Re: MD the ideology of capitalism - the Ayn Rand question

From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Tue May 10 2005 - 17:52:35 BST

  • Next message: Arlo J. Bensinger: "Re: MD the ideology of capitalism - the Ayn Rand question"

    msh:
    In closing, I want to say to all you Randians out there, that if you
    really believe you are self-reliant people completely independent of
    others, unless you live alone on the Alaskan frontier or somewhere,
    killing moose with rocks and melting snow for water, you are sadly
    self-deluded.

    tfp:
    Randians claim self-reliance, but not complete independence from
    others.

    msh:
    Anyone who benefits from the existence of others is not self-reliant.
     The notion of self-reliance is a delusion.

    tfp:
    In the Randian world, men deal with other men freely as
    traders, using money as their means of non-sacrificial valuation in a
    transaction in which both parties win. The alternative is the muzzle
    of a gun.

    msh::
    There are other alternatives. For example, to cut the Gary Cooper
    High Noon delusions, and recognize that we are all in this together,
    that cooperation, not competition, produces the highest quality
    results for all.

    You use public roads and transportation, you use public schools and
    parks and libraries and museums; you rely on fire departments,
    police departments, emergency medical services;
    you use sewage systems, water, power, post offices; you rely on
    countless products created by others, the R&D and other expenses for
    many of them subsidized by public funds; you count on others for
    your food supply.... books, entertainment, conversation and
    company...yada, yada, yada.

    tfp:
    You obviously forgot or never realized that all the goods ever
    produced and all the wealth ever created that makes it possible for
    governments to build libraries and museums and pay firemen and
    policemen comes from the minds of individuals orchestrating
    productive work.

    msh:
    Please provide a single example of a self-reliant individual who has
    created great wealth for himself.

    tfp:
    Furthermore, you bundled taxpayer -funded products with those
    provided by the free market as if there was no difference between the
    power of free men engaging in free trade and the power of government
    coercion.

    msh says:
    There are no free-markets. Or can you provide an example of one?
    And the development of any product requires the ideas and cooperation
    of many people, past and present, as well as the availability of
    state-sponsored common resources. Or can you provide an example of a
    product that does not?

    tfp:
    Finally, you have tried to associate yourself with some ideal "fully-
    realized" person who preaches about "our common humanity," yet when
    push comes to shove you refer to "all you Randians out there" as if
    they were a separate species.

    msh:
    They are not a separate species. They are a self-deluded subset of
    our species whose notions of self-reliance often lead to behavior
    that directly threatens the well-being of our species as a whole.

    tfp:
    Oh well. It comes as no surprise that the leftist mind comes with a
    built in set of hilarious contradictions.

    msh:
    This is just more slander without evidence and argument.

    Mark Steven Heyman (msh)

    -- 
    InfoPro Consulting - The Professional Information Processors
    Custom Software Solutions for Windows, PDAs, and the Web Since 1983
    Web Site: http://www.infoproconsulting.com
    MOQ.ORG  - http://www.moq.org
    Mail Archives:
    Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
    Nov '02 Onward  - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
    MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
    To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
    http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
    


    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue May 10 2005 - 18:27:49 BST