Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 01/15/12 in all areas

  1. An artist is able to burn away all irrelvancies and present a picture that focuses only on what truly matters to the artist. In learning about Reardon, Roark, Dagny Taggart. D'Anconia - these Idealized capitalists are presented as pure examples -it is easy to see the pertinent traits. Reading biographies of the real giants capitalism, one is presented a complex picture of an individual... the important aspects of the person are often buried under many layers of useless personal information. There is value in reading and studying the triumphant caputalists, but one must dig for the timeless truths amid the trivia. Rand's Idealized heroes present none of those challenges. It's like the difference between discovering gems in the jewelry store or in a gem mine - in both instances there are valuable things to be found, but in the former location one must merely recognize them, while in the latter one must dig through quite a bit of worthless material to discover each gem. On the objectivist morality of the trader, once internalized this gave me a framework with which to easily and effectively refute collectivists, socialists, and the merely envious who attempt to push guilt onto achievers. More importantly, it gave me the moral certainty of the righteousness of reaping the rewards of the wealth that I earn as a producer. This moral certainty is priceless, and makes me far more efficacious than I otherwise could be if I were racked with doubts of my own worthiness to produce wealth and keep what I have earned.
    3 points
  2. Yeah well as far as the argument agains the underlying moral principles of democracy (as opposed to democracy as a methodological device, i.e. "ballots over bullets") then the argument is the logical one against appeal to consensus. This would be a type of legal positivism, where the source of right is just some decreeing agency, down to its furthest roots is a primacy of consciousness metaphysics. As far as individual rights go, it should be clear that if a system entails the possibility of expropriation of individuals by redistribution to people who definitely did not produce the income in question, and did not have any contractual claims to it, but can decide for themselves on how far expropriation can go by their own majority say-so, then individual rights don't exist at all, and the group owns the person's life. From an economic standpoint, if it should be clear that if that is so, then the incentive to be an owner-producer is lowered and the incentive to be a "have-not" is raised leading to a lower production and standard of living. The argument should then go that expropriation by majority vote should be limited (ideally down to zero) and that introducing legal constraints against majority vote should be more beneficial and just.
    1 point
  3. Enjoy guys! Just to note a few similarities of tantamount importance: "For a woman qua woman, the essence of feminity is hero-worship--the desire to look up to man." - Ayn Rand "If you have a more feminine sexual essence, your professional life may be incredibly successful, but your core won't be fulfilled unless love is flowing fully in your family or intimate life." - D.D. Both authors share the same ideal of masculinity and its opposite. Another quote by D.D: The imagery of Dominique is perfect here, and Rand's characterization of how Roark responds to her is just so consistent. That in Dominique's most brutal "testing" her secret desire was that Roark could not be broken...the harder she pushes for hurting Roark, the more she admits to herself of the depth of her love for him, that even when she succeeded she still could not hurt him and that he still completely dominated her in mind and body. And the later part of the book when Dominique leaves Roark and returns to test him and see if he will abandon his purpose, in that moment truly acting as if she wanted just that, and Roark of course knowing that deep down it would be a betrayal of his own values, and that Dominique would grow to resent and hate him for it if he would submit to her impulse...
    1 point
×
×
  • Create New...