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Re: Does being happy prove you're right?

PostPosted: April 13th, 2009, 3:43 pm
by archenland_knight

Re: Does being happy prove you're right?

PostPosted: April 13th, 2009, 4:31 pm
by Stanley Anderson

Re: Does being happy prove you're right?

PostPosted: April 13th, 2009, 9:42 pm
by deadwhitemale
I'm really not a follower of Ayn Rand -- not a Randian or big-O Objectivist or "randroid" or whatever. I just agree with some things she said. I disagree with others. I quote her when she says something I think is true (as far as it goes) and quotable. I agree with some things Aldous Huxley said. (I often quote from Chapter Seventeen of Brave New World.) I agree with some things Al Capone and Charles Manson said.

I don't think I am an especially nice guy. Certainly I am not warm or affectionate, or cheerful or outgoing or effervescent.

But am I miserly, etc.? I dunno. At the moment there is hardly enough of anything that I can actually call my own to be miserly or stingy about. I make sure my Dad's bills get paid. The nursing home or the pharmaceutical company or some doctor or some hospital sends me a bill, I send them a signed check. So far none of them bounced. A day may come when one will bounce.

I seem to resemble ArchenlandKnight to the extent that I too ask and expect almost nothing from the government, other than to be left alone. I would very much like to have a house with a roof that doesn't leak and nice hardwood floors instead of beer-soaked wall-to-wall carpet over rotting particle board, and my own clothes washer and dryer, and a toilet that works right. I'd like a lot of work done on my teeth, a pair of shoes that fit and aren't literally falling apart, etc..

I just don't think I have any right to ask the government to take away anything from anyone else in order to supply me with whatever I want or need. I don't see how I have any sort of exagerrated sense of entitlement. All I feel entitled to is to be left alone and not interfered with. I want to come and go as I please without particularly having to explain myself to anyone. I don't want what's anyone else's. I just want what's mine.

DWM

Re: Does being happy prove you're right?

PostPosted: April 13th, 2009, 10:46 pm
by Xara

Re: Does being happy prove you're right?

PostPosted: April 14th, 2009, 2:55 am
by cyranorox

Re: Does being happy prove you're right?

PostPosted: April 14th, 2009, 4:40 am
by archenland_knight

Re: Does being happy prove you're right?

PostPosted: April 14th, 2009, 9:31 pm
by cyranorox
Well, they oppose gay marriage. they have supported miscegenation laws. Buckley, a famous conservative, wanted to tattoo the butts of gay men who tested positive. they oppose readily available contraception and make a great fuss about teaching abstinence to others. they have supported sodomy laws and prosecutions. they have supported or led projects to remove gay teachers. you can find enough examples.
The broader issue is a pervasive interest in other peoples moral lives. I think this stems from Calvinism and its decay products, though the Counterreformation may have some responsibility. that may warrant its own thread, and go into ideas like covenant vs sonship, american exceptionalism vs traditonal eschatology, etc

Re: Does being happy prove you're right?

PostPosted: April 14th, 2009, 10:48 pm
by Xara

Re: Does being happy prove you're right?

PostPosted: April 14th, 2009, 10:55 pm
by Karen

Re: Does being happy prove you're right?

PostPosted: April 15th, 2009, 8:51 pm
by archenland_knight

Re: Does being happy prove you're right?

PostPosted: June 25th, 2009, 4:28 pm
by timoconnor
Sharing your happiness about what is good and sadness about what is bad - this is what makes a man right...