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Old 08-15-2006, 03:03 AM  
jayeff
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Join Date: May 2001
Posts: 2,944
Quote:
Originally Posted by $5 submissions
I actually read all that. Ayn Rand is amazing! Very refreshing read specially when you think of all the recent pop psychology that people are PRODUCTS of external events instead of being the PRIME MOVERS of their own destiny.
Human beings want desperately to believe in their individuality and that they control their destiny. But the reality is that individual behavior falls within a very small number of classifications and as soon as we become part of even a small group, the behavior of that group is almost entirely predictable.

That is partly because we are products of external events, but mainly because we are driven by genetic imperatives. In other words we are only able to react to external factors in a limited number of ways and those reactions will be largely "instinctive". All of which, although philosophers and pyschologists would have us believe otherwise, has more to do with zoology than their disciplines.
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