Welcome to objectivist thought

Welcome friends, foes, family, freedom lovers, freaks, fiends, and fantastical creatures.

This blog was inspired by an interesting little book written by Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer called "the Gardens of Democracy." I was given this book by a friend with whom I disagree politically. He had hoped this bit of literature would express his viewpoint, and possibly sway mine. Or possibly he just wanted to have more discussions on a more streamlined basis, namely the contents of this book. Before I even read the first paragraph, I knew from the title the book would be a composition of emotions, strawman arguments, logical fallacies, leaps, and omissions, and would be written in such a way as to discourage general disagreements with the book when taken as a whole. Who can possibly disagree with someone who asserts that we must move beyond "outdated philosophies"? the problem with this book, or at least I anticipate the problem to be, is that it will never describe why such philosophies are "outdated" nor will it state why something that is "outdated" is inherently a negative. I believe if something is the right, or if a fact is the truth, no amount of time which passes can possibly negate this as reality. Hence truth can never be outdated. This book, as many have before it, will argue that freedom, capitalism, voluntary association, and free-trade, are outmoded concepts that have been proven to not work. It will proscribe such "values" as collectivism over individualism, societal rights over individual rights, moral pragmatism over moral absolutism, groupthink over free speech, slavery over freedom, conformity over identity, majority over minority, sacrifice over payment, the ends justifying the means, equality of results over equal opportunity, altruism over selfishness, death of her life, and many more such "Values" as the solution to the "problems" with our country. I know this and I have not even turned the first page. This blog will be my progression/journey through this book as an objectivist. I will do my best to break the book down point by point, and make the rational/objectivist counterpoint to each. Where the book is correct, I'll point that out. Where the book is wrong I will point that out. I shall pull no tricks, no gimmicks, make no emotional pleas, nor irrelevant analogies. If this proves to be as much fun and as satisfying as I think it will be, I shall continue into other works both famous and infamous, known and unknown, large and small, and who knows--even possibly write my own. Enjoy.