02 Jan '07 - 578 W - + 7 - 7 The Most Incredible Thing Ever to Happen to Proles Has Just Occurred!
Aaron has invited me to join!
Now who is this interloper you might ask? Well my name is Clarence Hardy to those who don’t know me and Trey to (some) of those who do. I’m from Southwest Louisiana but now I live in the great state of Virginia. Aaron and I went to college in New York together and after much kung fu we somehow managed to graduate and go on to better things. I for one used the magnificent game theory skills I acquired in the Empire State to venture to the District of Columbia and take it by storm; K Street (where I work) has already fallen to my expert manipulation of public policy.
Anywoo, a bit about me. I’m an Objectivist…that’s right Ob-jec-ti-vist. I follow the teachings of Her Holiness, the Most Exulted Alisa Rosenbaum better known to you proles as Ayn Rand. I work for these good folks
here; at the Atlas Society and Objectivist Center. My job there is to set up and manage events (conference, talks, etc), manage our webpage, and handle correspondence with people wanting to know more about the philosophy…it pays the bills.
If you know anything about Objectivism (or like Aaron you just hung around me for four years) then you pretty much know where I’m coming from. If not let me spell out some of my policies.
- I’m for free market, no holds barred, laissez-faire capitalism. I want the separation of
- state and economy the same as church and state.
- I reject altruism by any means and hold the individual as my highest value.
- Defending individual rights and protecting the sovereignty of the individual is my
- paramount objective.
Politically, I’m a small “l” libertarian, I can’t stand the Libertarian Party, bunch of blue-faced potheads; I’d vote democrat before I would vote for them. Now while there’re some Republicans I’d consider voting for, the only one that ran in the previous election would have been Michael Steele…and of course he lost. As for anything to the left of that, well you get the picture. And Aaron can tell you I’m a notorious commie hater, like I said before I’m a bit uptight about individual rights. Speaking of those, there is a .38 about three feet away from me right now under my bed, and I ain’t playing when I say “my cold dead hands”.
Something you will notice about me is that although I love discussing policy, morality is always at the top of my mind. When you make a comment about what I’ve written or whatever, try to keep in mind that my principle defense will be from a moral standpoint. For instance, if you want to critique me on capitalism you might as well be kicking a brick wall if you argue that it doesn’t work (although it does). I don’t support capitalism because it works but rather because it’s the only moral economic system there is.
So why am I here? What the hell was Aaron thinking?
I dunno.
Perhaps it’s to shake things up, get a little debate going. Personally however I believe he wants to steal my ideas, try and co-opt my plans on taking over the world. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.
So…how bout them Saints?
Heh, well it’s good to have you here. So objectivists use game theory, do they? I guess there’s not much need for uncertain and varying preferences in that case, then? I kid, I kid.
In any case, I guess I wasn’t thinking anything too much in particular when I invited you to join, though world domination is always on the table (I think I prefer more subtle means than you on that front, but it might just be because I’ve read too much
RAW). Mostly I think it’ll just make for interesting dialogue, as we actually agree (in rhetoric at least) on a number of premises and principles, but obviously draw different conclusions from them in different situations.
Specifically, I think that using morality rather than efficacy or other standards is generally reasonable. I don’t reject altruism per se (certainly your game theory has taught you of superior equilibriums induced by cooperation, which while you may argue is still just selfish I would argue in reality it is encouraged by some degree of altruism), and I’m no full laissez-faire type (though I’m closer than many might guess), but I do agree with the supreme importance of individual rights. Of course, that premise in and of itself is difficult, as individuals have the ability to infringe on the rights of other individuals, making things sticky from the get go.
Really though, I wanted to revitalize this site a bit, and I knew that you were definitely good for that. I look forward to future discussions with you and others here, and hope that, if nothing else, we are able to kill some time in an entertaining fashion.
Aaron () (URL) - 02 January '07 - 22:17