humanities.philosophy.objectivism

In article , bbagnall@mts.net
says...
> From the messages I've read in HPO it sounds like the Ayn Rand Institute
> embraces the following concepts:
> 1. Foreign aid to Israel
> 2. Military intervention in other parts of the world to protect our interests
> 3. Military intervention in the middle east to protect Israel
>
> If I'm wrong about the ARI position on these issues, please let me know.

What do you mean, "ARI position"? You know little of Objectivism if you
think there can be such a thing as an "ARI position" apart from the
positions of its members. Indeed, since many people at ARI have had
their corpus callosums severed, you must, for accuracy, refer to the
"left-brain" and "right-brain" positions of those ARI members. Anything
else is rabid collectivism.
...
> Second, I assume *our interests* refers to multinational corporations like
> Coca-Cola, McDonald's, oil companies, etc... We need to be clear here:
> businesses are owned by people, not government. If a business or individual
> decides to do business in another country, that is their decision. It is
> their
> risk to take. If they choose to do business in a backward country like
> Haiti,
> and the locals end up burning down their business, it is *not* the
> responsibility of the US government to intervene and protect the businessman
> who made a horrible decision. These businesses operate overseas at the
> pleasure of whoever runs the country - be it communist, capitalist,
> dictator,
> tyrant, religion based or whatever.

Again, so much to learn! A Proper Objectivist Government (POG) must
defend the property of its citizens around the globe! (Uh, wait, are
Coca-Cola, McDonald's, ExxonMobile, etc., U.S. citizens? Hmmm, I
thought that only individuals could be citizens - anything else would be
rabid collectivism! Imagine, thinking that a corporation could be a
citizen! Must be the *shareholders* who are the citizens! Yeah, that's
the ticket! And so the U.S. government must defend the property of
those shareholder-citizens throughout the world... Oops! Many of the
shareholders of these corporations are citizens of *other* countries...
Hmmm, must ask Pope Peikoff for a papal bull (!) on that one! But no
matter, let's press on!)

The mighty POG - funded only by user fees on contracts, mind you - will
be able to spend trillions of dollars on defending plots of ground
spread throughout every part of the globe. In special cases, as with
oil properties, the POG will be aided by the Young ARIan Cadres. Since
the POG will have nuked into oblivion the tribal peoples who now
unjustly occupy so much of the world's oil-rich land, oil will have to
be pumped out by the Cadres, wearing their radiation suits. This is an
expense beyond the resources of the contract user fees, but the spirit
of volunteerism among ARIans is high, so staffing the Cadres will be
easy.

Until this glorious day, we will have to limp along with the U.S.
government, taxes and all - but why should that be allowed to influence
our policies?

> Third, Israel decided to reclaim Palestine. That was their decision. It has
> nothing to do with the USA nor should it. It is their battle to fight. Right

Really, now! As any ARIan can tell you, a blow against freedom anywhere
is a blow against freedom right here in Main Street, USA. That's why so
many ARIans are fighting right now, shoulder to shoulder, to keep us
free. Just listen to them!

--
Gordon