This passage seems to oppose faith unfounded on fact and to uphold reason based on empirical observation. But Branden exaggeratedly says that (a) you can have no faith whatever in anything; (b) to believe anything whatever on faith is to stop thinking entirely; and that (c) reason is the only legitimate aspect of good thinking and that once you do not unconditionally accept it as such, you become an absolute slave to your whims. All these points, ironically, seem to have no empirical validation, to be accepted by the objectivists on faith rather than fact, and to be "true" because Rand and Branden strongly feel that they are. Moreover, Rand's assertions on capitalism, psychology, and everything else are to be taken on faith as absolute truth. Wherefore, in all this welter of hyperbole, art thou, reason?
20. Branden:
"Man's need of self-esteem entails the need for a sense of control over reality--but no control is possible in a universe which, by one's own concession, contains the supernatural, the miraculous and the causeless." This makes us at the mercy of ghosts and demons, in which we must deal, not with the unknown, but with the unknowable. We have possible control if people propose, but a ghost disposes. A haunted house makes no control possible, (1965a).
Personally, I think that I make just about no concession to the supernatural, the miraculous and causeless, and to ghosts and demons. Not only do I think that such entities do not exist; but also I believe that the motivations of those who dream up their existence often are feelings of worthlessness and other severe manifestations of emotional disturbance. Nonetheless, I would by no means contend that those who do believe in mild, moderate, or massive aspects of supernaturalism have no control over reality. The capitalists readily accept the "invisible hand," decry paganism while advocating some variant of Judeo-Christian-Islam religious, and have considerable control over reality in spite of these contradictions and pure faith ideas.
I am reminded, in this connection, of Gregor Mendel, a Catholic monk and in his own way a true believer in much theological nonsense, who exerted a great deal of influence over biologists, psychologists, chemists, and other scientists.
So I can by no means go along with the catastrophizing objectivist notion that for one to believe in any aspect of faith unfounded on fact is to automatically surrender one's contact with and control over reality. In fact, I often am concerned about the degree of contact with reality that the objectivists really retain--even though they ostensibly do not uphold a belief in supernatural entities.
21. Branden:
"Evasion, the refusal to think, the willful rejection of reason, the willful suspension of consciousness, the willful defiance of reality, is man's basic vice--the source of all his evils," (1965a).
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