Monday, November 03, 2008

Obama Invokes Ayn Rand Once Again....

....if only to spit on her and the ideals that made America great:

The change we need won’t come from government alone," Obama said to a crowd of an estimated 80,000. "It will come from each of us doing our part in our own lives, in our own communities. It will come from each of us looking after ourselves and our families but also looking after each other. You know I – it’s been awhile now – we’ve made a virtue out of selfishness, there’s no virtue in that. We made a virtue of irresponsibility and we need to usher in a new spirit of service and sacrifice and responsibly."

Rand, who's written a book entitles "The Virtue of Selfishness", would less-than-politely disagree. But it is Obama's comments about sacrifice that are most revealing about the man he is, and the way he will govern. Rand saw Obama coming decades ago, and foretold of the danger he would bring:

"It only stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of service and sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.”

I know I've used that quote before, but never has it seemed more appropriate than now. For all those whom fret that "we don't know who Barack Obama is", well - Obama has just spoken quite clearly of who he is, and what he intends to do. Vote for him at your own peril.

3 comments:

Paul Hsieh said...

In his own way, Obama understands that there is a conflict between selfishness and sacrifice. He just misidentifies which one is good and which one is wrong.

There's nothing wrong with pursuing one's rational self-interest in economics, romance, and life. That's our essence as human beings. This sort of selfishness does *not* include screwing others, robbing, rape, etc. -- those acts are immoral because they aren't rationally selfish.

It's a long-standing mistake to lump together in a package-deal both "selfishness" and abhorrent behaviours such as those. The truly selfish man neither wants to trample on others or be trampled himself -- he merely wishes to be left free to produce and trade values with others, and seek his own happiness.

In contrast, Obama's calls for "service" and "sacrifice" are just disguised calls for submission to state, i.e., slavery -- something I find profoundly ironic coming from someone who aspires to be the first African-American president of the US.

The sort of selfishness advocated by Ayn Rand is compatible with (and the only solid foundation) for the various virtues that most Americans correctly respect and seek to embody, such as integrity, honesty, productiveness, etc.

For more on this, I highly recommend the book by Dr. Tara Smith (professor of philosophy at Univ. Texas - Austin), published by Cambridge University Press:

"Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist"

http://www.amazon.com/Ayn-Rands-Normative-Ethics-Virtuous/dp/0521705460

knowitall said...

We still don't have any idea of who this guy truly is, because we've allowed the left-wing illuminati to throw our attention elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

What demented,sad beings,can't even call any of you human!