Ratio Invictus

And thank you all for the welcome! It's been a long time since I honestly felt I was in the company of people with intellect and it is very refreshing. I added my location to the map so if anyone is in the area, feel free to stop by and chat! If you're a "troll" though, know that I'm a big fan of the 2nd Amendment and in Colorado we have the "Make my day" law...

I absolutely agree with the notion that, with the current make-up of the two main political parties, the best recourse is gridlocking everything. I just found it very strange that any Objectivist could endorse in any way a man who literally announced to the world that this country will embrace everyone being "his brother's keeper". I was just waiting for the "from each according to his ability..." before I started planning my own strike!

Since I’ve already begun posting on this forum (albeit a whole one post) I figured I should at least introduce myself to anyone who may be curious. I was born and raised in Nebraska with typical Midwestern values but I never understood the whole “religion” aspect of most people. I always felt that, for lack of a better phrase, man should be his own “God”. I was introduced to Ayn Rand via a local talk radio station host and on his recommendation I picked up Atlas Shrugged. I absolutely have to agree with the thousands of people who ranked AS as the most life changing book they had ever read. Since reading that book for the first time, almost every aspect of my life has changed. I had never really considered looking for a forum like this until I ran into a couple of articles talking about Peikoff endorsing John Kerry and then Obama. This was, at first, a staggering shock to me! After reading a little about it and thinking on it more it turned into a mild surprise instead but remains something I absolutely disagree with them on. As a consequence, I started to wonder how many other Objectivists thought along the same lines so…here I am! I’m looking forward to some interesting back and forth on pretty much any subject we can think of…

I'm having a hard time understanding how your vote would cost you either time or money? I can understand how you may regard it as a self-sacrifice on the grounds that, whichever candidate you voted for you would be compromising something. On the other hand, if you are voting for selfish reasons and you expect to gain from it, especially if it is in the course of protecting something which you value (e.g. Free Markets) then it is not a sacrifice at all. Indeed, the only rational course open to you at that point is to fight or to abstain from fighting solely on the grounds that you do not condone compromise. How do you condone not fighting for something you value when the issue is in debate?