To Comprehend and Understand

[Mike DeBurgh]

Hello.  I am a human being.  My name is Michael DeBurgh, but I'm commonly called Mike.  

I found this site through a discussion on FB where I saw a discussion about the 'OL' site.  That discussion of this site intrigued me, and with the help of google and the commenter's name I found Objectivist Living.  I've only just started to read so I know not yet whether this will be a place I've been looking for, not knowing I was looking for it.

Five or six years back I read The Fountainhead, and immediately thereafter, Atlas Shrugged.  As for many others, they were eye and mind openers.  Ever since the days of my youth I've tended toward the rational and questioned the irrational/mythical, yet there was always that thought "Could so many believers be wrong?  There must be something there."  I was baptized an Episcopalian and attended Sunday school for a year when I was thirteen.  A couple of years later I discovered the intoxicating taste of sweet wine and spent the next ten years in the intake of a lifetime supply of drugs and alcohol.  I also joined the Marines.  Upon discharge I also managed to stop drinking and better living through chemistry and started a long irregular search for answers to questions I didn't know I was asking.  Evangelical Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, spiritual meditation...    and when I had a question no one could answer the answer always seemed to be "You just have to believe and have faith."  That was never good enough for me.

Then I read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and these were the answers I sought these many decades past.  At this writing I am 63 years of age.  Habits of a lifetime are not easily changed much less a decades old subconscious forged of who knows how many misbegotten concepts, so I have been taking this learning at a moderate pace.  I will read, then I need to put it down and digest it.  After some time has passed I'll return to read and study some more.  I've finally reached the point where I understand some of the terms and concepts used in objectivist philosophy, yet I still have so far to go.  Other than one course in Phil 101 taken nearly 30 years ago I have read no other philosopher's work.  Right now this is intentional because I want to understand objectivism more fully before reading other philosopher's works else I fear I'll muddy and confuse my nascent understanding of objectivism.  In time I'll read others, but not today.

I am not 'well educated'.  I've taken a number of college courses but have no degree.  I am a retired Marine with over 27 years service in the active and reserve forces.  Defining a home as a permanent residence (as opposed to transient quarters) I have lived in over 60 homes in three countries, six states, and more than twenty-three villages, towns, and cities.  I have been a mechanical draftsman, mechanical designer, piping designer, high end inventory manager at a Tiffany store, gemstone inspector, manager of classified communications security material, merchandise manager at an auto parts store, flatbed truck driver; while in the Marine Corps I worked in administration, was a low altitude anti-aircraft gunner, marksmanship instructor, operations manager, and whatever else they needed someone to do at the time.  I was never one of those people who knew what they wanted to be as early as grade school.  I still don't know what I want to be.  I am more like a dog chasing squirrels.   However, now...

A primary desire is to apply objectivist principles in my life.  That's why I'm glad I've found this forum.

So...   let's start reading and see if it's what I've been looking for.

[Peter]

Welcome, Mike.

Though I was in the Army and my Dad was career navy, I have always appreciated The Marines so I adopted their slogan to say “always, faithfully thinking.” When I was in grade school we lived on a naval base inside Fort Campbell Kentucky, called Clarksville Base, Tennessee on Halsey Circle and that is where I really got to know some Marines and their kids who were my age. The Marine Commandant was a Colonel Samuelson (I played with his son) who was slightly more senior than Captain Bulkeley. Captain Bulkeley once cut the wires of the top secret installation and entered, to show the marines they were vulnerable, but the Marines maintained he “cheated” because he moved the machine gun nest a couple of hundred yards away from his entrance point. He scared the crap out of me so I avoided speaking to him unless I had to. He was in charge of Gitmo when the Commies shut off their water. 

Peter

From Wikipedia: Bulkeley . . . was a Vice Admiral in United States Navy and was one of the most decorated naval officers. Bulkeley received the Medal of Honor for actions in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He was also the PT boat skipper who evacuated General Douglas MacArthur from Corregidor in the Philippines and commanded at the Battle of La Ciotat. The Navy named an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer after him: USS Bulkeley (DDG-84), commissioned in 2001 . . . . Robert Montgomery played motor torpedo boat squadron commander LT Brickley, based on Bulkeley, in the 1945 movie They Were Expendable.^[1] John Ford, assisted by Montgomery, directed. The cast also includes John Wayne, Ward Bond, and Donna Reed . . . . During the Korean War in 1952, Bulkeley commanded Destroyer Division 132. After the war, he was Chief of Staff for Cruiser Division Five.^[4]

In the early 1960s, Bulkeley commanded Clarksville Base, Tennessee, then a tri-service command under the aegis of the Defense Atomic Support Agency. Having lost none of his wartime daring, Bulkeley was known to test the alertness of the Marines guarding the base by donning a ninja suit, blackening his face and endeavoring to penetrate the classified area after dark without detection. This was a dangerous endeavor, as the Marines carried loaded weapons. Ever popular with his men, who both respected and admired him, Bulkeley could be seen driving around the base in his fire-engine red Triumph TR3 sports car with a large silver PT boat as a hood ornament.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Mike,

I already welcomed you to OL in another thread, but welcome again.

I love service people. You probably get tired of people saying, "Thank you for your service," especially if they are mouthing the words like a parrot and you suspect they have different thoughts in their heads. In my case, this gratitude is sincere. I lived in a different country (Brazil) for 32 years, so, if I am here in America now, it's deeper than just being here because I was born here.

Don't ever be intimidated on OL for not knowing something. The people here love to explain stuff and since they often disagree, you are forced to check things on your own and think things through. I have found that to be the best system of all for dealing with the big issues of life.

Also, like you, I'm a former druggie and alkie. I did AA and cleaned up my drinking, but since I'm a friggin' hardhead, I fell off into drugs and had to do NA.  

Now I've been clean for a long time. There's an addiction section on OL.

Unfortunately, you will not find much about addiction in O-Land in general. Rand herself had harsh words for addicts. But, regardless, Objectivism is a wonderful philosophy, especially as a starting point (after you get your bearings in it). For addiction, you just have to supplement it with things like neuroscience, modern psychology, etc.

When the time comes, or even now if you wish, I would be glad to share some of that kind of info with you. I've been at this for a while and, frankly, I was driven to learn it because I wanted to know why I became addicted and what I did to myself in the dark years.

The good news is that the human body, soul and liver are wonderful at self-correction. I stand as a monument to the capacity, especially the regenerative ability of the liver.

Anyway, I hope you have fun here. There are lots of good intelligent folks (like you seem to be) aboard. And I hope you find some of the answers you are seeking.

At least you'll find someone to disagree with you when you least expect it. That never fails to happen around here.  

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

2 hours ago, Mike DeBurgh said:

Hello.  I am a human being.

btw - I am comforted to know you are human.

If you were not, I would probably start freaking out.

Michael

[BaalChatzaf]

5 hours ago, Mike DeBurgh said:

 

I found this site through a discussion on FB where I saw a discussion about the 'OL' site.  That discussion of this site intrigued me, and with the help of google and the commenter's name I found Objectivist Living.  I've only just started to read so I know not yet whether this will be a place I've been looking for, not knowing I was looking for it.Five or six years back I read The Fountainhead, and immediately thereafter, Atlas Shrugged.  As for many others, they were eye and mind openers.  Ever since the days of my youth I've tended toward the rational and questioned the irrational/mythical, yet there was always that thought "Could so many believers be wrong?  There must be something there."

Reading Ayn Rand for the first time can be quite a jolt.  

[Mike DeBurgh]

Peter, Michael, and BallChatzaf, thank you for the welcome.  

Peter, when I enlisted I was turned down by the Coast Guard, then the Navy, then the Army because the Navy had turned me down.  I didn't try and the Army recruiter said if they didn't want me the Marines wouldn't either.  About a week later the Marine recruiter calls up saying I had good test scores and he'd like to talk to me; he thought he could do something.  A week later I was in boot camp.  I'm glad it worked out that way.  I remember coming across the name Bulkeley but I've had no occasion to dig deeply into history regarding him.  Thanks for that bit.

Michael, I can't say I ever wondered why I took to alcohol and better living through chemistry.  No doubt some phych____ could come up with any number of reasons, but the fact is that I loved drinking and getting high.  I took full advantage of it until I had an epiphany that was the start of change.  Now it's been 37 years and since I've found objectivism life is better than ever.  I can finally say with surety that I am a man who loves his own life.  I'm looking forward to learning from folks here.

BallChatzaf, I can understand the jolt, but honestly, it wasn't a jolt as much as the fog lifting accompanied by "Duh!  No shit!"