moralist

Cultivating customer goodwill is pure gold. There are customers for whom I've worked for 30 years.

After reading this thread, an off topic non sequitor comment came to mind: If you become a right man, there is no need to avoid wrong women, because they're only looking for wrong men. In personal relationships... the fish always matches the bait.

I arrived late to this dance but thought I'd respond to these points anyway... I actually agree with this, for no one can steal your acquired skills or your productive actions. Goodwill is also a safe store of value for no one can ever steal your good name and reputation from you. In a sense, my work could be regarded as doing favors for others, and I don't get money from them, they willingly give it to me. Same goodwill, it just includes money. I heard a great line on the radio today that, if spliced in, applies here. Blaming currency for avarice is like blaming spoons for obesity. I agree... except currency is a tangible expression of intangible goodwill when you are of genuinely useful service to others. So all of the beneficial results you mentioned without the use of money are even more feasible with money.

I first read Atlas Shrugged in the late 70's and was inspired to start my own business which I still have today.

Funny... and here I just thought it was a beautiful monument. You know far more context from actually being there. If the job on Germany had been done right, there wouldn't have been WWII.

Just looked up the Memorial... it's an excellent inspirational physical representation of the dignified beauty of moral values. The classic art deco style is so Atlas Shrugged. It's always in our own best interest to do what's morally right because the moral law which governs the just and deserved consequences set into motion by our actions is as utterly absolute as the law of gravity.

Hi aleph, Thanks. I like that name, too. And reading Atlas Shrugged changed the course of my life.

Yes it is. And you can stake your life on those impersonal absolutely objective physical laws because they never change. I work hot when its safe, and as long as you are clear, focused, and quiet inside you won't make a mistake. From the little bit I've read about the philosophy of Objectivism so far, these physical laws are in total harmony with it simply because they express absolute reality.

Yes. There is so much beauty in the order of these absolute inviolable physical laws. I'm just beginning to learn how to weld, and it totally goes against my conditioning of avoiding making sparks and fusing things together. Up until now, the only arc welding I've done has been purely unintentional. ; ) Your religion commands a lot of respect because they alone possess the Arc of the Covenant. ; )

What admirable qualities. She's the kind of person who makes the world work.

I think that it would not be possible for independent autonomous businessmen who acheived excellence in their field and provided genuine benefits to the lives of others, to fail to produce meaningful results. On second thought, a person could have achieved autonomy mastry and purpose and yet excel at being a criminal. So there would need to be another ingredient that differentiated between good results or evil ones. Perhaps decency.

Third party voting keeps the "worst candidates" in American politics. It's not voting solely against Obama. I was happy to vote for Mitt Romney because he was a better candidate who had the best chance of defeating Obama. The best guy with the best chance always gets my vote. Ideological purity is a myth. I understand. That's why I regard the political spectrum as being a circle, and not a line... with the extreme right and radical left both meeting on the darkside because they share the same standards of behavior. If pigs had wings... There is a basic principle from which no candidate is exempt. Whoever gets elected to political office is an accurate indicator of the moral values of the political majority who elected them. No candidate will ever be any better than the people who elect him. And in a broader sense... the nature of government itself is a perfect match for the nature of the majority who created it in their own image... and it will never be any better than it is right now until enough people first become better themselves. And if people continue to get worse, the government will faithfully match their downward spiral turn for turn... just as it is doing right now. My approach to this fact is to avoid becoming collatoral damage

I had to look up epistemology to see what it meant, so you know where I'm at. ; ) We haven't had a network connected television for over a decade and don't miss it a bit. Who needs the media to define your world when you can experience it first hand for yourself?

I'm an electrician, and deal intimately with something which is absolutely utterly and impersonally objective. Electricity does not care about my intellectual thoughts or my emotional feelings about it. It just is what it is and does what it does, and I can stake my life on the fact that it behaves exactly the same way 100% of the time. Because it is absolutely real it demands complete attention to reality, and has the ability to harm or even kill at the slightest indulging in fantasies. Over the years, I've grown to love this quality of absoluteness and take great delight in it. This absoluteness also exists in other areas of life. The beauty of a principle is that it can be applied to many different situations, and I've found that it has been far more valuable for me to understand the reality of principle by direct personal experience, than it is to intellectually study to accumulate and remember facts. I need to tell you up front that I'm not as familiar with how the word Objectivism is used in this forum as I am with my own experience with reading Atlas Shrugged. This is because I'm not highly educated nor do I engage in intellectual study. This makes me more of a doer than a thinker, so I apologize in advance for my shallowness. I've been reading many of the topics discussed here and they honestly go right over my head... way over. Nevertheless I consider visiting here a vastly more enjoyable interactive alternative to the inane passivity of watching television. Ayn Rand's expression of her love of American Capitalism literally moves me to strive to live up to the ethical ideals displayed by her protagonists. I found that making a prime directive of cultivating those qualities she described in my business has assured a bountiful harvest of rewards. Qualities like saying what I mean and doing what I say, and upholding the trust of others who are worthy of my trust. Qualities like these are the Holy Grail of Capitalism. They are the invisible glue that holds Capitalism together.

I was scanning through some motivational material and these three words caught my eye... Autonomy Mastery Purpose These appear to be essential ingredients that make for a happy worker. The personal responsibility to make our own decisions, constantly meeting the challenge of improving our skills, and understanding the practical beneficial uplifting results our work offers to the society in which we live. Ayn Rand also played heavily on those themes as qualities which enobled her heroic characters. It got me to wondering if there are any others. What are your thoughts?

I'm happy that you experienced the reality of the Tea Party for yourself, instead of believing the hateful fantasies. Our local group operates in a similar manner. No group is ideologically perfect, because everyone in any group is flawed in one way or another, nevertheless each Tea Party member strives in their own way to uphold American values, and as a group to make those values known in the political sphere.

Closing tax loopholes and raising tax rates are not the same thing. Romney's approach would have been much better for the American Capitalists had he been President. Leaving the lower rates in place, including the capital gains rate, would have encouraged business ventures. And when businesses are encouraged, they make more money, and when they make more money, they pay more taxes. This bears repeating... There is no such thing as an ideologically pure candidate. It is the political majority which creates the government they deserve in their own image.

That's why he got my vote. Although he may have only been slightly better than Obama, he had the best odds of defeating Obama over anyone else running. And those are the operative words: best odds. Those are logical reasons which are true to a basic point of view, even though I chose differently. Each individual has a different exposure to government policies simply by how they live their life, and each of us votes accordingly for either our own best interests, the best interests of America, or both if they coincide. The evidence that there aren't enough Americans in America is the simple fact that Obama won the election. If there were enough, he would have lost. In my opinion, Obama represents values which are antithetical to those on which this country was founded, and the people who live by those same shared values make a plurality large enough to put him into office again. And I'm ok with this fact of life, because the government isn't America. The Americans are America, and they will continue to enjoy their liberty regardless of the government. Every third party vote cast was one less vote against Obama which helped him to win the election.

You're right. I was thinking only of the California Tea Party supported candidates. By the way, have you seen the brilliant Saturday Night Live parody of the Republican Debates with Romney, Bachmann, Paul, Kane, Gingrich, and Perry? Bachmann is absolutely hilarious in it.

God forbid. I'd never do that. Everyone freely chooses their own view and voluntarily takes it with them to their grave. And if it's any consolation, most Christians don't regard me as being a Christian because I fail their test for doctrinal purity due to my admiration of Ayn Rand and sharing her love of American Capitalism. I just wanted to be up front with you all right from the beginning about myself. You're very likely never to see the use of the "C" word outside of this thread... not out of repression, but because I'm much more of a pragmatic behaviorist than a religious doctrinaire.

I certainly do... and share many of her objections to the leftist interpretation of Christianity. I know... and I'm here because I'm also an avid Ayn Rand fan... but not merely as a passive impotent inert intellectual theoretical doctrinal believer. The distinctively ethical American Capitalist values Ayn Rand wrote about so beautifully inspired me utilize them to create my own business and to build my own home. I owe the life I enjoy today to her good advice. Being a new guy showing up on a forum is bound to cause a little friction. I do hope that our shared admiration of Ayn Rand is greater than the differences in how we each live the values she loved. Yes. It is responsible for the life I enjoy today.

Fresh red meat is always irresistable to carnivores... Thanks. The atmosphere here is quite pleasant and cordial.

Completely good, no. Even Obama is not completely bad either. No ideologically pure candidate exists, because no ideologically pure electorate exists. Both are myths. Romney would have been a relatively better President than Obama is so he got my vote. I'm ok with that because Romney was the guy who had the best chance of defeating Obama. The simple truth is that there are no longer enough Americans in America to elect even a relatively good candidate. No. By following Ayn Rand's good advice, I have continued to consistently prosper in my business and to enjoy my life regardless of any political or economic cycles. Rendering the government irrelevant to the quality of your own life is a distinctly American value. The Tea Party's values of Constitutionally limited government, fiscal responsibility, and free Capitalist markets are all quite close to my view. Definitely the Tea Party. The Libertarians only helped Obama to win the election.

I do more than just passively admire the rationality of Ayn Rand's values. I actively use them in my business. I see no conflict between religious moral values and the moral values advocated by Ayn Rand. While doctrines can vary wildly... standards of behavior can be strikingly similar. It is not what people believe that makes this world what it is... it is what people actually do.

If it's ok to broach this topic here, I'll be happy to discuss it with you. Even though the idea you referenced cannot be found anywhere in the Constitution... I'd still enjoy seeing the state separated from the political religion of liberal socialism, instead of being its pimp.