From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Wed May 04 2005 - 23:19:41 BST
Hi Sam....
I like that Chomsky quote; I've used it many times. I hope by using
it you are not suggesting that I cannot be both an anarchist AND a
fully-realized, fully-informed, unrestricted human being. :o(
Anyway, while you're thinking, focus on my notion of a fully-
realized human being, because therein lies the huge difference
between the Objectivists and me. By my definition, no fully-realized
person would make an attempt to cleverly rationalize selfishness,
much less make "The Virtue of Selfishness," the cornerstone of her
ethical philosophy:
"The Objectivist ethics, in essence, hold that man exists for his own
sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral
purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself to others, nor sacrifice
others to himself." -Ayn Rand
Aware of our common humanity, our common identity, the fully-realized
woman understands that her own happiness is NOT the highest moral
purpose. The fully-realized man will focus exclusively on his own
needs only until his survival with a modicum of leisure is secured.
And although the bit about sacrifice sounds similar to my notion of
choosing not to exploit others, in Rand's words it is a transparent
attempt to fend off the devastating criticism of her ethics. The
reason Objectivism is the darling of the capitalist class is that it
affords them a small but undeserved comfort.
In this thread I will attempt to argue that any flavor of
uncontrolled capitalism leads to environmental, natural resource, and
human exploitation, and, eventually, to its own destruction. I
believe Marx was right about this, and that massive state-
subsidization of large-scale capitalist institutions is the only
reason they are still around.
Looking forward to more in this thread.
Best,
Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
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