Sunday, July 12, 2015

Objectivism and Religiosity

Randroids don't believe in a Divine Law Giver. They believe in Divine Law nonetheless. They don't call it that, of course. Far be it from them to succumb to such namby-pamby "mysticism"! No, they call their reality tunnel Objectivism. Because, you see, you can't have a sound system of morality without objectivity.

They proceed to confer their imprimatur on wholesale civilian slaughter. Incinerating innocent men, women, and children is OK according to Objectivist Holy Writ, so long as the right people--namely, that brood of vipers infesting the banks of the Potomac--are doing the incinerating. Civilization has its privileges--especially vis-a-vis mere savages.

You might object to Objectivism. You might deem their reality-tunnel flaky, cruel, and arbitrary. But at least Objectivists deal in reality. You can't accuse them of being religious.

Thursday, July 02, 2015

Raising Relative Values to Absolutes

A relative value raised to the level of absolute? What does that bring to mind? Homicidal humanitarianism perhaps?
What are the ends? Under what narrow circumstances may the State inflict its wholesale civilian slaughter? Of what might that Overriding Public Interest consist to justify what are sure to be only a few and far between if not-so-enumerated atrocities?
Enforcing tariffs (read: "ending slavery"), civilizing savages, vanquishing monarchy, thwarting Nazism, stymying imperialism, containing communism, ensuring the free flow of oil to thankless allies, propping up "friendly" dictators, overthrowing "unfriendly" dictators, curbing extremism, fighting terrorism, exporting democracy, ensuring equal rights, liberating Mohammedan women from their burqas!
What are the means? What form may the homicidal humanitarianism take? What few and far between if not-so-enumerated eggs may the State break to make its tasty omelet?
The March to the Sea, Shenandoah Valley, Trail of Tears, Pacification of the Philippines, Dresden, Hamburg, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq War I, Iraq War II, Beneath the Planet of the Iraq War, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ad Nauseam-stan!
See? In the American experience, the State is a model of restraint. And when it acts, it acts only to advance noble goals.