Mensch

Oh man, but who would watch? The ones who did would start sending care packages

Yes, if it were a truly romantic story the choices he faces would be between good and evil. As it stands, there is no such thing, he always has to choose between the bad and not so bad. I like the show though. Very close to what I would like to see more of

Why am I not surprised? The brainwashing that is going on day and night, starting in school, watching the so called news, it all adds up to mindless sheeple.

My thoughts exactly So it is The real motive behind this day (and they wish it to be permanent) is hate of man. Sometimes I would like to be able to herd them all into an area of earth where they could fulfill their dream and suffer the consequences without any victims around to bail them out. What a stinking mess it would be.

Hahaha -- self imposed ignorance. Let us all live in caves and run around naked. I am surprised that he wears some cloths still. He believes in global warming too of course, so he should be happy that cave-living will be so very easy without snow and ice. Naked existence where life expectancy would be a ripe old age of 30 maybe… A glorious life without the evil rich, without the requirement to think much. What a goal to strive for.

Around where I live, I hear a lot of frog music Welcome to the boards. I have not been here very long yet. It certainly is a good thing though to find so many like-minded people. You just have to read Atlas Shrugged, sort of a prerequisite to feel home here.

You know, I think this idea that we have to make our own children to continue the bloodline is a hangup many people have. I think this is all rooted in the idea that we want to preserve certain traits that many people think are unique and worth preserving. It also often relates back to traditional thinking and religion as well, even if we are not religious, the customs are rooted there. Children are wonderful. Your daughter has the right idea, make the children that she will teach her own. That way she will be able to fully devote herself to this job

Good grief Violent love Atheist's belief

My best friend and husband is also a student of Objectivism. We met when I was 24. He walked into the door of the studio where I worked and the rest was history as they say. I had just started reading AS, he was already fully involved in this philosophy, so it was just a natural event for us to become a pair. He so surpassed all the other men that I had dated before, there was no question in my mind from day one that he would be the one to spend my life with. We have been married now for a long time and getting old together, it has been great to grow this deep love we have for each other. All our values are the same, we are both artists, working in different fields, we both need to use the same principles in our creative work. We are twins in thought and action. We bounce ideas off of each other, we work often together on projects, we both work from home, so we are together almost always. We have shaped each other in many ways but stayed strong as individuals. We are not dependent on each other, but rather enjoy this journey through life together. I would not have it any other way, with this agreement we have at the fundamentals of our thoughts comes a wonderful calm and contentment. I am so very glad that I found him at that rather young age. We laugh together a lot, we enjoy each others company, we have such a deep understanding, that only with a glance or a slight movement of the head can we communicate. Sometimes it is almost unreal how much we are alike. I just love him

Happy Birthday Ride on…

A good example is going to a gathering of some kind. I try to be neutral when looking at people around me, except when there is an obvious indication that they are irrational to a great extent. When I start a conversation or get drawn into one, I quickly manipulate the way this conversation goes to show me some key agreements or disagreements. I use the word why and how a lot, people are very willing to share their thinking or feeling. After a short while I get a coarse picture of who these people are, find out where we have overlapping values and stay within this territory of conversation. I call that: looking at people in aspects. The more aspects you have in common, the more likely it is to be friends with this person. To make yourself more visible to like minded people is not very difficult really. You just have to be bold enough to drop into conversations that are ongoing, to show your agreement or disagreement not by saying yes or no but by giving your reasons. Expand while answering and point to other issues and pull out more of what the others are thinking. If there are people who are like you, they will automatically try to continue a discussion with you. The world we live in is mixed. It is not all bad and it is not all good. I stay mostly positive, I live by my established standards even if the world is not in agreement, that is something you could try to do. There is this movie: Life is Beautiful, it is a good lesson in how one can enjoy life in even the most dire conditions. Being alone is a choice. I love being alone, there is nothing wrong with that at all. I am married and have this like minded partner, so we have ample opportunity to debate things. We prefer not to be with people just to be with people, but when we gather with others the nights get rather long with our discussions. Sometimes it is worth the effort, sometimes it is not. Be secure in who you are, the rest will follow

Yes, and liking blank canvasses and chaotic smears is a reflection of what you just pointed out

That's a good one. The posters look a little like the old communist propaganda actually: Forward we go to reach failure

The graphics are not really well done. They seem to be arbitrary collages without a consistent underlying philosophy. I would not call them romantic realism.

From early on in my life I did not want children. I was considered odd and told that I would change my mind once I got married. I did not change my mind and my husband fully agreed with my thinking. We are both artists and the life of artists is very unpredictable with many ups and downs. We just did not want to have that responsibility, it was hard enough to secure our own lives. We thought having children in our situation to be very irresponsible. Family pressures were huge of course, they thought it was an obligation to make grandchildren for them, but we just cut ties with the families and our peace returned. Sometimes I have thought about what we might have missed, but no regrets really.

If it was not so sad… Great act

The first 30 years of my life I lived in Germany. I grew up in a union household, heard only how bad the rich were, how horrible their morality was, how good the times under Hitler had been for the little guy. I was born in 1945, so I grew up with the full brunt of the aftermath of WWII and the mindset of many still clinging to Hitler's promise of the cleansing of the impurities that the Germans had to endure, the confusion the adults faced and the mixed signals we as children got. All teachers we had used to be Hitler-Youth, so they had their own battles with the past. History lessons stopped in 1939. Events after that we had to find our own information on. I rebelled against these ideals my parents had from early on, I accepted their atheism though. Because I was a cause taker from a young age on, I fought with my limited reasoning all things religious. Religion was growing strongly at that point, partially to show how much the people had reformed and shaken off naziism. I got into trouble big time through opposing religion, got almost killed twice by my peers by the age of 12. Being an atheist all my life made me automatically lean towards the left in my early voting years. I was so revolted about what the good christians were preaching and how they actually lived in a very different way, totally opposite to their own ideals, that in spite of the pro union ideology of the left I sided with them half heartedly. And then I read Rand. I was 24 when Atlas Shrugged (in the translation) became my constant companion for several years. I read many passages over and over again to understand these ideas of Rand. The Fountain Head I found a little later. She confirmed so many things that I had thought but could not express before. I had no access to any of her other books then, but I formulated my early ideas about Objectivism from those 2 books. With that I started to think more and more about politics as well. At that time in Germany we did not have any objective information what-so-ever, the 3 TV stations we had were all government run, the 4th was the DDR station (east German station) with their communist propaganda. Most people were making fun of their promised milk and honey land that always somehow never was. (Mostly they blamed the west with their corrupting influence for their own failures). Interesting to me was that the west had also embraced collectivism, just not as severely as the east block. I could not figure that one out at that time. When I turned 30, I came to the US. My english improved quickly and I was finally able to read Rand's books and clear my mind about politics. I never fully embraced the choices that were offered by the political parties here. Not the libertarian party either with their pragmatic non philosophical approach. But I leaned to the right because of the economic principles. Now I can not say that any longer, now I almost lean towards the democratic left in order to fight religion and what that would entail for this country if fully implemented. Both sides have become pretty purely collectivist by now. It does not bode too well for the immediate future, but I have high hopes that Rand's philosophy has a chance to take hold and swing the trend around. It might be as a separate party, but it might also be in either one of them. I keep tuned.

Thank you Alfa, excellent example of what a little determination can achieve. Thanks much for this link. It is so very true that pushing walls aside will give results rather quickly There is also another factor that I find is interfering with student's progress: they are inhibited by what other people think of their effort. They compare themselves with professionals that are way above their level and then make the assumption that they can not ever reach this level, they give up much too early. The easy excuse of innate ability that they do not have is very handy. This has turned into a fascinating discussion, mainly thanks to Sophia and Matus1976. I will study up on all of the raised issues here. At this point I am still convinced that focused effort alone can yield the desired results in learning any skill at a rather high level. If indeed there is a small innate advantage in some, there still should not be huge differences in what a person can achieve. Determination can go a long way.

Actually I did not really involve feelings at all. I stated only the process and how other people perceive the result

I have no way of confirming any of the statements that a slight genetic advantage is at the core of being great at a particular skill. All I know is my own development as an artist and the constant attention to my improvement. It has been a lifelong pursuit of gut wrenching work at times, almost an angry fight with myself to get some of what I wanted to achieve. Repetition -- collapse, repetition -- collapse. I always set high standards, always above the level of what I had done before, but not so high that I knew that the fight would get me and choke my desire to continue. Steps to demolish the barriers that seem to appear in the middle of a process, the breaking down of that wall that stands there suddenly and the continuation at a slightly higher level after the collapse of the obstacle, the collapse caused by my tenaciousness. I think this driving pursuit of my goal is a chosen strength I have within my core, to push more than a lot of the people who want this ability but are not willing to give up other things in order to follow this one goal at the exclusion of other things that might be fun as well. This single minded life is not what most people would want -- yet they are envious of this achievement and claim innate ability as an excuse for their own lacking in this field.

Excellent find Sophia -- Hopefully many people will get a chance to read this, although environmentalism has become a religion by now and is as difficult to go up against.

Aber natürlich, wie sonst soll man reagieren? Aber eine Bratwurst geht gut mit einer Kartoffel

I have another take on this. Eventually the left wingers who are in their philosophy collectivists will merge with what we know as right-wingers because the right-wingers have also accepted the philosophy of collectivism and abandoned capitalism. Both sides are very much the same now with minor differences in controlling behavior of this kind or that. It will take a while for a coalition to form though. Both sides proclaim to want to reach over the aisle and I think that they really mean it. Then the time for a rational party has arrived. Non of us here would support any of the above, but the new party would be based on the ideals of laissez-faire with the problem of having to eradicate all the baggage of the old system. This can not happen until there is a broad base of support in the general population though. A lot of work lies ahead to spread the word first and make people change their thinking, become rational and adapt all that that entails. I have no hope that the religionists will join a Laissez-faire driven movement or turn back to half-capitalism, altruism is part of religion after all. They used to have a partial ideal of capitalism, but that has really been abandoned. Only a few of them mouths the wish for a smaller government, but it is a half hearted attempt because they cling to religion as their guide in moral decisions and therefore can not abandon altruism/collectivism.

…and the potato was just lying there. His knees would have had to buckle and he sort of sat down right on top of this potato. If he had fallen, the fruit of the earth would have scooted away. He should be treated for weak knees really.

It is too early for that I think. The given situation does not allow for that now. We need to have a broader base first to have some support, some of the same thinking. Without this base all attempts will just hit a brick wall. You need a ground swell for this change. I think this base is in the construction phase right now. Look at the conservatives, they try to go more towards the religious side because in their mind they have failed them. Religion has such a fundamental influence on these people, a moral structure to adhere to. The idea for a religious person to abandon their morals without knowing that morals are not connected to religion is just a wish for us to have. Religion must be dismantled first. My hopes are not great for this to happen soon.