What do you do when you make a mistake? The first thing you do – assuming you’re not stupid – is to recognize you’ve made one.
Posted by freedomforall 3 months, 2 weeks ago to Philosophy
Excerpt:
"Ayn Rand understood – and explained – in her novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Each book explained that there is no complying with the forces of destruction – assuming the idea is to avoid being destroyed. One must oppose them. But before that can happen, one must understand that these forces intend to destroy.
...
The creatures were are dealing with are unnatural things that take human form. They are motivated by (per Rand, who was spot on about this) envy and malice, springing from an awareness of their own baseness and incompetence. Destroyers hate producers because they produce. They cannot abide it because it highlights that they do not produce. That they lack what it takes to produce and so they work to tear down those who can. They market their destructiveness as beneficial – as motivated by a desire to “help” and keep others “safe.”
And that works, because – again – many people have difficulty coming to grips with the nature of human evil. This empowers evil by rendering its victims helpless before it.
The problem is ancient and omnipresent. It waxes – and then it wanes. It will be with us forever, because it will always be us. Yet it can be kept in check by understanding what it is – and that it cannot be bargained with. Only opposed. There is no complying our way out of it."
"Ayn Rand understood – and explained – in her novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Each book explained that there is no complying with the forces of destruction – assuming the idea is to avoid being destroyed. One must oppose them. But before that can happen, one must understand that these forces intend to destroy.
...
The creatures were are dealing with are unnatural things that take human form. They are motivated by (per Rand, who was spot on about this) envy and malice, springing from an awareness of their own baseness and incompetence. Destroyers hate producers because they produce. They cannot abide it because it highlights that they do not produce. That they lack what it takes to produce and so they work to tear down those who can. They market their destructiveness as beneficial – as motivated by a desire to “help” and keep others “safe.”
And that works, because – again – many people have difficulty coming to grips with the nature of human evil. This empowers evil by rendering its victims helpless before it.
The problem is ancient and omnipresent. It waxes – and then it wanes. It will be with us forever, because it will always be us. Yet it can be kept in check by understanding what it is – and that it cannot be bargained with. Only opposed. There is no complying our way out of it."
they see a helping hand, not understanding what is behind that hand
the basis of the welfare state is to steal from one group (calling it a tax), to give stuff to others that did not earn it. there is nothing in the US Constitution that allows government to do this.
in fact, the anti-slavery Amendments should have prevented this from happening (for take what i earn for another is a form of slavery)
the end result is generations of people dependent upon government. this was clearly the end desired by those created the "Great Society", as LBJ himself said "we'll have those "people" voting for us for 100 years.
we also have generations of people that think they are owed something, just who owes it to them?
at some point this cannot continue
. . . why bother? . . .