Snipawolf

This is basically a repost from my same topic on the OL forums. I am just spreading it around and seeing what Objectivists think of it. "I'm of the opinion that if all public servants were paid an amount of money equivalent to the average annual income of the US citizen, then the government as a whole would massively improve. Career politicians would likely pursue other careers as their income would be severely cut. If they have a degree in law, economy, etc, it would be better served if it were employed by a private company. This would take the immoral (immoral to an Objectivist, who believes that abuse of an elected position of power for personal gain is essentially being a looter) politicians out of office and out of public service. This would leave moral people who are honestly worried about the welfare of the country as a whole to take office. Even if an immoral politician took office, to directly raise his income, he must raise the income of all US citizens. The politicians and government workers would also be directly influenced by the rise and fall of the economy and the rise and fall of the income itself after taxes are taken out. Naturally, this would dissuade the government from throwing any kind of social/welfare taxes into the income taxing, as well as likely causing them to lax taxing as a whole. The government itself would also use much less of the revenue it gains to support paying off politicians and public servants and this money would be freed up for other uses. I believe that public servants (especially elected ones) make the CHOICE to be responsible for the citizenry of the country that they are employed for. This choice should not be dissuaded by an average (literally) income. This also puts a politician in the position of an average American, provided (s)he is not backed by a wealthy benefactor. By being in the position of an average American, they are living in a condition which affords them a view of how best to improve the country. This is just something I've been pondering lately. I don't think it'd ever come to fruition unless the vast majority of the public supported it so viciously that they threw opponents of it out of office, but hey, we can wish right? Hahaha. I'm curious for others' opinions on this."

Hahaha! I did not mean in person, I just meant around on the forums. Hopefully, my teachers know how to teach. LSU is supposedly the best university in Louisiana...

As you have laid it out, boredom itself is not the issue. I am disgusted primarily with the state of being bored for long periods of time or for no reason. Most of the people I know who are bored don't bother making a choice to commit to some endeavor to end their boredom. They instead go and be bored while watching TV or be bored while "listening to music" (my opinion on music is that listening to it is an engaging activity; you can't be bored while truly listening to music because if you are "listening" to it, you are actively analyzing and devoting attention to it; anything less is basically using it as background noise). More often than not, they must be saved from their boredom by some external event and instead of fixing their problem on their own, whine about it endlessly to their friends. "I'm soooo bored! There's nothing to do in Central! [The town I live in] I hate this place. I want to go to Baton Rouge!" is typically what I hear or see. Baton Rouge is a thirty minute drive and the vast majority of them have vehicles and gas in their tanks, so why are they whining instead of going to BR? It just astounds me. Even if they weigh the decision of going or not going and come out with not going, they are upset enough to verbalize it.

Strong standards/self-esteem. I don't like overly sensitive or emotional people, nor do I like couch potatoes and people who intend on doing a whole lot of nothing with their lives. Someone with strong standards won't let themselves get obese, won't fall into mental decay, and just generally won't be put down by anyone or anything. (S)he has to be strong and not allow him/herself to be bested. (S)he has to overcome. A strong person without standards is worthless, and a weak person with standards doesn't have the will to enforce them.

We'll see. I'm sure we'll both be in each other's company some time in the future and I'll have some experience with my teachers/instructors by then. I'll be a thorn in their side if they offend my Objectivist sensibilites.

That sounds really interesting. I'm going to listen to it sometime tonight. I think physics should merely be perception of the world/universe around us and explanation of reality via studies and experiments grounded in cause and effect. Physics is not really physics if it's just baseless speculation.

Okay, so I heard about someone being "bored" the other day. Actually, I see it fairly often on Facebook or in text messages! I ask them if they've had holes put into them by some looter with malicious intent, but they always say that they are fine physically and they're just "bored." Then I decide to ask them if they have a defect of some kind which rendered them holed or maybe even if they're holy. I could see that as a pun, a "holy" person being "bored." Haha.. ha.. Not as funny as I wanted it to be. No, but really.. Does other people being bored bother you? It bothers me. There's not enough time in the world to do everything I want to. I want to play every video game. I want to draw. I want to take a lot of pictures. I want to bodybuild and have abs. I want to overclock and tune my computer. I want to develop video games. I want to hack just for the sake of doing it. I want to read a lot of things and further my intelligence. I want to write novels and short stories. I want to try and be more outgoing so I can meet more people and find more Objectivists. I want to find a girl I respect and admire enough to call my girlfriend. I want to explore genetics, physics, and biology. I want to learn about the mind and the body. I want to watch movies. I want to listen to music. I want to learn to play an instrument, or multiple. I want to compose songs. I want to fight people in formal and informal combat. I want to powerlift. I want to be a weightlifter in the Olympics for the US. I want to be a politician and improve this country, the one founded on the premise of MAKING MONEY. I want to have good grades. I want to do a lot of things, but I'm resigned to knowing that I don't possibly have the time to do even a fraction of them... This is why people being bored annoys me. There's so much to do! There are dreams to chase! Passions to indulge in! There's a life for you to live! FOR YOURSELF AND YOUR OWN HAPPINESS. The only reason apathy and inactivity exists is because people are perfectly fine with being content and complacent. This should not be the case. You shouldn't just "get by alright"... sleepwalking your life away, hanging with friends and drinking and watching TV and working a dead end job and going clubbing every night and just doing NOTHING creative or self-improving with all of that spare time. It's just pitiful. I hate when people are "bored."

Congratulations! And yes, I'm aware that my physics teachers will likely teach it terribly. My high school teacher was a joke. When I took the AP test, I figured out that we didn't even get to anything to do with electricity and that comprised about a third of the test. I'd be surprised that I even got a 2 on it, but I was actually rather confident that I could possibly make up for my lack of knowledge on electricity with my strength in motion, thermodynamics, waves, etc. I was wrong, but that's okay. I wouldn't skip the first course anyways. Just like calculus. I am still taking the first course, even though I passed that AP test and could just skip to the next one. I'd rather reinforce what I've got.

Figured I should register and drop on in. I've creeped for the past two days or so. I am the hogger of Atlas Shrugged; brother to Snow_Fox. Hahaha. (You'll get the book as soon as I can start reading it again/finish up the ending, summer college courses are only for a little bit longer and then I won't have any more English Literature class to keep up with!) Basic junk about me: I was fundamentally an Objectivist before I started reading Atlas Shrugged, but it locked my views in and reinforced them greatly. Now, I believe that Objectivism is the solution to almost any problem and the cause of most problems is a lack of defining one's own values and living by them/self-esteem. Hypocrites anger me greatly. I respect Christians or those who follow other religions, so long as they are passionate and serious about them. If they say they believe in God but don't act the part, I'll call them out on it. "Only God can judge" is also something that gets me annoyed. If anybody cares to hear me rant on it, ask, but I'm digressing as it is. Hahaha. I love to work out. I was a powerlifter a few months ago during high school and got second for my weight class in the HS nationals despite it being my first/only year as a powerlifter. I played football before that but quit my senior year as I had four AP classes and grades>>>>football. I have extreme standards for myself and for who my friends are. I'm disappointed in myself when I make anything less than perfect because I know that a perfect score is always something I can achieve if I work hard enough for it. As far as friends go, be logical or I won't tolerate your presence. I'm 18, going to LSU, and majoring in physics. I love the sciences, but if I don't like physics, I'll likely go into computer science. I half-way developed a game for the Spring open source engine project when I was a freshman/sophomore in high school but lost interest as I was on the football team; I fell into unrequited love and could no longer do anything creative for a year and a half; and school was actually becoming challenging. I think I've bored you guys with enough personal details, heh. I'm glad I found this forum. Perhaps my pride won't be seen as arrogance or big-headedness and my standards won't be seen as stuck up or conceited here. I am proud of what I've done and not ashamed to say it. Edit: I forgot to ask, does anybody have a sleeveless shirt from http://www.proudproducers.com/index.php ? And if so, could you take a picture of yourself wearing it? I'd consider getting one to workout in but I want to make sure it looks like I think it does (And I don't trust the "preview" pictures of them, I'd rather a real picture). Objectivism gets me jacked up because I know that my hands are those of the greatest creator, those of the greatest destroyer, and I can accomplish all things through an indomitable will.