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A.A.P.A.

Posted by Herb7734 4 years, 2 months ago to Philosophy
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Ad Astra Per Aspera is a well known Latin phrase.The only controversey is the definition of the word "aspera." It is the root of the English word "asperation."So, the phrase might be interpreted like this: It is our aspiration to go to the stars. But, aspera as it was used, I am told, is also often interpreted as being a word that indicates difficulty or hardship which is the way It is iterperted when the phrase is used as a motto, or aphorism. So my favorite interpretation would be: "Through hardship, to the stars."There has been some discussion of late about the way certain young people feel about success. In some cases it is said that they (Mostly Millenials) expect to "have it all" once they graduate college, and that as one can easily see, leaves out the "aspera" part of the motto.Most of us know that life is not a day at the beach. We realize that in order to achieve, we must put forth effort, and in so doing it may well cause hardship and yes, sacrifice. The question then becomes, is success worth the effort required in order to achieve it. The first question an Objectivist might ask is, what would Rand say? Not being a philosopher, I will not answer except to say My use of the phrase is interpreting "aspera" as "hardship." Because I have never achieved much without lots of hard work. I would be interested to hear from Gulchers as to their thoughts on this subject..


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  • Posted by mccannon01 4 years, 1 month ago
    Interesting phrase, Herb7734. To paraphrase, perhaps Thomas Edison's description of achieving success said it as well, "1% inspiration, 99% perspiration". In my life I've certainly experienced a lot of Aspera to reach my personal Astra. Without the former there would have been no latter.
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    • Posted by 4 years, 1 month ago
      My experience as well. I also think that many persons go to college in order to obtain a certain profession, with the thought tat it will automatically get you a good paying job. In some cases that may be true, but once you obtain that job, you must keep up a certain standard in order to keep it or better still, rise within it's ranks. Edison was well aware of the efforts needed to succeed. The faomous story of his invention of the light bulb and the many trials and failures trying to find a proper long-lasting filament, which finally turned out to be tungsten, which at the time was considered to be a very unlikely element.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 4 years, 1 month ago
    Florida Tech's logo has "Ad Astra per Scientiam" on it. I like that better than Ad Astra Per Aspera, but hardship is encountered on the way into space. Some of you know "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein.

    You ought to read The University of Maryland's Prof. Dave Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design at
    https://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_...
    The last law is the best one:

    Space is a completely unforgiving environment. If you screw up the engineering, somebody dies (and there's no partial credit because most of the analysis was right...).
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    • Posted by Owlsrayne 4 years, 1 month ago
      Excellent Laws; the two authors who called themselves: James S A Corey of the novels which the new Amazon series "The Expanse" is based on, shows the hardship & brutality of living and working in outer space. The novels are considerably more descriptive.
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  • Posted by Ben_C 4 years, 1 month ago
    What I find interesting is that many who win a large amount through perhaps a lottery end up losing the money with bad decisions and frivolous spending. Those who gain wealth through hard work tend to keep it.
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  • Posted by Maritimus 4 years, 1 month ago
    I would say: compare the actions, behaviors and achievements of Dagny and James Taggart at their railroad and you will see clearly what Ayn Rand thought on the questions you ask.
    Regards.
    Maritimus
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  • Posted by LibertyBelle 4 years, 1 month ago
    I don't have a college degree. From about the time I was 16 onwards, I didn't see much point to getting one. I thought I might need a business school education, but the school went bankrupt after Christmas vacation, and I never did see much point in going to another one (Till later, when I went to take data processing and that time also the school went bankrupt).. I have taken some technical courses, such as Basic Machine Shop, and keypunch, and IST100 Computer, and those didn't get me the jobs I trained for. So I don't see much point in letting myself be further swindled. I have continued to work at jobs, until I was cut from a food plant in 2014 (they were cutting people, and I was one of those cut; they didn't tell me what it was specifically about me, and I did not attempt to discuss it with them. I suspect that they were cutting people because of Obamacare, and age may have been a factor.)
    From 13 Sept 1970 until 30 Oct 2014 I was never out of a job more than about a week and a half at a time, and that was the extreme case, and occurred only once (mainly because I moved to Richmond, and took some time off to have things put in storage, and get other business done). Sometimes it might be about 4 days, or 2 days; once in 1976 I walked off a job because of how I was treated, and was unemployed that time approximately 4 hours and 15 minutes. I don't like the notions that some people seem to have, that a "higher" education should automatically entitle them to a job, if their education is not relevant to the job they apply for.
    But I also don't like the way some people try to push higher education and ram it down everybody's throats, when it's not something they need, and not going to get them a job.---But I am still trying to get another job. I'm willing to work, and I know how to do things.
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    • Posted by 4 years, 1 month ago
      To many employers, you are not a person, but a statistic. You are compared to other statistics and if you have more after your name you are chosen over others whose only statistics are on the job experience. Very stupid, but then...what do you expect from people that detached from humanity?
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 4 years, 1 month ago
    A novel use of the word: Aspera if indeed is translated as a hardship: Asperaburgers disease, as in our environ[mental] friend Gretta.-- considering it a hardship eating burgers...
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    • Posted by 4 years, 1 month ago
      Depends on the burgers. The best ones are ome made. However, There are some in California that are above average In.and Out Burger, Fatburger, Fudrucker's all make good, fresh, tasty burgers that would be acceptable.
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      • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 4 years, 1 month ago
        The only burger gretta would eat is a veggie burger and I am not even sure about that!...she might look down her nose and exclaim: "How Dare You!"...at the thought of killing a plant to eat it.
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