Giving Tuesday ?%!&
I have been solicited by both universities I attended, the university I am a professor at, and by the American Chemical Society for donations today.
What is going on with this proliferation of altruism?!*&! (in lieu of four-letter expletives)
What is going on with this proliferation of altruism?!*&! (in lieu of four-letter expletives)
Read Atlas Shrugged.
For awhile now, I've refused to purchase anything from a company which interjects social consciousness into their mission statement or their marketing campaigns.
If each individual takes care of himself, his own and whomever he chooses, all will be well with the world. Social consciousness is a construct better taught within families then from external coercive elements.
I donate anonymously. I was taught that when you give, you give - you get nothing in return. If you give with the expectation of a return, you are making a purchase.
I would also liike to say a bad word about Cingular ATT, United Airlines, Joann's, Avast, Paypal/Ebay, Virgin Atlantic cell phone, and GMC. Most particularly about BankAmerica.....All made scum of the year award and I don't forget.....
"refused to purchase anything from a company which interjects social consciousness into" And oh boy, it's getting harder and harder to find those that abstain.
Once I tried to purchase only things Made in America. Couldn't do it. Apparently nothing has been made in America since the early 80s.
Soon it will be just as impossible to get away from the world saving sanctimonious sanctioning of those who choose the blue pill..and those who dole them out.
Most of you can't find the center much left define the left nor the right with Clyde driving.
And I do it because I want to...not that anyone shamed me into it.
They can keep their "Giving Tuesday".
one Broke on Friday.
Confucius say(s): Man who hit laughing fortune teller strike a happy medium.
I may give to organizations whose work I respect and want to support, but I'll be damned if I do so on "Giving Bloody Tuesday"!
Jan
Remind them you already gave back when you paid your taxes.
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I must have received at least 20 emails that contained #GivingTuesday in the subject or the body text. In preparation for next year I will create a filter that sends those directly to the trash.
And I' so #sickandtired of seeing #hashtag in front of virtually everything these days that I'm seriously considering starting a #kickstartercampaign to #removehashtagfromthekeyboard. I think I might #loathe it as much as #lol.
I wish I could say I am surprised... but considering the source... sadly, not.
What's his face from CNN Ted Turner did the same with 500 million to the UN. He's now the second largest private landowner in the country. How much property tax does he pay?
Trump openly brags about buying and selling politicians especially congressionals. See him facing anyone's committee? His purchases stay purchased.
The second round of the cycle of economic repression is in the start up phase. That's where the true costs of the first go round show up to collect on the debt and whose going to pay? Not the one's who operate the scam...you will when that chicken comes home to roost.
Invest in America? For what purpose? Where is the value?
Susanne please post that list... let's air all the dirty laundry.
it is a guilt trip like so many which we see these days. -- j
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Flash forward
Hey the country ponied up and with interest!!! i thought about it as i promised....and gave back 46% of the total amount.
What was the total?
$200,000 but I gave $100,000 back up front and only took $100,000
How much did you pay in taxes?
$46 thousand.
and the remaining $54,000.
Next question???
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Until then ' Eat.....and bark at the moon' add to that M2F2U. The first two means squared.
first, I thought the subject was about giving to
education. If I think a cause is worthy enough
(from an Objectivist perspective) then I might do-
nate to it (if I could afford it).
Society, but I don't think I would donate to any
college or university. I believe they are mainly a
threat to freedom in this country. Maybe someday
someone will start an Objectivist college or university, and maybe I would donate to that (if
I am still around and have a job by then).
Hillsdale doesn't push their Christian leanings in any of their newsletters or requests for donations. I'm not sure that this should even be an issue, but I could be missing something.
I'm still catching up... she's now working with anorexia and bulemia and young children who are propagandized into those conditions by society. i've often thought 'should become a lawyer? What a waste that would have been."
Point is there are exceptions to the any rule or any bias. Hillsdale's habit of not accepting government funds is a good indicator they ought to be examined and considered after all how many similar choices are their. it's your kids and grand kids, which way would you choose:?
As for my kids and grandkids, I will encourage them to come to my university. One of my children is there now, with almost no prodding whatsoever. She came to that conclusion largely on her own. As for my other daughter, she will attend the university of her choosing. As Rand correctly observed, one must come to one's conclusions on his/her own.
On another note, altruism is the greatest form of the worship of secular humanism since if it isn't in the worship of God, is has to be in worship of man.
Next time they ask for something, ask them, "Why?" I hear the message to give, give, give and never hear the reason why. I guess they figure it is self-evident, to which I say, "So is God."
I proclaim that a humongous load of bullshit. First, "if it isn't in the worship of God, is has to be in worship of man." No, I don't worship anything. I place my mind and rational thought at or near the top of my hierarchy of values, but I don't worship them. The word worship itself implies the believe in mysticism, which Objectivists are not allowed, by definition.
Then, "... altruism is the greatest form of the worship of secular humanism..."? What kind of hogwash is that? Secular humanism and altruism couldn't possibly any more unrelated to each other than they already are. In fact, I would say that religion is the greatest proponent of altruism. Christianity clearly promotes taking care of others as one of man's highest purposes - especially if he gives away everything he has.
But your claim that the existence of a mystical uberbeing is self-evident is so far beyond bullshit that the word that adequately describes the sentiment has yet to be invented. I have two arms and two legs; that is self-evident. I have never, ever seen the tiniest sliver of evidence to support the existence of your mystic uberbeing.
Just in case you want to counter with silly questions like, "Well, how did X happen or where did Y come from," I'll gladly say, "I don't know but our knowledge of the universe grows every day and eventually we will know."
Were a mystical deity self-evident, then a lot of us who meet the definition of 'self' would not have thought it obvious that such a critter was unnecessary. And I agree, in spades, that we are in the process of scientifically answering the questions that made the postulation of a creator-deity necessary to former ages. We do not have all of the answers yet, but we now know that the issues are knowable.
I pointed james464 back up because his reply politely stated his viewpoint.
Jan
I also admit that my use of the word bullshit was overly aggressive. I invite people to substitute a more polite word; editing period has ended. Believers making silly statements as though they're factual is one of my triggers. Maybe someday I'll overcome it, if I ever convince myself that I should!
I expect people to have strong opinions in the Gulch. Some of those opinions will be far different from mine; a subset of those may change my views and inform my future perspectives.
You will certainly up/down vote according to your own parameters. I, by mine.
Jan, has her own triggers
.44 magnum
.357 magnum
9mm Luger
.45 acp
12 guage side-by-side
Am I close?
My father gave away his Lugar - from WWII.
Jan
It's in great shape and I shoot it from time to time. It stovepipes a round once in a while but I always attributed that to the ammo. That gun is a work of art, beautiful to look at and incredibly comfortable to hold.
The only good thing I can think of about my father giving it away (while all 3 or his daughters would have loved to have owned it) was that he gave it to a young Jewish boy who lived across the street from us. At least I find that amusing.
Jan
killed by the reich. . ww2 in europe a horrible time. -- j
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Jan
(But DARN. Wudda loved to have had it.)
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/View...
and our family's "luger artillery" pistol looks like:::
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=l...
verrrrrrrrry accurate! -- j
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Jan
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a cause, do it! -- j
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It's hard to respond to someone so committed to the false alternatives and premises in your replies.
handgun I ever fired. . it's a long-barrel version from a
german officer. . well-made weapon. -- j
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Jan
I never knew anyone thought of donations as a form of worship. I know that charity and tithing are expected, but I never thought of it as a form of worship.
I believe that the act of giving is personal and private and shouldn't be co-opted as a marketing tool for businesses or political agendas.
I do like the idea of giving as something whimsical - I never realized that I sometimes give on a whimsy. It's what I did yesterday when I dropped a Silver Eagle in a tip jar - when no one was looking. The staff and owner at this diner are very special. It was only later that I realized - how the heck are they going to divide that up? Oh well.
A woman at my workplace was trying to buy a drink from the Coke machine with a silver quarter. The machine wouldn't accept it. I recognized it right away and said, "the machine doesn't recognize that old silver quarter as a real quarter (backwards, right?!). Let me go back to my desk and I'll give you a dollar bill for your silver quarter." I was shortchanging her. Her response, "Just give me a quarter, that's what I need." I had one in my pocket and made a hefty profit (percentage-wise).
If I were you I'd worry that they'd deposit it in the bank and get face value for it! I hope I didn't spoil your day!
It definitely occurred to me that they may not recognize it...but the owner is a savvy guy. If he does recognize the coin, I hope he threw in the spot value...and kept the coin for himself.
Actually, any scenario I came up with, amused me. Someone will benefit (hopefully not the bank :)
Why didn't you tell that woman what her "silver quarter" actually was? We definitely differ on how the situation you described should be handled. I would have gotten more of a kick out of telling her. Also, It wouldn't have occurred to me to take advantage of her lack of knowledge! Blame it on the mother in me ...but shame on you (a tsking finger emoji needed here)
I didn't bother to include that detail in my tale.
She must really like soda.
But if you want to bring down the entire room by being all serious, there's nothing wrong with generosity even if you can't afford it if, in your own hierarchy of values, your own comfort is less important than the benefit to another. Objectivism doesn't disapprove of generosity or even charity. There is a difference between charity and alms, generosity and self-sacrifice.
Forgive me for not remembering the characters' names or for muddling the details, but recall the young woman in Atlas Shrugged who worked at a job helping the less fortunate. She did it because she loved the work and it had meaning for her. Rand wrote her as a sympathetic character, one of life's everyday heroes. The young woman's father berated her for enjoying her work and claimed that she was being immoral unless she felt an obligation to help those beneath her, insisting that she must become a sacrificial piece of meat, or otherwise her work was meaningless. She was being unforgivably selfish if she enjoyed it. If I remember correctly that poor woman was destroyed by guilt and wasted away.
This doesn't apply to Gulchers, but I get so aggravated when people out in the world accuse Objectivism of being cruel and selfish (the modern usage) and Darwinian. That's a sentiment expressed by someone who hasn't read or hasn't understood Rand's novels. She has many characters performing mundane tasks to the very best of their ability, and she is specifically pointing out how valuable they are and how they are heroic in their way. You don't have to be Dagny Taggart or Hank Rearden to be held in esteem.
"Eventually we will know" Sounds like a faith statement.
My claim that "eventually we will know" couldn't possibly be any further removed from a statement of faith. I based that statement on the stupendous progress man has already made in understanding the universe, and the rate at which breakthroughs are achieved in virtually every field is accelerating. I can buy a 3 1/2" form-factor hard drive today that's filled with helium instead of air and uses shingled, perpendicular recording THAT CAN STORE 10TB of data. 5 years ago it was a theory that IBM hoped to test very soon. A couple of years ago I did a calculation that compared the cost/MB for a 5MB hard drive in an IBM PC model B circa 1983(ish) versus a 3TB modern hard drive that I had just bought for $99.00. If a person in 1983(ish) wanted to buy enough 5MB hard drives to store 3TB of data it would have cost millions of dollars. Sorry I can't be more specific but I don't recall the exact number.
The technological advancements that allowed me to purchase 3TB of storage for $99 instead of $1M+ only 30 years ago is astounding. I feel completely comfortable claiming that "eventually we will know."
Your claim that "eventually we will know" is a statement of faith is nearly identical to the statement so often made by believers to atheists, "You accuse me of being irrational for having faith in god when your claim that there is no god is based completely on faith!"
Only a liar or an imbecile would ever say that. An atheist's conviction that there is no god is based on a complete lack of objective evidence for such a being. You cannot point to a single piece of physical evidence that shows that god exists. No, pointing to a woman giving birth and saying 'There's god for you' is not acceptable. All I see is an everyday, naturally occurring phenomenon.
You wrote further down that, "Math isn't my problem, it is Objectivist logic." If you have read any of Ayn Rand's non-fiction and were unable to follow her line of reasoning then I feel sorry for you. Her starting conditions and subsequent explanations of Objectivism and its requirement for rational, objective thought are clear - although I'll admit that one or more books are quite academic and require some work to get through. If you don't understand Objectivist logic then I propose that you don't understand any logic.
That statement also makes me wonder why you are here. You're not going to talk any of we atheists into being believers and none of us will waste our time trying to talk you out of believing in mysticism. What did you hope to accomplish? If you wanted to learn about Objectivism (good for you) then your admission that logic escapes you has shown that you are unable to learn about Objectivism.
The error in her definition or view of altruism is that altruism is the choice of the one providing, not the one receiving, although the one receiving could reject what is offered. My point is the one receiving may or may not be productive, but I guess that would just be called giving vs a subset thereof.
If 90 cents to the dollar donated goes to Administrative costs... then your "10 cents worth" is worth a little more than nothing.
I'd rather donate for your student's classroom equipment and know that the full amount is being justly employed.
of the capitalism which makes the world better for all of us,
even the "unlucky." . Smart Man, Sir & Thanks! -- j
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From where I sit and believe, I do not discuss where I give to and how much as it is between me and my Creator.
I just wanted to direct your attention to the fact that in common everyday use, the definition of the term has shifted.
Jan, looked it up in lots of places
giving? . either that, or ransom. -- j
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Jan
Jan
Named or not, with a small or large A, it is found throughout civilizations and is used as a method of control. It's in the Bible, in Plato, and in nearly all mystical thought.
There seems to be a lot more to the 20th-century push for socialism on two fronts. My wife has been researching the biography of Karl Marx and has noticed that he was closely connected to powerful people and that the Fabian Society was founded in 1884, less than a year after his 1883 death. More to come, eventually.
"If we are here to help others, then what are the others here for?"
The silly reply to that statement is (of course) "They're here for dinner. Now go and feed them!"
I'm hungry--I hereby volunteer to help CBJ.