The Moral Meaning of Capitalism
"I could say to you that you do not serve the public good—that nobody’s good can be achieved at the price of human sacrifices—that when you violate the rights of one man, you have violated the rights of all, and a public of rightless creatures is doomed to destruction. I could say to you that you will and can achieve nothing but universal devastation—as any looter must, when he runs out of victims. I could say it, but I won’t. It is not your particular policy that I challenge, but your moral premise. If it were true that men could achieve their good by means of turning some men into sacrificial animals, and I were asked to immolate myself for the sake of creatures who wanted to survive at the price of my blood, if I were asked to serve the interests of society apart from, above and against my own—I would refuse, I would reject it as the most contemptible evil, I would fight it with every power I possess, I would fight the whole of mankind, if one minute were all I could last before I were murdered, I would fight in the full confidence of the justice of my battle and of a living being’s right to exist. Let there be no misunderstanding about me. If it is now the belief of my fellow men, who call themselves the public, that their good requires victims, then I say: The public good be damned, I will have no part of it!" -AR , For The New Intellectual
Do you agree?
Do you agree?
Rereading this, I suddenly got an image of Keanu Reeves being physically expelled from the Matrix as he "woke up".
Not relevant to the post... Just to my word salad complex :).
I felt (O wwww) as if khalling was going to flip in a zinger on those of us who agreed ...with some profound words of peace. As for Galt, Galt's world is not our world...we have, in a way, a lot more grievances with our gov intruding into every crevice of our lives. In Galt's world it was primarily business related...in real world...the intrusion is per-son-al, in addition to stealing our money, they're stealing our privacy, our freedom of speech, healthcare etc etc etc. Like I asked before...at what point do we realize we need to meet force with force?
I just have a burning desire (Ohhh whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa) to know what khalling thinks. If I don't like it, I might give you a point anyway ;).
In all sincerity, however, how many among us actually truly have the intestinal fortitude to take on a whole society rather than just abandon it and practice our principles elsewhere?
Disagree.
I will agree that a public of rightless "humans" will devolve into factions where one faction or other will dominate by force, and enslave or kill members of any other faction.
My cats (creatures) don't particularly care about each other's rights for the most part.
The bats flying around my yard at night don't particularly care about the rights of the insects they munch on.
Hell, it's just one word that's off, but still, someone could call it a word salad for that one word ;).
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