The Binary Circumstance links to Objectivism and the Primacy of Existence.#

When Ayn Rand distinguishes 'existence' from 'consciousness', she mainly means by "existence" what other philosophers call "the external world" -- thus, the distinction is between states of one's own mind and external phenomena. According to Objectivism, existence has primacy over consciousness in two senses. First, epistemologically: human knowledge begins with (sensory) awareness of the external world. It does not begin with awareness of one's own ideas. The reason is that ideas or states of consciousness are necessarily ideas about something, and that something is what one is aware of. One could not become aware of one's own consciousness, unless one first had some states of consciousness to be aware of; and one could not have states of consciousness, unless one first had something else that one was conscious of.

Something I like to bring up is that even though the Forms exist independently of any observer, and thus existence is "prime" over consciousness, that doesn't mean that everything your senses tell you is true. The world we create in our minds is based upon the physical experience of the real world, but it is not the same world.

Example: A blind person who has always been blind does not have the concept of colour in their mind world. Does that mean it doesn't exist? No. Given the assumption that both time and space are infinite, or beyond human contemplation, then we cannot be completely sure that sometimes does NOT exist (like colour) nor could we tell if it didn't. Thus, there is no absolute and completely understanding of reality--often called Truth.

There are only the various truths that we decide on as a culture and our primary tools to create these truths are reason and experience.

The two main actors: The Binary Circumstance and The Yeti.#

The setting: The Binary Circumstance writes about how "patriotism" can turn into the worship of human sacrifices for the preservation of the collective.#

On Honour and Duty.#

The Yeti:

An American soldier does not trade his life to get a flag. He risks his life because he believes in concepts like honor and duty.

The Binary Circumstance:

The Yeti-We speaks for an American soldier and presumes to know what he thinks, what his values are. In reality, The Yeti-We is telling American soldiers what they "should" think and what their values "should" be. The concepts of honor and duty imply "honor of something" and "duty to something." What does The Yeti-We feel we should all honor? What does The Yeti-We think we all have a duty to? These are values and values are products of the individual mind. Rational values are not products of a collective. The Yeti-We is correct that soldiers don't trade their lives for flags; a dead person can't trade. It's the collective Yeti-We that trades soldier's lives for flags in order to perserve The Yeti-We's collective flag-waving Yeti-We-self.

On Freedom:#

The Yeti:

It's trite to say that soldiers die so ingrates like the man at Binary circumstance can write freely on his website.

The Binary Circumstance:

It's not only trite, it's insulting to suggest that I have my freedom because some a bunch of twenty-somethings are fighting Bush's war on Iraq. Most of those soldiers were not even born when I, as a gay man, started fighting for freedom. They were not even born when I fought for the lives of my friends during the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco when the government turned it's back on us. I've been fighting for freedom for 52 years and haven't seen it yet. In fact, I am still forced at the point of a gun by my own country to support a military that no gay man or lesbian serve openly and proudly in. If The Yeti-We sees freedom there, The Yeti-We suffers from delusions.

The Yeti:

Speaking of his contempt for breeders - Does anyone read this guy and start thinking of Phil Hendrie? I swear he sounds like the man who begins every sentence with "As a gay man and a gay journalist..." See - the idea is supposed to be that BC has suffered under the oppression of us breeders. Thus - he is more sensitive to nuances, and also isn't responsible for buying into our breeder myths because none of us care about him and his kind.

I don't care what your sexual orientation is, BC. I doubt your sincerity in this manner because you express such contempt for the society you live in it becomes impossible to separate what you believe from what you use to shore up your self-esteem.

On Values:#

The Yeti:

In truth, all you can really do is feel sad for him. His life will always be lacking. To reach his age, and not understand what a line two-and-a-half miles long of teenage boys already understands.

The Binary Circumstance:

Again, the Yeti-We tells you how to feel. In truth, "all you can really do" feel sad for me. One option. No other choices. The truth is that The Yeti-We has sacrificed the Yeti-self and projects that it is the Binary Circumstance that is lacking. I might be lacking some things like a collective identity but a self is not one of them.

 

The Yeti:

And no matter what - in this country, we honor the fallen. We are acknowledging that a young man lost his life in service to his country.

The Binary Circumstance:

To accept that soldiers--mostly young men--are dead and not coming back forces us to ask ourselves, "Why did they die? Why did they die so young?" We would ask ourselves these questions about a young man who died of a disease and we would race to find a cure if hundreds of boys or girls were dying from the same disease. Why are we afraid to call dead soldiers dead? Why are we unwilling to find the cure for what's killing them?

Could it be that we collectively regard their lives as less valuable than irrational, inanimate entities like duty, honor, and country? The Yeti-We would have to take a long deep look in the mirror at the collective Yeti-We-self to find that answer.

Later, The Binary Circumstance ponders why they are sacrificed:

Almost 500 soldiers have died while the NASDAQ climbed a staggering 60% in 10 months. That's only 8.3 lives for each percentage gain in the market. Every percent gained means billions in new wealth for investors and the government, with most of it going to those who already have so much money they can't count it, the same people that Bush already gave huge tax cuts to. In Objectivist terms: Are we trading a lower value for a higher value (a moral good) or trading a higher value for a lower value (a moral evil)? You be the judge.

On The Country:#

The Yeti:

That Binary Circumstance can't understand that, and instead sees a mystical ceremony of human sacrifice, speaks to his failures, not ours.

The Binary Circumstance:

Forgive me but The Binary Cirumstance doesn't understand all things like The Yeti-We. I am a mere mortal. But there is one thing that the BC does understand: Things either exist or they don't. A young man has a life and a mind. A country is an inanimate entity without a mind. To suggest that a young man should die for a country is to suggest that a young man should die for a rock. That would be sacrificing a human life for something of much lesser value, a bad trade that diminishes the value of human life. Conversely, for any one to trade his/her life in defense of his own rational mind, his liberty and his own individual values is a good and moral trade.

The Yeti:

Under your thought system, there should be no funerals for anyone - whether soldiers or gay men dead of AIDS-related diseases because they no longer exist - and the rest of us are foolish for wasting time and effort on people who no longer exist.

The Binary Circumstance:

I wish you well in attending all those funerals. I've already attended far too many for young men in my life.