The mandatory and malignant narcissism – the culture of character cannibalism pervading much of the “Objectivist movement” today– still continues in countless clever forms.  I submit myself – Orion Reasoner – as evidence to this phenomenon, along with easy-to-follow interpretations of the events surrounding my recreational, sporting use by the narcissistic conspirators of the SOLO cadre as their “ultimate villain.”

All organizational movements rely on some “enemy” to focus themselves against, and contrast themselves with.  Ethical and fair-minded movements choose antithetical mindsets and philosophies to demonize, and choose individuals to demonize only reluctantly.  Unethical, fundamentally imbalanced, cannibal cultures sense their own constant instability and thus single out convenient individuals to deliberately bait into the role of “ultimate villain”.

This is how SOLO, and Objectivism in general, chooses to function – because of its core instability, that is.

We know several things by now about Objectivism and the now-fractured cadre which informally goes by the name “SOLO” and has been perpetuated at SoloPassion:

These things by now are obvious to all but the psychopathically dishonest. 

And so, given this recipe for disaster, I, quite green about this culture, waltzed in, having no knowledge of – or experience with – the character-cannibalizing culture of Objectivism.  I thought I was coming to bounce ideas, in pursuit of greater truth.  I had no idea that I was surrounding myself with narcissistically-obsessed maniacs who would be continually scrutinizing my every word and nuance for the slightest finger-hold by which they could twist my reputation into that of “the most despicable villain,” in order to make themselves look better by comparison.

But that is precisely what they did.   Certain individuals who, unlike myself, viewed SOLO as a cutthroat competition to see who could shine supreme – waited with broiling, narcissistic and resentful urgency to post any comment that they could magnify to mountainous proportions as “supremely evil,” in order to gather others to the fray and have me banned.

The passing comment which I made on only one occasion was that, following the horrific events of September 11^th and the nightmarish conspiracy that the entire Arab world seemed to be sadistically and even demonically relishing their participation in, that I had moments where I felt like they should just all be nuked. 

I challenge any honest person to deny that, by now, that feeling hasn’t crept over them at least once since September 11^th.  As a matter of record, even the celebrated Wafa Sultan herself has stated publicly in print and on television that she holds the Arab world itself accountable for holding an entirely evil philosophy toward Israel, the United States, and the entire non-Muslim world in general.  Even she uses the terms “Arab” and “Muslim” interchangeably.

But was my comment even to be taken that seriously?  Of course not.  It was the voice of what was understandably – to any decent human being, of course – pure fear and frustration.  It was necessary catharsis and, yes, in hindsight, overgeneralization.  After all, since those days, the very existence of the magnificent Wafa Sultan – herself an Arab – has made me shed more than one actual tear of hope for the world’s future, and given me hard evidence that has forced me to cause me to psychologically separate the concepts of “Arab” and “Muslim”.

But even when I made the comment, did those who so delighted in attacking me, do it because they truly judged my comments to be somehow wrong?  Actually, no.  That wasn’t the real reason, even in the eyes of the main instigators at SOLO who seemed to object so strongly to it.  On the contrary, it was merely an excuse to construct a token “villain” (namely, me) which a certain group of militantly narcissistic, resentful, and ambitious SOLOists could pretend to vanquish in their roles as “noble heroes”.

Until that point, had I said a far greater many true and profoundly insightful and correct things which had earned me the rapid respect of those at SOLO?  Of course!  And that’s the whole point:  My sudden appearance and rapid respectability was threatening to a certain core of frustrated ambitionists who wanted me out of the way. 

(So much for Ayn Rand’s edict of I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.  Apparently, I was supposed to “hide my light under a bushel”, so that certain ambitionists would not feel threatened.  Mind you, that’s their choice to live like that, not mine… but getting me out of the way was certainly more interesting for publicly self-admitted malevolent sadists.)

(Of course not; apologizing to me would violate what is now official SOLO law regarding only the derogatory use of my name as an all-purpose piñata.  And yet the SOLO crowd still demands automatic respect for routinely behaving like this.  Like chimpanzees.)

At times, however, when nobody thinks I’ll find out, I am sent little tidbits that reaffirm my understanding that truth is still more powerful than vanity.  Although it’s been for some time now the official party line that all SOLO affiliates use the name Orion Reasoner as an Orwellian “Emmanuel Goldstein,” token “bad guy” to be conformingly referenced in a mocking and demonizing way, even Lindsay Perigo himself can’t restrain his own histrionically impulsive nature to proclaim in his “Death to Islam” thread that:

Huh?  Orion Reasoner was right?

Of course I was.  I was right way back when I was at SOLO, when Lindsay – in his trademark, typically hasty and histrionic fashion (as driven by the Objectivist mandate for narcissism) – publicly denounced me to all his flock at SOLO as being “mentally unstable” for being concerned about personal safety issues… and, not surprisingly, I’m still right, even now.

But, as I’ve said before, to Objectivists such as those at SOLO it’s never really about whether someone is actually right or wrong, but whether or not their actions can be spun in such a way, as to make them appear right or wrong and, thus, ripe for public denouncing and character assassination, with the goal being their own delusion and illusion of narcissistic elevation.