J.S. McGowan

Could there be a future with a country built on Objectivism... could all us Objectivists not pool our resources and buy an island or something?

thanks! :-D

does anyone have anything to say about Silent Spring by Rachel Carson?

See if the eco-phreak movement started way back when with the Conservation Movement. Ba'al Chatzaf what is the Eco-phreak movement?

I'm doing an essay for History about the history of modern environmentalism. I'm wondering whether anyone can give me some pointers or information on that matter...

wow, Ayn Rand saw a flying saucer... that's something I never expected to hear...

Just curious as to what people think about all the alien conspiracies. I find them fun to explore and I often have to slap myself out off believing them. (Whitely Strieber's Communion book had me sleeping with the light on ) I also love reading all those ancient alien intervention books like Eric von Daniken's books and Iv read the Lost Book of Enki by Sitchin. I read them more as science fiction. Has Ayn Rand ever said anything about alien visitation? any one here who believes?

On my school holidays... pretty nice so far. just been relaxing etc. I did my learners a few days ago... I failed by one point... one point. Ah well: Ill be prepared for the next shot. I better start on a history essay soon. I'm going to cover the history of the environmentalist movement. I think my hypothesis will revolve around trying to uncover the dark secrets of what modern environmentalism means. One card I have uncovered is that the Nazi's had one of the most "progressive" environmental policies...

I really enjoyed reading the piece you wrote Micheal, very plausible.

I went to see John Carter. It was good fun. and I agree with you Blackhorse on the importance of a black and white morality.

I seem to remember reading in the Virtue of Selfishness that Ayn Rand saw the invasion of countries under a dictatorship by a free countries is morally justifiable. Doesnt this justify America getting involved in the affairs of other countries and hence give some justification to the Kony 2012 movement? I disagree with the whole thing. It all seems like Hipster Socialist jibber jabber, but under what specific circumstance is american military interference justified?

Jacob: Predominantly Dr. Ron Paul would be my best guess. His positions on: 1) cutting Federal spending to balance the budget and roll back the destructive debt disaster; 2) ending the Federal Reserve; 3) ending the wars and returning the troops to the US; 4) eliminating Federal Agencies and Departments; 5) ending regulations; 6) strict adherence to Constitutional protections of individuals rights; 7) strict enforcement of all Constitutional clauses; and 8) a return to the gold standard; These are basically the positions that I am aware of. There are others of course. Adam Wow: he sounds like the key to a laissez faire America. I hope y'all vote for him! Iv been having a little look at some of the candidate debates and such... Ron Paul definitely seems to be the most competent. Rick Santorum looks like a fun character though!

I'm being really lazy here in asking so bluntly (I'm not in the mood to traverse the posts in the election related forums) but: which presidential candidate/ candidates does the Objectivist community sympathize and support most? (a little brief explanation as to why would also be appreciated )

Do you say this because of the frantic attitude of the fracking opposition?More a bit of wry hyperbole on my part to the knee-jerk alarmism, I have been picking up. I've only lately been educating myself on fracking, specifically in the Karoo. So far, (while consciously trying to avoid the easy trap of assuming it is all insane Luddism) Ive read and heard the same old anti-Big Oil, pro- Nature-at-all-costs, rationales - often by people who know less than I do. Like all environmental issues, one is forced to take sides when there might not be any dilemma between technology and natural beauty, practically speaking. The inconvenient truth for any extremists with suspect principles, (nature good, man bad) who may be driving this movement, is that fracking has been tried and tested in many parts of the world - several States of the US, the Netherlands and Australia - for as long as 50 years in the case of Texas. Without incident, that I've seen. I recommend an article in the S.A. online newspaper "Daily Maverick", written by one Ivo Vegter, on this topic. He unbundles it very well, and objectively. BTW, welcome to OL! Are you in the Western, or Eastern Cape? From what you related of your school, I'd guess it is Bishop's in Cape Town, or St. Andrew's in Grahamstown. Am I close? I'm from the western cape. and I live on the Garden Route (SA's very own bible belt ) I go to a private, christian ethos school in George... Not yet quite as prestigious as the schools you mentioned... (but we are IEB... )

I'm from the western cape. and I live on the Garden Route (SA's very own bible belt ) I go to a private, christian ethos school in George... Not yet quite as prestigious as the schools you mentioned... (but we are IEB... )

Thank you so much for posting the link to this article. I really enjoyed reading it and I think I understand the matter a lot better now. I cant wait to show my friend (who is the president of the Environmental club at my school) Do you say this because of the frantic attitude of the fracking opposition?

Nothing much happened today... weather was horrible: very rainy.... Sailing was canceled unfortunately. Discussed Macbeth in English. I argued that I enjoyed the movie adaption of Macbeth that we watched because I think that it rationalized the plot and that because of this it gave the story more moral value. No one agreed. they said that that the idea of fate (rather than the delusion of it) was important to the plot.

A gentleman came to my school today to talk about fracking. He was a very nice man who seemed to know his stuff. Shell and some other oil companies want to Frack in the Karoo. The Karoo is an area of beautiful semi desert which makes up, I think he said, two thirds of South Africa. The South African Government has put a moratorium on the oil companies to come ad prospect: but it is most likely that they will be allowed to start at some point this year. My family owns a Farm house/ holiday home in the Karoo so I am concerned about the implication of Fracking. Im wondering whether the Oil Companies have perfected their Fracking or whether their environmental impact can still culminates to such levels as causing peoples drinking water to become flammable!

I will attempt to make an entry daily... don't know how long I will keep it up though... Nothing of much consequence happened today. In English we finished watching Roman Polanski's movie adaption of Macbeth. I quite enjoyed it. I think that Macbeth highlights the evils of the belief of ends justifying the means plus i believe that Shakespeare's depiction of a man making himself a slave to prophesy, and being ultimately fooled and destroyed by it, has a lot of moral value. I'm reading Dracula at the moment, a friend lent it to me, and I am enjoying it. Its a lot more easy to read than I anticipated. Plus the plot is more creepy than I thought it would be... I was shocked by how different the Dracula in the novel is to the way I imagined he would be... I definitely didn't expect short stubby fingers and a big mustache...

I've never done anything "bloggy" before... so this is my first ever blog entry. I guess I should say a little about myself. Obviously I am an Objectivist. I think Ayn Rand allowed me to grow up; before I found Ayn Rand in my early teens I was afraid, what of I didn't know, but i felt a constant pressure upon me. I called myself an atheist but I was so cringingly tolerant of other beliefs and so skeptical of everything that I was probably more mystical than any religious follower. The first Ayn Rand book I read was Fountainhead: it blew me away and changed my life. But I want my Blog to focus more on the current events in my life. I live in quite a rural part of South Africa. So I am very much alone in my convictions. I go to England regularly as I am British: but I find that the majority of people my age there have very different views to my own. I am notorious at my High school for being "too opinionated". I managed to clear my whole table in art today after I made a criticism of the Kony 2012 movement thingy... I even enraged one of my friends: to whom I wrote a letter of apology with a picture of me as a donkey... this same friend says I must not voice my opinion when ever I feel the need but must instead simply say "hmmm" (prehaps she is right...) I'm really hoping that at some point soon I will find some one who shares my values and beliefs.

Thanks for all the posts The link to the Rothbard article doesn't work though but i think that I am definitely more clued up on the subject.

We are about to start covering the Great Depression at school. I have noticed that my History teacher is very much against capitalism and I fear that I will end up being its sole defender when we begin to explore the issue of the Great Depression. I was dismayed even more when I read through the section about the great depression in my text book... I will quote a paragraph: "Roosevelt's New Deal did much to restore the economy. Confidence returned, prices stabilized, the banking system was reformed and unemployment was reduced. Many Historians believe that the new deal strengthened capitalism by getting rid of some abuses and introducing some necessary state control (regulation) over the economy. However, for the first time in America, the principle of the government's responsibility for the welfare of its citizens was accepted. this went against the capitalist belief that that the government had no role to play in providing for the unemployed, the elderly or the sick..." the section seems to be fully bias in its support of the New Deal as no defense for capitalism is made. does anyone have any advice or material for me on the subject?

A truly motivational comment Adam. I often try to see myself as a vanguard for reason here in South Africa. I live in quite a backwards farmer community so its a lonely battle... My opinions are far from hidden in the classroom

Your comment seems to be a bit negative about human homosexuality. the majority of homosexuals I have met are very nice, healthy and successful people. Are you not prehaps generalizing? Im sure there is a high correlation between substance abusing, mentally ill, promiscuous homosexuals and homophobic prejudice. I am not attempting to be negative - just stating my observations. I generally don't trust statistics likely to have a slant so I primarily have my own experience to go by. There are plenty of substance abusing straight people and plenty of mentally ill straight people. Dennis I agree with your distrust of the reliability of statistics. and what you said made me think about a few things. where you live, what is the general attitude of people towards homosexuals? the majority of homosexuals i have met live in Cape Town (gay Capital of South Africa) perhaps the observation on the homosexuals are a result of your communities attitudes and values. I think that if I were gay and I had my teacher telling me that my life choices where bad and unnatural and if I had people mocking me it would have a negative impact on my character.

what a bitterly sweet story