Virtue of Selfishness - Individualism  

Show Notes

• Archived Blog Post

  Date / Time: 11/22/2008 4:55 PM UTC

  A Time to Choose
  

  Ronald Reagan in his famous 1964 stump speech for Goldwater said:
  
  You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
  
  I know that most Americans have the grit and the stamina to do what's right during these times. I urge you to protest these bailouts with every voice and choice that you have. I understand if you are working for a failing company, but unless you are at the top of the pyramid, your job isn't safe. And if the companies are overrun by tyrannical unions, then let them fail and regroup. I promise I will buy from farmer's markets, from flea markets and barter systems. I promise not to use a credit card from any bank that received bail out money. I promise that I won't buy from a union store. I promise that I will not vote for any congressman that votes YES on a taxpayer financed bailout.
  
  In a FREE market there are no guarantees that you won't fail, but if we give up our free market system, then we'll never succeed on our own terms. Did you know that a lawsuit was filed against 'e-harmony.com' as a civil rights issue...someone believed that their policy to not allow the option of men looking for men or women looking for women was discriminatory. This was a private company, not a government entity. They had lots of rules that followed their philosophy of lifetime partners. Before this could be settled in court, e-harmony.com settled for money and agreed to change their site. This force born of fear to stand up for what's right comes from evil. It's not right that we can't choose who to trade with. Civil rights has gotten out of hand and if you listen to the logic of our president-elect, then you'll understand how he'll turn our own values and guilt against us. We believe in fairness, but when fairness is dictated to us by another, then they've taken away not only my right to trade with whom I please, but the joy I could derive by being fair and generous. Is it wrong to share your peanut butter sandwich? Hell no, but is it wrong for someone else to demand half? Civil rights come about by people finding a way to change the will of the people, not by the force of our judicial system or our legislature. The government is to protect us from force, not impose it.
  
  John Galt a character in Atlas Shrugged said:
  
  You know that you can't give away everything and starve yourself. You've forced yourselves to live with undeserved, irrational guilt. Is it ever proper to help another man? No, if he demands it as his right or as a duty that you owe him. Yes, if it's your own free choice based on your judgment of the value of that person and his struggle. This country wasn't built by men who sought handouts. In its brilliant youth, this country showed the rest of the world what greatness was possible to Man and what happiness is possible on Earth.
  
  Then it began apologizing for its greatness and began giving away its wealth, feeling guilty for having produced more than its neighbors. ....I saw that the enemy was an inverted morality and that my acceptance of that morality was its only power. I was the first of the men who refused to give up the pursuit of his own happiness in order to serve others.
  
  To those of you who retain some remnant of dignity and the will to live your lives for yourselves, you have the chance to make the same choice. Examine your values and understand that you must choose one side or the other. Any compromise between good and evil only hurts the good and helps the evil.
  
  If you've understood what I've said, stop supporting your destroyers. Don't accept their philosophy. Your destroyers hold you by means of your endurance, your generosity, your innocence, and your love. Don't exhaust yourself to help build the kind of world that you see around you now. In the name of the best within you, don't sacrifice the world to those who will take away your happiness for it.
  
  We must understand basic human rights but when a private company refuses service to you, isn't that their right too. We are a free people, and we have a right to open up a competing business across the street. Isn't that the better way? Let us not contribute to the madness, to the evil, to the chipping away of our dignity and our freedom. We must remove legislators from office who would serve a different ideal.
  • Tags:
  • galt
  • reagan
  • civil rights
  • freedom
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