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Zorba

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
I could write a ream on this subject, but I won't subject everyone to it (including myself) - I'll only say that, in my view, monotheism is a scourge on the face of the earth and leave it at that. People who go out of their way to look for offense will find it.
 
Greek Bonfire

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
Extremists and fanatics cause more trouble than any other group.
Zorba said:
I could write a ream on this subject, but I won't subject everyone to it (including myself) - I'll only say that, in my view, monotheism is a scourge on the face of the earth and leave it at that. People who go out of their way to look for offense will find it.
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Zorba

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Ariadne said:
Include Marxists and Communists in that group of extremists and fanatics and I'll agree with you.
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Only all day long - as our politics show all too well. Its all in Ayn Rand. Political Correctness is going to be the death of this country.
 
Ariadne

Ariadne

Well-known member
IMHO it's basically any philosophy that believes the best way to create the perfect society is by killing off everyone who doesn't agree with them, anyone inconvenient to their goals, or "unimportant".

Have you read Ayn Rand then Zorba? I've thought of it but never followed through.
 
Zorba

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Ariadne said:
Have you read Ayn Rand then Zorba? I've thought of it but never followed through.
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Yes. Like anything else, too much of it wouldn't be good, but it flies in the face of the current Socialist agenda. She can be a bit pedantic at times, be forewarned. "Who is John Galt?"
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
I read "We the Living" about forty years ago. Interesting in its way, but talk about a Great Gloomy Russian Novel. That was enough Ayn Rand for me.
 
Zorba

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Ayn Rand isn't an easy read, but I *REALLY* wish more people would read her. We wouldn't have the politics we have now if people did.
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
Yeah, I think so. If everyone in the world agreed on a single philosophy, any philosophy, and lived by its rules and regulations, there's be no need for the politics we have now. Instead the world is full of folks who say, "If everyone followed my philosophy, we'd all live i peace and the world would be a great place." Some of those folks are willing to wage war to bring that allegedly Great Place about. Others write books or orate in Congress or stand in a pulpit and preach every Sunday to convince other people to buy into The Right Philosophy. History is basically the story of which extremists were doing what at any given time while the moderates were getting bashed back and forth and hoping there'd be enough peace and good weather to get the harvest in.
 
T

Tourbeau

Active member
Shanazel said:
History is basically the story of which extremists were doing what at any given time while the moderates were getting bashed back and forth and hoping there'd be enough peace and good weather to get the harvest in.
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While it's true the average person is just trying to get through the day and provide the best quality of life they can for their loved ones, that's a broad brush to paint the extremists of history with. I'm not sure I'm comfortable putting Thomas Jefferson, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. in the same boat with Adolph Hitler, Sayyid Qutb, and Mao Zedong. Not every outside-of-the-box thinker's revolutionary ideas made humanity worse off.
 
Ariadne

Ariadne

Well-known member
Shanazel said:
Yeah, I think so. If everyone in the world agreed on a single philosophy, any philosophy, and lived by its rules and regulations, there's be no need for the politics we have now.
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Yes, but that will never happen because we're human and every one of us is unique with our own experiences and desires. The only way to get one single belief is to force people to believe it or kill the ones that disagree. It's like a saying about marriage, (paraphrase) if a couple never has any disagreements it means one of them is being dominated.

No, the best system is one that allows every person the freedom to follow their own beliefs while providing and enforcing laws that ensure a) freedom of thought and expression, b) freedom to own property and not be property, c) physical protection of self, home, family, and "country".

I don't believe our current issues are because of different beliefs but because of people who have decided that anyone who doesn't agree with THEIR beliefs are evil and that others who want power (something that always exists) are taking advantage of the situation. It's the demonizing of others that really worries me because in my experience if you actually just get to know someone the vast majority of us are really the same at heart, different beliefs notwithstanding. But when you demonize someone you turn them into something less then human in your mind which is when people start justifying behavior that they would never consider acceptable if done to them.

We used to have sayings for a reason, and these days we get to see what happens when they are not followed;
  • Two wrongs don't make a right. (Oh I wish people actually remembered this right now.)
  • Going to hell in a hand basket. (It doesn't matter how good your intentions are, doing the wrong thing is always wrong and won't end in good.)
  • And the big one - The Golden Rule: Do unto other as you want others to do unto you.
 
Ariadne

Ariadne

Well-known member
Greek Bonfire said:
It's called Fountainhead. It's long but it's awesome. Her books are all about individualism.
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Huh. I read up on the book. It does seem to be very much a product of it's time. The one I've thought of reading is Atlas Shrugged. I hadn't heard of Fountainhead before.
 
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