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Rational Mysticism? September 30, 2005

Posted by Resident Egoist in : Philosophy , comments closed

There’s an interesting essay by Sam Harris, the author of The End of Faith, at Free Inquiry Magazine — the essay is titled “Rational Mysticism“. Knowing my definintions, I know that that is a contradiction in terms — for the last time I chekced, “rationality” and “mysticism” were mutually exclusive terms.

Read the full essay, and witness the workings of a mind that has rejected religious — Abrahamic — faith, but has not yet discovered Reason, which it confuses with “secular-ism” — alas, the fate of a substantial number of people nowadays.

P.S: As perspective, you might also want to read Gus Van Horn’s excellent review of Mr. Harris’ greatly misnamed claim to fame: The End of Faith.

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Pompous Whinos September 29, 2005

Posted by Resident Egoist in : Culture , comments closed

Pompous whinos. Seems like almost everyone’s one of those these days — everyone perceives himself as a victim of something or someone. The events unleashed by hurricane Katrina are evidence enough of this fact. Now here’s another kind of victim — the poor, helpless victims of Aesthetics: flight attendents.

The Associated Press reports:

LOS ANGELES – Three groups representing flight attendants are calling for a boycott of the box-office hit Flightplan. In the Jodie Foster thriller about a mother looking for her missing daughter aboard a plane, a flight attendant colludes with an air marshal as part of a plot to extort a ransom from the airline.

Other flight attendants are shown treating passengers rudely and being unsympathetic to Foster’s character, whom they think might be delusional.

The groups contend that the Disney film could breed distrust of their members among real airline passengers.

This sort of paranoid lunacy and utter underestimation of the mental skills of common individuals can only be matched by the behavior exhibited by some modern governments. If every profession that was negatively portrayed in a movie jumped up in complaints I wonder where we would be. And how much complaining would businessmen have to do?! But then again, they are the ones who produce the movies.

Anyway, Allah be thanked, Disney kept its head about the boycott and released the following statement

There was absolutely no intention by the studio or filmmakers to create anything other than a great action thriller. We are confident that the public will be able to discern the difference between fiction and the incredible job that real-life flight attendants perform on a daily basis.

Yes indeed — all sane people are.

P.S: Flightplan was no.1 at the box office last weekend, with a total collection of $ 24.6 million.

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Brothers in Arms September 26, 2005

Posted by Resident Egoist in : Culture, War and Peace , comments closed

The following is an excerpt of a speech given at an anti-war rally:

[T]he state fears the advocates of peace. It fears the truth, and those who tell the truth. It fears those who dare to judge the state by normal standards of morality. The state fears you. Why? Because you hold the opinions that you do, and refuse to surrender your mind, your talents, your soul. By joining the resistance, you help thwart their plans. You help establish the basis for peace in the future. You help preserve and develop civilization, for the human family can only thrive in a setting of peace.

Wouldn?t you say that that is a great speech capable of being delivered only by a great advocate of liberty-properly-defined ? one who doesn?t divorce his case for liberty from an objective ?[standard of morality]?? And would you not say that this great orator has both the honor and pleasure of having a particularly virtuous audience ? one that never ?[surrenders its mind, talents and soul]? in the face of obstacles? Well, as pompous islamo-fscists would put it, ?you should think 101 times? before you answer that.

The above speech was delivered very recenlty at an Alabama anti-war protest by none other than patron, anarcho-libertarian, Lew Rockwell. And just in case you?re wondering, this speech was indeed delivered at a leftist [read: socialist] anti-war rally, and in front of a lefitst audience. It is to such kind of people ? supposedly his ideological antagonists ? that Mr. Rockwell entrusts with the ?[establishment of a basis for peace in the future.]? It is to these militants of the anti-industrial revolution that he entrusts with the ?[preservation and developement of civilization]?!!! Whoever said that ?anarchists? and totalitarians were political enemies?

The testament to the chronic intellectual poverty (and promiscuity) that gave rise to the above state of affairs doesn?t take too much time to surface. Having finished lavishing his audience with praises of integrity, independance and courage, Mr. Rockwell immediatelly follows up with an ode to altruism:

So I say to you: Keep making the sacrifice. Believe in peace. Proclaim peace. Stand up to the state. Be a dissident. Tell what is true. And do not fear the emperor-pirates. They, after all, fear you. For you help tilt the balance of history against their barbarism, and in favor of peace and freedom.


Is he mad? He must be. For he does not seem to be aware of the fact that he?s speaking to crusading advoctes of Leviathan Government, i.e., the admirers of ?emperor-pirates.? The Alabama Peace and Justice Coalition ? at whose rally Mr. Rockwell was speaking ? has the following as its motto:

Our message is: Stop the killing!
Support the troops, bring them home now!
Spend money for human needs, not war!

That last sentence is the key. To the extent that today?s pacifistic leftists are opposed to the quasi-fascist policies being undertaken by the right, they subsitute, not individual freedom for totaliarianism as Mr. Rockwell deludes himself into believing, but merely: one form of statism for another. Paradoxically enough though, Mr. Rockwell is well aware of this fact ? but he dismisses it quickly because, allegdly

the opportunity to make a difference in favor of freedom should not be passed up, even if one?s associates have a mixed-up ideology. After all, most ideologies these days are mixed up, and have been for the better part of a century.

Objectivists are too well aware of the dangers of this sort of intellectual promiscuity and prostitution. One that should be evident here is that ?mak[ing] a difference in favor of reedom? has come to mean praising totalitarian socialism, and gving it moral and intellectual credit where it has earned none, i.e., it has come to mean promoting statism as a way of promoting ?freedom.? The inevitable outcome of such a course of action shouldn?t be hard to imagine.

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