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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (60950)	10/4/2002 9:49:30 AM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 82486

I would be happy to find your scheme intelligible, but so far I can make no sense of it. We all know that there are minimum standards of behavior, derived from overarching values, and that failing to conform to those standards is blameworthy. In Rand's scheme, for example, it is not true that we are free to do what we want, unless we harm someone. Rather, she thinks that it is blameworthy to fail to behave rationally; that it is blameworthy to be "anti- life" (that is, to promote an ascetic or otherworldly point of view); that it is blameworthy not to strive to achieve according to one's talents and opportunities; and so forth. Now, in common parlance, minimum standards of this sort are called duties. I cannot see how you can have more than a linguistic quibble about the matter. Surely you recognize that it is blameworthy to be ignorant (unless circumstances were exigent); that it is blameworthy to be lazy; that it is blameworthy to be shallow; and so on. None of these involve harm to others to any great extent. Rather, they involve falling below commonly recognized standards of individual development......