happiness

Sorry to be dark but do you think I'm paranoid to worry that Obama might not step down at the end of his term? If the economy comes unraveled or the government goes belly-up and the nation finds itself in the midst of a serious crisis when the next election cycle rolls around, I can just see him saying something like "we can't afford partisan bickering at a time like this" or "we can't afford to let the Tea Party terrorists bankrupt the economy by cutting 1% of the Federal budget" and pushing to suspend the next election, either by executive order or by an act of a Democrat-controlled congress. I say this because I think the man lives for power and I have a very hard time seeing him relinquishing it.

The Virtue of Selfishness, The "Conflicts" of Men's Interests," page 63 (different versions may have different page numbers).

"A rational man knows that one does not live by means of "luck," "breaks" or favors, that there is no such thing as an "only chance" or a single opportunity, and that this is guaranteed precisely by the existence of competition. He does not regard any concrete, specific goal or value as irreplaceable." How does competition guarantee that there will be more than one opportunity to achieve a particular value, and if one holds a particular job as being more desirable than all others, why wouldn't he consider it irreplaceable?

I thought the guy who slit his wrists did so because his record collection was taken away. It's been a while, maybe I just need to read the book again...

Why didn't she just leave her husband? Was the act justified?

I was wondering about the morality of this act. He was essentially stealing, which is wrong, but he was also attempting to save his life by looking for a job and couldn't afford the means to travel, which is noble. He came clean about it when asked. What is his moral status?

I think jealousy is rational and proper as long as you only entertain it briefly. It can be a good impetus for introspection, self-improvement, adjustment of one's values, etc.

I had one last year on account of approaching 30. It hit me at an very inopportune time and I crashed and burned hard and flaked out at work in the midst of it. Even though the consequences were fairly destructive, 10 months later, I'm good, and I'm better off for having processed those issues.

Nothing you wrote gives me any reason to change my belief that the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy will result in a continued long-term rise in gold prices.

that was my question

There days it is common for new jeans to be sold with the denim deliberately faded in the certain areas and holes ripped all over to make the garmets look worn. Why is this? Is it harmless, or does the desire to make a new garmet look as though it's been destroyed reflect some nihilistic cultural element?

In what I think was a podcast, even though I can't locate it on his site right now, Peikoff addressed the question of whether it would be moral for a teacher to throw himself in the line of fire to protect his students from a shooter. He said that such an act would indeed be he moral if the professor values the student enough.

That's good advice...I do have a few broad ideas

I don't have anything that I want to do. I don't even really have anything that I like to do. I know that's terrible, but the context I'm working with is about as f'd up as it's possible to get. As of now, I work a job that I dislike because it's the best one that I can get, and if I wasn't residing with my parents I'd be living hand-to-mouth. I have a physical problem that cuts me off from most of the jobs that I think would be best for me. I want to go back to school to qualify for a better job, but I just don't know which field or course of study to go for. I've been putting off the decision for a long time because I don't really see any option that I want to go forward with.

Yes, I need to choose a field and go back and finish.

I have to make a decision. I've been putting it off for a long time because I hate the situation and all of the options and I hate even thinking about the whole thing, but it is vital that I decide, and soon. My vice seems to be that I do nothing in an attempt to preserve all options. I'll focus on one option that seems viable, but then another will occur to me and I'll get mentally overloaded trying to compare all the possibilities. A major problem is that I have to act on limited information and can only infer where a given option will lead. Does anyone have any advice for overcoming the problem of choice paralysis?

Can you give me examples of "values" that, when shared, would be the basis for romantic love? Do values include innate characteristics such as height, beauty, intelligence and musical talent? Also, how do you identify what values you seek in a partner and which ones you have to offer?

How did the researchers choose to pursue the experiment when they could have chosen not to?

What is the consequence of committing an act that you know to be immoral if you can pull it off without getting caught or causing injury to the victim? For example, suppose you could hack into your love interest's email account and view all her data for the sake of satisfying your curiosity, but you vowed not to disturb the data and you judged the odds of getting caught to be low. You know it's immoral because you're violating her property and privacy, no different from if you walked into her house while she was gone and went snooping through her underwear drawer. Would you be doing yourself long-term harm by giving yourself permission to be immoral this one time even though you may be perfectly moral most of the time?

This is very close to what was going on.

Is it possible to refrain from espousing any philosophy? Isn't he idea that a teacher should refrain from espousing a philosophy, itself a derivative of a philosohpy?

Would you expect an Objectivist's teaching style to differ significantly from the average teacher's, and if so, how? Also, in what ways would it be appropriate for a teacher to use his position to promote Objectivism?

Just sent a copy of Atlas to some college kid who said he's interested in Objectivism. I feel like I just fought back. 1000x more satisfying than arguing with liberals on reddit.

I'm not suggesting that this applies to me personally, but it rational to feel bad about one's shortcomings? If one is unattractive, untalented inadequate in some way, should he feel badly about it, not because he isn't good enough to be admired by others, but because he isn't good enough to admire himself?

Hah, my Objectivist literature has its own shelf. It's like an über cool club that other books can't get into.