| | Ted, the Poll here is not the one I submitted. The administrator edited it, though I found his addition of "Other" and "I'd rather die" at once useful and witty. Therefore, I have no complaint.
I confess that this is, indeed, controversial and challenging. We Objectivists inherited Ayn Rand's love for America, but rational politics must transcend traditionalist nationalism. So, I tossed it up for discussion. I have not voted. And I have not emigrated.
In my old neighborhood, there was always a tension between those of us from old immigrant families who came here to enjoy freedom and opportunity and the newer "displaced persons" who were only hanging around until their homelands were freed from communism. They wanted to go back to the life that we left.
We Objectivists are predisposed to thinking the worst about Scandanavia. Why did the USSR collapse, but not Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark? Why do they continue to enjoy a high standard of living. According to all of our precepts, they should have slid into chaos and poverty in the previous generation. You can cite all the facts and figures about taxation you want. What counts -- oddly enough -- is how people feel. In point of fact, as a result of protests here and support in Parliament, our taxes in 1776 were only one-fourth of what they had been in 1763. I have never lived outside the United States. In my whole life I spent as much time in Canada as I did in Switzerland: five days each. Lacking personal experience, I have nothing against which to compare the statistics.
You mentioned the moon and the Antarctic and I do not know how serious you were. "Vonu" means "invulberability to coersion." There are vonuans living on the continent in motor homes and on the high seas on sailboats. Urban vonuism is making a paradise for yourself in what everyone else calls a "ghetto." There are many alternatives.
As a general rule, it is hard to prove that staying to fight is optimal. Historically, those who flee survive. The ancient Greeks, being mercantile, rational, and monetized packed up and rowed away in the night when surrounded by Persians or Catheginians. The loins of Roma gave forth tens of thousands of sons who died in battle after battle -- fine enough for the Senate and the People of Rome, but each one of the boys was individually and permanently dead.
Modern nationalism is not rational patriotism. Nationalism is a consequence of Hegelian idealism, and is not pro-life.
Whether America is (or was) the greatest nation in history is another question, entirely.
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