Brent Rolfe

My votes; Book 1 I vote, as Betsy suggests, to start with a section of Atlas Shrugged. 1) We probably all have it available, so we can get the experiment going soon. 2) It's a good book. 3) It is as Objectivist and fiction. 4) We could join a book club anywhere if we wanted to study non-objectivist literature. Book 2 AS could potentially last a lifetime, maybe we don't need a second book?! But if we do; any of the Mickey Spillane novel would be completely new to me and (I am guessing) it would be a complete contrast to Ayn Rand? Brent

Thanks Betsy.

Today I asked a colleague of mine, who is a family counsellor, about his view of unconditional love. He told me the story of his father in WWII who, towards the end of the war, found himself faced, in mortal combat, with 14 year old German boys. It was a situation of him or them, so he shot to kill. According to the counsellor, the fact that his father recognised these boys "humanity" and killed them with a "heavy heart", rather than acting with hatred demonstrated unconditional love. Is it me? Or is somebody fooling themselves here? Brent

Now I am really curious as to whether or not you have children! It is supposed to imply that sometimes a parents needs to have, at least temporarily, unconditional love for their child in order to overlook a transgression long enough to teach them not to do it again........rather than euthenising the little demons on the spot! Brent

I think oldsalt and I have figured this one out already!....we are old but not senile I can quote a whole post easily enough, but I see others using quotes much more precisely, creatively and usefully than that.....e.g. if I want to reply to a long post and do it in sections. If I press reply I get the whole of the persons post in the new message window, together with some control characters.."QUOTE" etc. But if I then start inserting my text in between that posts paragraphs or sentances and press "preview post" or "add reply" my message doesn't show up neatly interspersed among the other post as I have seen it done by others. I assume I am missing other necessary control characters to do this? If so is there a list explainig their use anywhere? Regards, Brent

I have been advised to find out how to post to the board using quotations from previous messages. Would someone please tell me where the instructions for this are? Thanks. Brent

Areactor, I remember speaking with my father about my homosexuality. He said he was disappointed only because he wanted grandchildren. I felt betrayed in some way. My brother reacted in exactly the same way when his son told him he was gay. This doesn't excuse the reaction but immediate reactions are not always a true testament to character. My mother and father sent my wife and I a "nice" little card on the birth of our daughter (who has Down syndrome) telling us how sad they felt that such a "terrible thing" should happen to a nice couple like us!!! At the time I was glad my Dad was 5,000km away 'cause I could have slugged him. Three days ago my mother pestered me again about my personality and my desire to bridge myself personally from my parents (or most of the family in general) and her highlights were... "There you go with that logic! Not everything is logical! Some things just is." She is wrong. "You read, that's great, your a smart boy and all but you got to think about what goes on in the streets." She is right. "Life requires compromise." She is wrong again. Since the vast majority of people are full of internal contradictions and since an intregrated personality is not yet a requirement for child bearing or rearing......most people just don't have great parents. It is also true that most parents don't have great children! I still think there is a bond between parents and children that is hard-wired. That acts over and above the logical analysis of a friendship. Genetic similarity? Regards, Brent

Michael, I too have looked at several of the eastern religions and christianity......and I have a hard time shaking their influences sometimes. So I am not in any way "accusing" you of mysticism and I admire the mental discipline involved in overcoming those influences.....from my own experience it isn't easy. I envy the few who were brought up in rational families! I recognised your signature and have read the book, "Think and Grow Rich". Part of my business at one time was giving management training seminars which involved reading and presenting a lot of "motivational/goal-setting" content. There have been thousands of books/tapes written since TAGR but if you distill them down to their basics I think nine and a half times out of ten you will get back to what Napolean Hill said in that book. What very few of these books really tackle however is: 1) How to set a purpose for your life......most imply that you have to "discover" your purpose as though it was innate. In reality your purpose is whatever you decide it is by logical non-contradictory self-analysis. Contradictory purposes seem to me to be the biggest reason for underacheivement.....one cannot acheive business success in a short space of time while devoting 100 hours a week to family, friends and half a dozen hobbies. There, I think, the principles of objectivism can help you by making you aware of the absurdity of the contradictions. 2) The overwhelming importance of hard-work and self-discipline. It amazes me how many self-help books are sold who's biggest claim to fame is some implied short-cut to success. It shouldn't amaze me, as the same idea is obviously true of dieting books and methods, cosmetics advertisements etc. etc. In short, there just aren't any short-cuts.....I know....believe me I looked for them all BTW I am NOT suggesting you are looking for short-cuts.....but just in case.....save your time Regards, Brent

Concerto, 1. Is an expression that means that someone who is related by blood is closer than a non-related friend or acquantance. Depending on how close one's family is it implies that one would show more "loyalty" to a relative than to a friend in hypothetically equivalent circumstances. Now that you have me thinking about it it seems like trible loyalty.....and not very rational......but I think it exists. 2. In the case of a father/son relationship, some of the characteristics that a parent might find hard to love might be characteristics that the child learned from the parent. To take an extreme example....a muderer may have learned anger from hid father.....but the father may never have murdered (or come close to it). Brent

I AM seeking more rational friends........man they are hard to find in Niagara Falls and I am still waiting for a reply from the Toronto Objectivist Club! Re family members and benefit of the doubt....... 1) I have more invested in them 2) Blood actually is thicker than water 3) they might have picked up some of their objectionable characteristics from me Re "No person deserves to be loved......".....do you have children??? Brent

Release, I enjoy your questions which generally make perfect sense to me.. Perhaps because they are similar to ones that I have had in the past?!...and still do to some extent. I get the impression that there is still quite a bit of the mystic left in you? and since some of your earlier posts concerned meditation and eastern religions this is not surprising Some years ago I started going to a Baptist church here in Niagara Falls (Canada) and after a period of several months I would look around at the congregation and think to myself ...."are these people any happier, more moral, more at peace, more loving........i.e. "better" or more complete in any way than I am"? The answer being a resounding "No"! I got out of there fast. Similarly with the Eastern religions I have studied and the practitioners of those religions I have observed. Except, in this case, there may have been a significantly higher level of "peace" (but no higher level of happiness). It just wasn't a type of peace I wanted. After all we can all put ourselves to sleep for a lifetime. The people that I know that are truly succesful AND happy are the ones, as Stephen implies, who have set THEIR OWN goals, learned and worked hard over time to acheive them. Many years ago, when I was making the transition from analytical financial accountant to self-employed financial salesman, I read every self-help book available. To be honest I don't think all of them combined had as much influence me as Atlas.....which I read much later, and only after I had acheived a modest amount of success in my field. Much better that you spend time figuring out your own goals , as few people ever do this, than read millions of words by people who have acheived nothing other than the publication of a book on success.....i.e. they are not writing about how they acheived success but about how they think you should! To me Ayn Rand has shortened the Buddha's teachings quite dramatically.......it is not that.....Life is difficult.....or Life is suffering.........just......Life IS. And it is up to each of us to make of it what we want. Yehaaaaa! Brent

I have recently been discussing the concept of unconditional love with some friends. My friends all seem to agree that it is obligatory (warning bells) to give unconditional love in the case, for example, of close family members and that it is extremely comforting to receive unconditional love in return. I am having a hard time fathoming this position, perhaps because of the implicit religious overtones. I think that close family members should be judged by the same standards as anyone else (although I think familiarity would extend to them a greater benefit of the doubt). I seem to be viewed as the heartless beast during these conversations....so I would be interested to learn the Objectivist stance on this concept. A couple of specific examples: If a child become an ax murderer........does he deserve his parents UCL? If a child becomes a parasitic moocher........does he deserve UCL? Brent

Group Benefits (broker/consultant)/Financial Planner. The two skills work very well together as my clients are the owners of small to medium sized businesses. I have run my own firm for 15 years. My background is in accounting and finance. Oh yes....amateur dog trainer (Goldens) for field trials and obedience.

I would be interested. No preference as to fiction or non-fiction.

My suggestion would be to try to improve your communication skills then.

Perhaps INTJ should be a requirement for membership? Brent

Count me in as an INTJ. This was 15 years ago mind you and I can't remember what an INTJ is! But I remember the label! Brent

Randrew, An interesting post. My answer is that ultimately chess is "merely" a game, an entertainment and that AR's letter to Spassky is correct. On the other hand, if a sports star can be considered a hero so can a chess master be admired as someone who has mastered an art form and who competes at the highest and most gruelling levels. And the major chess tournaments are certaily big business nowadays. As an entertainment chess can be every bity as interesting as a baseball or football game. Many chess organisations for youngsters claim that chess is "good for the mind" in that it supposedly develops logical thinking and problem-solving skills. While this idea is useful from a marketing point of view I have not found it to be true. Chess develops chess skills and I think the spill-over into any other "useful" applications is largely over-rated. From an Objectivist stanpoint I would say that if playing chess gives you a sense of joy and it does not become addictive, then go for it. My son's chess playing has certainly given him opportunities to travel all over N. America and to Europe and he enjoys the game both competitively and socially. Regards, Brent