Joker Posted May 28, 2014 Posted May 28, 2014 I'd like to discuss Stefan's objections to Objectivism at yesterday's hosting of the Peter Schiff show, and I'd like to hear your opinions as well. Stefan's point #1: The government initiates force because it won't allow competing governments in the same geographical area.But isn't this reactionary force, rather than the initiation of force? I must point out, objectivsts don't have anything against competing police forces, or even competing courts, but there must be one law and system that they all abide to. So if someone wants to start a Sharia court or a court where the age of consent it 12, and the government is not allowing that, it's not the inititation of force, it's reactionary force, against a threat.Stefan's point #2: Rational egoism is not a great moral code because there are sociopaths and so on. Well, a sociopath can still refrain from violating the rights of others because they know that others will defend themselves, or take revenge, and the sociopath's reputation will be shattered, etc. But more importantly, no moral code, including the UPB, is gonna give the sociopath a conscience, so if Stefan's implicit argument is that "a sociopath which is good at getting away with crimes won't stop doing them because of Rand's moral code", so what? NO other moral code will do it, including the UPB, because the sociopath won't give a shit. Do you see what I mean? A sociopath will just do whatever he feels like anyway. I guess Stefan is very concerned with the "universalization" of his morals, but that's the fundamental difference, Objectivism is not about principles that feel good, but it's simply practical, its moral code is a guide for a normal functioning person to live a happy life, and if that was the common philosophy in society, normal people would keep sociopaths at bay.Thoughts?
Joker Posted May 28, 2014 Author Posted May 28, 2014 Besides, Objectivism doesn't say that initation of force is always wrong, just 99,9% of the time. It's not a primary, it's a consequence of being rationally selfish. If you must break through someone's window to not fall from a flagpole and so on, that's perfectly compatible with rational selfishness, but according to the UPB, I guess it's just an exception? In that case, it's not really universal, is it?
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