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Imagine the philosophy that combines Ayn Rands outlook with empathy toward others...

I'm only marginally familiar with some of her principles, but those I do know of speak of the superiority of the self, and how every human is their own temple of the gods, capable of greatness. I completely agree with that, but treat everyone else around me as though it were a universal truth (so, you and everyone else are also entities of boundless, godly potential and should be treated with equal respect as you expect to be treated yourself, i.e. golden rule).

I wish we could progress through life with that perspective of 'superior equality', but not being fully versed in her work I probably fall in line with those who cherry-pick as well.

so...just like the bible then. cherry pick the parts that we like, conveniently ignore the parts we don't.

but hey that's consistent with Ayn who was also a huge hypocrite. decrying gov't assistance, yet partaking of it herself

Sorry, I don't understand the Ayn Rand reference. What did she say?

funny that he invoked Adam Smith. Adam Smith wanted strong regulation of Capitalism. Nothing wrong with Capitalism with regulation.

I'd also say that there is nothing wrong with capitalism when it comes to non-essential commodities. you want the latest iPhone or that other luxury item with the latest bling? yeah, get a higher paying job so you can afford it. Basic internet service, on the other hand, should be a public utility.

people like that always seem to love Ayn Rand too...but Ayn Rand sucked on the gov't teet quite a bit.

Has a underlying "taxes are theft" theme hidden inside. It also totally sidesteps a lot of important steps needed when large number of people live inside finite space, infrastructure, order, sustenance. It all needs to be managed, otherwise we are back to tribes instead of nations. We are free but responsible, if nothing else than to our fellow humanbeings. Being totally free also means freedom to kill, maim, destroy. And we are all a bit evil, selfish, enough so that taxes are not voluntary.. It is so easy to say that taxes enslave us when you don't give out any alternatives that would work.. Anarchy does not work, it's the power of the strongest, anarcho-capitalism is a horrible idea. It is about as equally terrifying as Ayn Rands ideas.

Can't people watch fictional movies and accept that they're fiction?

Mind you, I suppose there are people out there who believe in The Force, Alien Abudction, and Ayn Rand's philosophies.

im no statist but this video is so childishly naive as to be laughable.

might as well call the free market jesus.

jesus is the way and the light.
follow jesus for salvation.
only jesus can absolve you of your sins.

this is about power.
if the libertarian is willing to acknowledge that the government is bloated and corrupt but unwilling to recognize the abuse of power wrought by corporations...because the corporation is part of the "free market"...they can end their sermon right there.

i am no longer interested.

if a libertarian preaches the importance of individual sovereignty and individual rights but dismisses that they are part of a community in a larger society.
they can proselytize at somebody elses door.

if a libertarian wishes to shower me with the glories of private property and ownership but ignore the importance and basic human dignity of the very workers who produce everything for those private owners.

then i say unto them that they wish to enslave their fellow man and the freedom they seek is for them alone and the rest of humanity be damned all in the name of profit and greed.

they can take their cult of ayn rand and masturbate somewhere else.

UNLESS....
they are willing to admit that:
1.as @VoodooV pointed out,we live in a society and a society is populated by PEOPLE.

2.that people deserve more than just the right to trade freely (which i agree with) but that human dignity and compassion,and yes..the right for life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

3.that the corporation is actually MORE vicious than a government.a corporation is amoral by design! so if we are going to address the abusive powers of government,the abuses of corporations should be recognized as well.

4.the argument that corporations would not exist without governments is a canard.that may have been true in 1910 but no longer.there are corporations that have a higher GDP than most nation states.

5.the argument that governments start wars are only half-truths.can you guess what the other half is? thats right! banks and corporations using their power and influence to oppress third world nations...through the use (or abuse to be more accurate) of this nations military.see:smedley butler.

6.while a non-state would be amazing i am not naive enough to believe it could ever happen in our lifetime.yes many arbitrary borders have been penned by empires but there will always be lines drawn by cultural,religious and ethnicity..lets be honest.

7.while i do not share voodoos optimism in this democratic representative republics current health status (i feel it is broken and dysfunctional),it is a FAR better thing than the authoritarian,totalitarian system that is the american corporation.unless they went all democratic on me and i didnt get the memo.

8.government does have a role in our society,though it should be limited.
defense (not illegal and pre-emptive wars of aggression).
fraud control and law enforcement.
roads,fire,police,education and health,because thats what a society does for each other.
we take care of each other.
you dont like that? move to the mountains..have fun!

9.the corporate charter should be re-written."for the public good" should be re-instated for one thing.
a.i was talking to a libertarian and he used the term "non-aggression" and i really REALLY liked this.so a corporation will be held responsible for any and all:destruction to the ecology (local and abroad),destruction of peoples health,home and property.externalization of any sort will be seen as "aggression" and the CEO and all officers will be held liable to be paid by:dissillusion of company of jail time,they can choose.
b.a corporation is NOT a person and ZERO funds will be drawn from company money to purchase a legislator.they may spend as much money as they wish from their own personal accounts,but ALL contributions shall be made public over a certain amount.
c.any corporation that has been found to pay their workers so little as to put the burden on the tax payer shall be found performing an "aggressive" act against the american people and shall either pay the amount in full or forfeit their company.

dammit.im rambling ...again.
but oh baby am i digging this non-aggression dealio!

can i rewrite the corporate charter?
please please please please.....

*promote the discussion

To put Edward Snowden and CHELSEA Manning on the same list as Ted Nugent, Ted Cruz, Jesse Ventura, Ayn Rand, Ron and Rand Paul, Alex Jones, and Wesley Clark is the biggest fucking joke I can imagine.

Those two are to be respected for their service to the American People and the Constitution. Those morons on that list don't belong in the same universe as Edward and Chelsea.

Downvoted before I even watched it because of your retarded list.

translation: I know you are but what am I.

Libertarianism in the best case is a redundancy. I still remember the first time someone introduced me to the concept of what a Libertarian was. My reaction was "duh, how could anyone possibly be against that?"

Reality however is quite different. Every time we've had an instance of a politician defending the "right" of a corporation to do things everyone knows is harmful to other people, guess what! they're a libertarian!!

Everytime we have an instance of someone complaining about some form of government excess or incompetency and that someone argues we should scrap the whole system, yet has no answer to the question of what would you put in it's place that would be better. Guess what..Libertarian again!

Everyone who seems to think rational self-interest will protect the strong from bullying the weak, again, probably a Libertarian.

Guess what? that conveys the sense that Libertarians = Anarchists or Objectivists/Ayn Rand worshipers.

We only hear about Libertarians when they're bitching about gov't. If the guy in the video is correct and they do agree that Gov't has a role? please elaborate? where IS gov't allowed to step in and intervene and be proactive? If your answer is the Military. BZZZT try again. Every fucking party on this planet agrees that we need a military, the only disagreement is in how much.

So it just does nothing to advance the idea that Libertarians do anything but bitch about the gov't Well get in line...everyone has some grievance with the gov't. Every single party on this planet wants gov't intervention in some things, no intervention in other things. They just disagree in what parts.

So it just makes Libertarians seem redundant. Every single person throughout the political spectrum wants gov't to be no bigger than it needs to be. If you think otherwise, then you need to put on your tinfoil hat.

Even if there was a better way of distinguishing Libertarians apart from the other parties. Guess what. every "ism" on the planet has the problem where not everyone agrees on how things should be done. Ask a 100 libertarians how they think gov't should operate and you'll get 100 different answers, just like if you ask 100 Christians about God, you'll get 100 different answers. Same thing goes with every party.

I'm sure there are some very well intentioned Libertarians out there. Name me someone who doesn't have good intentions? But it's been demonstrated as I mentioned earlier how Libertarianism gets used as an excuse to get away with doing shitty things to people who don't know any better. So tell me how I can tell the difference between the good Libertarians and the "bad" ones

Till then, Libertarianism is a meaningless term.

This.
Objectivism is the political equivalent of Young Adult Fantasy.

“I’d been kind of an Ayn Rand guy before that,” he said. “And then you go to Asia and you see people who are genuinely poor and genuinely suffering and hadn’t gotten there by whining.” While on a break in Singapore, walking back to his hotel in the middle of the night, he stopped by an excavation site and “saw these shadows scuttling around in the hole. And then I realized the shadows were old women, working the night shift. Oh, I thought, Ayn Rand doesn’t quite account for this.”
-- George Saunders, on his time in Asia during the 90s.

more taxation = theft BS. By living here you are agreeing to be taxed to pay for things we all need. Like that pesky police force we all agree is necessary to a just state.

if you live here, you agree with these terms, thus no theft. If you don't like taxation, get out.

yet again we have this hypocrisy. when we agree to the terms of a contract when dealing with private business, no one complains when a business holds you to your end of the bargain. but when gov't tries to collect taxes you agree to pay and tries to hold you to your end of the bargain, suddenly it's this horrible thing.

If you want something, you have to pay for it and Libertarianism is just a way of saying "I want to get away with doing something that I know harms people" or "I want something but I don't want to have to pay for it" wrapped in delusion of freedom.

people throw around the word freedom but in reality, as @ChaosEngine pointed out. you give people freedom and they use it to fuck over other people. We haven't evolved to the point where we can realiably count on people not to fuck each other over. Someday maybe that will happen, but it certainly isn't today.

Voluntaryism is just Objectiveism and Meritocracy trying to divorce itself from the negative stigma of Ayn Rand. rebranding a failed idea to get gullible people to fall for it again. Legitimized avarice.

boy I sure didn't miss blankfist's one note charlie obsession with statism.

Did the people who come up with these ideas completely ignore the lessons they learned when they first became adults? When we're growing up, we hated our parents for imposing rules on us, when we first become adults and we have a first taste of freedom, we go nuts, we do extremely stupid things, harmful things. most adults do eventually learn that these things are harmful and *shock* learn to impose limits on themselves. Eventually they come to realize that their parents weren't jerks after all and they generally did have a good reason to impose rules on us. Sure there some shitty parents out there and the children of those shitty parents throw out the rules that didn't work when they become adults, but guess what, they don't throw out the system, they just come up with different rules. hopefully those rules are better, if not, we just try again.

There is this false notion of an adversarial relation between gov't and the people. PEOPLE CREATED GOV'T!!! gov't is just the current method by which we impose limits on ourselves. just like we do as we grow up. Sure, we don't have a perfect system. get used to it. If gov't truly wasn't necessary, we would have ditched it a long time ago. someday we will have the ability to self limit ourselves without a self-created third party, but that isn't today.

Probably isn't ever going to change until we evolve genetic memory of our parents/ancestors or we develop a way to download knowledge/experience Matrix-style so that instead of learning the hard way to not touch a stove because it's hot, we just already know it at birth or an earlier age.

the moment he quoted ayn rand his voice turned into charlie browns teacher for me.
wah buh wah wah..
wah wah..
wah

"...You parasitic piece of crap"

-Said Ayn Rand

What you have a problem with is simply his presentation, correct? Or am I right in thinking you're upset that he's simply telling you how to properly eat sushi?

Sometimes there is actually a correct way and a wrong way. I know, shocking. But then there's also taking liberties. If I have no utensil's I will eat with my fingers even if it's "not the right way." Or more aptly, if there's no wine glass, I'll still use a solo cup. If I had a choice, I'd choose the wine glass. Why? Because it's the proper way. Does it really add to it? Not really. It's demonstrably mostly placebo effect. Then again, does a plate make food taste different? Technically speaking, no. It should in absolutely no way effect the taste of food. But in reality, it makes a substantial difference in the way food tastes. Those who do not take the time to properly plate a meal for another person is simply wasting their time and effort. You might as well buy them a McDonalds hamburger.

But in essence, what you're saying is "because you know more than me, it's wrong for you to use it because it means I'm inferior and you're a dick because of it." Why yes Ayn Rand, I'll keep that in mind. You must hate pretty people too?

I make my coffee from a French Press because it IS better. I use local "fancy" honey because it IS better. If I keep it on my shelf where others can see doesn't make me a douche. It could mean I don't have a cabinet, or I use it often. Which I do. Now who's being a dick?

You're assumption is simply that "I'm dumb, and you're smart, therefore you're gay." Or, I'm sorry, a hipster. Right now, the hip thing is to make fun of this video. Much like the people who hate popular music just because it's popular. That's what your argument sounds like.

Just because someone enjoys something doesn't make them a hipster, a douche or a dick. And because you can't understand their enjoyment of "proper etiquette" only makes you a hipster, dick, douche when you complain. No one here is "forcing" you to eat sushi anyway differently. No one is holding a gun to your head telling you to not put soy sauce all over your rolls. I know, it's strange, but you didn't even have to watch this video. So please explain to me what exactly the problem is again?


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