So in lieu of handing it out there, I am posting the text here:
A Tea Party Without Egoism Is like a Republic Without a ChanceI will also post it on the OKC Tea Party Facebook page.
America was founded on the individual’s rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. But, contrary to the beliefs of many Americans, these rights are, by their very nature, egoistic. The freedom to live one’s life as one sees fit, to act on one’s judgment, to keep and use the product of one’s effort, and to pursue one’s happiness is the freedom to act in a consistently self-interested manner. The politics of freedom is the politics of self-interest — and it is entirely incompatible with the widely accepted notion that self-interest is morally wrong and self-sacrifice is morally right. This — Americans’ acceptance of the morality of self-sacrifice — is the fundamental reason we are losing our Republic.
Those who want to fight for a return to the Land of Liberty must embrace the morality on which liberty depends: the morality of egoism. And to do so, they must understand its nature and implications; they must grasp what egoism is, why it is true, and what it means in practice. The Objective Standard is a quarterly journal dedicated to elucidating the principles of egoism and applying them to the cultural and political issues of the day. Everyone concerned with the future should be reading this journal today.
Posts
> "Unfortunately, the organizers of the Oklahoma City Tea Party have chosen not to allow any outside literature to be distributed at their event at noon at the State Capitol."
ReplyDeleteThat is understandable if they want to promote their own principles. But that raises a question.
Have the organizers published a defining set of underlying principles, that is, principles that separate them from others?
I have looked but not yet found such a statement of principles.
I would be cautious about associating with any organization that wants to bring people into the streets and parks based only on appeals to tradition or mere rejection of government policies. I would want to know what they are for. The exception would be if the organization is ad hoc and focused very narrowly -- for example, a coalition of socialists and conservatives opposed to a military draft.
Burgess - I am beginning to have my own misgivings about a group that claims to support nothing more definite than "the power of the people" or some such. I'm afraid the so-called Tea Party Movement may amount to nothing more than promoting rule by majority whim.
ReplyDelete