About Me

In writing the "About Me" portion of this blog I thought about the purpose of the blog - namely, preventing the growth of Socialism & stopping the Death Of Democracy in the American Republic & returning her to the "liberty to abundance" stage of our history. One word descriptions of people's philosophies or purposes are quite often inadequate. I feel that I am "liberal" meaning that I am broad minded, independent, generous, hospitable, & magnanimous. Under these terms "liberal" is a perfectly good word that has been corrupted over the years to mean the person is a left-winger or as Mark Levin more accurately wrote in his book "Liberty & Tyranny" a "statist" - someone looking for government or state control of society. I am certainly not that & have dedicated the blog to fighting this. I believe that I find what I am when I consider whether or not I am a "conservative" & specifically when I ask what is it that I am trying to conserve? It is the libertarian principles that America was founded upon & originally followed. That is the Return To Excellence that this blog is named for & is all about.

Monday, January 2, 2017

New Posting Notice - An Outline Report & Passages From "The Virtue Of Selfishness" by Ayn Rand

This message is to alert readers to a new post on the left hand side of RTE under Ayn Rand.  Click on An Outline Report & Passages From "The Virtue Of Selfishness" by Ayn Rand which I prepared in the fall as a natural addition to the long ago posted interviews of Miss Rand by both Mike Wallace & Phil Donahue that are libertarian treasures.
 
The new post presents the fundamentals of Ayn Rand's philosophy known as Objectivism – Miss Rand calls Objectivism "a philosophy for living on earth" that shows the greatness of man as a heroic being who lives by his own effort, achievement, & reasoning ability & does not give or receive the undeserved, who honors accomplishment, & rejects envy.
 
The new post focuses on the following points taken from The Virtue Of Selfishness:
 
1.  The only proper, moral purpose of government – namely to protect man's rights to his own life, his own liberty, & his own property while protecting him from physical violence;
 
2.  Human rights cannot exist without property rights – when the state claims the 'right' to redistribute the wealth produced by others it is claiming the 'right' to treat human beings as chattel; 
 
3.  The indispensible foundation of a free society is individual rights & capitalism is the only system that can uphold & protect individual rights;
 
4.  The United States being the first moral society in history - no other form of government, nation, or society had provided Black slaves freedom in a world where slavery was the norm everywhere for over 6,000 years of human existence – imagine the world pre-1776;
 
5.  Before America, all previous systems had held that man's life belonged to society, that society can dispose of him in any way it pleases, & that any freedom he enjoys is his only by favor, by the permission of society, which may be revoked @ any time.  The United States held that man's life is his by right (which means: by moral principle & by his nature), that a right is the property of an individual, that society as such has no rights, & that the only moral purpose of a government is the protection of individual rights;
 
6.  The right to life is the source of all rights - & the right to property is their only implementation.  Without property rights, no other rights are possible.  Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life.  The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave;
 
7.  There are two potential violators of man's rights: the criminal & the government;
 
8.  Any alleged 'right' of one man, which necessitates the violation of the rights of another, is not & cannot be a 'right'.  Those who advocate laissez-faire capitalism are the only advocates of man's rights;
 
9.  Since the protection of individual rights is the only proper purpose of government, it is the only proper subject of legislation: all laws must be based on individual rights & aimed @ their protection;
 
10.  The Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals, only the conduct of the government - that it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizens' protection against the government;
 
11.  Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism;
 
12.  Like every other form of collectivism, racism is a quest for the unearned;
 
13.  Racism has always risen or fallen with the rise or fall of collectivism.  Collectivism holds that the individual has no rights, that his life & work belong to the group (to "society," to the tribe, the state, the nation) & that the group may sacrifice him @ its own whim to its own interests.  The only way to implement a doctrine of that kind is by means of brute force - & statism has always been the political corollary of collectivism;
 
14.  There is only one antidote to racism: the philosophy of individualism & its politico-economic corollary, laissez-faire capitalism;
 
15.  Individualism regards man - every man - as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being. Individualism holds that a civilized society, or any form of association, cooperation or peaceful coexistence among men, can be achieved only on the basis of the recognition of individual rights - & that a group, as such, has no rights other than the individual rights of its members;

 

16.  It is capitalism that gave mankind its first steps toward freedom & a rational way of life.  It is capitalism that broke through national & racial barriers, by means of free trade.  It is capitalism that abolished serfdom & slavery in all the civilized countries of the world; 

 

17.  The simplest collective to join, the easiest one to identify - particularly for people of limited intelligence - the least demanding form of 'belonging' & of 'togetherness' is: race;

 

18.  In its great era of capitalism, the United States was the freest country on earth - & the best refutation of racist theories.  Men of all races came here, some from obscure, culturally undistinguished countries, & accomplished feats of productive ability which would  have remained stillborn in their control-ridden native lands. Men of racial groups that had been slaughtering one another for centuries, learned to live together in harmony & peaceful cooperation.  America had been called "the melting pot," with good reason.  But few people realized that America did not melt men into the gray conformity of a collective: she united them by means of protecting their right to individuality;

 

19.  It is proper to forbid all discrimination in government-owned facilities & establishments: the government has no right to discriminate against any citizen.  And by the very same  principle, the government has no right to discriminate against any citizen @ the expense of others.  It has no right to violate the right of private property by forbidding discrimination in privately owned establishments; &

 

20.  No man has any claim to the property of another man.  A man's rights are not violated by a private individual's refusal to deal with him.  Racism is an evil, irrational & morally contemptible doctrine - but doctrines cannot be forbidden or prescribed by law. Just as we have to protect a communist's freedom of speech, even though his doctrines are evil, so we have to protect a racist's right to the use & disposal of his own property.  Private racism is not a legal, but a moral issue - & can be fought only by private means, such as economic boycott or social ostracism.

 
I present this post to whet your interest in the subject matter so that you click on to read & study the entire outline report & passages & then go on to read the entire book.  Learning the principles of Objectivism provides an excellent & very inspirational way to start the new year.
 
As for me, I have lived Ayn Rand's philosophy my entire adult life, starting even before I read the Objectivist Newsletters when I was in my late-teens or early twenties - even before I ever heard of Objectivism. 
 

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