The Future of Our Freedom
Posted by BJ_Cassese 10 years, 3 months ago to Philosophy
I remain optimistic, but increasingly concerned. The rule of law has always been under assault by the whims of the power hungry and the irrational. Freedom in all forms is their enemy. That said, our liberty is in an increasingly precarious state of deterioration and citizens seem more apathetic towards it than ever. Like many of us in the gulch, I pursue my happiness and strive to achieve my potential in a world that is aggressive toward effort and excellence. I would like the ideas of anyone who cares to comment as to what is the best course of action regarding the following;
How does one best "create" the world in which they want to live when surrounded by the functionally illiterate of today? I love people. I don't want to see them live their lives in desperation if I can help them rise. But how? It's not an altruistic desire, but a self interested one. I desire to live among thinkers, and achievers and not just "existers". I desire tosee growth in those around me and be an instrument of that development. I find it difficult to know where and how is the best course.
Thank you for your thoughts
How does one best "create" the world in which they want to live when surrounded by the functionally illiterate of today? I love people. I don't want to see them live their lives in desperation if I can help them rise. But how? It's not an altruistic desire, but a self interested one. I desire to live among thinkers, and achievers and not just "existers". I desire tosee growth in those around me and be an instrument of that development. I find it difficult to know where and how is the best course.
Thank you for your thoughts
You could start a business and employ those you wish to surround yourself with. Your idea lifts them, they as a group lift you. Over time, they learn and the cream rises as some of them become "of the mind".
In the last depression many businesses were started that have become household names. Coco Channel and Max Factor made it big selling hope to people that needed it. John Galbreath bought properties for pennies on the dollar. In doing so he recycled houses thrown away by the system and provided rental units for those needing housing. Sound Familiar? When the country went back to work he later sold them and carried the mortgages himself, starting another business; Galbreath Mortgage.
If we all go on strike, no doubt Atlas Shrugs. One of the hallmarks of producers, IMHO, is there emotional need to accomplish something. Most of us need to do that everyday, it's part of our life. Even in AS, in the gulch they found their new place in that world and began accomplishing their self assigned tasks.
Back to the prime question, How does one best create the world in which they want to live...? My answer would be, one idea at a time, with little or no competition to divert needed resources away from your goal. You may have to find other producers for financing or capital needs, but these days virtually no one else is trying anything new.
S
The Bradford Collector utilizes 75% of available solar energy converting 32% to electricity and using 43% to produce steam.
The steam may be used to desalinate seawater or brackish ground water.
It may also be used to provide absorption refrigeration or air conditioning.
I will build a manufacturing facility central to the solar farm. The manufacture, installation, operation and maintenance of this solar farm will create many jobs for an off-grid self sufficient community. If interested, connect with me on LinkIn. Producers only please.
Henry Ford
GOMF
Warriors love war. they live for war.
But *soldiers* hate war.
Demi Moore described the difference between a "warrior" and a "soldier" in "A Few Good Men":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFI6KgYy...
Soldiers are the guardians of civilization, as warriors are its bane.
"It's white on this side" she says.
While this is literally true, she doesn't know what color the parts of the house she can't see are... that doesn't mean they don't exist, or are colorless if they do.
the good religions, however they contrive them, and
even Muslims try to approach this, though many
are aberrant, it appears.
our founders, their wives and families, gave us a
strong moral code along with serious integrity, as
a heritage. however constructed, ours must match
in order that we may sustain the nation which
they created. whatta challenge!
We Can Do It. -- j
might find agreeable, don't you think? abstaining
from initiating force or mental coercion -- ok? the
honoring of others' natural rights -- ok? the
acknowledgement of ownership, starting with one's
own body -- ok? most of the philosophies which
I have encountered, many parading as religions,
have attempted to guide behavior in these ways,
however twisted.
I made no comment about state endorsement,
and, of course, vehemently oppose that, as
you do.
it is my conviction that this nation was founded
on a system of honoring inherent human truths,
like those mentioned above, and the loss of an
appreciation of that system undermines the
nation. just as an attorney general and a president
who will not obey nor enforce certain laws
undermines the nation.
make sense? -- j
"honoring"?
Natural rights don't exist, so you can't build a moral code around them.
You have to begin by defining "moral".
honors natural human rights, by virtue of the
characteristics of humans as humans -- free choice
and self-interest and all of that.
yes? -- j
It may "honor" natural human rights, however that is possible, but humans have no natural rights, any more than does any other animal.
A lion has free choice and self-interest.
So does a gazelle.
Try convincing a hungry lion he must not violate the gazelle's "natural right" to life.
You're right. The Bible sucks. Alternatively, we can turn to the Koran... or Dianetics.
You can't create the world. It exists and you exist in it. It is and you are.
I love people. Some? Any? All?
A life of desperation and you help them rise? There are more than 6 billion people in the world. You can't help them, they have to learn to help themselves. After that, you can demonstrate the rightness of an Objective life.
Not altruistic. Certainly sounds so.
To live among thinkers, achievers, and not existers. Utopia doesn't exist. Humans are humans with all their faults. All think. All achieve. All exist. It sounds like you're trying to measure something that's subjective. You can only measure yourself.
Desire to see growth in others and be an instrument of that development. Have children. You can fail, even with them, but you can try. Some times it works, some time it doesn't.
Difficult to know where and how is the best course. Such is life. Study, learn, and immerse yourself in the Objective Philosophy of self, rational mind, and life.
The second one, of course, giving cover for your retreat from the topic....
The world has 6 billion people, but the people you live, work and interact with are your world. It's all that really matters. I think that can be created. If illogical mystics can persuade others to live in a monastery or in a commune which is irrational beyond description, I'm sure people of reasoning mind can find, train and associate with others on a similar journey. I'm still working on the "how". If it adds to my happiness to aid others in their development how exactly does that qualify as altruism. I do it for me and the person I work with benefits. That's simple trade. I trade my experience, knowledge and effort in exchange for their desire to learn and the effort to apply it. I've had some success with that in the past, but want to challenge myself beyond what I've done. I desire to experience as much of my life as possible with people that share a similar approach to theirs. Simply accepting the notion that people are irrational and living among the rational is an impossibility ignores reality. We are objectivists and we're not the only ones. I wasn't always one. It took time,education and development to unlearn the irrationality I was trained with as a child. I would suggest it is possible for others too. If 1, why not 10. If 10, why not 10,000?
In regards to your assertion that all think, achieve and exist; they all exist is true. I should have been more specific. Objective thinkers should have been in place of just thinkers. All achieve? If walking upright and surving til Friday is an achievement, then we agree. I should have been more precise there too. People whose achievements are measured by their chosen purpose and progress in pursuit thereof. Most people never define a purpose for themselves and just meander through life til it is done.
As for children... No thank you.
And I wish you well in your endeavors.
Wow if that doesn't sound like a religious statement. Change "rightness" to "righteousness" and I think you'd have it pegged.
When you get down to it, Objectivism is just as much a religion as anything else. It is a way of life, a life philosophy, a religion.
In my view, everyone is seeking something to model themselves after because we innately realize that we are not the epitome of creation - we don't know everything, we can't do anything we want, etc. So we seek for something or someone to emulate. It can be a sports superstar. It can be a movie star. It can be a musician. It can be a tree or a rock. All of these are "gods" in their own spheres. Even philosophers.
To me, however, a philosophy is incomplete if it can not answer the three basic questions revolving around origin, purpose, and destination. Those are the questions atheism can not answer to my satisfaction. I reject the idea that we sprang from nothingness and will return to nothingness, because that thwarts the WHY of life! It renders any adherence to natural law meaningless. If one believes that this life is merely a step towards something greater, however, suddenly the WHY of natural law has real meaning and efficacy.
The answer to the second question is, "Create a microcosm." I agree with RonC in much of what he said, and his idea of starting a business is a good one (I did this - 20 years ago). One of the prerequisites to this is to define 'what' qualities are important to you. Both in business and in my (35 year) hobby, what was important to me (and achievable) was intelligence, integrity and imagination. I found a hobby group of people with those qualities; I helped hire people for our company with those qualities. However, if you look at the list of traits, you will see that many liberals qualify - and indeed, most of my friends are liberals. I can talk with them about anything...except politics and economy. A small subset of those friends are Randists/Libertarians/Objectivists; with whom I can discuss politics. So I have been participating in two such microcosms. This is now a third.
Let me make it clear that I would be more than willing to bias my personal group more heavily in favor of RLO...but such people are hens teeth. I am thus content to surround myself with people who are high quality in other respects, They know what my political beliefs are (and it is amazing the degree to which RLO and Tea Party have been demonized) - and they find it more difficult to reject my type of ideology because they know me personally. Hopefully, I am influencing them.
The second question is the one to which I can 'see' and answer, and do something about it. The first question, which is what we have been mostly discussing on the AS list, is less reachable. 'Creating/participating in benign microcosms' is my feather-weight on the scale of Truth. Perhaps this will influence the larger question, over time. Enough feathers weigh as heavy a ton as lead does.
Jan
(And I always preferred Invictus to Desiderata, Herb.)
I've always felt, as Jefferson did, that for democracy to work, the citizenry must be first educated and informed. In the past, I figured that our education system and the media were actually doing their job of educating and informing. And naively I thought the populace were being educated and informed of the TRUTH. I have since find out the opposite has been occurring and has been over the last few decades, with the export/import of leftist thought in this country.
I think education is the best place to start. And why I am so against Common Core, amongst all the other morally pragmatic reasons.
If you are in the Gulch, you've probably read many of the books that will bolster your life. Please let me suggest a poem that I find inspirational without getting all mushed up. It's called "The Desiderata" by Max Ermann. You can find it on line.
1. Kindles or their equivalents make it much easier for people that want to read to do so, which encourages reading on its own.
2. You can load a heck of a lot more books into an ereader of any type and have them AVAILABLE when you have the time or desire to read instead of put away sonewhere.
Not to mention that you dont have to worry about storage space for physical books.
Such as:
Which is primary? ( existence or consciousness)
Can existence exist even if you have no consciousness?
Can your consciousness exist even if there is no existence?
It seems that how people answer these questions determines how they answer, "what is freedom?"
Like this statement: Nothing is inherently unstable!
Maybe it was Nothing is inherently stable. I not only do not understand that, I can't even remember it. It seems it could be important, too. (That was irony!)
One says,
“For nothing is inherently unstable; something must always arise from it.”
Another says,
“Nothing is inherently stable or distinct from anything else.”
Disclaimer: You're philosophy may vary :)
Jan
My observation, not a proven fact or anything.
Jan
You can't change people. You can plant an idea and hope it finds a fertile mind in which to grow, but that's about it. Surround yourself with thinkers and achievers. Being here in the Gulch is a big step in the right direction.
My generation (I'm an octogenarian) didn't give our kids an adequate education in everything from financial literacy to the true meaning of selfishness (which does not rule out thinking of others) and the compassionate exercise of self interest. The often-heard quote "I don't want my kids to have to go through what I had to go through." is the biggest ticket to disaster that we ever bought for our progeny.
So, for that reason (as an ardent Ayn Rand enthusiast whose life Atlas Shrugged changed when I was around 20), I deem it our responsibility to friggin' DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT instead of just wringing our hands and shrugging off that responsibility.
If the Millennials' attention span is about as long as spit, then WE need to build an education system that will entertain them and be addictive! And there are plenty of guidelines, if we can mobilize to do it. We still have time; but not much.
Imagine what a change we could precipitate if we could just get them to embrace one, simple concept across to them: money is a redeemable token one receives for providing a product or service that's of value to others. Just filling in the right side of that equation could change our world, IMO. And, if we don't participate actively in finding the way to correct this fault, WE are the ones who will have destroyed our planet; and not our kids and their kids! We'll just be continuing to do the things that we've done wrong.
I agree that we need to improve the education of our children. My part had been as a merit badge counselor for the Citizenship merit badges (there are 3) and Personal Finance. My small part. But if we all did a small part, the task could be accomplished.
Instead, let's grade simply, according to achievement. Start a kid with a zero grade; and let him or her build it up to an excellent grade as he or she goes along. The more they learn, the higher the grade. No punishment for failure; but no rewards for failing to achieve.
Secondly, let's not focus on memorizing things. That's a throwback to the days of Gutenberg's press. Teach them critical thinking and problem analysis; and then school them in the resources they have at their disposal to come up with the answers. Let them "cheat," by using Google and its competitors in their exams with whatever devices they may be able to muster up. [Imagine what that can do for employment. Credentials will fall away as the goal of education, and new employer will simply say, "Here's one of our big problems, how would you go about solving it?" As an employer, I'll give the response to that kind of a question for more creds than some certificate that everyone had to cheat to earn because everyone else was doing it.]
Thirdly, we should focus on video games for teaching. Millennials love competition and hate tedium or being judged. But they pursue their video games relentlessly, being constantly judged and found wanting; but going back for more until they reach the next level. And they happily compete and accept the notion that others are doing better; but they can still beat them if they try. That's the nature of video games. And they can be used very effectively in teaching everything from the likes of history to biotechnology! They win by learning stuff. That's real education.
I'm nearly finished working on the specs for a financial literacy game that I plan to crowdsource and crowdfund when I'm ready. That could kill several birds with a single rock! It starts with a magic lamp and a genie that can grant all of their wishes.
I never found this level of value on Facebook! Lol!
It provides great room for optimism.
"The concept of a technology/nature balance, in which Charles and Anne Lindbergh so firmly believed, is now coming to the forefront as the answer to some of our global problems," said Clare Hallward, Chairman of the Lindbergh Foundation Grants Selection Committee. "The projects of our grant recipients have, since 1978, made significant contributions to such a balance. Because of the standards employed by the Foundation's grants program, it has earned international credibility which enables many Lindbergh Grant recipients to secure additional funding to continue their important work."
The value of the Lindbergh Grants program as a provider of seed money and credibility for pilot projects that subsequently receive larger sums from other sources to continue and expand the work has again been confirmed.
Each year, The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation solicits applications for Lindbergh Grants from the U.S. and abroad. This list includes publications, government agencies, media, universities, and other non-profit organizations."
They are heavily promoting a green agenda. Go look on their website. As well, Elon Musk has a long history of chasing government projects, dollars and grants. This includes colluding with the govt for tax incentives related to cars they build, which picked one industry out, nay, one type of product and affected sales in that sector. I am certainly not against the concept of philanthropy funded Prizes in specific areas such as high technology. Especially space exploration. But to suggest "collaborative entrepreneurship" is completely free market when it clearly isn't, is one of those failed premises to which I am referring.
As a Galt's Gulch "would-be resident," I'm not offended by opportunities to divert public money to the very things that we wish those who run our government or large businesses would do. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water!
Again, without reading the book, you're generalizing and, unfortunately, missing a large body of information that should give us encouragement rather than just sulking because Ayn Rand's prophesies are coming to pass and you get to say, "I told you so!".
The implied purpose of her writing was not so much to broadcast complaints or to condemn our society; it was to wake us up and prod us into finding ways to reverse the trend. I don't think for a minute that her preference would be for America to grind to a halt.
As poorly as I would be at the 19th century 8th grade test, my 60s high school education seems like a Doctorate when I see college students that don't know any history, civics, social studies, etc. How many branches of government, how many Senators, how many representatives and why. Whether intentional or not, it needs a solution.
In my Father's era businesses trained people for the skills they needed. He progressed from loading boxcars to running machinery to setting up presses for other to run, and finally to building fine finished stainless steel cabinetry; and they trained him for all of that. Today, businesses complain of no skilled workers and still they try to hire workers "ready to go". What can we learn of education from our most productive past?
http://www.TheSocietyProject.org