NateTheGreat

Socialism is an economic system, Communism is a political system.

I've noticed that whenever anything collectivist is espoused, it's always completely irrelevant to what is being discussed. For example, in our history book it talks of Romanticism when people "discovered the limits of reason." Not when they thought, but when they did. It will also have random graphs of wealth disparity and whatnot. I'm with the other responders, I think that can be cut out totally.

Before seeing the ridiculous regulatory board, I came across this very interesting article. While noting the Fed has done little to help 'unemployment' (Even if this is a good way to measure the health of the economy) he still seems to feel like the Fed has supernatural powers to just save the economy. Very unsettling for an advocate of liberty. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/federal-reserve-to-disclose-more-details-on-plans-for-low-interest-rates/2012/01/23/gIQAp2BHMQ_story.html

A major criticism of Objectivism is that Rand talks a lot about the objective value life, yet fails to recognize (or intentionally leaves out) that production and creation do not follow from this value of "life." Do men need reason to survive? Yes. But if it's necessary to use Rand's philosophy to survive, this premise begs the question of how men survived before Rand came along. I think this argument is flawed in many ways, but it does point to a flaw I feel is in Objectivism. Yes- we need reason to survive. But how does it follow production is a moral virtue? Rand defines virtue as how on

Well, there's certainly "experts" that Objectivists oppose. The experts in economics are the Keynesians, while the "experts" in philosophy are the Kantians. Often, when an expert needs to be quoted, there is a dispute as to what is the reality of the situation. I would say to rationally analyze what each individual has to say and to judge their conclusions based on their merits.

"Fear, guilt and the quest for pity combine to set the trend of art in the same direction, in order to express, justify and rationalize the artists’ own feelings. To justify a chronic fear, one has to portray existence as evil; to escape from guilt and arouse pity, one has to portray man as impotent and innately loathsome. Hence the competition among modern artists to find ever lower levels of depravity and ever higher degrees of mawkishness—a competition to shock the public out of its wits and jerk its tears. Hence the frantic search for misery, the descent from compassionate studies of alcoh

What does this flag look like? Where can I find one?

I basically have two questions. Often when asking theoretical situations, opponents of Objectivism concoct some absurd hypothetical and impossible situation and the altruist connotation of selfishness to somehow prove it's a bad thing. I have a question today, and I'll be citing a legend that could have actually happened and would like to get your take on it. You're a slave escaping through the Underground Railroad and you're in a group. Unfortunately, a baby is crying and will not stop crying and you fear the people nearby will hear and wonder what is going on. The only way to keep the bab

"Respecting the rights of others never conflicts with your objective self-interest, because whether or not your own rights are to be respected depends on respecting others." I'd like to elaborate slightly on this point. When answering this question, Ayn Rand elaborated that the asker should consider any criminal or dictatorship. In each situation, they gained their short and mindless self-interest, though in the long run they perished because they destroyed the producers of society. Remember, Oism does not revere second handers: the hero in The Fountainhead was Howard Roark, not Peter Keati

Oh yeah I completely understand what you mean. Yesterday I was watching liberalviewer, and he supposedly had read "most of Ayn Rand's work", though later he claimed that he had read AS and the Virtue of Selfishness. I thought the critique would be unbiased and completely reasonable, given he'd had some experience with the philosophy, but I was wrong. He essentially took John Galt's quote way out of context and said it would result in the use of force, etc. etc. How interesting that they claim they oppose selfishness mostly because it would harm other people. Yet they reject that ethics p

It's in what I'm assuming to be Norwegian, so I don't know what to click. I clicked the red box anyway and hopefully that's done it.

How specifically do you feel its being misrepresented? That an Objectivist would show up at an Occupy protest so selflessly (He has nothing- no values, to gain at an Occupy Protest) just to get off on saying "Who is John Galt?" That was just my assumption, which is why I'm asking.

Thanks to all of you for your answers.

D'oh. And I totally forgot about the possibilities of lotteries or 'fees' to enforce contracts, which is one example Ayn Rand thought up in "Voluntary Government Financing in a Free Society". Do you really believe that it was the taxation system that caused the government's problems, and not simply the limited powers or otherwise, or were you adjusting your answer to fit the charge?

Sorry if this is too short, but it really doesn't need to be elaborated on. What would you say to the person that states the fallibility of the Articles of Confederation is a perfect example of limited government that cannot collect taxes?