RoR: Forum

Post 20

Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - 9:57pm

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Stephen Boydstun:
But first and foremost, I urge young readers to ponder very seriously: What alternatives for your precious life time are you not pursuing due to time and attention spent on political activism?

That piece of advice is worth its weight in gold.

Bravo, Stephen.

George

Post 21

Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 6:39pm

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Stephen Boydstun:

But first and foremost, I urge young readers to ponder very seriously: What alternatives for your precious life time are you not pursuing due to time and attention spent on political activism?

That piece of advice is worth its weight in gold.

Bravo, Stephen.

George

Stephen, I

I concur with George.

Joseph Rowlands is doing the job of activism in a brilliant manner: keeping his feet planted in his career then in his spare time writing and pursuing activism. I believe he is also periodically testing the marketability of the his activism, whether it will financially reward him and create positive cultural change simultaneously.
I did a few years stint as an aesthetic activist, did all the concrete things I promised to do but I found it impossible to maintain it and develop my career as an artist. I had thought that they might be complimentary...they were not. Fortunately, the activism was only a secondary role. There is a kind of narcotic feeling in long term dreams but I think it is essential to see concrete results daily to maintain a feeling that the time and effort is worth it.
Michael

Post 22

Friday, March 3, 2006 - 11:21am

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Doing one's own work, as an artist, is an activism in its own way..... especially when promoting it....

Post 23

Friday, March 3, 2006 - 6:44pm

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Stephen, you wrote:

I urge young readers to ponder very seriously: What alternatives for your precious life time are you not pursuing due to time and attention spent on political activism?

I would add, as a corollary: What alternatives for your precious life time are you not pursuing due to time and attention spent on Internet discussion groups?

I'm not saying either political activism or Internet discussions are bad, but ask yourself whether you are being sidetracked from your most important values, and if the cost is worth it. I frequently have to "check in" with myself on this issue.

REB

Post 24

Friday, March 3, 2006 - 9:32pm

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Roger, excellent post. Unless one's life goal is to be a master blogger, there is certainly a point at which you can expend too much time and energy on this stuff. Like you, I frequently need to "check in" with myself. Case in point, I used to check these forums while at work...I no longer do that and my productivity has increased significantly. I used to tell myself that I would only check in on my lunch break or just to 'clear my head' after a a few hours of focused effort. However, I quickly found out that this still drains productivity more than it seem because your mind can suddenly become preoccupied with some raging debate or controversy which will nag you even after you've logged out of the site.

Post 25

Saturday, March 4, 2006 - 2:37pm

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You can't eat all the time, but eating for a portion of your time is healthy. You can't debate philosophical issues all the time, but improving your ability to make decisions that promote your goals, determining the best goals you can have, and improving others ability to think, know, and act, for a portion of your time is healthy.

I've gradually been loosing interest in this forum, but recently there have been some debates and questions that I wanted to be resolved/answered.

Oh yes, and might I add, that most of the individuals here are incredible, and I value most of you all very much. Thank you.
(Edited by Dean Michael Gores
on 3/04, 2:39pm)

Post 26

Thursday, August 10, 2006 - 2:34pm

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Anonymous self named "Mr Lib Ertarian", who is your profile image of?

It looks like Steve Forbes.

Post 27

Thursday, August 10, 2006 - 4:32pm

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Tom DeLay.

Post 28

Thursday, August 10, 2006 - 4:46pm

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Andrew Bowman kicked off the thread with:

Is the Objectivist's movements greatest hope of electoral and cultural success with the Libertarian Party?

I've been thinking about this a lot recently, and I can't make up my mind. Objectivists are harsh critics of the LP in many ways and although libertarianism (With all it's qualities) does not involve a complete philosophy as such, is a fairly large party.

Also, is the Libertarian party best changed to contain more objectivist ideas from being a part of it as opposed to simply criticising it?

The only way of having a useful discussion on this or any other issue is to provide a clear understanding of the meanings of the terms involved. Calling libertarianism (small L) a party only invites confusion. The Libertarian Party (big L) is a mess that basically can't and won't be fixed, much less to be "changed to contain more objectivist ideas." The Party is defined by a political platform in any case, but it's participants have tended to succeed admirably in making a mess of defining and promoting it in concrete form in a credible or appealing way. Don't expect the Party to do anything in the near future to actually advance the cause of liberty, particularly the conditions necessary (which are cultural and intellectual) to make a laissez-faire politics electorally viable. It's too soon for that, but when that time actually comes around, it will be no thanks to the intellectually vacuous LP.

Rand saw the LP as a disgrace and a joke from the very beginning. She made it a point not to align herself with any "movement" other than Objectivism, as only Objectivism advances the right ideas in properly defensible form. It's a semantic matter whether it is useful or makes sense to refer to Rand's political philosophy as a libertarian one, but she had ample reason to avoid using the term in order not to be confused with any number of the kooks involved in these movements.

Post 29

Thursday, August 10, 2006 - 9:01pm

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The main problem with the Libertarian Party and with many Objectivists is that many of them couldn't sell ice water in the Sahara Desert.

Chris