In SUMMARY: a Tale of Two Universals.

In Heaven: there is a System of Merit in place by which all Goods are distributed in direct accordance with the Virtue of each Individual. Individuals need not pursue anything for themselves, since all rewards are distributed according to Merit. Since Heaven accepts only Virtuous Characters, there is no opportunity for want or envy, save for when Heaven has been Infiltrated from Below.

 

In Purgatory: here in the Shadow of Heaven's System, Individuals must exercise some of that Will Power that presumably landed them here in the first place. While every System fails in Purgatory and Absurdity creeps in, nonetheless a well-meaning Spirit retaining the memory of Heaven's Grace can behave conscientiously, pursuing only that to which he believes himself to be entitled; if he's wrong, he must be PROVEN wrong, ergo believing one's self to be Right is not a sin, whereas to act without that same conviction is deplorable and dealt with harshly.

 

In Hell: it's presumed that if you're here, there's not a single good thing to your name. Those who claim to be entitled are presumed to be inflated. The System does not operate here, since the System reserved Hell for its rejects. To defend yourself in Court is criminal; to not defend yourself in Court is a confession to the crime. Those few who get what they want pursue it without scruple or conviction, for they need no worth in order to enjoy the fruits of Evil, though of course their own enjoyment is devoured BY that Evil and the Evil of their fellows.

 

We now ask you: of these Three Above, which is closest to Our Modern Earth?

 

In Hegel: Virtue and the Way of the World are antithetical and intercontingent.

-  The Way of the World is: the Process by which Self-seeking Egoists create Hell on Earth by subjecting one another to their Sovereign Wills, thus producing Chaos.

-  Virtue is: the Process by which Well-meaning Altruists restore the World to Order by supplanting Egocentric Individuality.

At first: Virtue appears to be working towards the Good, which is presented as antithetical to Individuality.

However: Virtue can only become ACTUALIZED through Conflict with the Way of the World.

Furthermore: The Way of the World produces two redeeming qualities:

-  Egoists are incapable of acting without inadvertently serving others’ interests. (Presumably, even the Altruists benefit from the egoism of others, as Rand illustrates so contemptuously.)

-  Egoists, by producing Chaos, will create a World that does not absolutely satisfy any one Individuality. This means that:

Ironically: The Way of the World produces those Goods which Virtue sought:

1.   Benefit towards Others, and

2.   A Universal which is antithetical to Individuality.

Conversely: Virtue bites its own critique, since its RESISTANCE to the Universal (as produced by the Way of the World) produces an Individuality which Virtue claims to oppose.

Ergo: Whereas the Way of the World preserves Individuality as a means to the attainment of Universality, however inadvertently, Virtue ends up missing out on the Good while still being mired in its Individualistic Illusions about Goodness.

 

Retort: It becomes obvious quickly that those who seek Heaven, either in this Life or the Next, aspire towards a Universal Order which is antithetical to the Hell of Universal Chaos. Those who stand to benefit from the Chaotic Universal (of Hegel, Nietzsche, Rand, etc.) seek their own interests egocentrically; those who stand to benefit from the Ordered Universal (a la MacIntyre, Aristotle, Kierkegaard, etc.) seek their own interests altruistically.

All altruism contains within it some element of self-interest insofar as it is Just, since it is in the nature of Justice to reward those who uphold it. Any altruism which denies Justice promotes injustice both in principle and in actuality, thus producing Evil. Yet the Altruist remains distinct from the Egoist in that his self-interest follows THROUGH Justice, which MUST exist only IN ORDER TO combat Egoism.

 

Hegel is perceptive in noticing that Virtue is dependent upon the Way of the World. Yet it is not that Altruism cannot exist in the absence of Egoism. It is rather that Hegel defines “actual” Virtue as Virtue PUT INTO PRACTICE IN CONFLICT; i.e. Justice.

Justice is always circumscribed by the Evils established by Egoism. Were Egoism to vanish, were the Dancing Shiva to finally break the back of the Ignorant Dwarf, Justice would cease to exist as System, yet Virtue would only be set FREE from Systematic shackles. It is only because Hegel and his conspirators are so mired WITHIN the World as perceived by the Ego that they only acknowledge as “actual” that which is Systematic and treat the Transcendental Universal as a mere figment in the minds of fools.

 

The Result: The Altruist, seeking the Good, seeks also the Just by default of this. The Egoist, seeking the Self, upsets Justice and eventually injures the Altruist. The Altruist, denied Heaven’s Grace, is thus presented with only two alternatives: Purgatory and Hell.

Hell becomes synonymous with “the Way of the World”, but it is a World which the EGOIST HAS CREATED IN HIS OWN IMAGE. That the Chaos of this Hell is a Universal does not render it any less Hellish, nor does it disprove the existence of an Ordered Universal in Heaven, though Heaven has been denied to the Victim of the Injury; rather, Dialectical Opposition, taken to a RATIONAL Conclusion, must posit a Heaven to complement any Hell.

Conversely, Purgatory becomes the Path to Redemption, since it facilitates the transmutation of the Altruist into the Conscientious Person.

The Conscientious Person, operating within the Shadow of the Law, seeks his own interest but circumscribes his search within the Laws he or she retains from Heaven. The Conscience becomes the Individual Representation of Justice, operating autonomously even when Justice fails. Because the Egoist has PRODUCED both this Conscientious Individual and the World, and because becoming Conscientious is the less Hellish of the two options made available to the Victim, it is always the Egoist’s FAULT that the Victim seeks Himself, for it was Egoism which challenged the Way of Heaven.

Thereby Virtue is redeemed in the Conscientious Individual as a Path of Return to Justice. Heaven again becomes a Possibility and Justice becomes an Actuality; were Egoism to vanish, Justice would follow, but the Ordered Universal would then become Actual. All those who sought their own interests by Virtuous means would survive and Ascend, and just as surely as they threw off a bureaucratized Justice System, for it no longer served the Good, so too they could shed their own, Individualized sense of Justice, thereby transcending the Individuality they opposed.

 

[({Dm.R.G.)}]