RoR: Forum

My option isn't up there. Rand got to me first so, while I wasn't "born equating metaphysics with objective reality," I never really went through a socialist phase. Then again, I never went through a Randian phase either. I guess I've just been kind of steady state, refining my positions.

Sarah

Post 21

Friday, August 26, 2005 - 10:39am

Lucky you. :) My parents were lapsed Catholics, so I got my ass circumcised and baptised (never forgave them for either, by the way, but I keep that on the down low), and ended up exposed to a fair amount of Christian bullshit. My grandmother even took me to Mass and thought I was "devout", even though all I did was keep my mouth shut.

Post 22

Friday, August 26, 2005 - 11:03am

Recently my parents found a very long letter among my aunt's effects that was written to her by a man she always regarded highly. The subject of the letter was my questioning of Christianity and the Bible. The letter tried to claim that it was just a phase I was going through.

Unfortunately the letter is not dated but I must have been in my early teens at the time. I do remember my aunt trying to convince me that one had to have faith in reason.

Fortunately my parents were not particularly religious though they did send me to Sunday school. They have always been libertarian in their outlook, even before the word became common.

I can't remember a time when I wasn't basically an individualist, though there have been some occasional erroneous ideas.

Post 23

Friday, August 26, 2005 - 6:25am

Matthew -- Your post makes perfect sense to me. In fact, that's pretty much where I am right now. Ultimately, I have to accept what works, regardless of whether it's consistent with any particular philosophy. (Of course, different people define "what works" in different ways. I tend to define it as wealth maximization.)

Summer -- Yes, that saying has been attributed to Churchill, and also to a lot of other late 19th, early 20th century figures. It describes my development well.

Post 24

Friday, August 26, 2005 - 1:30pm

I understood the basic source of economic wealth as coming from transactions at mutually agreeable prices by the time I was in the First Grade. I was for a totally free market, without any welfare, discrimination laws, income tax, central banking, government regulation of business, and the like, by the time I was in the Ninth Grade. I was taught and understood the basic problems underlying Communism when I was first exposed to the word, and I was reprimanded in Kindergarten for calling my teacher a commie. I have never been a redistributionist, entitlement "liberal," or an economic collectivist of any sort.

Post 25

Friday, August 26, 2005 - 1:55pm

I distinctly remember at about age 1 1/2, reading some pamphlet by Engels that a circus performer I would discuss philosophy with lent me. What tripe! I wrote my doctoral thesis on individualism by about 1 3/4, and to this day, I am the only living graduate of Harvard, University of Chicago and Standford (Ph.D.'s all, Political Science, History, and Economics, respectively) to have attained my degress before developing any pubic hair at all. Even in the womb, I was an individualist, explaining to my mother's ovaries how important capitalism is. Her appendix was SUCH a statist, though, that I kicked it until the surgeons had to revmove it (post, my birth, of course).

Post 26

Friday, August 26, 2005 - 1:58pm

The striking thing about being raised as a socialist, is the amount that one relys on the accomlishments of others, and on the judgment of others for one's self-esteem. That way of thinking is so toxic and entrenched, that as I've pursued a rational life, I've actually felt guilty for developing my own talents.

But oh, do I feel so much better!

Julia

Post 27

Friday, August 26, 2005 - 11:24am

       There were a few days during sixth grade when I believed that socialism had its advantages. I imagined a society in which the government provided everyone with the basic utilities and comforts of modern life. A government sponsored home with running water and electricity for everyone, free food and medical care for all citizens, the complete eradication of poverty, this was my concept of a perfect world.
       Like many socialists, I made the mistake of considering benefits of socialism without evaluating the cost.  In socialist nations, who is it that pays for the poor smoker's hospital bills and the lazy couch potato's food? On whose backs are houses for the homeless built? It took me several days to confront such questions, and only upon answering them did I begin to appreciate what a terrible and unnatural evil socialism is.
       People tend to develop more conservative economic beliefs as they age becasue liberal economic theories are incomplete.  Young people who support socialism have achieved the intellectual maturity necessary to understand why it is desirable to drink from a faucet instead of a puddle and to live in a home rather than beneath a bridge, but they have not understood why property earned through one's own work is infinitely more valuable than property that is taken by force. Worst of all, they have failed to forsee the fate of a civilization that reverses the order of nature, making a sin of passion and a virtue of ineptitude, and making the weak the masters of the strong.

Caldwell

Post 28

Friday, August 26, 2005 - 2:45pm

As a teenager I was bitten by a radioactive objectivist spider ending my foolish non-objectivist ways. The rest is history. Excuse me now as I have some web-slinging to do. :-)

Post 29

Friday, August 26, 2005 - 4:57pm

When I was really little, I thought Alex P. Keaton was a god. I had a lemonade stand at 7. My own "casino" at 10. Sold candy for a profit in school at 11. That should give you a good idea. I think I thought some liberal thoughts as a teen, but that was to be expected with the cloud of smoke I was perpetually in.

Discovered Oism at 20, didn't read AS til 24. 26 now and applying what I know, finally!

Edit: Found transactional analysis first, then Oism. I always wondered why people did what they did. Know I am learning why they know what they know. I think my brain might pop soon.

(Edited by Donald Talton on 8/26, 4:59pm)

(Edited by Donald Talton on 8/26, 5:01pm)

(Edited by Donald Talton on 8/26, 5:01pm)

Post 30

Friday, August 26, 2005 - 5:59pm

The very first short story I wrote was about a futuristic society where everyone goes to work, doesn't get paid and collects from the common pool. It was a vibrant, happy, productive society, too. This was the same time in my life (around '76) when I wrote to the Russian embassy and asked them for info about Russia. A week later I got a *huge* brown paper package containing at least 20 hardcover books full of happy smiling little Soviets and grand expositions on the triumphs of communist ideology.

I was a retard. Two years later, I'd read Atlas Shrugged and I realised that my fictional society could only exist as a capitalist one. I never looked back. I burned the Russian books in my Dad's 44 gallon drum--cum-incinerator in the back yard. Those pesky Commies have probably still got me on one of their "lists" somewhere :-) Come and get me you pricks!

However, I can say with pride that I was *always* an atheist. They had to drag me (literally) kicking & screaming down the front path to Presbyterian camp. I hid up a tree and *never* sung a hymn.

Screw 'em!

Ross

PS: Kerry O'Quinn, if by chance you're reading this, thank you (again) from the bottom of my SOL!

Post 31

Friday, August 26, 2005 - 6:04pm

I never joined a church because I didn't want to. I was never a socialist because I didn't want to. I never became a young republican in college because I didn't want to.

Then one day I bumped into Objectivism by accident and it's been following me around since.

I've sorta grown attached to it. Kinda like a pet!

gw

Post 32

Friday, August 26, 2005 - 8:24pm

Gary, you might find it's attached to you.

Millions of mystics & statists become apostates. How many Objectivists do?

Ross

(Edited by Ross Elliot
on 8/26, 8:25pm)

Post 33

Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 12:42am

Bob, if I didn't have an aversion to arachnids I'd sanction this.

Post 34

Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 11:11am

Ross,

I just hope the damn thing doesn't start humping my leg! :-)

Seriously, you made a very good point. Wouldn't the renunciation of reality be considered insanity? Or, would it be volitional stupidity? Hmm?

gw

Post 35

Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 12:17pm

Scott, your post 25 is hilarious!

I remember starting out as a terribly conflicted person. I mean, it was as if I was split in 2. Half of me was just sitting there -- in my mother's fallopian tube -- wondering: "What's up with this? Is THIS what life is all about? I mean, I can't even move around on my own -- and boy is it ever dark and humid in here! Doesn't the weather ever change? Sheesh, life sucks!"

But then it was just as if half of me was swimming up a storm -- actually, up a cervical orifice -- with a freakin' billion or so other swimmers. I distinctly remember yelling: "Get out of my way! I'm coming through! I mean business, dammit!"

I was on a mission alright -- well, half of me was, at least. And then -- it happened. I was a united being without contradiction or conflict. I can remember -- as a single-celled zygote -- that it would be good to divide (and this was also when I, on my own -- not yet even aware of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations -- came up with the division of labor that was to become so necessary in advanced human societies).

As a multi-cellular blastocyst, I realized how trade to mutual benefit was the only thing that would support my already-matured Division of Labor theory (from my single-celled past). It was here where, for me, the rubber really hit the road. You see, not only did I recognize the inherent productivity of trade (at this early stage in my development), but I had simultaneously and single-handedly (or multi-celled-ly -- to be more intellectually exacting) discovered the metaphysical truth of the 'morality' of free trade. Of course, the rest is history.

Others may have developed more or less at different stages than I did however -- so this is not meant to serve as some sort of developmental standard by which the development of others ought to be judged. I realize that we need to be mindful of the fact that each person develops at their own pace -- development is not a "race" that we run against others, and I wouldn't feel bad if someone developed earlier than I did, such as in the twinkle in your parent's eyes, for example.

Ed
(Edited by Ed Thompson
on 8/27, 12:23pm)

Post 36

Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 1:35pm

"You shouldn't curse on SOLO's front page."

Which was the curse word?

Post 37

Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 2:10pm

Shalakazam?

Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 2:39pm

LOLOLOLOLOLOL Ed, that one brought tears to my eyes.

Me.... well, I admit I bought into some of the typical liberal bromides. After all, I was born and raised on Chicago's liberal north lakefront where deceased registered voters rise from their graves to vote democrat. My mother was a republican judge but put up democrat signs. Very confusing when you are a kid. I'm still confused.

Post 39

Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 2:49pm