CAN CHRISTIANITY, JOHN LOCKE, VON MISES, AYN RAND OR ANY COMBINATION SAVE AMERICA?


Reason Man

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To my way of thinking the only way in reality that a truly limited constitutional Republic will be restored is if and when a huge chunk of the population has read, understood and agreed with the underpinnings of such a concept.

That is in the process of happening as the network of pro individual freedom organizations has been created around Students For Liberty

www.studentsforliberty.org not only in America but all over the world in the existing colleges and universities as well as some high schools.

It has the potential to grow exponentially so it can happen in a very few years once a kindling point is reached. It might be virtually invisible until then. For an example watch the discussion of compounding (exponential growth) at www.peakprosperity.com in the third and fourth videos of THE CRASH COURSE.

SFL students for liberty started with twelve college students from twelve different colleges in 2008 and has grown to over 930 colleges at present. I don't know exactly how many activists there are in the movement but their numbers keep growing all over.

I am sure those involved are thrilled with the movement and its potential to change their world and make their future more appealing than the chaos which prevails now. They are reading the books which make the case for the free market and they are passing the torch to others. I don't know at what rate they are doubling but that almost doesn't matter. They double when each of them recruits another who then learns enough to be able to recruit another.

They are all immersed in the most fertile environment to find other young intelligent boys and girls who care about their future and are cognizant of the state of the current world with all its problems, e.g. central banks engaged in paper currency devaluation, unsustainable politicians promises increasing the national debt, etc.

The antidote is known between Austrian economics and Objectivism. The Atlas Society has allied itself with the SFL so you can be sure that Ayn Rand's ideas are being read and spread within this movement.

Join it. Donate to it. Inform those you meet about it. Let college students you meet know about it. Help it to grow. Your own future depends upon its success. And succeed it will with or without your input. It is happening. Driven by self interest. Rational self interest by the most intelligent, educated, young minds all over the world who value their own freedom.

When it happens it will seem to occur out of nowhere. That is because it will remain virtually invisible until the last few doublings. Think about that.

gg

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Three generations of Americans have bought into low-calorie Fascism with smile.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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ReasonMan, I really cannot believe you have anything to add to the Himalayas of extant explication on the "difference between Protestant and other religions."

Leave it to the theologians, please.

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.RM,

As you and Dog get cosier, I see he opines that non=|Leftists whites should form a large political organization that would pursue the broad common aims while ignoring minor differences.

It might save you time to remember that two such organizations already exist, although reduced in power and influence, and perhaps you are the very sparks to revive them.

I refer of course to the KKK and the John Birch Society, They are fairly moribund these days but their inheritors are still around and so is their money.

Good luck!

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And Oh, your new political movement will need a name, evocative of the noble tradition but utterly up-to-date. I suggest RRR (Rational Radicals for Racism) which ought to satisfy your demographic.

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Wow, Darrell, you sure got me with that one. Best not to tangle with you, obviously.

As to your idea about the "the advancement of science and technology," it is possible that we could also generate a breathing apparatus that would allow Jeremy Bentham to come back to life and call your idea "bullshit on stilts". And that's even if Mr. Bentham disregards the mounds of dead bodies piled up by those trying to implement such an idea in the 20th Century.

Objectivists sure do say the darndest things nowadays.

Wow, how can a person argue with pessimism like that? Of course, it will never be possible to generate wealth like that. People generating such wealth is about as likely as people going to the moon. When pigs fly ... I tell you. Such ridiculous notions. Sheesh.

Darrell

One way to argue with such pessimism is to explain how--once these wonderful technological achievements "we" create come to fruition--one might go about make this notion of a guaranteed income a reality?

Most such achievements would presumably be protected by patent. Did your extremely smart friend explain to you how to deal with the sticky matter of the private ownership of patents, or did the idea of a post-Singularity paradise crowd out such seemingly "technical" issues?

Assuming the two of you didn't solve the patent problem inherent in the guaranteed income scheme you have described, and assuming further that the income that would be distributed to accomplish this guaranty would simply come through coercive taxation, did you or he figure out how to square that problem with some of the more basic principles of Objectivism? Or would this plan be accomplished the old fashioned way, i.e., by taxing those who produce such technological and scientific achievements and redistributing that income to those who do not? [someone should write a book about this ill-effects of such a premise some day...]

This is an Objectivist site, after all, and that would seem to be pretty decent starting points for determining whether pessimism is in order connection with this promising plan.

Go ahead, Darrell, make me an optimist. I am willing to be persuaded. I truly am. But please be specific.

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