Thursday, April 01, 2004

Ancient Opinion on Titles Still Reverberates

Plurtarch, speaking in regards to Antigonus and Demetrius being given "for the first time, the title of kings."

"The men’s sentiments about themselves were disturbed, and their feelings elevated; a spirit of pomp and arrogance passed into their habits of life and conversation, as a tragic actor on the stage modifies, with a change of dress, his steps, his voice, his motions in sitting down, his manner in addressing another."

Plutarch, Plutarch’s Lives, Demetrius, pg. 1082

Posted by John Venlet on 04/01 at 06:39 PM
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In Praise of Self Interest

Interesting paper, long read, written by Stephen R.C. Hicks titled “Ayn Rand and Contemporary Business Ethics." In the paper, Hicks defends self interest and, interestingly enough, notes that many arguments against self interest were first propounded prior to the rise of science and industrial production when scarcity was a more pressing concern for most, 90% is postualted in the article, individuals.  A couple of excerpts.

"The result of good thinking – knowledge – resides in individual minds, and it can be put to productive use only by the initiative of an individual. Only individuals know things, and only individuals can put their knowledge into practice. Several individuals may have the same item of knowledge in their minds, or several individuals may decide to work cooperatively on a project that utilizes their different items of knowledge. But the initiation of the group project requires sustained initiative by the individuals involved. Groups don’t do things; the individuals in the group do."

And this.

"But the particular question comes back: Why stick by the long-term commitment to production if a short-term commitment to thievery will yield you more?

The issue is being able to separate the short-term parasitism from the rest of one’s life. One’s life is a long-term commitment, and it requires a set of long-term principles to guide it and give it meaning. Who one is and what one achieves depends on one’s long-term commitments. A thief, by contrast, thinks short-range: I can get away with it. Maybe he can, and maybe he can’t. That is not the primary issue."

The second to the last sentence of the conclusion.

"Only a moral defense of self-interest, combined with an understanding of free market economics and classical liberal politics, will advance the free society and business, its economic engine."

Good paper.

Via Kernon Gibes who blogs occasionally at Not Ready for InstaPundit.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/01 at 10:06 AM
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Think Fast

Don’t contemplate the following question, just hit me with a comment/answer, quick like, to the following.

What’s the first thing you know?

Pfeif, you’re disqualified.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/01 at 05:30 AM
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Permit, I Don't Need No Stinkin Permit

"The first person ever to apply for a permit to build something on his own land should have been shot for treason.”

Lifted from Musings from America’s Outback.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/01 at 05:26 AM
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Wax Your Surfboards, In Space

"Titanic waves - seven times as high and long as those blown up on the Earth’s oceans - may swell on the sludgy seas of Saturn’s moon Titan, suggest new computer simulations."

This news could make north shore swells look like gentle waves breaking on the beach.

“Titanic waves break on Saturn’s sludgy moon."

Via the Modulator.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/01 at 04:51 AM
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Mutant for Nuclear Power

Though nuclear accidents can be devastating, think about Chernobyl, and see this link, which I’ve pointed to previously, I sometimes have to chuckle at individuals’ visceral fear of nuclear power.  One of the ways in which I expressed this chuckle, while in the submarine service, was by wearing a t-shirt with the phrase “Mutant for Nuclear Power” emblazoned across the front of it.  I’d wear this t-shirt in Hong Kong, or wherever I happened to be aware that protestors would be be protesting the boat’s presence because of its reactor power.  Safe nuclear power is possible and it gives me a glow.

With that little story out of the way, I point you to a NYT article, which informs that there is talk of building a new nuclear power plant here in the U.S. It’s about time.  It might even be time to resurrect that t-shirt.

NYT link via PrestoPundit.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/01 at 04:14 AM
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