Political Punch

Obama talks out of both sides of his mouth. He speaks of the injustices of slavery but demands "service", and calls for government to force people to serve others. Forced servitude is slavery.
Looking after oneself is indeed responsible and moral. It is also selfish. Looking after oneself and sacrificing oneself are opposites, and are incompatible -- yet Obama calls for both in the same breath. If it is responsible and moral to earn your own living and further your life, then it is irresponsible and immoral to sacrifice your sustenance or your self. If it is right for each individual to look after himself, as Obama indicates, then it is wrong to force anyone to serve others or provide for others.
Each individual has a right to his own life, his liberty, and the pursuit of his own happiness. One's responsibility to others is not to serve them, but only to respect their same rights. Obama rejects this principle of individual rights, on which America was founded -- Obama is anti-American. If you want to understand what Ayn Rand meant by "The Virtue of Selfishness", don't trust Obama to tell you, read her book by that name, or read her novel "Atlas Shrugged".

Sen. ObaMao uses a curtain of verbage to disguise who he really is. I would have voted for the man he claimed to be last year in the primaries, but the reality -- a little "c" communist who will change the constitution to redistribute wealth, re-educate and radicalize the populace through "mandatory voluteerism", ruin the economy because that will be "fair" -- is hideous. In addition, his disregard for normal verifications on campaign contributions and his active silencing of dissent demonstrate this man is a thug at heart.

I have waited a long time to vote for a black man for president but this one will be disastrous for the nation.

Meanwhile, McCain and Palin have their focus on the right place: cleaning up the graft and cronyism in Washington, so that we can have a more transparent and functioning government.

McCain is the REAL change we need, the REAL one.

The funny thing is, *both* candidates are quite blatant about sacrifice and service and selflessness. They *both* approach these things from the perspective of altruism, not egoism, and in this they reflect the trend of the wider culture.

Rand would blast both of these guys as little monsters eager to further spread the ethics of human sacrifice -- both voluntary and not.

Rand stands virtually alone in rightly denouncing human sacrifice in its every form and degree -- whether it is sacrifice of self to others (meek altruists), others to self (thuggish predators), indirectly (through government programs) or any other variant. (Note that this puts the lie to spinning Rand's virtue of selfishness as having anything whatever to do with being an opportunistic thug or otherwise unjustly exploiting people.)

If you would like a quick introduction to Rand's rational, scientific ethics, I encourage you to check out Craig Biddle's excellent little book, _Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It_.

**Sharing and cooperation are foundations that should be established in childhood, they're not behaviors comparable to slave/master relations.**

If you do not have the moral right to opt out of "sharing", then yes it does. Freedom specifically means the right to opt out, and go one's own way.

** A mentality adhering to the me-first "virtues of selfishness" was a driving historical force behind slavery, and it was also the major impetus for the deregulation which spawned our current economic crisis. Paradigms are shifting, I hope. **

The freedom to opt out leads to slavery? Pull the other one, it has bells on! The Ministry of Truth just called, they want their slogan back.

And again: it is not about whether or not one should or should not help others; it is about who has the final say over the choice.

Freedom says that each one of us has that ultimate moral right. Conservatives like McCain, and Leftists like Obama -- to say nothing of every dictator and slavemaster in history -- say no.

11-3-08 - VOS & Obama 159 words:

"You moral cannibal, I know that you've always known what it was that you wanted. But your game is up, because now we know it, too."

Yep, Obama's altruism/collectivism is showing again. It's clear why Obama was reluctant to disassociate himself form GDAmericaWright. Surely a mentor like that will back up Obama 100% to lynch us all. Obama claims virtue consists of destroying oneself. If Obama wants to practice that, go ahead, but I resent his telling us what to do with our lives. I resent his telling us to serve others. It would be laughable were it not pathetic that the first African-American to run for US President, the man who says he wants to bring us together, seeks to enslave us. But Americans, I paraphrase Ayn Rand: "Run from anyone who tells you to sacrifice your life to others. He's looking to be the beneficiary.

"Brother, you asked for it!"

-- Francisco Domingo Carlos Andres Sebastian d'Anconia

12:09 -It's just rhetoric from a bygone age which is apparently being rendered literal. Sharing and cooperation are foundations that should be established in childhood, they're not behaviors comparable to slave/master relations. A mentality adhering to the me-first "virtues of selfishness" was a driving historical force behind slavery, and it was also the major impetus for the deregulation which spawned our current economic crisis. Paradigms are shifting, I hope.

Ayn Rand warned about this very Obama-like rhetoric years ago when she wrote:

"It stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there's someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master."

Americans will never lose their freedoms to foreign invaders. But we can lose those precious freedoms to smooth-talking politicians who promise wonders, miracles, and "change" if we only give them power over our lives.

If we allow such politicians to enslave us, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves.

Where's there's someone calling for sacrifices, there's someone collecting them.

You don't get much more oxymoronic than with the phrasing, the virtue of selfishness. Maybe it's more understandable when used in the context of the forties or fifties, but the phrasing is an anachronism for the 21st century and its challenges.

In his own way, Obama understands that there is a conflict between selfishness and sacrifice. He just misidentifies which one is good and which one is wrong.

There's nothing wrong with pursuing one's rational self-interest in economics, romance, and life. That's our essence as human beings. This sort of selfishness does *not* include screwing others, robbing, rape, etc. -- those acts are immoral because they aren't rationally selfish.

It's a long-standing mistake to lump together in a package-deal both "selfishness" and abhorrent behaviours such as those. The truly selfish man neither wants to trample on others or be trampled himself -- he merely wishes to be left free to produce and trade values with others, and seek his own happiness.

In contrast, Obama's calls for "service" and "sacrifice" are just disguised calls for submission to state, i.e., slavery -- something I find profoundly ironic coming from someone who aspires to be the first African-American president of the US.

The sort of selfishness advocated by Ayn Rand is compatible with (and the only solid foundation) for the various virtues that most Americans correctly respect and seek to embody, such as integrity, honesty, productiveness, etc.

For more on this, I highly recommend the book by Dr. Tara Smith (professor of philosophy at Univ. Texas - Austin), published by Cambridge University Press:

"Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist"

I meant "charitable" contributions, not campaign.

"It will come from each of us doing our part in our own lives, in our own communities. It will come from each of us looking after ourselves and our families but also looking after each other. You know I – it’s been awhile now – we’ve made a virtue out of selfishness, there’s no virtue in that. We made a virtue of irresponsibility and we need to usher in a new spirit of service and sacrifice and responsibly."

Fine, but let ME decide who I want to help and look after. I find it funny he talks about giving and sacrifice, but he has kept all the money he can. Just look at his campaign contributions. They are miniscule in relationship to his AGI. Maybe he needs to use his charisma and star power to talk to the minority communities he wants us to support. Tell them that they need to stop having children out of wedlock; that they need to stop glorifying a culture of gangsta and guns; that they need to stay in school and it's not selling out to speak proper English; that they need to go to work, even if at McDonald's (it has to pay more than welfare). Maybe he needs to tell those who have vilified Bill Cosby for his comments that Bill was right. Frankly, if I am going to have to start paying for other people once Obama goes forth with his liberal social agenda, then I think I should be able to have some say in the choices those people make. Call me selfish, I don't care. I have worked hard to get where I am today and continue to work hard. I am absolutely livid that this man may be elected president and this country has fallen for his bull. He is a bait & switch salesman. Think carefully undecideds, because the REAL Obama is the one who comes our during speeches in California - when he is in the company of those who hold his true beliefs.

"It will come from each of us doing our part in our own lives, in our own communities. It will come from each of us looking after ourselves and our families but also looking after each other. You know I – it’s been awhile now – we’ve made a virtue out of selfishness, there’s no virtue in that. We made a virtue of irresponsibility and we need to usher in a new spirit of service and sacrifice and responsibly."

Fine, but let ME decide who I want to help and look after. I find it funny he talks about giving and sacrifice, but he has kept all the money he can. Just look at his campaign contributions. They are miniscule in relationship to his AGI. Maybe he needs to use his charisma and star power to talk to the minority communities he wants us to support. Tell them that they need to stop having children out of wedlock; that they need to stop glorifying a culture of gangsta and guns; that they need to stay in school and it's not selling out to speak proper English; that they need to go to work, even if at McDonald's (it has to pay more than welfare). Maybe he needs to tell those who have vilified Bill Cosby for his comments that Bill was right. Frankly, if I am going to have to start paying for other people once Obama goes forth with his liberal social agenda, then I think I should be able to have some say in the choices those people make. Call me selfish, I don't care. I have worked hard to get where I am today and continue to work hard. I am absolutely livid that this man may be elected president and this country has fallen for his bull. He is a bait & switch salesman. Think carefully undecideds, because the REAL Obama is the one who comes our during speeches in California - when he is in the company of those who hold his true beliefs.

remind me again - just when did living at the expense of someone else become so selfless ;)

Assume "the virtue of selfishness" is a riff on Ayn Rand. Don't think Rand had Joe the Plumber or Sarah Palin in mind when she advanced the notion.

This article pretty thoroughly changes what Sen. Obama said. "So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.... What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as an ideological matter, as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it"
So he is "going to take coal off the table" instead of allowing it if it can be done cleanly.
And bankrupt anyone who burns coal no matter how cleanly.
And when this is reflected in our electric bills, "We (they) have to sacrifice".

Doesn't sound like anything I have ever heard accurately described as supportive of coal, clean tech or otherwise.

I wish any of the 4 of them (Ps or VPs) had a clue what the Virtue of Selfisness is. It's pleasing to me to hear it pop up in the media, but these humans - running for office - are so anti-self and pro-sacrifice that when the bring up selfishness, they really regard it as extreme evil. Which is why I regard them as extreme evil.

The more government takes and decides who and how much to give, because of their greed there will be nothing to give those that need. And sadly those that currently give on their own will have nothing to give either. History proves this time and again.

The fact that Obama is raising many other rates on earners including dividends, capital gains, corporate, etc, has been proven to slow the economy and cause the middle-class to make less and lose jobs. The tax cut he is giving is not enough to offset the negative slowing effect of the higher taxes on earners. This slowing effect is even more pronounced if instituted during a recession. History proves this time and again.

I am a European. For a long time I could not for the life of me understand why Americans voted for a GW Bush second term. After reading your commentss, it is now clearer to me. I now also understand why it is possible to have a President Palin in America! After following this election,I finally know why people get the kind of Government they deserve. Have a peaceful election Americans and may God bless you and your countrymen.