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Hey all, I was going through yahoo news (I think it was yahoo) the other day and there was some article about how Homosexuality is a choice. Now this idea of homosexuality being a choice never made sense to me but not in the way you think. I never understood why it being a choice matters. Who cares if you choose to be gay or if you are biologically that way. Why do people even debate this issue of choice with homosexuality? Nobody debates choice with regard to hetrosexual people or with regard to any other issue of preference. Am I missing something? Thanks, David C.

Hey all, This semester I am taking my third philosophy class and this one focuses on Metaphysics. Today the lecture centered on the perception of reality and its existence and I must admit I am little confused on how Ayn Rand explains reality. I understand that A is A and that reality exists regardless of someones perspective, so I got that part down. What I am confused about is how she proves reality exists in the first place. Everything I find boils down to the word Consciousness and I don't really understand how she defines the word. Thanks, David C.

Before I start, I apologzie to everyone for writing ethical question than saying if it should be legal. My question was meant purley in a legal sense. Now with regard to Brant's points. Three things. One, you introduced premises that I outlawed in my question, such as being drunk when you sign the papers. You also mentioned being mad when I signed the contract. Emotions can't be controlled so they can't be brought into the discussion. I may sign a big sports contract when I was feeling happy but regret it the next second, that doesn't mean I can bail out on my contract. Two, what defines signing oneself into slavery? If I want to sign myself into slavery as a rational being and not be paid for it then should not that be my choice? I don't see why someone would want to do that but it is their choice. Three, bringing children into the argument is unfair because when do children mature beyond the state of non-rational dependence. Children bring about a slippery slope in Objectivism, how can a parent treat their own child, what are the boundaries? I can't make my child go into prostitution but I can force them to eat their veggies. One is obviously far more extreme but where is the line drawn where I can't force my child into doing something. Thanks, David C.

So you are also opposed to boxing and football? Football and Boxings goal isn't death. In football I can't finish off an injured player. F.Y.I. I am playing devils advocate because I think it should be legal for people to fight to death.

Hey Guys/Gals, My question is pretty simple, should two consenting, sober adults be legally allowed to fight to the death? Thanks, David C.

The U.S. economy did much better in the 1980s than the 1970s. Real GDP numbers can be found here. Some of the growth was due to government spending. Rothbard was correct about federal government deficits during the Reagan years. Deficit numbers can be found here. Much of the improvement was due to the Federal Reserve, Paul Volker in particular. Inflation got much higher in the 1970s and reached about 13% in 1980. Fed policy, led by Volker, reduced inflation to about 4% by 1984. Volker was appointed by Carter, not Reagen. Also, the effect of the deficits on the U.S. economy were much mitigated due to inflows of foreign capital. Thank you this pretty much answered my question.

Hey all, I was in class today and the topic was Reagan. My teacher being pretty liberal began class by going on this tirade against Reagan and I was gonna lose it, he was claiming Reagan was a Keynes supporter and I was just about to fire back but I decided to do some research first and what I found kinda shocked me. I found this article http://mises.org/library/myths-reaganomics and I slowly began to realize two things upon further research.1. I don't understand why conservatives support Reagan, his policies are pretty far from conservative ideals. 2. I don't think I can find a time period in the last 60 years where the American economy was truly free. My question really is this, did the American economy really recover in the 1980's or just we just let the debt continue to rise and ignore it? Thanks, David C.

In certain states some holidays are declared by the state. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0002069.html

Yes, they could be male or female. On a side note I don't believe they are a plot tool because then story could exist and be pretty much the same without them. She put them in there not to further plot but to make a specific point about male/female relations which in anthem differs from other books such as Atlas Shrugged.

I saw this up close on RoR. There is a section called "Activism" which is no longer very active. The most favored projects back when I participated on the forum were finding surveys where Rand-related works and people were possible to vote for and spiking them. You even got incentives like RoR Atlas points for taking part. The more you voted, the more Atlas points you got. This, coming from a philosophy where the virtue of integrity is supposed to be one of the top values. In my view, that kind of bullshit tarnishes the image of Objectivists, if not the philosophy, when people find out. Michael Thank you for supporting your claim. I just want to point out how the number I got was listed on Wikipedia which I now have learned is quite misleading. On the Atlas Shrugged page it says "According to a 1991 survey done for the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club, Atlas Shrugged was situated between the Bibleand M. Scott Peck's The Road Less Traveled as the book that made the most difference in the lives of 5,000 Book-of-the-Month club members surveyed, with a "large gap existing between the #1 book and the rest of the list"". 5,000 people were sent the survey but only around 2000 responded. The definition of surveyed is technically just to ask the question but doesn’t mean you have to respond. Regardless I completely agree, that these kind of studies hurt the philosophy.

I am not sure but I am assuming this is supposed to be a joke, if so then it is a funny stereotype. If it is serious then I disagree because I have been in my share of relationships and it really depends on the situation with regard to who is submissive to whom. On a side note this doesn't really address my question. It's what I call a "think joke." All my jokes are think jokes--being a thinker, natch. In any case, I think of that woman as a prop necessary to give the protagonist an existence, a future. Just an embryo for future Rand female characters. It's interesting to note that the main, dominant characters in Rand's novels are Kira and Dagny with Dominique more ambivalent to her novel. Not so in Anthem. Or, you may have confused submissive with undeveloped. You might do better to examine Kira's character for your idea of submission. There's really no traction for that in this little diamond of a story. --Brant Your point is fair but I think there are plenty of examples in Anthem to support my claim as I have provided. I feel that in Anthem Ayn Rand mixes the idea of Hero Worship with submission and blind following. Even though the story is short she does develop the Golden One enough for me to form an opinion.

Thanks for the response. I am talking about when he names himself Prometheus and he names her Gaia. And I believe Hero Worship is different from blind submission.

I will definitely check it out. Lets just agree Unicorns with sparkles would so awesome it would be beyond words.

I totally agree, the problem is the films aren't just reviewed bad they didn't make a lot of money. If they had made money but were terrible films they would have a chance.

From what I could find the survey was done in 1991 of 5000 Book Club of The Month members and I couldn't find anything on it being Spiked by Ayn Rand Fans. Regardless I agree it shouldn't be used to represent all of American Culture but I was just interested where I could find the fact showing it was spiked.

Spiders are actually quite misunderstood. http://listverse.com/2014/10/10/10-ways-spiders-are-just-misunderstood/ I for one would think Six Foot Spiders would be pretty cool. The silk would be an awesome thing to harvest because I am assuming it would be pretty darn strong. With regard to the question I would love to see the Chimera. They have always fascinated me because it is the perfect combination of one of the Strongest large predators (Lion) and one of the Strongest small predators (Snake). Plus the fire breathing just puts it over the top.

I am not sure but I am assuming this is supposed to be a joke, if so then it is a funny stereotype. If it is serious then I disagree because I have been in my share of relationships and it really depends on the situation with regard to who is submissive to whom. On a side note this doesn't really address my question.

Think of the context. The Golden One grew up in an environment of total submission to the authorities, the World Council. People who show signs of individualism are burned at the stake. Falling in love with Equality 7521 and choosing to follow him was a once in a century deviation in her world, punishable by death. She was brave beyond description. Thank you for the response. My problem with your answer is you didn't entirely address my question. I am not arguing whether or not the Golden One was brave for leaving the World Council but that doesn't mean she isn't submissive to Equality 7521. Just because she left a submissive world doesn't mean she hasn't joined another.

I just finished reading anthem and I will say it was a great book but I must say the role of the Golden One confused me. Ayn Rands philosophy centers on individualism and the Golden One can't be any further from that. They are completely submissive to Equality 7521. Here are a couple examples- 1. When meeting Equality 7521 The Golden One agrees to do anything the Equality asks of them. Even if they had the highest respect for the Equality they shouldn't blindly follow them. 2. Equality 7521 doesn't even let the Golden One choose their own name. Isn't your name the best example of individualism and they don't even choose their own. Let me know what you guys/gals think

Hey Guys/Gals, Before I make my point let me give some back story first. Today in my Seminar History class in which we focus on Indian History I had to give a presentation and to be honest my presentation was pretty bad, and I felt damn near foolish when I finished; good thing it was not graded. Upon going back to my seat and feeling like a idiot it hit me how useless college is. The reason my presentation was bad was because I didn't put the effort in and I didn't put the effort in because I don't like Indian History. This point basically summarizes all of what college is to me, being forced to take classes that I don't enjoy to fill a requirement. Everything beyond basic math, science, and history which to me ended by around 7th grade I have learned on my own. The reason I made the effort to learn it, is because I enjoy it, plain and simple. I enjoy philosophy so I took it upon myself to learn it. Now I am not saying I haven't learned anything in college, I am saying that everything I learned was either useless to me or something I would have due to personal interest eventually learned on my own. What do you guys/gals think? Is college worth it? Thanks, David C. (Cowboys are in first place by the way incase nobody noticed haha)

“Have you ever felt the longing for someone you could admire? For something, not to look down at, but up to?” ― Ayn Rand

This is an excellent point that I simply hadn't thought of. This basically answers my whole questions, thanks.

I seem to be one being corrected haha

per se (Latin: in itself) I fixed it , I worded it poorly.

In response to the Mr. Lee points- 1. Lillian Rearden is not ugly (Physically), she isn't as beautiful as Dagny but she isn't ugly. 2. As is said in the novel multiple times, Rearden Metal is safe, If I remember correctly Dagny even says that she looked at Reardens research and concluded it was safe. Plus, nobody is ever forced to ride on a track with Rearden Metal. 3. The only person who gets anything through violence is Ragnar but as he explains he is simply taking back what was stolen. 4. As jts said anything the government did, the free market could and/or has done better. 5. This is simply not true, the objectivist philosophy looks quite badly on being jealous- being jealous shows low self esteem. 6. Simply an Ignorant statement as jts and Derek have shown 7. When does she ever say pollution is pretty, she found work and production beautiful, Mr. Lee is forcing the connection between work and pollution. 8. Mr. Lee was clearly running out of points. 9. This is a clear misunderstanding, money shows which men have reached as Ayn Rand said "a high level of productivity". 10. Ayn Rand lived in a time when smokings side effects were not nearly as well known as they are today.