One of the most common objections I come across when discussing Objectivism amongst philosophically minded friends is an argument I think of as the “Why bother with principles?” argument. I can explain, in brief terms, Ayn Rand’s ethics and how they link to politics, but many people don’t see the point in this exercise; they don’t think or act in terms of principles themselves, and cannot fathom the idea that something might be right or wrong all the time, in every circumstance. “Surely we need some regulations?”, they say after hearing my arguments, because the principle of individual rights holds no value to them; I could talk for hours about banking, housing, education and medicine, and how regulations in these industries have inflated prices and destroyed consumer choice due to the principle of force and its destruction of the principle of reason, and they would come back with: “Ok, but what about the food industry?”

“You have no choice about the necessity to integrate your observations, your experiences, your knowledge into abstract ideas, i.e., into principles. Your only choice is whether these principles are true or false, whether they represent your conscious, rational convictions—or a grab-bag of notions snatched at random, whose sources, validity, context and consequences you do not know, notions which, more often than not, you would drop like a hot potato if you knew. . . .”

Ayn Rand: Philosophy: Who Needs it

The key point to take away from this is that when principles are abandoned it is that ‘grab-bag of notions snatched at random’ that dictates your decisions and actions. Without identified and understood principles, man becomes a whim-worshipper; he takes drugs because the principle of doing no harm to one’s body isn’t important to him; he lies to his friends to inflate his ego because the principle of honesty is “moralistic nonsense”; he votes for a welfare state because it feels wrong not to, and he’s never even heard of the principles that might have given him pause. For those who know of principles but disregard them, once a principle has been broken there is nothing to stop these people from breaking it ever more egregiously, whenever the whim takes them.

I saw a modest but eloquent example of this when I woke up this morning and read the stories about the attack on Andy Ngo, an editor at the online magazine Quillette. Specifically, he was attacked by Antifa thugs with milkshakes containing fast-drying cement, something which can cause chemical burns, in a sickening emulation of the milkshake attacks in the UK.

This milkshake craze started when a random leftist threw a milkshake over Tommy Robinson, the anti-Islam activist the left love to hate. Before long milkshakes were being thrown over a multitude of right-wing figures; the response from leftist pundits was largely no better than mild disapproval, with some actively supporting the actions of the milkshakers. Most commentators ridiculed the idea that throwing a milkshake on someone is an act of violence, but the most revealing comment came from Dan Kaszeta, a former US secret service operative, whose tweets were reported on by The Independent:

“FFS, Nigel, Carl, Stephen. You got a whole posse of handlers and factotums. Keep a change of clothes handy and man up. What some fail to understand is that this is not a binary all or nothing, black or white thing. There’s a whole lot of grey area in a spectrum between completely innocuous funny s*** and actual physical violence. And a milkshake is towards the former, not the latter.”

Notice the complete denial of the possibility of principles; everything is just different shades of grey, there are no lines to be drawn, nothing is ‘black or white’. Except there is a clear and obvious line to be drawn – when you cause someone or their property damage or harm, that is violence. Throwing these drinks over someone ruins their clothes, costing them time and money to have them cleaned. It may only be a minor example of violence, but it is violence – it is an assault on these people and their property. To make this clearer, imagine if I went out with a milkshake today and threw it over an old lady from a poor area of town – would anyone in their right mind dare to say to her, “just get a change of clothes and man up”? The fact that richer people can afford the dry-cleaning bill doesn’t make it okay to ruin someone’s property, not to mention the psychologically intimidating aspect of having an unknown liquid thrown over you.

Once that principle had been broken, it was only a matter of time before these acts of violence became more extreme. After all, as Dan Kaszeta said, a milkshake is ‘towards’ non-violent ‘funny s***’ – so if we add in a few chemicals that might cause some mild burns, does that really swing it all the way ‘towards’ political violence? What about if we push a guy around a bit – no lasting physical damage is caused, is that just ‘funny s***’? How about stealing Trump signs and MAGA hats, is that actually theft or just a laugh? These questions are unanswerable without principles defining violence, theft, and rights in clear-cut, objective terms – and until this respect for principles is embedded in the culture, attacks like the one on Andy Ngo will only increase.

But the milkshake attacks are only one tiny, concrete example of the lack of respect for principles in Western culture. This cavalier attitude towards abstract ideas is also the epistemological fundamental behind the steady shift towards statism in the West over the last century. Without clearly defined principles voters and politicians look for guidance in that ‘grab-bag of notions snatched at random’ Ayn Rand spoke of decades ago, and in our current culture that bag is filled with altruistic slogans and anti-reason epithets telling us we can be sure of nothing – except the need for more welfare programs, more regulations, and more taxes.

It’s not just Andy Ngo and other right-wing journalists that are in danger without principles – it’s all of us.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/antifa-attack-portland-andy-ngo-portland-proud-boys-alt-right-a8981331.html

http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/principles.html

https://www.popdust.com/in-defense-of-throwing-milkshakes-2637900170.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/milkshake-protest-nigel-farage-brexit-tommy-robinson-carl-benjamin-a8925646.html