Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Thales

Regulars
  • Posts

    1757
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Thales

  1. You are right. I've always acknowledged this. However, it all depends upon how seriously these religions are taken. Christianity taken seriously is very dangerous, as the Dark Ages establishes. I mean, that's what caused the Dark Ages. Christians in America, as a rule, aren't all that Christian. Muslims in regions of the world like Iran are very serious about their religion. Have you seen the recent video by Bill Maher making that comparison? Here it be: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ipp-l_32M8...feature=related
  2. Okay, it's hard to tell which was worse, but that was not the thrust of my argument.
  3. The fact that they were "accepted norms" is the entire point. We're talking about savage societies, not idyllic ones such as portrayed in Avatar. Western man at his worst was as horrible as anyone. It's easy to be horrible. Western society at its best was the best in the world, by a long shot. But, even given all of this, the point is that those tribal societies were brutal to live under. And, btw, what happened in Apocalytpo looked worse than the Inquisition by quite a bit.
  4. No way. When, for example, the tribes in New Guinea kill and eat people because they believe they gain something from that person's soul, that's barbarism and a crime as against rational western societies. Have you seen the movie Apocalypto? That was supposed to be an historically accurate portrayal of Indians.
  5. They had language, so they clearly were able to reason, but I believe they were meant to be an exemplar of how people should live and we know that people can't survive that way. Btw, Cameron recently made a trip down to South America to hang with and support some primitive tribe and fight the building of a damn. So, there you see him thumbing his nose at human technology and progress in favor of the primitive. Reality Writ Large!
  6. They absolutely demonstrated high reasoning abilities. I think the whole Na'vi society was probably not realistic. It was a fantasy world.
  7. I saw that a while back. Funny how dramatic facts like that make no impact on people when they have a corrupt moral code.
  8. That should read "can't survive"!!
  9. I guess what I want to see is a courageous act in defense of freedom against government. That's what we never see, but given that Yahoo has even appeased a gov't in a distant land and in the most despicable of ways, it's hard for me to evaluate them positively. At least Google finally realized that it is morally wrong to appease China.
  10. Given the standard of individual rights, I think the answer as to how you treat other people is in accordance with how they treat you. The extent to which a savage society violates your rights is the extent to which you can treat them with reciprocity. The Na'vi were violating no human beings rights, so they should have been left alone. And I don't think the American Indians or any primitive tribes had much freedom. They were heavily controlled by the tribe and by the superstitions they held to, and I believe they were savages. The Apache, for example, were definitely savage. Savagery refers to the way they treat each other and the sort of rituals they engaged in. As George Reisman pointed out, we all have ancestors that started out as savages. It's not an insult, it's just a fact. Otherwise the word "savage" has no meaning. As to "reason", all men must employ reason just to survive, so it's a requirement for survival. Reasoning is done without explicit understanding, but on an implicit level for people who lived in prehistoric times. Explicit and consistent application of reason, however, is only possible today when we know what reason is. The Na'vi were meant to be environmentally friendly tree huggers. That was Cameron's idea, and it's his movie, so I don't see how anyone can deny that. At the end of the day the Na'vi are an unrealistic idea. Men can survive in harmony as the Na'vi did. Men must use reason and exploit their surroundings.
  11. Yahoo are the ones who turn over people in China to authorities if they use their search engine to look for "forbidden" information, so I'm not all that much of a fan of theirs. And it's the government they are supposed to tell to "fuck off!", because it's the government that is violating their rights, not Michael Arrington.
  12. Just realize that collectivism is the idea that the individual is subordinated to the group. The value of the group is above that of the individual so that he is owned by the group. In the real world collectivism means poverty, enslavement, and death. A collection of rationally selfish individuals with inalienable right is not a collective in that sense. It's an entirely different thing.
  13. The initial reaction of leftists is predictable. They are driven by emotion today, not reason. I personally would not worry about it.
  14. I think it stems from the fact that there is not enough rage against muslims after 911. Few muslims speak out against Islamo-fascists, and the ones who stay silent don't demonstrate that they are on our side, quite the contrary. And we have leadership that appeases the hell out of muslims because it's a "peaceful religion that has been hijacked", total lie. Sure, people should be free to build mosques. This is America and that's their right. I wouldn't stand in their way, but it is very sad that we see that spectacle, rather than new towers going up in honor of capitalism and freedom.
  15. I suspect Levine deliberately asked for proof, because he knew it would be hard to do on any television talk show. Horowitz's reputation is solid. He's very honest. Levine comes across as a bomb thrower and the nature of the girl should be evident to all who saw the first video.
  16. That is a problem. Levine asked for "proof", which is virtually impossible to do in that format, but Horowitz did provided detailed information, just the same.
  17. QuoVadis --- now that's entertaining writing! Exactly my take. We know Cameron is low rent, anyway.
  18. Hey, I already have a thread going on this. It's a good idea to take ideas seriously. Lots of people during the Wiemar Republic didn't think the Nazis were serious. Btw, here is David Horowitz and professor Levine talking about the student on Hannity's show: http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/19846748 Bonus, professor Levine takes a shot at Ayn Rand at the very end of the video.
  19. Okay, she might have been being ironic in that comment. The tongue-in-cheek is hard to follow, however, when you realize Mein Kampf is a best seller among muslims in Israel, and Hitler is an icon among many muslims world wide.
  20. At 41 seconds in or so she says they are having an annual "Hitler Youth Week" on campus!! RED FLAG!!! University campuses are allowing *that*????? Nazism is back on university campuses? Multiculturalism supports racism!
  21. Where you are getting this from? Rush himself is saying the media is making it up. Here is a link: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/sit...5113.guest.html Bold above is mine.
  22. Morality always has to be the foundation of a man's life, whether he is a journalist or not. Remember, organizations like CNN have covered up for thugs in the past, e.g. Sadam Hussein. They wanted a news bureau there in Iraq, which was more important to them than the lives of real human beings. That's what happens when you have a news organization that doesn't care about being moral! But, sure, a journalist's job is to report the news, which means the facts. Well, the thing is the nature of the Iranian regime has been known for a long time, but the press has been delinquent in their duty to broadcast it loud and clear.
  23. We = civilized people. Everyone is required to morally evaluate at all times. We *know* what Ahmadinejad is about. I provided the video of the girl to make it graphically clear what that regime is about. Iran is a horrific, barbaric state worthy only of scorn and destruction. You don't discuss anything with people like that. You identify them as evil and treat them accordingly.
×
×
  • Create New...