Posts by Eyebrow2

31

Are you a fan of Ayn Rand works and/or Philosophy?

by Eyebrow2 in

jw
friends

i have done a lot of reading of rand's fiction, and have been reading a lot about her philosophy over the past several months.

i attend a local study group on her philosophy, and my family and i often attend get togethers that a local objectivist group puts on once or twice a month.. i am interested in talking with other ex witnesses that enjoy her work, and may be interested in discussing her philosophy.

i won't call myself an objectivist just yet, because i still am studying the philosophy.

Eyebrow2

I love Atlas Shrugged. It got me on the path toward atheism and anarcho-capitalism.
I love her defense of individualism, but I disagree with her hate of altruism. Forced altruism, in the form of government programs, is evil, but I have no problem with personal choices to donate to charity to help people.
If you like Rand's work, I would suggest reading Frederic Bastiat's The Law. He wrote it in the 1850's I believe, but it is as relevant today as ever. It's short and sweet.

I am glad you brought that up: Objectivism is against charity by FORCE...if you value a charity and want to give to it, knock yourself out. If it is your choice go ahead. It is your money, do what you want. Rand was against compelled charity. Objectivists that I know are not stingy people. They are ready to give to causes they believe in, and they do.
and thanks for the suggestion...I will look it up

BTW, I just went on the Rick Ross site and the only thing I could find on Objectivism was a really poorly written piece that was full of a lot of mis information. It liken her to Hubbard, who created Scientology (a religion not a philosophy). I was surprised. Most sites about cults and supposeded cults at least try to look scientific and not inflammatory. There are a few other articles it seems when you search under Rand instead of Objectivism that quotes her here and there for various reasons, but it isn't listed as a cult. (Nor should it be)

(ack sorry about the formatting)

31

Are you a fan of Ayn Rand works and/or Philosophy?

by Eyebrow2 in

jw
friends

i have done a lot of reading of rand's fiction, and have been reading a lot about her philosophy over the past several months.

i attend a local study group on her philosophy, and my family and i often attend get togethers that a local objectivist group puts on once or twice a month.. i am interested in talking with other ex witnesses that enjoy her work, and may be interested in discussing her philosophy.

i won't call myself an objectivist just yet, because i still am studying the philosophy.

Eyebrow2

I am currently reading Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand by Peikoff, and I am not a huge style of his writing, but I have found the book helpful in understanding the philosophy. And you may be right: some people have taken some of Peikoff's comments (which have been harsh of critics) and used them to try to portary the philosophy as a cult.

I personally enjoy Rand's style of writing more than Peikoffs, and there are others Objectivist writings that have different styles as well. There is decent forum wwww.objectivisimonline.net as well (that is not run by The Ayn Rand Institute. The guy that owns and runs it lives locally in the DFW area).

31

Are you a fan of Ayn Rand works and/or Philosophy?

by Eyebrow2 in

jw
friends

i have done a lot of reading of rand's fiction, and have been reading a lot about her philosophy over the past several months.

i attend a local study group on her philosophy, and my family and i often attend get togethers that a local objectivist group puts on once or twice a month.. i am interested in talking with other ex witnesses that enjoy her work, and may be interested in discussing her philosophy.

i won't call myself an objectivist just yet, because i still am studying the philosophy.

Eyebrow2

I'm pretty sure that there's some material about her on Rick Ross's cult site. It didn't look so good. Hope I'm wrong.

I am not sure who Rick Ross is, but I wouldn't be surprised. There are some people that can make a cult out of anything. (I am not speaking of this Rick person...I mean people who make take a philosophy and distort it.) Its about individualism, and using reasoning and rationality to lead your life.

I have met many people over the past few months, a few of them that have been living this philosophy for over 30 years. One thing I was concerned of early on was whether or not it was some sort of wierd cultish philosophy. These people admire her work as well, but do not act like walks on water or was perfect. She made mistakes in life, and, I remember bringing up a point about her personal life at one meeting. One of the fellows looked at me and said "No one is perfect, even Rand had to recheck her premises from time to time."

Zagor...that is a great quote too. Here is one, it is actually found in Atlas Shrugged,

"If I were to speak your kind of language, I would say that man's only moral commandment is: Thou shalt think. But a 'moral commandment' is a contradiction in terms. The moral is the chosen, not the forced; the understood, not the obeyed. The moral is the rational, and reason accepts no commandments."

On my blog, I used two articles, one from a secular humanist perspective, and one from an objectivist perspective to discuss how the 10 commandments are not the best thing to try to teach kids right and wrong. That, I think, is a great way to sum up the fact that Rand doesn't have a list of Rules of morality.

(for those interested: http://crazyhumanist.blogspot.com/2006/04/why-10-commandments-are-wrong-for.html )

31

Are you a fan of Ayn Rand works and/or Philosophy?

by Eyebrow2 in

jw
friends

i have done a lot of reading of rand's fiction, and have been reading a lot about her philosophy over the past several months.

i attend a local study group on her philosophy, and my family and i often attend get togethers that a local objectivist group puts on once or twice a month.. i am interested in talking with other ex witnesses that enjoy her work, and may be interested in discussing her philosophy.

i won't call myself an objectivist just yet, because i still am studying the philosophy.

Eyebrow2

We the living is definately a different book. I rather enjoyed it myself, but I think it is a matter of taste. I like it because it gave me more of a glimpse as to what it was like to live in Russia during that time period.

31

Are you a fan of Ayn Rand works and/or Philosophy?

by Eyebrow2 in

jw
friends

i have done a lot of reading of rand's fiction, and have been reading a lot about her philosophy over the past several months.

i attend a local study group on her philosophy, and my family and i often attend get togethers that a local objectivist group puts on once or twice a month.. i am interested in talking with other ex witnesses that enjoy her work, and may be interested in discussing her philosophy.

i won't call myself an objectivist just yet, because i still am studying the philosophy.

Eyebrow2

I've read Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged and Anthem. I am NOT a fan of her philosophy...but I'm not quite clever enough to fully explain why. The simplest way I can put it is Ayn Rand does not seem to have a soul. To be honest with myself, it is more than likely due to the fact that I am very altruistic and have a need for approval in most aspects of life...but I like it like that.

I thought the exact same thing when I started reading. I thought she was a cold heartless bitch at first until I read more, and started studying her essays and such. Yes she is against altruism, but that is not evil, as it may sound. It is actually a case of people need to take care of themselves and not expect others to take care of them. If they decide to do good for others because they vaule them,. then that is fine. Even though we don't see eye to eye on her philosophy, I appreciate you taking the time to post.

31

Are you a fan of Ayn Rand works and/or Philosophy?

by Eyebrow2 in

jw
friends

i have done a lot of reading of rand's fiction, and have been reading a lot about her philosophy over the past several months.

i attend a local study group on her philosophy, and my family and i often attend get togethers that a local objectivist group puts on once or twice a month.. i am interested in talking with other ex witnesses that enjoy her work, and may be interested in discussing her philosophy.

i won't call myself an objectivist just yet, because i still am studying the philosophy.

Eyebrow2

bttt

31

Are you a fan of Ayn Rand works and/or Philosophy?

by Eyebrow2 in

jw
friends

i have done a lot of reading of rand's fiction, and have been reading a lot about her philosophy over the past several months.

i attend a local study group on her philosophy, and my family and i often attend get togethers that a local objectivist group puts on once or twice a month.. i am interested in talking with other ex witnesses that enjoy her work, and may be interested in discussing her philosophy.

i won't call myself an objectivist just yet, because i still am studying the philosophy.

Eyebrow2

I have been working on Atlas Shrugged since January, hahah. It is a long one, but well worth it.

I have read :

Anthem, We the Living, Fountainhead, and parts of The Virture of Selfishness, as well as various other essays that I have found online. I have found a lot of info on http://www.aynrand.org One thing that I have found is that I had a totally misuderstanding of her from my initial readings about her (various book reviews here and there); I thought she was a very cold person, but once I took the time to study I realized she wasn't someone that dismissed emotions, as some have claimed.

One of my favorite quotes is:"I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction."

Littlerock...I understand your pain. The reason it has been taking me so long to read Atlas is because I spent most of march sick, and it hurt to read. Have you tried finding a large print edition online?

31

Are you a fan of Ayn Rand works and/or Philosophy?

by Eyebrow2 in

jw
friends

i have done a lot of reading of rand's fiction, and have been reading a lot about her philosophy over the past several months.

i attend a local study group on her philosophy, and my family and i often attend get togethers that a local objectivist group puts on once or twice a month.. i am interested in talking with other ex witnesses that enjoy her work, and may be interested in discussing her philosophy.

i won't call myself an objectivist just yet, because i still am studying the philosophy.

Eyebrow2

I have done a lot of reading of Rand's fiction, and have been reading a lot about her philosophy over the past several months. I attend a local study group on her philosophy, and my family and I often attend get togethers that a local Objectivist group puts on once or twice a month.

I am interested in talking with other Ex Witnesses that enjoy her work, and may be interested in discussing her philosophy. I won't call myself an Objectivist just yet, because I still am studying the philosophy. I made a HUGE mistake last year when jumped on the humanist bandwagon without doing my homework, and don't want to make the same mistake again.

22

I'm Done !

by oldflame in

jw
friends

well for some time now i have been having back pain.

i have been on pain meds now for about 4 years.

a few weeks ago the pain was so bad i ended up in the emergency room.

Eyebrow2

Wow...Old Flame I am really sorry to hear that!

What type of work do you do? I ask, because maybe there is something related to the work that you could possibly do? Perhaps something along the lines of writing articles for trade mags in your industry?

13

Has this happened to you?? Unfair compensation practices

by littlerockguy in

i interviewed and hired someone this week to fill a position in my department.

then i am going to have to fill two more positions in my dept.

i emailed hr and told them to process the paperwork.

Eyebrow2

It's definately a good idea to see if you can have your pay bumped up. After all, if you are given the responsibility of being a lead or manager with extra responsibility, it seems reasonable to be given a little more pay for a little more responsibility.

Here are my questions:

1. When you say you are the lead, is this officially recognized in your title? Sometimes companies will rely on employees to take a lead, but don't always give the title and extra pay along with it. Sometimes it is blatant, and other times an honest oversight. If you don't have the "official" title that goes along with the responsibilities, you need to request an official promotion, along with a bump in pay. If they refuse, but expect you to still be responsible for lead duties, it probably is the time to start looking for something new.

2. Does this new person have more experience than you and a degree? I wasn't really sure of that. I agree if you are a manager or a lead, you should have at least a little more than your subordinates. However, sometimes employers look at what experience a new person is bringing to the table, and overlook the experience they already have there when determining what to pay new hires.

A lot of larger corporations nowadays have set titles and pay scale that corresponds with a person's duties. That helps avoid these kinds of issues.

Good luck..by the way...I have said it before, and will probably say it again: www.indeed.com is a great site to search multiple job postings on job boards, corporate and other sites.

PS...Minister: A lot of CEOs are worth the money they get. Let's not judge all of them based on some of the bad apples. A CEO is a meaningful position in most companies, and the decisions they make can save or end the jobs of the rank and file worker. That's a lot of responsibility.