\n\n\n" }[M]y interpretation of Rand\u00e2\u0080\u0099s core principle has always been \u00e2\u0080\u009cDo\u00c2\u00a0not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you\u00e2\u0080\u009d (Hitchens 2001: 140). \u00c2\u00a0I know neither if Randians agree with my interpretation of her nor if Hitchens, were he still among us, would appreciate me interpreting his words as expressing a foundational principle endorsed both in the Bible and in Rand\u00e2\u0080\u0099s philosophy.
\nAnd note that even if many adults are eager \u00e2\u0080\u0093 even when taking a long-run perspective \u00e2\u0080\u0093 to enter with other adults into a pact of mutual slavery (\u00e2\u0080\u009cI\u00e2\u0080\u0099ll live to sacrifice myself for you if you live to sacrifice yourself for me\u00e2\u0080\u009d), this fact does not morally require those of us who\u00c2\u00a0don\u00e2\u0080\u0099t wish to live to sacrifice ourselves for others to follow in the footsteps of these mutual enslavers. \u00c2\u00a0Hitchens\u00e2\u0080\u0099s \u00e2\u0080\u0093 and the Bible\u00e2\u0080\u0099s \u00e2\u0080\u0093 wise moral advice is followed by those of us who do not wish to sacrifice ourselves for others if we simply and consistently do not expect or force others to sacrifice themselves for us -\u00c2\u00a0and by our resisting, in every prudent way possible, attempts by the mutual enslavers to draft us into their pact of mutual sacrifice, as well as resist their efforts to portray us as immoral because we refuse to be enchanted by their collectivist creed.
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