When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick: every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. Instead, be like a lion who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once. Milarepa “Just as it is known t hat an image of one's face is seen d epending on a mirror b ut does not really exist as a face, s o the conception of "I" exist d ependent on mind and body, b ut like the image of a face t he "I" does not at all exist as its own reality." Nagarjuna "Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible. Nagarjuna
I suspect we boast a bit prematurely...at least by Thomas Paine's standards.
ReplyDeleteGee, ya think Jerry?
ReplyDeleteNow THAT is what I call thinking conservatively, in the best sense of the world.
ReplyDeleteJMJ
Absolutely Jersey!
ReplyDeleteI've often questioned why the so called "conservatives" cherry pick Paine conveniently leaving out the parts they dislike. Guess it's human nature, we see it ALL the time on blogs that profess to understand true liberty. Go figure.
Paine can be a goldmine for cherry pickers - just like the Bible and almost everything else. One quote I remember is "Every nation ought to have a debt."
DeleteLike a household and a business it ought remain manageable. It seems reasonable to carry debt during times of economic dislocations, national
Deletecrises, and during times of armed
conflict. During times of a growing economy, business expansion, and full employment (whatever that means), budgets should be balanced and debt reduced.
Wouldn't the Objectivist view be that the poor are responsible for their own happiness? Rand would reject this statement, I think.
ReplyDeleteWe're all responsible but still we put lifeguards on the beaches. People are fallible and isn't it bit harsh to let people die because they are responsible for that drunk driver or that waiter who didn't wash his hands? If this is Objectivism, perhaps it requires a perfect world and perfect people to be any kind of a guide.
ReplyDeleteRand and Objectivism has many positives, irrespective of what some would say. Rand and her Objectivism, like any other independent thinker and their philosophy is not perfect. Where Rand is lacking is she didn't take the concept of long term rational self
Deleteinterest far enough IMO. But that is a subject for a different day.
I might be an Objectivist if I think that it's in my rational self interest that the US adopt more Socialism?
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