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airborne

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Everything posted by airborne

  1. Neetchuh. Well I ordered "Human, all too human" and "Beyond good and evil", hopefully these will give me a clearer idea of what he was raving about and why it is so amazing.
  2. http://www.cxoadvisory.com/gurus/Cramer/ I would be careful of following any investment advice, even if from someone who has a track record of making money in the markets. You can still loose money even when getting good advice. Also IBD has some great stock research resources such as proprietary industry rankings, relative strength, fundamentals, accumulation/distribution(from institutions), technical strength etc which are to be used in combination with their CANSLIM method of self-investing.
  3. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1770 Jews included? This is not something I normally read but its totally absurd!
  4. Well I'm half-way through Neitzsche's book and I don't get why people like it so much. Sure, there are some nice pieces... (The soothsayer) But most of the time I find myself asking: "wtf is he talking about?". I will have people quote me shit like "to give birth to a dancing star one should have chaos within oneself" then say how amazing he is. Umm, well I have chaos in myself all the time and no dancing stars are bursting out of me. Am I missing something here? apart from the poetic language(which I cannot understand most of the time) what is so good about this book?
  5. I am looking for books and or dvds on Thomas Jefferson. Any recommendations? Also I noticed there is a HBO documentary on John Adams. Is anybody watching this, and what do they think?
  6. ManOfSteel: I have been in a similar situation to yours. Anything technical that required repair or fixing was my responsibility(it all started when I decided I wanted to build my own computer). I once even had family friends ask me to fix their computer, and I did, only to later have them accusing me of destroying it! From then on I just pretended to have no clue. ever. I forgot everything. "hmm, gee, I really don't know how to fix this". And if I was harassed at home I would kindly show them a help file and struggle to understand its contents along with them. I no longer waste my time fixing anyones computers or doing anything of that sort. I help when it is needed, but I never spend hours doing work someone else should be or is capable of doing.
  7. When have you felt good? what moments, what events?
  8. A question related, which only occurred to me now, by voluntarily joining an army which conscripts citizens am I not morally sanctioning it? it would seem so as I am under no compulsion.
  9. I don't know about all of you but at my age and with my friends its quite common to watch or listen to pirated media. In such a situation, where no force is involved, are you being immoral by watching the dvds with your friends or staying at a party where pirated music is being played? It would seem absolutely ridiculous and impractical to me to leave every party or friends place whenever this occurs but I cannot give any reasons as to why it is moral to stay. Am I not being a hypocrite if I refuse to download music/movies and then give moral sanction to my friends by watching? You cannot say you disagree with it and continue watching because that is also hypocritical. You can't say you value your friendship more than reality/justice? No one is forcing you to listen so you can't claim it is a situation where no morality applies. What is the thing to do? why? Objectivism is supposed to be practical so how is this situation handled?
  10. Could someone post specific chapters or references to books or other media which may assist in resolving the PP?
  11. Informative as usual John. Wont be necessary to dig up the RBA publication - I'll have enough of that to do in the rest of my diploma
  12. A related question: When the Reserve contracts the money supply in an inflationary enviroment this cannot be a permanent contraction, only a temporary halt in the growth of money supply as the more bonds they issue or whatever it is they use these days to contract the supply the more they will have to pay later. Right?
  13. What is the significance of this emotion? Boredom could be described as a lack of energy, lack of motivation and maybe a lack of challenge. I think. Have any of you professing to be Objectivist ever experienced boredom in their productive field of work? their relationships?
  14. yes sometimes. Most bus drivers are dickheads though so its okay. Thanks guys this has been helpful. It still has not completely "clicked" as such but I'm sure it will eventually.
  15. That was fairly crazy. - Tal’at Rmeih and the host laugh at her when she refuses to denounce "historical documents" and "knowledge" but her willingness to denounce the koran. lol??? - The host from france claims that there is no free speech in America, only when it comes to muslims, and that a cinema was burnt down when an anti-christian movie was released(something along these lines) -Tal’at Rmeih claims that Bernard Lewis was silenced and Noam Chomsky had a book which had one sentence in it about the holocaust and so it was banned? how fucking deluded are they? at least they realize how morally weak and flexible the west is...
  16. One thing I still haven't grasped about principles: Are they supposed to be a general guidance for life whereby you get the best results most of the time or are they absolutely right all-the time with no exceptions? I have many things that come to mind that I feel are in my self-interest but principles say they are not. If I escape a "crime" my self-esteem is supposed to suffer but that is assuming that my emotional programming is set to those principles no? some quick examples that come to mind are: -downloading music(I haven't become depressed, anxious or embarrased about life since downloading music so I don't understand this whole self-esteem destroying thing) -a bus driver giving you way too much change on a bus and not noticing and then you keep it. I have trouble understanding why its not in my self-interest to do these things. Why should I not just set my emotional compass to be happy/okay with me doing anything that is in my self-interest(I understand they are not according to Objectivism but I can't for the hell of me understand why - respecting property rights is reasonable, but why not just advocate it but not follow it yourself?). also I have read about gyges ring:if it were in my possession, and with my current beliefs I would most definitely steal but I would have to get over emotional hurdles - and this is what I want to resolve/figure out. I'm still on the line of If I can get away with it why the hell not.
  17. Tenzing_Shaw I enjoyed that painting but I never thought of it as you did. Interesting... here is the description from Vladimir's offical page: (http://www.vladimirkush.com/editions.php?id=120&category=Editions/Available%20Limited%20Edition%20Prints)
  18. These are great! http://www.orangecountyfineart.com/kush.htm
  19. I've just finished reading "We the Living". Wow, I loved it. I found myself identifying with Andrei, not that I'm a communist. And I also really admired Kira! The end brought one tear to my eye though...
  20. Why does Rand always mention everyone eating sunflower seeds? e.g. "Tenants bringing their own chair sat chewing sunflower seeds. Those who brought no chairs sat on the floors and chewed sunflower seeds."(pp.176). I get that people like the sunflower seeds but its mentioned so much. Why?
  21. Its hard to say, but he could be a hero. I don't think he jumped in the water with the intention of dieing. I bet part of the reason for glorifying him so much, and this is what you seem to be suggesting, is that society always glorifies someone who seems to sacrifice himself. But was it really sacrifice? could the man bear to stand there and not do anything when he believed he could save her and still live?
  22. I'm having trouble understanding how rational interest cannot conflict. Tara Smith states that individual desires can conflict - And I think this is the heart of my problem. Not understanding the difference between rational individual desires and rational interests. What is the difference? I have trouble understanding this especially when it comes to having a lover who you loose to someone else. Tara smith states that "Being turned down for a job is not the equivalent of losing your business; being passed over for another lover is not the equivalent of having your present lover die..."(Normative Ethics, pp.41). The difference I see here is that the job was never owned by the business owner in the first place. But you did own your lover, you had already gained her and now you lost her. This can be a conflict of rational desires, but what if the lover is so important to you that you cannot live without her being your lover? Does this then not become your interest?
  23. I've been trying to put all my thoughts on paper and this is what I think I've discovered. I feel lots of social pressure to do it, I will take responsibility for it because I honestly left for Israel last year with this idea of joining, I just wanted to be sure. I was living with a friend who has now joined. Then I discovered Objectivism and it completely changed my perspective in regards to duty - "giving back", god, martyrdom. But I also feel like it is a chapter of my life that I've always wanted, and I don't know how rational my thought-process was or still is - but I guess it has alot to do with being a hero - showing myself I can be a hero, and that I'm strong mentally and worthy(of success). But then at the same time I wouldn't join the Iranian Revolutionary guard to be a hero, I'd want to joint a just cause. Something worthy of my contribution. I'm different now then I was last year in that I'm not so passionate about "Jews" or zionism(which can mean all sorts of crazy ideas to people - lots of welfare for jews) as much as I am about liberty, lassaiz faire politics and rational people. I wrote down negatives on if I join and don't join(the army). If I join I feel like alot will be taken away from me(not forever obviously). and If I don't I feel "empty", since I've been thinking about this since I was a kid, I don't exactly know what I'll do apart from trading and studying. There are many other things I want obviously but I've always envisioned them as coming later in life. Anyway, to the point. I still don't know what I want to do. I'm not sure I know how to make the decision, if I'm evading something, or just scared to finally push a button which can flush or follow-through on years and years of emotional, mental and physical commitment.
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