhaust its meaning. There is a tendency for religious people in the West to play down or even despise doctrine, but this is surely a passing fancy. It is important for religious people in every culture to inquire after the nature of transcendence: its attitude towards humans and the created order; and the demands that it makes. People cannot sensibly describe what is demanded of them as important, without describing the source that wills it and enables it to be lived out. Besides, the world would be a safer place if people challenged paranoid and wicked visions of God (or however ultimate reality is defined) with truer and more generous ones, rather than if they abandoned the naming and defining of God to fearful and sociopath persons (From the Inter-religious Dialogue article in The Encyclopedia of General Knowledge).

In other words, Forward warns religious adherents not to be satisfied with merely the Golden Rule of ethics that can be interpreted and used as a form of religious and ethical relativism, but to ponder the deeper religious impulses that lead to the conviction of the Golden Rule in the first place, such as the idea of love in Christianity.

Due to its widespread acceptance in the world's cultures, it has been suggested that the Golden Rule may be related to innate aspects of human nature. In fact, the principle of reciprocity has been mathematically proved to be the most mutually beneficial means of resolving conflict (as in the Prisoner's Dilemma).[3] As it has touchstones in virtually all cultures, the ethic of reciprocity provides a universally comprehensible tool for handling conflictual situations. However, the logical and ethical objections presented above make the viability of this principle as a Kantian categorical imperative doubtful. In a world where sociopathy and religious zealotry exist, it is not always feasible to base one's actions upon the perceived desires of others. Further, the Golden Rule, in modernity, has lost some of its persuasive power, after being diluted into a bland, secular precept through cloying e-mail forwards and newspaper cartoons. As Forward argues, perhaps the Golden Rule must be approached in its original religious context, as this context provides an ethical and metaphysical grounding for a belief in the ultimate power of human goodness.

Regardless of the above objections, modern trends of political, social, and economic globalization necessitate the development of understandable, codifiable and universally-accepted ethical guidelines. For this purpose, we (as a species) could certainly do worse than to rely upon the age-old, heuristic principle spelled out in the Golden Rule.

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Golden Rule - New World Encyclopedia

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Golden Rule: Treat People as You'd Like to Be Treated

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By Cherie Burbach

Updated May 07, 2015.

One of the key principles in getting along with people is the Golden Rule. It helps you relate to people and gives you and instant guide to follow when it comes to your behavior.The Golden Rule is generally defined as treating others as you would like to be treated. Many religions have a version of this life philosophy, which provides a basic approach on how to interact with others. Specifically, the Bible says that "as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them" (Luke 6:31).

Why Don't More People Practice the Golden Rule?

In terms of friendship, the Golden Rule provides a guide on how to be a friend. If you want someone to laugh with, care about, and be there for you, then you need to do this for other people. Why then, is this so difficult for people to grasp? After all, if everyone lived by this rule, there would be no conflict or hurt feelings between friends.

One possible reason is that people don't always know how to treat themselves, and as a result treat others poorly as well.

Perhaps they had a hard time with self-esteem or did not receive the unconditional love that every child should have. Learning the Golden Rule as an adult may take some time in that case, and a friendship or two may end because of poor behavior. When the person realizes what it takes to be a true friend, his or her behavior changes and strong friendships can be built.

Another reason people ignore the golden rule is that they don't see the benefit in "giving" to someone else. They view generosity of spirit as an emotional cost that they don't feel will ever be returned. Folks like these often want to be on the receiving end of the Golden Rule but don't reciprocate.

The Golden Rule and Social Grace

While the Golden Rule is the guide for kindness toward others, social grace expands on that to include manners and etiquette in society. Things like making proper introductions and maintaining good cell phone etiquette fall under the heading of social grace, while listening and being empathetic falls under the Golden Rule. The difference is that social grace is the outward behavior toward a stranger, and the Golden Rule is what happens with your heart.

For example, you might introduce someone properly and make small talk with them at a party, which is perfectly acceptable in terms of social grace. But to take that same scenario further and relate it to the Golden Rule, you would give that same person the benefit of the doubt, refrain from gossip, and treat them well not because someone at the party expects you to, but because you genuinely want to.

The Golden Rule and Arguments

When you look at arguments from the perspective of the Golden Rule, it means you treat your friend with respect even when you're angry. You don't send off a nasty email to them or call them out in front of other friends, but you wait until the two of you are alone and can discuss things calmly (or at least, privately.)

Sometimes people try and manipulate others not involved in the argument to get "on their side" when they have an argument with a friend. They might tell their side of things to as many people as they can in an effort to get sympathy, and they pull others in before their friend can even respond. Behaving in this way can add a sticking point to whatever the original argument was about, and may serve as a catalyst to end the friendship. When a friend cannot apply the Golden Rule to arguments, the other friend may just step back from the relationship because there is no respect there.

How to Use the Golden Rule as a Guide in Your Friendship

One of the best things about the Golden Rule is that it can change your relationships for the better, with a simple change in perspective. To use this rule as a guide for your friendship:

Using the Golden Rule will help you have better friendships, but it must start with you. Change your approach and attitude, and your actions will follow.

Also Known As: respect, do unto others

Examples:

"Claire just went off on Judy in front of everyone. I doubt she would have appreciated that if Judy had done that to her. Time for a little lesson on the Golden Rule."

"I just got a lesson in the Golden Rule when Jane stood me up for our lunch date. I've done that to her about five times in the past. Now I know what it feels like."

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World Scripture – The Golden Rule – Unification

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World Scripture THE GOLDEN RULE The Golden Rule or the ethic of reciprocity is found in the scriptures of nearly every religion. It is often regarded as the most concise and general principle of ethics. It is a condensation in one principle of all longer lists of ordinances such as the Decalogue. See also texts on Loving Kindness, pp. 967-73.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.

Not one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.

A man should wander about treating all creatures as he himself would be treated.

Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence.

One should not behave towards others in a way which is disagreeable to oneself. This is the essence of morality. All other activities are due to selfish desire.

Tsekung asked, "Is there one word that can serve as a principle of conduct for life?" Confucius replied, "It is the word shu--reciprocity: Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you."

Comparing oneself to others in such terms as "Just as I am so are they, just as they are so am I," he should neither kill nor cause others to kill.

One going to take a pointed stick to pinch a baby bird should first try it on himself to feel how it hurts.

One who you think should be hit is none else but you. One who you think should be governed is none else but you. One who you think should be tortured is none else but you. One who you think should be enslaved is none else but you. One who you think should be killed is none else but you. A sage is ingenuous and leads his life after comprehending the parity of the killed and the killer. Therefore, neither does he cause violence to others nor does he make others do so.

The Ariyan disciple thus reflects, Here am I, fond of my life, not wanting to die, fond of pleasure and averse from pain. Suppose someone should rob me of my life... it would not be a thing pleasing and delightful to me. If I, in my turn, should rob of his life one fond of his life, not wanting to die, one fond of pleasure and averse from pain, it would not be a thing pleasing or delightful to him. For a state that is not pleasant or delightful to me must also be to him also; and a state that is not pleasing or delightful to me, how could I inflict that upon another?

As a result of such reflection he himself abstains from taking the life of creatures and he encourages others so to abstain, and speaks in praise of so abstaining.

A certain heathen came to Shammai and said to him, "Make me a proselyte, on condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot." Thereupon he repulsed him with the rod which was in his hand. When he went to Hillel, he said to him, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah; all the rest of it is commentary; go and learn."

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."

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Real Change – Liberal Party of Canada

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liberal – Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com

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A liberal is someone on the left wing of politics the opposite of a conservative. Also, a liberal attitude toward anything means more tolerance for change.

There are many meanings for liberal, but they mostly have to do with freedom and openness to change. A teacher with a liberal policy toward attendance is going to be forgiving of missed days. A bank with a liberal attitude toward your money would probably be bad: some things are awful if they're loose and free. But no one will give you a hard time if you use a liberal amount of catsup on your fries.

1.

showing or characterized by broad-mindedness

a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties

2.

given or giving freely

3.

not literal

Full Definitions of liberal

1

of or belonging to the political or intellectual left

having or showing active concern for protection of civil liberties protected by law

having or demonstrating belief in the essential goodness of man and the autonomy of the individual; favoring civil and political liberties, government by law with the consent of the governed, and protection from arbitrary authority

having or showing belief in the need for economic growth in addition to traditional liberalistic values

favoring or promoting reform (often by government action)

under group or government control

of or relating to a welfare state

of or belonging to the political or intellectual left

resistant to change

pompously ultraconservative and nationalistic

conservative in professional manner

old-fashioned and out of date

stubbornly conservative and narrow-minded

extremely conservative

adhering to what is commonly accepted

of or belonging to the political or intellectual right

a person who is reluctant to accept changes and new ideas

a person of liberal ideals who takes no action to realize them

a person who is broad-minded and tolerant (especially in standards of religious belief and conduct)

a liberal who subscribes to neoliberalism

someone who believes that distinct ethnic or cultural or religious groups can exist together in society

a member of the political party that urged social reform in 18th and 19th century England; was the opposition party to the Tories

a fully developed person from maturity onward

a fully developed person from maturity onward

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Welcome to our Parish! | Ascension Catholic Church

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A message from our Pastor

It is my pleasure to welcome you to Ascensions parish website. We have tabs for general parish information (including links to our weekly bulletin, The Dome), for our Ascension school and pre-school, and for our parish Religious Education program. It is also possible to follow a link here to arrange for automatic Stewardship offerings and other giving opportunities.

Situated just north of the Eisenhower expressway in a neighborhood setting, Ascension is the spiritual home for both young and old- new families, families with children, singles, and seniors. Our large Catholic school draws from Oak Park and its surrounding communities. We offer many programs and activities, and are especially noted for our commitment to issues of peace and justice. Our music program is highly developed and attracts scores of people who participate in our various choirs. Our staff is available to help, and contact information for staff members is available through this site.

Worship on Sunday is the time that our welcoming and diverse community comes together to hear and reflect upon the Word of God, and to enter into Christs saving sacrifice through the Eucharist. If this virtual visit to the parish is your first time with us, I hope that you will be drawn to a more personal visit some Sunday. If you are a parishioner who arrived here looking forinformation that is important to you, I hope that you will find navigation easy so that you can find what you came looking for.

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Welcome to our Parish! | Ascension Catholic Church

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Ascension

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Ascension

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Ascension – Sal Rachele

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Physical ascension has, in the past, been reserved for a select few souls who have mastered the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual facets of life and are able to take their bodies with them into the higher realms. At the present time, a major change in the Divine Plan has been implemented, which allows for a large number of souls (up to 20 million) to go through physical ascension without having mastered every detail of physical life. This Divine Dispensation normally only occurs at the end of a Great Cycle (every 26,000 years). In early 1991, in Sedona, Arizona, I spent a lot of time meditating. I received information telepathically through the filter of my "God Self". The information was quite specific and involves what I call the master template.

The Master Template

In Life On the Cutting Edge, I wrote about the building of the "crystal light body" and how our cells are converted into light through a complex process I call the "master template." DNA is the biological component of the master template or the Divine Program for creating sentient beings in lower densities. The secret to ascension, rejuvenation, perfect health and immortality is two-fold: (1) Embrace the Love of God within the emotions and mind; AND (2) learn to reprogram the DNA to align with the Tree of Life (Kaballah, Sacred Fire Letters, or whatever other name you have for it). The Tree of Life is the divine configuration of atoms and molecules that gives rise to intelligent life in the Universe. The message I then received was that the light body conversion process had started in my own body (the specific trigger was an event called 11:11). Some people I knew at the time had begun their conversion process earlier, and some would begin later. This conversion process does not show up immediately in one's appearance. Also, any physical, emotional or mental blocks in the individual must come up and be released in order for the process to proceed smoothly. But the process is pre-determined by the structure of the DNA and sacred fire letter codes (DNA keys). The soul/oversoul of the individual determines the timeline based on what the individual has learned and whether or not they understand how to transcend karma.

The understanding I received directly is that each embodied soul has a master template encoded within the DNA that determines when the trigger is activated. At the time of the activation, the cells of the physical body begin to mutate into the light body form. My trigger occurred in 1991, and as of 2004, I am approximately 0.2% (2/1000) complete in my ascension process. The ascension accelerates logarithmically, so it starts slowly and builds momentum. At this rate, it will be complete within 20 years. There are techniques that can manipulate the master template, although the timeline is usually pre-set by the soul prior to incarnation. The ease with which the process occurs can be greatly influenced by the level of understanding of the soul and the type of techniques used to increase awareness. In my meditations and personal counseling, I try to increase awareness of what is happening, although the actual templaste program is very complex and nearly impossible to understand. As stated above, the template is activated by each individual soul at a particular point in his/her evolution.

One meditation I like involves visualizing the strands of DNA being activated, going into a special power place (Halls of Amenti) and activating the sacred fire letters (patterns of energy that form the DNA). The entire meditation takes 20 to 40 minutes depending on the situation. This meditation is available to advanced students in its entirety in the Meditations section of this website and is available on cassette.

The Merkabah

The Master Template creates a field of light around the physical body. This field is often called the merkabah. There are conflicting accounts of how the merkabah works and how it is activated. Two of the pioneers in this area are Drunvalo Melchizedek and Ashayana Deane (Anna Hayes). I am not an expert on Drunvalos technique, but I am somewhat familiar with his work. Since I do what is commonly called "ascension activation" meditations, I apparently receive some similar information. Drunvalos website is http://www.spiritofmaat.com. There are disagreements among merkabah and ascension practitioners. For example, Ashayana Deane severely criticizes Drunvalo's techniques and offers her own version. Her website is http://www.azuritepress.com. I cannot stress strongly enough that we MUST get in touch with our own inner God presence and ask that presence to show us the best steps to take to build our merkabah vehicle (crystal light body and surrounding sacred geometries). Try Drunvalo's and Ashayanas techniques and see how you feel. Do they expand your awareness? Do you feel more balanced and integrated? I recommend you invoke psychic and spiritual protection before and after each use of the techniques. See my article on Psychic and Spiritual Protection.

As stated above, the Master Template is an AUTOMATED program that converts 3D cells into 4D cells by infusing light into the body. Eventually, these 4D cells become 5D cells (CO2 is converted to SiO2) and the crystal light body is manifest. This is the mechanical definition of ascension. The light body is impervious to the environment, immortal and disease-free. As David Wilcock has pointed out in his Convergence series (www.ascension2000.com), the ascension process unfolds according to principles of sacred geometry. The merkabah is a sacred geometric configuration that enfolds the auric field and meridians of the physical body into the etheric blueprint of the soul. Each level of evolution has a specific geometric configuration. The Convergence series goes into this in detail.

An analogy can be found in ordinary water. When water is super-charged with an electromagnetic field, the molecules become hexagonal in shape. When a colloidal suspension is bombarded with EM waves, sacred geometries form in the suspension. As the human body (largely water) is bombarded with high-frequency EM waves, the sacred geometries of the merkabah begin to form in the auric field. Although this can be influenced by using techniques such as the ones presented by Drunvalo, Ashayana and this author, keep in mind that the master template unfolds in a perfect, timely manner, and if you try and force the process, you could experience negative results. Although time is of the essence, one should not be in too big a hurry to ascend. Your motivation for ascension should be the expanded level of service and experience of Gods Love that it involves. Your motivation should NOT be I cant wait to escape this hell-hole called Earth. Such a motivation will hinder your spiritual progress, as will any form of making something wrong (judgment).

Everything is unfolding perfectly. Keep this thought in mind as you explore the mechanics of ascension.

Benefits of Ascension

The Light Body uses silicon as its primary building block (unlike the flesh body, which is based on carbon). CO2 is converted to SiO2 (which, as you probably guessed, is the formula of common quartz crystals). The crystal light body shimmers and sparkles to those who can see it but is invisible to those stuck in lower 3D. That is why, in the story of the rapture, people simply disappear (from the perspective of a 3D entity who stays behind). To the one who has just ascended, the world does not completely disappear, but takes on a radiance unlike anything previously experienced. It is as if a new world has been born. In actuality, both worlds existed all along, but o
nes awareness was focused on the 3D/4D world. The 5D world is a place of indescribable beauty. Everything shines and vibrates. There is no birth and death, as we know them, no sickness, no aging, no worry and no fear.

Once we learn how to stop aging and remain eternally youthful, then we also learn how to create our body to be any way we like. If we get tired of it, we just change it. We dematerialize and rematerialize wherever and whenever we want (across any part of time and space). So the thought that we would get bored living forever in the same body is totally irrelevant. In higher states of consciousness, there is no such thing as boredom anyway.

This scenario need not take place in the far distant future. It is available in this lifetime if we remain single-focused on Gods Love and service to others. Ascension is here now in this incredible time period in which we chose to embody.

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