The mind is an attribute
of the individual.
There is no such thing
as a collective brain.
as a collective brain.
There is no such thing
as a collective thought.
as a collective thought.
An agreement reached by a group
is only a compromise
is only a compromise
or an average drawn upon
many individual thoughts.
many individual thoughts.
It is a secondary consequence.
The primary act
the process of reason
must be performed
by each person alone.
by each person alone.
We can divide a meal among many people.
We cannot digest it in a collective stomach.
No one can use their lungs to breathe for another.
No one can use their brain to think for another.
All the functions of body and spirit are private.
They cannot be shared or transferred.
We inherit the products
of the thought
of other people.
We inherit the wheel.
We make a cart.
The cart becomes an automobile.
The automobile becomes an airplane.
But all through the process
what we receive
from others is only the end product of their thinking.
what we receive
from others is only the end product of their thinking.
The moving force is
the creative faculty
which takes
this product as material,
this product as material,
uses it and originates
the next step.
the next step.
This creative faculty cannot be
given or received,
shared or borrowed.
given or received,
shared or borrowed.
It belongs to
single, individual people.
single, individual people.
That which it creates is the property of the creator.
Individual's learn
from one another.
But all learning is only
the exchange of material.
the exchange of material.
No one can 'give' another
the 'capacity to think'.
the 'capacity to think'.
Yet that capacity
is our only
means of survival.
from Ayn Rand - For the New Intellectual
