FREE TRADE WITH TYRANTS

[HERTLE]

Objectivist leaders:

Something has gone wrong when some Objectivist leaders accept the idea of supposed free trade that includes trade with tyrants, for example, trade with Kantians, Pragmatists, Muslim Iran, or Communist China.

There is no free trade with tyrants which operate according to the principle of force and not by the principle of individual rights.

Free trade, individual rights, and private property are not possible in dealings with tyrannical individuals or governments. Perhaps not even possible with Objectivist leaders who endorse trade with tyrants or advocates of same, including with sympathetic American politicians or claimed Objectivists.

The fundamental ethical principle of Objectivism is rights, including individual rights and property rights.

Objectivist leaders who support tyrannical governments by endorsing what the claimed Objectivists call free trade, including trade with tyrants, have lost the central ideas of of Objectivism. 

I am greatly disappointed to find that some Objectivist leaders have uncritically endorsed their support of tyrannies by means of what they claim to be free trade.

Free trade, incidentally, is the action demonstration of individual rights and property rights.

If you trade with those who oppose rights you yourself are denying rights. 

Shall I say more?

Ralph Hertle

 

 

[HERTLE]

Revisions:

Add phrase:  "To add that Pragmatism, Progressivism, Fascism, and Communism are all derivatives of Kant's anti-reason philosophy."

Add italics:  ....... "could be or were substituted for, or were integrated with, Eudoxus' geometry concepts"

Word 'and' omitted,  " systematized science of logic that dealt with all types of concepts."

Respelled ....... "equiproportionality"

 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Ralph,

Before we even get to Kant, how about trade with bullies?

As a kid, I never liked bullies and I have tended to avoid trading with them or participating in anything with them as much as I could. There are times I did not realize (or believe) they were bullies and ended up in professional (or other) relationships, but once I saw the bullies in action and realized this is the way they were, I became disgusted and walked away.

I think one of the reasons there is confusion among many O-Land leaders about free trade with authoritarian dictatorships like Communist China is that, despite knowing Ayn Rand's works, they, themselves, are bullies and/or control freaks. 

That's one of the reasons I do my thing over here and rarely over at other O-Land places. It's not even the hypocrisy. It's that I don't like bullies.

 

Michael

[HERTLE]

 

Michael, I totally agree.

I wish I had learned more about how to avoid being a victim, and to be productive in one's own behalf. Not to be conned.

Psychotherapists ask many questions, and I wish to have met one who would know how to get all the pieces together again, or to plan avoidance strategies.

I'm glad to hear what you say. Thank you. Ralph Hertle