 The difference between capitalism and 'democratic socialism' is like the difference between choosing to patronize different restaurants based on their value to you; and that of voting-in a live-in cook who, for 4 years, literally force-feeds you foods he chooses at prices he dictates -- in complete and total disregard of your preference and even of your tolerance.
Edward D. Thompson
Ed Thompson
We do not have to know everything about something, before knowing anything about it.
Edward D. Thompson
What am I?
Don't reject pearls from swine.
Edward D. Thompson
Human Happiness: The only kind there is
The idea that capitalism -- in the 'unknown ideal' sense of which Rand spoke -- lends itself to pull-peddling and corporate welfare, is pure, and total, nostrum. This myth needs to be exploded, if ever folks are to gain a correct and productive idea of the inherent benevolence of capitalism. The conflation of centralized initiation of force ("subsidies," "regulations," and bailouts for bad investments) with capitalism is the pivotal issue at hand. This wrong-headed view must be countered by correct epistemology and ethics. It must not continue to infect the minds of the masses.
Edward D. Thompson
http://rebirthofreason.com/Articles/Thompson/What_Were_Up_Against_Critique_of_a_Contemporary_College_Text.shtml
Drivers with road rage are like monkeys in cages that go berserk when the lab technician walks by their cage with a piece of food.
Edward D. Thompson
Pet Peeves
He doesn't need to become more knowledgable, he needs to become more wise.
Edward D. Thompson
How Much Rationality?
Don't blame businessmen for the moral failings of bureaucrats. That's what's always been done, and what has gotten us where we are today.
Edward D. Thompson
http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/GeneralForum/1324.shtml#12
Do you see how a focus on human disfigurement -- a focus which doesn't include any attempt to fix or prevent it, but to just focus on it for the mere fact that it is there -- is immoral?
Edward D. Thompson
http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/ObjectivismQ&A/0294.shtml#5
Benjamin Hayden said: "Fortunately for serious minds, a bias recognized is a bias sterilized." Voltaire said: "The perfect is the enemy of the good." Integrating them both leaves ‘perfectionism’ – something really good for mankind – morally unscathed, as the more perfect perfectionists will have a more perfect perspective regarding the inherent pitfalls of perfectionism, per se.
Edward D. Thompson
Personal Thoughts
For optimal well-being, folks need to be made to feel uncoerced, capable, and somehow connected to others.
Edward D. Thompson
[my summary of “self-determination theory”]
Human life is not equivalent to 'death prevention'
Edward D. Thompson
A Question Regarding the Objectivist Ethics
A wise man is not only one who begins with the end in mind; he is also one who discovers and chooses the best ends to even have in mind in the first place.
Edward D. Thompson
Ed Thompson, 08/2007
The first rule of human happiness is to want the truth, the second is to learn to recognize it when it comes. It’s all about wanting what you really need, and -- as a human “being” -- you really do need these 2 things (to thrive).
Edward D. Thompson
Ed Thompson
Morality gains all of its ground out of the actualization of individual life. Only by reference to this individual actualization can moral judgment gain prescriptive ground.
Edward D. Thompson
http://solohq.com/Forum/NewsDiscussions/0712.shtml#5
The products of a thought process (the content of thought) are not quite as crucial as the process itself (the mode of thought). In all unclear cases, the proper rule to follow is to allow mode to supercede content. If the mode of thought is correct, then the content of thought will be something which approaches the real (and context dictates the precision required to deal with reality productively). This is what is meant by the statement that: 'What you believe is not as important as how you believe.'
Edward D. Thompson
Ed Thompson
Learn and live.
Edward D. Thompson
Subway Sandwich TV Commercial
Human motivation occurs when folks think themselves competent, to gain or keep things thought valuable, by methods thought efficient.
Edward D. Thompson
Ed Thompson
The most intractable problem for contemporary philosophers to overcome is to learn how and when to sacrifice precision for accuracy (when the goal is to think well, nothing is more vital than accuracy).
Edward D. Thompson
In the fight for liberty, it’s not the “size of the man in the fight” that counts. It’s the “size of the office” that eager oppressors inhabit. In our zeal to procure a “particular man” who is both right and just - to head the administration of a given form of government - let us not lose sight of the much more promising value for us to act to gain or keep: a “particular form of government” which is both right and just.
Edward D. Thompson
Ed Thompson
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