You neglected the other side of Rand's philosophy: not only is an individual under a moral imperative to enrich his or her self, but he or she is also under a moral imperative never to help anyone else.
Rand's philosophy is about self determination. As such I can choose to do things for my own benefit. Whether that be a charitable act or not is up to ME. Not to government, not to other people, not to any standard that I do not choose.
Trying to frame Rand in some "moral" sense is why Rand made her philosophy in the first place. She saw those who used arguments of morality to justify theft. "Some who already have enough will just have to give up a little bit more for the good of everyone" and "At some point you have made enough money". Anybody remember the source of those quotes?
Why is it that the leftists who can chant "my body my choice" find no irony in saying "we have a right to the fruit of your labor, you have no choice." Is that just inconsistent or what? Slavery to government is just as repugnant as slavery to an individual. If the whole world were reduced to two people, one named "government" and one named "citizen" it would only serve to show that slavery to "government" is wrong.
Unless you happen to believe in slavery, because you view yourself as an elite who deserves slaves. I guess that makes sense if you are a leftist. Makes me want to go club a baby seal while munching on veal, right now the only thing that could make me feel better are the tears of a hippie.
3 comments:
Now, now...you don't club the seals any more! That's so five minutes ago.
What you do is, you stab the seal to death with the sharpened bones of a Spotted Owl, douse the corpse with whale oil and set it ablaze. Then you drop a grill over it and cook a Bottlenose Dolphin steak, serving it up with a side order of Delta Smelt.
When the meal is finished, you pick your teeth with an old-growth redwood toothpick, jump into your one-ton crew-cab dually 3mpg pickup(with the mandatory Gadsden Flag, NRA and Palin 2012 bumper stickers) and lay a patch of smoldering rubber that can be seen from space while blasting a Krista Branch CD at top volume.
Damn, dude, you don't know anything about pissing off hippies, do ya? ;)
Good stuff!
Thus is another example of leftist/collectivist lies.
Rand's proscription of altruism *IN NO WAY* prohibited helping others. What it DID was make painfully clear that any such help was rightly a VOLUNTARY CHOICE, and not a moral or legal imperative.
"Rational Self Interest" includes earning the good feelings one gets from doing good works and/or assisting the less-fortunate. If nothing else, participation in (for example) the charitable activities of a church helps ensure that - should *I* ever need such help - I'll be much more likely to receive it.
Call it "social insurance."
I've helped a few younger men who came from sick, sad family situations to get themselves an education. Not only has this helped me feel better about my own success, but it has also earned for me the assurance that they'll help me with things I need, when they can.
As we - and likely THEY - know, nobody's suggesting that there should be no charity, but rather that any "charity" enforced at the muzzle of a government gun is not charity AT ALL!
Likewise, your act of voting for those who would order me to be robbed of my property by a .gov agent - again, at the point of a gun - isn't "altruism" or "charity" either.
THIS is what Rand was saying.
Still, no surprise that The Enemy would lie - we should be used to that by now...
DD
DD
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