Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!texbell!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!keith
From: keith@pawl.rpi.edu (Keith D. Weiner)
Newsgroups: alt.individualism
Subject: Re: What happened to the Objectivists?
Message-ID: <XVSZ|_@rpi.edu>
Date: 19 Jan 90 06:20:22 GMT
References: <48178c77.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
Lines: 42

Peter asks where have all the objectivists gone. After all the flames and
torrents of irrational slander we had taken, one wonders why we left. (and why
Im back). You would honestly be curious as to some of the mail I got last time
around. "why do you post to those idiots??" "here's the address of an O'ist
mail list", etc.
Honestly. I was arguing with Roger Lustig and Larry Cipriani over whether
REALITY EXISTS (or not)! That reality is some fluid flux and no one can be
certain of anything and that any arbitrary idea can be true (the more arbitrary
the more true) can (and was) used to justify anything. 
On the off chance that you werent part of that "flame brigade" I will once
more don my asbestos suit and post the O'ist basis for politics. I will make
some assertions that I wont prove. Not everyone can prove them. But no honest
person would question them.
1) Human life is the fundamental root of ethics. 
2) As a living creature, a human being's nature requires sustenance. It also
   continually demands the answer to the question "to live?" Failure to 
   answer "yes" means that the human will die (eventually); its sustenance
   is not automatic or a "right". 
3) Each human has only one means of sustaining his life: his mind, and the use
   thereof. 
4) Thinking is an individual process; it cannot be done as a collective. 
5) Therefore, it follows _directly from metaphysics_ that each human must
   be free to use his mind. This means freedom of ideas, and of actions.
6) As a corollary, since some of these actions may lead to the CREATION of
   material values (property), the right of property follows. This is merely
   a right to own any property one produces (or trades from its producer). It
   is NOT an arbitrary assertion, or a "consensus". T. Edison did not invent
   a light bulb by consensus. Nor would he have if a consensus could take it
   away from him once done. (Production does not "happen". It is made possioble
   only by freedom)
Notice that humans do not derive their rights from the govt (whos rights are
presumably supernatural in origin?). The rights derive FROM THEIR VERY NATURE.
Notice also, that the above mentioned rights (life, thought, action, property)
all follow from this; and that they are NOT compatible with any other rights
which liberals have named in recent years. Like "a decent house", "medical
care", "food", etc. Notice that not all men may have such rights. This is due
to another fact of metaphysics: What is consumed must have been produced!
Someone must work involuntarily for others gain (slavery!) in order for some
men to have those "rights". 
This was not an exhaustive essay. There is much more to be said. But it
leads in the right direction. Honest inquiries will be answered. Flamers will
be met by: flames! :)