"Ayn Rand is great because she agrees with me."

Note the quotation marks. Once in a while I hear this from somebody. Someone will say something to the effect that they agree with Objectivism because they already came up with it themselves before they read any of it. Well, I have it on good authority (Harry Binswanger) that 90% of it has never been said before. It took Ayn Rand many years and tremendous effort to formulate all of it, and she was clearly a genius. And you came up with the exact same thing, just in your own head, in your spare time? Excuse me if I am a little skeptical. I suspect that the person who makes this claim hasn't actually read much of the Objectivist writings. Try reading some! If you have read Atlas Shrugged then move on to OPAR. I knew somebody like that many years ago who I lost touch with. He found me on Facebook a couple years ago. But guess what! Now he is a total socialist/communist, basically the exact opposite of an Objectivist. There are no good arguments for socialism, so apparently he just felt like changing his mind one day. Rand doesn't agree with him anymore, oh well! ;P I was a little shocked but not surprised. It takes effort to understand Objectivism, people. You can't pick it up by osmosis. Even if you think you understand it, applying it takes effort. Remember, selfishness is not easy, people! Selfishness is hard!

(PS for those who don't what that means. What I mean is, you have to think to figure out what is actually in your self-interest to do. Selfishness is not just doing whatever you feel like.)

From Religion to Philosophy

First real post. This may get a little heavy - don't say I didn't warn you. WARNING: THIS POST MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO SOME READERS. Okay, now I'm starting for real. I sometimes hear from other people that they tried reading about other religions, religions different from theirs, and they were surprised at how much the religions have in common. It occurred to me that this is a form of stepping back from the tree to try to see more of the forest. So if you will, I would like you to step back a little further for a moment, to try to get a sense of what this forest is and what its purpose is. There are more trees here than you may realize. A religion is one form of what you might call a belief system. The main purpose is to try to answer three basic questions: what is there, how do we know it, and what should we do? (I think I got that part from John Ridpath.) Religion is one way to try to answer these questions, with pre-set answers. Philosophy, on the other hand, is about answering these questions in a rational and scientific way. Religion is like canned philosophy. It's ready to eat, but, is it really that good? Can't we do better? Don't we want something better than that? Don't we need something better? Philosophy is about trying to come up with better answers. "What is there?" is the basic question of metaphysics. "How do we know it?" is the basic question of epistemology. "What should we do?" is the basic question of ethics. Ethics also depends on a view of the nature of man, that is, what man is, what kind of being he is, how does he survive (in general terms), and so forth. This can be termed meta-ethics, which just means that it comes before ethics. Philosophy also has two more branches: politics, which depends on ethics, and esthetics (art), which depends on metaphysics. So if you didn't really know what philosophy was, hopefully you now have a little trail map to give you some idea what it is, what it's for, and why anyone should care. Please consider reading some philosophy if you never have. I recommend starting with Atlas Shrugged, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, or For The New Intellectual. These books are not only about my philosophy, but will also teach you something about philosophy itself. The point is, read about it and think about it; don't just do whatever comes to mind or whatever you feel like.

More about this blog!

I'm going to try to stick to thoughts that might be of interest to other people. However, this blog will not be censored. This blog will be about anything I really want to tell you. This may include rants, diatribes, rambles, manifestos, etc. Often it WILL be political or philosophical. Occasionally it might be about computers or something else that I like. If you don't like it, you don't have to read it. No one's making you.