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From: tsf@THEORY.CS.CMU.EDU (Timothy Freeman)
Newsgroups: alt.individualism
Subject: Re: Rationalizations for individualism/libertarianism/objectivism
Message-ID: <1305@PT.CS.CMU.EDU>
Date: 4 Apr 88 22:22:46 GMT
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In article <5592@well.UUCP> pan@well.UUCP (Philip Nicholls) writes:
>What you so noblily call "individualism" is nothing more than a selfish
>elitism born of the atitude "...I'm going to get mine and screw everyone
>else."  The problems of the world will not be solved by retreating into
>the self, with all people islands entrenched in their own greed and fear.

Here again there is the implication that selfishness is bad in some
undefined manner.

I never suggested retreating into the self.  An ideally rational
selfish person will participate in group endeavors when there is some
advantage to acting as part of a group.  It is possible to organize
groups so that all of the participants are benefited by participating.
The most obvious example of this is all business transactions that
happen without either party coercing the other.

The important thing here is that you should expect people to
participate in groups only if it is consistent with being selfish.
"Genes, mind, and culture" by Lumsden (1981) explains how
participating in groups happens to selfish genes (which make up
approximately selfish people).

I don't know if "screw everyone else" means "I intend to hurt everyone
else" (which is a big waste of effort, not to mention problems with
retaliation) or "Everyone else is their own responsibility to take
care of" (which I tend to agree with, except for people closely
related to me).

>To withdraw in the name of individualism is to condemn yourself and
>the world to the continued spiral of decay.  

I repeat, withdrawing is your idea, not mine.

What do you believe causes the world to be in a continuing spiral of
decay now?  (This is not a rhetorical question, I would really like to
know.)
-- 
Tim Freeman

Arpanet: tsf@theory.cs.cmu.edu
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