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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: average joe who wrote (92232)	12/31/2004 1:13:15 AM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

It is true that man does use energy. However, we are a technologically advanced people who can figure out new sources of energy, of recycling, of efficient transportation, that do not use so many of the earth's resources. Americans do not really mostly need to drive SUVs, for example. Better public transportation, car sharing, better civic planning and all sorts of options are available so that our footprint on the earth is lighter. We can already see from the huge storms just in Europe last winter, and the summer heatwave that killed so many people there, that there is a huge cost for ignoring global warming. And developing technologies that counter its trends could create vast wealth for innovators. I think Ayn Rand is a really good author for teenagers to read because you go oh, wow, I am responsible for the life I create, I can fulfill my dreams, etc. Her books are energizing in that way. The fact that most adults realize after getting a little more experience is that it is an extremely shortsighted and selfish philosophy of life that hurts others. In Randian philosophy, only the powerful win, until the planet is destroyed, of course, and then everyone loses. The reality of human life on earth is that in truly civilized tribes, the rich and powerful take the weak, the sick, the less abled along with them because it is the right thing to do. You can see this in primitive as well as advanced cultures. Europe has decided that good jobs need to be protected more than extremely cheap goods need to be consumed, and their health and old age and unemployment benefits manage to keep most of their societies comfortably middle class. That means their children are better educated, their societies inherently more stable, and not so many homeless people threaten them on the streets. Individually there are not so many extremely wealthy people, but there are less poor desperate people as well, and most are happy with this social contract. I realize in saying this that Europe is changing--as the result of birth control and abortion their populations are not reproducing themselves, and Islamists threaten their security. But these are not relevant points to a comparison of American society, which is much more Randian in its underpinnings, and European society as they exist at the moment. There is really no reason whatsoever that America (yes, I know you are not American, but I am), with its vast wealth, cannot provide health benefits for all its citizens, or that a third of children go hungry. And if you want to talk about the goodness of selfishness--I think for purely selfish reasons society benefits because there is less social unrest and violent crime when most people are reasonably content. I am willing to support that with a lot of my tax dollars. The archaeological evidence tells us that even the Neanderthals were civilized enough to care for severely disabled children who could not walk, and crippled elderly people who we can tell from their skeletons were absolutely useless to the clan. They did these things because they were truly human and compassionate. I don't see the Randians as being nearly as advanced as the Neanderthals, who we generally consider quite primitive. I find it a really empty philosophy, a completely amoral one, and a dangerous one, personally.