This came up as a Random Past Article.  I found it ironic, first for the nay-saying and lack cogent of response.  The past 14 years saw SOLO blossom. Then Lindsay went his way with his share and, frankly, something was missing. I visited his site a few times, and did not like the tone at all. So, I did much of my writing about Objectivism here. But that said, this site was definitely less vibrant. And now here we all, all six of us. 

One perspective I offer is the City as a paradigm. Cities brought together people from disparate places, often they would have been mutually antagonistic. But in the city, they got along well enough by necessity. In fact, they left their own tribes and joined new ones: guilds, clubs, beneficial societies, and political parties among others. Conformity was a destroyer. Detroit was the home to Burroughs Comptometer when it became the automotive capital of the world, and one of the many nails in that coffin was Burroughs leaving town. In The Economy of Cities Jane Jacobs contrasts Birmingham with Manchester. Manchester (the home of Friedrich Engels) was dedicated to textiles while Birmingham was not dedicated to any one craft.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to post my annual Newtonmas message on two Google Groups boards, Rec.Collecting.Coins and Sci.Physics. Both were cluttered wtih obnoxious spam. So, I appreciate the need to keep some sense of propriety. I do most of my writing on GaltsGulchOnline. Conservatives are there, also, and religion comes up once too often too often, as does Islamophobia (but not Christianophobia), homophobia, and much else. But as annoying as they can be, the regular contributors do provide a steady in-flow of interesting articles to discuss. And we tend to agree more often than not because we share many common values, even if they are sadly weak on the actual content of Objectivism.