jriggenbach

Really eloquent explanation, Mike. Now I understand - fully. JR

Yes, and all those 13-year-olds doubtless know with certainty (as you obviously do) that there are deleted scenes and interviews with the stars in existence that could be included. Which secondary source did you find that information in? But all this is mere quibbling. What is unequivocally clear is that the people who put together these first DVD releases were all, to a man, incompetent amateurs. If only they had sought Phil's advice before proceeding! Or, better yet, given the project to Phil to take care of personally! Is there anything in the world of Objectivism that wouldn't be better if Phil did it? All of you lurking out there, reading these words: I ask you! Is it not patently obvious? I rest my case. JR

I am expert in a few fields, yes. I didn't come by my expertise by skimming secondary sources, however, so it pales in comparison to your own expertise, of course. And yes, I had mercifully forgotten your doctrine that it is necessary to know what one is talking about on certain subjects (mostly the ones you personally know something about), but on other subjects (mostly the ones about which you don't even realize the extent of your own ignorance), no expertise is necessary (or even, probably, possible - after all, anybody's opinion is as good as anybody else's.) JR

You were mistaken, though not about our intelligence, rather about the extent of our knowledge of why other people buy things. You see, we can't read minds, Steve and I, smart though we undeniably are, so we don't really know for sure why other people buy things (beyond the obvious stuff that you can learn from praxeology - but I needn't mention what you can learn from praxeology, you've read Human Action and Man, Economy, & State I'm sure, so you know all that). We simply lack your astonishing depth of knowledge of sales and marketing. Can you name some of the secondary sources you skimmed to attain it, so some of the rest of us can add to our learning? Or was your method maybe a purely deductive one, like the praxeologists'? You know, something along these lines: DVD "A" was purchased by many people DVD "A" has certain kinds of special features on it. Therefore the people who bought DVD "A" bought it for those special features. JR

I don't think you're giving Phil adequate credit here, Steve. He spent minutes skimming secondary sources to build up the immense base of knowledge and understanding of the film industry that he drew on for his comments. JR

I understand your point of view just fine, Mike - with perhaps one big exception: Some people associated with no State, but instead with an independent, international criminal organization, launch an attack on New York and Washington. They bring down a couple of huge buildings, and kill a few thousand people. The U.S. military then proceeds to bomb a bunch of people who had nothing whatever to do with these attacks. Explain to me how this constitutes "self defense." Hearing a coherent explanation of this point (though I doubt one is possible) might cause me to learn something I don't already know about your warped viewpoint. JR

About once every couple of years, I spend a morning and part of an afternoon with (**Full Disclosure**) my old friend Eric Garris at the offices of AntiWar.com in San Francisco. And I'm here to tell you that, every time, his hospitality almost kills me. It usually takes me a couple of years to recover and do it again. Seriously, Martin. if you weren't here, I sometimes don't know what I would do. Thanks for being here. JR

What's it like living in your world, Mike? All those swarthy foreigners endlessly scheming to destroy Western Civilization - and for no reason at all, other than their savagery and their unreasoning hatred of the good for being the good! And you don't even see the comedy in this perspective on things. What a pity. JR

She damn well better be, she was excellent. OMG. We agree about something. How unsettling. She was the primary reason I kept going back to see Part One over and over (and over). And she will be the reason I buy the DVD. We agree on quite a lot of "things," except for the ones that you are wrong about of course. If you remember, we were both salivating over her clearly visible "acting skills" when we first saw her pictures, err I mean her clear endowments, err I mean her acting performance in the videos is what I mean...right? If you remember, Dennis spent most of his time when the trailer and the first scenes came out, not salivating over anything, but strutting around comically in his trademark high moral dudgeon mouthing inanities I'm sure he half-understood about what he regarded as the unconscionably inept computer animation in the train scenes. JR

Happy reading. I suspected that this was the case, but was curious to see in what direction the discussion would progress. I originally wanted to reply to Phil: "I recommend Karl Deschner's "Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums" ('Criminal History of Christiniaty'), but then decided against it because I don't want to enter here on this thread into a polemic bac-and-forth about the 'virtues and vices' of Christianity, during which the original question would get lost: "Why is Objectivism Not Spreading". So why is Objectivism not spreading? I'm very interested in your assessment on that, JR. No philosophical system "spreads." No philosophical system has ever "spread" or ever will. People are not philosophical. Reading and thinking about philosophy are activities engaged in by a vanishingly small segment of the population. This has always been true. I believe it always will be. Phil compares the spread of Objectivism to the spread of Christianity, but on one very important level, there is no comparison between them. The intellectual content of Christianity is minuscule; any dolt can comprehend it after ten minutes of exposure to it. Understanding Objectivism even as well as I do (and there are others who understand it far better than I) is a project that would take an intelligent person at least a few years. Most people would never be able to summon the interest even to attempt something like that. And a very large percentage of them, if they did try, would discover they were in over their heads: they simply lack the capacity to undertake such work. That's the reality of the situation. The idea that Objectivism (or even the comparatively much simpler libertarianism) will sweep the culture is a pipe dream. It'll never happen in our lifetimes. It'll probably never happen at all. If you're involved in this stuff, make sure it's because being involved in it is an end in itself for you - because you can't imagine not being involved, knowing what you know. If you're in it to change the world, you're heading for disillusion and despair. JR

You're onto something here, Michael - something fundamental. Actually, it's much more than merely a reading problem, but the fact that you've noticed this shows that you've taken a big step toward understanding the whole truth. Cryptically (and nihilistically, of course) JR

Gibbon estimated that 1/20th of the population of the Roman Empire was Christian by the time of Constantine's conversion. This implies an outstanding rate of growth before it had the opportunity to resort to force. However one could argue, and I would agree, that to get to the next level force was needed. The alternative religions had to be suppressed, this because Christianity has no inherently better claim to truth. So, I'm on Xray's side here, but to answer Phil would require getting him to spell out how a factor is judged "basically responsible" for the rise of a religion. It would also be helpful if you could get Phil to acknowledge that his stated source, Paul Johnson, is notoriously pro-Christian throughout his writing. His History of the American People, for example, tries to show that American individualism and American inclinations toward free markets are all owed to its puritan heritage. He consistently and even, at times, ludicrously overestimates the importance of Christianity in whatever aspect of history he is writing about. I recall having a conversation with Phil years ago, at a time when he was reading (and seemed much enamored of) Vernon Louis Parrington's The Colonial Mind. I warned Phil that Parrington had been criticized for not taking the role of Christianity in the American colonies seriously enough and suggested that he might consider reading Johnson's book as a sort of corrective, since Johnson goes too far in the opposite direction. As I recall, Phil didn't seem to think back then that the prejudices and predispositions of historians made any difference. But it's quite obvious to me that if force played any important role in the early spread of Christianity (or its later spread, for that matter), Johnson could be relied upon to play that fact down and struggle to find other ways to account for the relevant historical events. JR

I thought he spoke French, and that we mainly have him to thank for the linguistic distinction between animal names and the names of the food that comes from them. Example: swine vs. pork, or cow vs. beef. Unlike in, say, German where they say schweine for a pig on a farm, and schweinefleisch for pig meat on your plate in a restaurant. So, now which word taboos were introduced into English by William the Conqueror? Inquiring minds want to know. I want to know! When William took over the royal court in England, French became the language of the court, and, by extension, of the upper classes, the "refined," educated classes, of England. From that point forward, ordinary Anglo-Saxon words (words of German rather than French origin), including words for biological functions which had never been thought objectionable before in England, were considered "vulgar" and "lower class." It was in this period that "fuck" and "shit" became "obscenities" while the Latin-derived words for exactly the same things - "copulate," for example, and "excrement" - were still entirely acceptable in "polite" society. This crude linguistic nationalism is the origin of what ignoramuses of today (for example, Dennis Hardin) think of as "dirty words" or "bad language." JR

Sounds just like Dennis, doesn't it? He was probably just saying what he thought. And this was the first occasion on which Dennis had visited a church? He must have been morally outraged. You know how he gets. JR

What a relief! Egad! Imagine how unspeakably tedious it would be if he said what he thought and then stuck around! I mean, the constant, Phil-like sniffing and preening about the silly word taboos first introduced into our language by William the Conqueror is tiresome enough! That we should have to endure more? Perish the thought! JR

Your entire response consists of (a) unsubstantiated charges against the U.S. government, which, even if true (and I sincerely doubt they are true) are entirely irrelevant to the moral case for torture; ( b ) Blind, self-righteous ignorance of the number of potential terrorist attacks that have been thwarted by governmental anti-terrorist efforts; ( c ) a sly attempt to corrupt a Constitutional Amendment by expanding it to apply to foreign enemies and prisoners of war; (d) the insane charge that torture is only motivated by sadism (please seek counseling); (e) the nonsensical suggestion that anyone would propose torturing innocent people for any purpose; (f) irrelevant comments about France and Algeria; (g) a totally absurd distortion of my views on what constitutes moral military intervention and (h) a smearing of Objectivism. I'm not about to waste my time answering such unadulterated bullshit, other than to point out that your post consists of unadulterated bullshit. Yeah, Martin, great post. When you leave Dennis spluttering like this, you know you've cut through to the heart of the matter. It is rather comical, though, isn't it, when his puffed up moral outrage gets in the way of his ability to formulate his uninformed "thoughts"? It's rather like watching a man trip over his own feet and plunge headfirst into a manhole - you know, the kind of thing you might see in an old Laurel and Hardy movie. Best, JR

There's clearly no need for me to answer your question, Michael. You already know the answer. Obviously, I've never even laid eyes on Glenn Beck, much less any of his TV shows; nor have I ever heard his voice or read a word he's written. I'm a "Beck Hater," am I not? Isn't that prima facie evidence of my complete ignorance of his glorious work? If I had ever actually exposed myself to any of that work, I would have been swept away by the greatness and the profundity of it all and would be running up and down the road attending his rallies whenever I wasn't glued to my TV set basking in the wonder of his intellect and his commitment to individual liberty. QED JR

For the record, Pippi, I don't consider you stupid - though maybe a bit hasty. (Think of the ents in the LOTR.) You're forgiven. Stick around. Even though I'm one of the libertarian "nihilists" Dennis warns newcomers against, I assure you, my bark is worse than my bite. Best, JR

Dennis, Sorry for the implication. That was not my intention. I just picked up on the critical thinking thing and ran with it. As for the torture thing, I have mentioned many times that there are cases where morality goes right out the window. In those instances, the person choosing between awful and rotten has to make the call the best he can. That goes for torture. I can't think of a single moral justification for torture, so I hold it should never be a formal policy. But I can't think of any reason to morally condemn a person who tortures a bad guy to save his loved ones when the bad guy has put his loved ones in mortal danger. He just does what he thinks will preserve his values at the time. When morality goes out the window like that, I never see a one-size-fits-all answer. I've said that often and I haven't changed. btw - NB had an interesting article somewhere recently where he discussed the difference between a goal and a standard. I believe that kind of thinking is applicable here. You should never make a principle your goal. A principle is a standard you use to measure your actions and goals. Your goals are projections (abstractions) of potential concretes, not abstractions of abstractions. I think blind contextless adherence to any principle (i.e., treating it as a goal instead of a measure) negates the use of a person's own eyes and brain in carrying out the business of survival. Amen to that (by which I understand to mean as "pathetically ignorant of Beck's work"). Beck also does something I find really rare in almost every public political discussion area I have read or viewed. He corrects himself--and publicly says so--when he learns he was wrong. And he does this without it affecting his self-confidence or keenness in trying to correctly understand what's happening. Someone should make a video of the times he has done this. It would be an eye-opener to a lot of people. Also, I can't think of one Beck critic who has his track record in correctly predicting large scale social events, both good and bad. And being blasted for it--with the folks who blasted the hardest later touting themselves as experts on the result they didn't believe in before. Beck has been doing that ever since the Bush years--not to mention his more recent exposés of ACORN, Van Jones, George Soros, the Arab Spring, etc. It goes like this: Beck says something is coming for such and such reasons. Granted, that something is usually bad.People say he's crazy, conspiracy kook, danger to society, promoter of violence and hatred, etc. etc. etc.The bad thing actually happens as he said.But Beck's own events are always peaceful--never a single arrest or anything like that.The former critics start talking about the bad thing as if Beck had never mentioned it, but they shut up about him for a bit.After a small amount of time, they slowly start back blasting him and the people who say they like him (usually calling them ignorant yahoos, just as crazy as Beck, etc.). Then Beck says something else bad is coming. And off it goes all over again--just like clockwork. How many times does this have to happen before these knuckleheads start seeing a pattern? I mean, after the first dozen or so times, you would have thought the knuckleheads would see how ridiculous they make themselves in the minds of people who do see the pattern. It's almost a comedy routine to watch these days. And as predictable as Pavlov's dogs salivating with the bell. Michael Isn't it interesting that all the "arguments" against the saintly Glenn Beck that Michael repeatedly cites as clueless and uninformed are never offered by any of the Beck critics (excuse me, I mean "Beck haters") around here? Perhaps the people who offer these "arguments" do actually exist, but God (I mean Galt) knows where. (Maybe if you spend all your time paying attention to rightwing media, because you think, for some mysterious reason, that the right wing is on the side of the free market and small government, you would have encountered such people - but I haven't. Perplexedly, JR

I agree completely. It's mostly a lot of quasi-pacifist claptrap. Spinning Ayn Rand's words to make her viewpoint fit theirs. I suspect Ayn Rand would have been a huge fan of Jack Bauer. Absolutely! Rand was a huge fan of torture. That's why the leading hero of Atlas Shrugged was Dr. Floyd Ferris and his brilliant invention, the Ferris Persuader. John Galt and his band of terrorists were attempting to destroy the society around them and, especially, the U.S. government. Ferris swept in there just like a Jack Bauer hero to stop this nefarious plot and protect society against the evil Galt inspired terrorists. Unfortunately, Rand had a malevolent sense of life, so the evil terrorists won in the end. Martin Rand was a huge fan of strong fictional characters who demonstrated moral courage in the defense of innocent victims and in the pursuit of justice for thugs. My guess is that she felt torture was a necessary evil in certain situations where no other option was available. But using torture when absolutely necessary to protect innocent life does require a certain level of courage that most people do not have. Bauer did have it. That is why she would have admired Jack Bauer. Shudder. --Brant never saw an episode, nor did she You have to sit back and admire the critical thinking that goes into a comment like that. I think I saw a part of one episode in which he kills somebody at the end, someone who is all tied up. It might have been another show all together, another show I haven't been watching too. I heard snippets about torture in Vietnam from the intelligence non-commissioned officers, usually as practiced by the South Vietnamese. It was rather mild stuff compared to things I've read. There was a famous case in 1969 in which the bird colonel commander of the Fifth SF Group in Vietnam lied to General Abrams about a certain case that resulted in a Vietnamese double agent either being rolled out of a helicopter into Nha Trang Bay or taken out in a boat and dumped. Abrams wanted a murder trial, but the CIA refused to cooperate and the Nixon White House shut the whole thing down. Up to that time SF in Vietnam had two masters, regular military as represented by Abrams and the CIA. After that, the CIA seems to have faded its involvement with SF. Anyway, I'd guess I know a lot more about this subject than you [Dennis Hardin] do. Of course you do, Brant. (On the other hand, how could you know less?) JR

Brant, I believe it is actually growing because of the Internet and electronic communications. But you won't find it among people who look at facts only through the framework of their predigested rigid prejudices. (For prejudice, think of the distortion mirrors in a funny-house. People see reflections of real stuff, i.e., facts. But those reflections are warped.) The good news is that there is room for everyone on the web--including those who prefer critical thinking for real. And I believe this number is growing. Michael Yes, Brant, you won't find it among people who look at facts only through the framework of their predigested rigid prejudices. You'll find it, if you find it at all, among people who look at facts only through the framework of Michael's predigested rigid prejudices. You know - like the one in which everyone either loves Glenn Beck passionately or hates him virulently? So that anyone who, for example, questions whether Beck really knows as much as he thinks he does, anyone who suspects that, ten years from now, you'll be able to mention his name in public and people will say, "Glenn who?" - anyone who is, shall we say, less than starry-eyed about the redoubtable Glenn - is a "Beck hater." Helpfully, JR

I agree completely. It's mostly a lot of quasi-pacifist claptrap. Spinning Ayn Rand's words to make her viewpoint fit theirs. I suspect Ayn Rand would have been a huge fan of Jack Bauer. Absolutely! Rand was a huge fan of torture. That's why the leading hero of Atlas Shrugged was Dr. Floyd Ferris and his brilliant invention, the Ferris Persuader. John Galt and his band of terrorists were attempting to destroy the society around them and, especially, the U.S. government. Ferris swept in there just like a Jack Bauer hero to stop this nefarious plot and protect society against the evil Galt inspired terrorists. Unfortunately, Rand had a malevolent sense of life, so the evil terrorists won in the end. Martin Rand was a huge fan of strong fictional characters who demonstrated moral courage in the defense of innocent victims and in the pursuit of justice for thugs. My guess is that she felt torture was a necessary evil in certain situations where no other option was available. But using torture when absolutely necessary to protect innocent life does require a certain level of courage that most people do not have. Bauer did have it. That is why she would have admired Jack Bauer. And, or course, governments can certainly be trusted to decide when torture is necessary to protect innocent life, just as they can be trusted to do all of the other wonderful things that they do to us every day. Governments would never abuse this power. They would never torture innocent prisoners under the mistaken impression that they had valuable information, or just for the sheer fun of it. Governments would never abuse this hideous power, because they are so honorable. Only the highest calibre of human being would ever apply for the job of government interrogator, never some sadistic bastard who got his jollies doing this kind of work. All of the prisoners tortured at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and Bagram, as well as all of the black op sites where prisoners were renditioned to be tortured, were obviously guilty, because otherwise, why would the government have tortured them? Governments never make these kinds of mistakes. This country's founders, who got the fourth amendment to the constitution passed, were just a bunch of pussies. Right? Actually, Martin, it's a bit more nuanced than that. You see, most governments cannot be trusted to make these decisions, but our government can. Our government has never done anything wrong in its entire history, except, perhaps, by easily understandable and forgivable error. And any wrong it may have done was done only by Democratic administrations, never Republican administrations. As for the Founders, they did make a few trivial errors, but those were corrected by Judge Naragansett in Galt's Gulch. Again, a small correction, Martin, if I may be allowed one. You see, this has "long been known" only by people who Hate America and Blame America First. Dennis, who gets his information about this issue from a defunct Fox TV series, knows better. Helpfully, JR

You inadvertently left out a word in your second sentence above, Dennis. The word "uninformed" needs to be inserted between the words "my" and "opinion." Helpfully, JR P.S. Your firm adherence to the word taboos pioneered by William the Conqueror is cute, however.

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But IS that really nihilism? Doesn't the philosophical position of nihilism mean that NOTHING is considered as of value to the nihilist? One gets the impression that you erroneously label as 'nihilist' those choices that go against yours (and most people's) code of ethics. My compliments, Xray. I know I don't offer them to you very often. But when you're right, you're right. JR