Julian H.

My English teacher showed us this video in class: It takes quotes from Kurt Vonnegut and relates them to global warming. "What was the beginning of this end? Some might say Adam and Eve and the apple of knowledge, a clear case of entrapment. I say it was Prometheus, who in Greek myth stole fire from Zeus and gave it to human beings. The gods were so mad they changed him naked to a rock with his back exposed, and had eagles eat his liver. And it is now plain that the gods were right to do that." "I think the planet's immune system is trying to get rid of us with AIDS and new strains of flu and tuberculosis and so on. I think the planet should get rid of us. We're really awful animals." You have to admit that he is more blunt than most people. Environmentalism is a death cult.

I will try my best to answer this in the paper.

Rewrote it... The National Interest The United States’ entry into World War I was not in the national interest, because it did not protect American freedom from foreign threats. Specifically, Germany had not been a threat to American freedom. The Germans were justified in using unrestricted submarine warfare, and only after the United States had officially cut off all relations with the Germans did the Zimmerman telegram materialize. Although Britain and France were more liberal than the Central Powers, their readiness to have a “friendly understanding” with Russia, a country without even a separation of church and state, demonstrates that they were incompetent defenders of liberty who did not deserve our support. The only dire threat to American freedom was the 1917 October Revolution, in which communists had captured the Russian capitol of St. Petersburg. From the publication of The Communist Manifesto in 1848 to the founding of Communist International in 1919, communism was clearly a threat to our liberty. Bolshevik propaganda from the Russian Civil War period best puts it into perspective: “Long Live World October [revolution]! The workers conquered power in Russia and will conquer the entire world!”

I plan on addressing this in the body of the paper. My position is that if the United States had not gotten involved in World War I as it did, the Allied Powers would not have been able to get away with the Versailles Treaty. We haven't gotten to World War II in class yet, but I figure that the absense of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia would have kept the Italians out. Japan would probably still be in it, but it would not be a world war. It was the Soviet Union that spread communist ideas throughout Asia. Just as America is an inspiration for freedom fighters, Soviet Russia was an inspiration for communist revolutionaries. The Soviets also aided Korea and Vietnam militarily.

Here is the introduction paragraph of what is to be my 5-page U.S. History II research paper (I'll post the rest once it's done). I've tried to document every logical step I took, because sometimes I make assertions that I think are self-evident, when they're really only evident to Objectivists. Critiques are welcome. A Selfless War The United State’s entry into World War I was not in the national interest, because it did not protect American freedom from foreign threats. Since a nation is made up of individual people, ‘the national interest’ simply refers to what benefits a country’s citizens. What constitutes a ‘benefit’ is not as ambiguous as one might initially think either. Since citizens are human beings and humans are living things, a benefit can be defined as something that promotes human survival. Unlike animals, however, men can not survive by instinct and must think on their own behalf. Thus, political freedom—the freedom to think and to act on ideas without the threat of physical force—is a necessary precondition for human existence. With that said, the threat to American interests did not emanate from the “war of kings against kings" in Europe, but from the contemporary rise of communism, an absolutist ideology clearly inimical to freedom. For WWI to have been in the United State’s national interest, it should have bypassed Europe, and eliminated the emerging Soviet Union, the world’s first communist state, preventing World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War.

Funny story actually. I came across a criticism of Objectivism years ago, and without reading any of her books I blindly hated her for quite some time. Sophomore year I noticed that there was a copy of The Fountainhead on the shelf in my English classroom. I picked it up and never put it down. In fact, I'm almost done reading it for the second time.

I live in Jersey, but that's too far for me.

My name's Julian. I'm a junior in high school. It's only been a year since I first read The Fountainhead, but I feel as if I've known Rand for years. Since none of my friends are Objectivists, I figured I'd give this place a shot.