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Elle

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Everything posted by Elle

  1. Have you read Francisco's explanation?
  2. Tara Smith (University of Texas - Austin) gave a lecture at the ARI Conference over the summer on the first day about "KGC - Kindness, Generosity, and Charity". The fundamental idea with these three acts is that they are based in free-will and are not a part of duty or required by the government. This was a great lecture to kick off the conference because it advocated for an attitude of benevolence towards like minds. It allowed a lot of people there (myself included), who are usually on guard against the moochers of the spirit (like my mother, for example) and the pocket-book, to open our eyes to the wonderful people around us and be benevolent enough to take them at face value and allow them to be innocent unless proven guilty. It is true that people are born into poverty, with diseases, or crippled. While this is unfortunate, it does not automatically become one's (or society's) responsibility - as you said - because that would eliminate any choice in the matter and the charitable act would be based on need instead of merit. Sometimes an act of charity is based in love of a cause, based on one's own life experience (veterans, hospice, scholarships, etc.) Sometimes the act of charity is based on emotional attachment and a desire to make someone else happy (like Rearden giving Philip money in A.S.). However, as you can see in that particular example, if the money that is recieved isn't valued equally by each party in the exchange then someone is at a loss. That is why emotional attachment must first be rooted in a solid objective evaluation and affirmation of shared values - which is the basis of merit. Many Objectivists I know give generously to organizations and institutions that demonstrate merit and uphold rational values which they wish to support. These recipients have earned the kindness, generosity, or charity they recieve. -Danielle
  3. By day I am a barista (new!), research analyst, executive assistant, and aspiring entreprenuer. By night I am a full-time business student.
  4. Linda I would reccomend movie reviews from: http://www.boxofficemojo.com Run by a couple Objectivist fellows, in fact I think Betsey may have mentioned it either in this thread or another. They usually get the nail on the head, IMO. Enjoy, -Elle
  5. I'd be interested in seeing The Night of January 16th. They should bill it as Penthouse Legend, and do it justice - that would be worth a trip to New York!
  6. I believe she played Helen of Troy, in the film Troy. Just to add my $0.02, this was a good one to see alone.
  7. When I read this I thought maybe it was Bill Gates' attempt at sarcasm -- that would have been funny.
  8. Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" Series is great! The first book is Wizard's First Rule and you can find it in bookstores everywhere. + nice bonus: Mr. Goodkind is an Objectivist as well as a New York Times bestselling author!!
  9. My parents never gave me a set allowance. However, if my sister and I wanted money for additional expenses (candy, movies, clothes etc.) we could request jobs in addition to our household chores. I remember my mom making a list of jobs and their value and sticking on the refrigerator, something like: wash kitchen floor - $2 wash cars - $3 a car wash dogs - $1.50 each It was fun, gave us something active and productive to do in the summer (my mother didn't let us hang out inside or watch TV), and my sister and I would get very competitive over who got to do the "best" jobs. The overall message was also good - because we valued the money they gave us and we were much less apt to spend it all in one place. In response to the previous post, I think not having an allowance all through childhood and then being expected to be able to budget for the first time is not a realistic expectation on the part of parents. Just because someone reaches the age of college-bound student doesn't mean he has the knowledge and the skills required for budgeting. I know when I moved out of my parents house I was suddenly amazed by all the little expenses which kept on adding up. An allowance, if earned through some kind of reward system, could potentially go a long way in helping kids learn to budget their money.
  10. I agree. There's nothing wrong with guys who attempt to beat back the uni-brow look.
  11. I look at having kids as being akin to having a career, and having two careers is not desirable because it becomes exponentially harder to be good at both of them. I'm not sure Dagny Taggart was at a point in her life, from what we saw in Atlas Shrugged, where she would have wanted to have kids. Maybe in Galt's Gulch, with John when things were perfect and they were free from the world of the moochers... but remember that she got there and was already interested in how she could build a railroad in the valley - having kids didn't appear to be her first priority. Of course, speculation on fictional characters doesn't go anywhere - but the real life examples of Objectivists who successfully raise children that I have seen could be an indicator that the child/ren must be the focus if the parenting is going to be a successful endeavour.
  12. Michael- I took classical piano lessons for about 2 year when I was in elementary school. Once I learned to read music and the fundamentals of theory I began to loose interests in taking lessons and learnign to play other people's music. Fortunately my parents bought a piano so I continued to practice. I think from the time I started taking lessons to now is probably about 10 years.
  13. Seems to me that if we need to kill 100 children in Iraq or Iran or wherever Islamic Fundamentalists hide out (mosques, schools, hospitals, etc.) to bomb the leaders of that movements then it would be well worth it. Would you say the free western world's grievances against it greatest enemy aren't legitimate enough to warrant that action as self defense?
  14. I'd like to apologize in advance, but I am going to do that all to common thing of mine and reply to the initial post without reading all of the responses (I don't have time, unfortunately). I apologize if I am echoing anyone else's response. Before you can answer your specific questions: you need to look at the definition of unconditional love. What is love without conditions? It would be love without any standard for judging anyone, and because of that you would be required to love everyone equally (very much the root of egalitarian thought). Love is an expression of appreciation for another person's values. In order to appreciate values you have to have a standard (a set of non-contradictory values of your own) to measure them against. Unconditional love becomes a contradiction when love is given this rational definition. Unconditional = no standards vs. Love = requires standards So then you can apply this to your examples: Since we've ruled out UCL being valid, let's just stick with love. Does this child turned axe murderer deserve his parent's love? It depends on their values. But if they value life, and rationality then they could not love him. Again, it depends on their values. But if they value independence and integrity then no, they would not love him. Of course the virtues of rationality, independence, and integrity have to be grasped atop the fundamental that we exist and that we are capable of percieving reality. Without that people can create any kind of convoluted system of values they want, which is why "unconditional love" is a contradiction that exists in the predominant philosophy in the world today.
  15. My dollar is my vote. I'm not going to pay to see this film.
  16. The Political Compass Some of the statemnents made me sick. (you rank these on your level of agreement with them) "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need is a fundamentally good idea." And others are good. "The only social responsibility of a company should be to deliver a profit to its shareholders."
  17. I am a HUGE Mozart fan, but actually i haven't heard very much music... I also love Tchaikovsky. Lately a friend of mine has been sending a lot of Bill Conti's music... you should check it out... I think he does soundtracks for films.
  18. Thankyou. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Perhaps the title "Affirmation" would be appropriate, since that was what the "these are my toes" moments were all about.
  19. Ryan you are right. It is important not to silently sanction those who are immoral and irrational by not speaking up in the face of contradictions and poor logic. Even a statement as simple as "I don't agree" or "That is not correct" is all that is nessecary to denounce those evils. Of course, you don't have to launch into a speech each time someone says something contradictory (you would never get to sleep) but at least you are not sitting by and allowing them to believe that no one dissents to their claims. E
  20. I hope this doesn't violate the T.O.S. in any way. I want to share with you guys a little of my music. This is from an improv session I recorded about a month ago with Breathoflife (ryan) so it's a bit rough (it was pretty early AM). It's 6 minutes and 27 seconds long, so it will take a moment to download. It is just piano. This is a favorite passtime of mine, I think you will enjoy it. <a href="http://www.reliant1.com/Elle Clark - My Theme.mp3">My Theme</a>
  21. Haha. I lived with an Objectivist for the past year and it was great, for the exact reasons you listed. If I was going to be in NYC in September (and I wish I was going to be) then I would extend an invitation. And out of curiousity, why did you take down your website?
  22. I think there is a great deal of validity in adopting children, don't get me wrong, but if your values include your physical appearance and ability to create offspring (i.e. the ultimate act - sexual/emotional/intellectual/values combined) then wouldn't there be a great many reasons for bringing a child into the world regardless of the fact that there are plenty of unclaimed children in the world? Their need for parents, and the possibility that they will grow up to be the antithesis of your values doesn't nessecitate a claim by them on you to adopt them... that sounds far to much like duty to me. On the other hand, there are instances in which people either can not have children or for whatever reasons (health, age, aesthetic, genetic etc.) don't want to bear there own children, and then adoption is a wonderful oppurtunity.
  23. This is ridiculous! The reason polygamy is wrong is because your wife should be your "highest reverence". In short, you can only have one highest best most perfect person who you want to be with - by definition. So polygamy simply is not a valid choice, morally. Of course it is a lifestyle, so is being an Islamic Fundamentalist.
  24. What other explanation is there for their active destruction of everything that makes America great? Millions of Americans are religious fundamentalists, welfare-mongers, medicare/medicade supporters, environmentalists, etc. It's not cynical to know what/who you are fighting. What we are fighting are millions of Americans who don't know why they are living to die, instead of dying to live... and even worse, many don't even care and become mindless murderers of human intelligence in the forms of Liberals (Michael Moore), Conservatives (George Bush), and pragmatic fence straddlers (John Kerry). To tie this in with Dr.Peikoff's assessment of the 2004 election, I would say that we are better off with a pragmatic fence straddler who no one can truly follow (because he has no solid platform to stand on) versus a dogmatic fundamentalist (George W.) with an ENORMOUS evangelical following that exists in America right now in favor of "faith based initiatives". Defeating a John Kerry is a lot easier, and will take a lot less effort, than defeating an Army of Fools following after Bush.
  25. The point of the strike is to have dire ramifications, for the looters.
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