RoR: Forum

Rebirth of Reason

Thursday, March 3, 2005 - 7:33am

Dear Alec,

1. I apologize for the typos. Not only are the names similar, but the X is next to the C. You ask about my eyesight. I am getting older. I was just near-sighted. Now, it is worse. I should wear glasses when I work online but I do not have a pair of bifocals that is comfortable for the computer. (I have landed an airplane without glasses, and it wasn't even a rough landing.) Lindsay has already complained about my use of Large Fonts. So, I am using the small size. However, I will be more careful for you.

2. It has nothing to do with what Mike Marotta wants. Have you ever read Atlas Shrugged? What did you think that story was about if not the consequences of working for your destroyers and the results of not doing that.

3. This topic has nothing to do with changing society, although that is one secondary result of a rational person pursuing their own actualization.

Sincerely,
Nike

Thursday, March 3, 2005 - 7:44am

So, it's not about what Nike wants, but it's about what Atlast Shrugged wants?

Atlas Shrugged. Fiction. Not real. Book. Paper. Doesn't care. No opinion.

Thursday, March 3, 2005 - 10:44am

Lee,

That post is a sloppy attack that completely ignores/distorts what Mike was saying in his post. Come on man.

Ethan

Thursday, March 3, 2005 - 9:32am

Hong,

when I do mathematics, I do it for selfish reasons. Since I have to earn money, it is not enough, that the math is benefitting me; it has to benefit the people, who pay me, too. At public universities your research does not necessarily need to be useful for others, but remember that the German government is running out of money. The state governments are cutting jobs at public universities and it is less likely, that your job will be cut, if your research will lead to new applications in the industry.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 11:20am

In posts 44, 45, and 50 Shane Hurren wrote:
... I think it's one thing when someone takes a grant that doesn't have any knowledge of libertarian or objectivist principles, but it is funny when one does and they rationalize how they didn't have a choice, that it is the only way for them to "get by", that there is a gun to their head, or that we don't live in a totally free economy so they just can't properly practice morality.
Can we honestly say that the individual who excepts a government grant, and the one who turns it down and makes his/her way in the world without it are equal in strength and nobility?
... But, I think it's important how one gets the money to get there.
All I can say is this, when I was in this same position in my life, I turned it down, and said "fuck school." ... I told people why, and they all said the same thing " It's your money too, you're just taking it back..." Well, maybe, but, I don't see it that way. I looked at it as lying down and becoming slavish... Money comes and goes, it's what's inside that creates it. ...

It was not just the large number of looter university folk here sucking down government money that changed my mind. It was Robert Bidinotto's pointing out that there is a distinction between "intrinsic" and "objective."

Among the several kinds of work I do, I now have a part-time job as a security guard at a public college. I also applied for and received government grants for tuition. I am enrolled in a Criminal Justice class (Ethics CJ-250), Philosophy 250 (Logic) and Office Technology 180, "Microsoft Access." My goal is complete an associate's degree in administration so that I can open more opportunities as a secretary than I have without the degree. Along the way, I will fill in some of the undergraduate credits I am lacking and then transfer to a four-year school. The class in criminal justice reflects the career choice in public safety (something else I have done in the recent past) and is a fall-back position.

Long term, I will complete a doctorate, and when I do, I will be ready to do business with the global kleptocracies that Objectivists endorse as being not intrinsically evil.

I owe Shane Hurren (and myself, I suppose) an apology.