Sam Harris on Ayn Rand

Sam Harris vs Ayn Rand 

Sam Harris

Okay, next question, given the popularity of Ayn Rand on the right can you give your best refutation of Objectivism?

Sam Harris

Well, you know, I haven't spent a lot of time reading Rand. I found her novel more or less unreadable and I've read some of her essays. I've read some of her interviews.

My basic issue with her ethics is that she seemed not to understand that pro-social emotions like compassion were a real source of well-being even for quote selfish people.

The stark opposition between selfishness that she thought was rational and altruism that she thought was delusional or masochistic that I think is psychologically untrue and ethically unhelpful.

I think a wisely selfish person more and more begins to recognize that he or she is committed to the happiness of other people and is right to be that their happiness redounds to his own happiness that is a more mature a more enlightened form of ethics than any I've ever heard Rand espouse.

It is also more enlightened and mature than attend to fans of Rand espouse so whatever Rand herself believed those who are drawn to her philosophy often strike me as malignantly selfish and un-illumined by a larger picture of just how good life could become right if we also saw that we were in this together.

Bertrand Russell on Karl Marx

 The video and the transcript.

Bertrand Russell talked about Marx in 1952 interviewed

Interviewer:

Lord Russell, speaking as of today, can you see the influence of any one Philosophers more than any other one?

Bertrand Russell:

Well, I suppose in recent years the most important influence has been Marx. If you can dignify him with the name of philosopher, I should hardly like to dignify him so myself, but I suppose he must count in the list. And he certainly has had more influence than anybody else.

Interviewer:

For those of us who reject Marx, can you offer any positive philosophy to help us toward a more hopeful future?

Bertrand Russell:

Well, less to that. You see, I think one of the troubles of the world has been the habit of dogmatically believing in something or other. And I think all these matters are full of doubt. And the rational man will not be too sure that he's right. I think that we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe in any philosophy. Not even mine. Not even mine.

No, I think we should accept our philosophies with a measure of doubt. What I do think is this that if a philosophy is to bring happiness, it should be inspired by kindly feeling. Now Marx is not inspired by kindly feeling. Marx pretended that he wanted the happiness of the proletariat. What he really wanted was the unhappiness of bourgeoise. And it was because of that negative element, because of that hate element that his philosophy produced disaster. A philosophy which is to do good must be one inspired by kindly feeling and not by unkindly feeling.

Corruption poem by Zrini

 The quality of bribery is strained.

It droppeth as the acid rain from hell

Upon the place beneath. It is twice cursed:

It curseth him that gives and him that takes.

'Tis deadliest in the mightiest. It becomes

The thronèd monarch worse than his crown.

His scepter shows the force of temporal power,

The attribute to awe and majesty

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings,

But bribery is above this sceptered sway.

It is enthronèd in the dark psyche of kings.

It is an attribute to Devil himself.

And earthly power doth then show likest Devil’s

When bribery seasons injustice. Therefore, Desi, Though injustice be thy plea, consider this-

That in the course of injustice none of us

Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render

The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much

To mitigate the justice of thy plea,

Which if thou follow, this strict court of Desis

Must needs give sentence 'gainst the government servant there

The vetals in life

 Since, we are social beings, we have to interact with people and young adults going to college is much more immersive and can get quite crazy. While most folks are fine, and since young adults are joining a large cohort, it is likely that they will run into these three types of people. We identify these types and recommend ways to handle them.

1. The Psychos - This is a fairly small set of people. They range from narcissists to psychopaths and from the depressed to the bipolar. These types are looking for victims in the sense that they want to attach themselves to a healthy person and then take them along their crazy journey. This type of cohort also extends to the people who identify as something other than the sexual binary and gender. The way to handle these people to sense their intent and recommend them to get help at the University counseling centers. The psychopaths are particularly manipulative and can get quite dangerous. We should be careful in choosing the group cohort that is healthy. For better or worse, in a contrarian way, the Greek fraternities offer protections against the psychos because the focus of these fraternities are fun and enthusiasm for life instead of the downers.

2. The Religulous - These are typically the missionary type of the Abrahamic variety. They are very good at persuasive arguments and are constantly looking to indoctrinate and convert. The Hindu students are particularly a target as we tend to be secular and open minded. The use caste as a weapon to indicate that the religion has issues and use it as cudgel against us. We need to reject it and say that Christianity and Islam practiced slavery of the most brutal kind and their societies were no exception to injustice. The Arab/Turk African slave trade in particular was genocidal and achieved it by castrating the slaves. There is a reason why you don't see any African descendants in the Middle East and the Islamic world. The United States practiced slavery until 1865 and Jim Crow laws until the civil rights act of 1965. So these Abrahamic faiths using caste as a cudgel should be laughed out.

3. The woke socio-commie left - This group has grown like crazy in the last 3 decades and exceeded the influence of the Religulous. The recent protests at ivy league campuses for the cause of Palestine and the tone-deaf indifference to the Jewish victims is alarming. Particularly, Hindu and Indian American children have been cajoled and intimidated to join these woke movements. In many cases, the Hindu/Indian Americans have led these like Megha Vemuri and the like. This cohort needs to be avoided especially by STEM major students. The woke socio-commie left tend to be in soft humanities majors and are rewarded for this behavior. These majors have light academic load which gives them ample time for activism. The woke socio-commie left is particularly adept at using caste as a cudgel and wielding it and trying to brow beat/bully/co-opt Hindu/Indian American kids. 

As our kids head to college, it is important for us to coach them on these types and avoid them or engage them but not give in and be a victim. This is particularly true for Hindu American kids.

We need to keep in touch with them, be engaged and watch out for signals that could led to them being victimized by any of the above groups.

Chinnanchiru Penpole - Like the little maiden

 

There was a young maiden,

a petite outfit she was wearing,

Near the pool of the Shivaganga town,

The maiden was Durga Incarnate laughing.

 

The beauty of her eyes,

cannot be expressed in speech,

Her eternal beauty

cannot be found in reach.

 

The mother goddess as Sivakami

Her skin as sublime as lightning

She grants the wishes

and bestows happiness rejoicing.

 

She braids her hair,

sand decorates it with flowers wild,

And as an equal of the Lord Shiva,

She dances in all glory like a child.

Hitchens and Mother Teresa

Hitchens was in La Jolla, San Diego, CA at a book store for an authors talk and this is a part of the Q&A that transpired.

Audience:

I know because you're unusually fair-minded and well-balanced and never really opinionated (laughter) uh, I’m interested in why on earth would you tackle Mother Teresa as in the missionary position?

Host:

Christopher, could you give a precis of the question to the audience? 

Hitchens

I was asked why someone of my natural tenderness, perdor and fair mindedness would and by the way one must not confuse fair mindedness with objectivity as you know how people often do that, in this culture people say even even-handedness is objectivity or fairness is objectivity or uh putting both sides, Objectivity is the search for truth even if it leads you to unwelcome conclusions.

 

It's nothing at all to do with impartiality but none of these things apply in the case of Mother Teresa because it's a simple matter of record that she was a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud. (laughter) I think probably the most the most

successful confidence trickster of the last century and responsible for innumerable deaths and for untold suffering and misery and proud of it.

 

Should I just assert this, or would you require any proof? I just wonder we know how fair-minded some people could be

 

Audience:

How about John Roger and Charles Keating for example?

 

Hitchens:

 

There's one way of doing, three ways, two ways to do it one is you say what if she

was so wonderful how come she went to Haiti at the invitation of the Duvalier family,

took money from them which didn't belong to them, had been stolen from the Haitian

poor, said how wonderful the situation was for the poor in Haiti,  how the poor loved the Duvalier’s, and the Duvalier’s loved them back. How does she get to Haiti in the first place, she's supposed to be in Calcutta.

 

You've got to go all the way to Haiti to praise the regime that is notorious for its wringing of the poor well she did it because out of solidarity with people who thought like her and because she needed their money which they'd stolen as she stole hers from Charles Keating of the Lincoln savings loan scandal and who gave for a million and a half dollars and a private jet in return, pretty good deal actually, for an olive crucifix and a blessing when he was on trial and he needed a character witness.

 

The court then wrote to her and said you've got a million and a half dollars we're looking for the belong to the poor of California do you feel like giving it back she never replied.

She'd written to the court in the first place.

 

That's just the fraudulence that’s just touching all the thoughts, but by the way, if any of any of what I’ve just said is not true and it all is, how come you need me to tell you, how come that my profession hasn't enlightened you about this already, how come this woman stands underneath a Niagara of undiluted free publicity for all these years

Ask yourselves but that's just the fraud.

 

As for the fanaticism and the fundamentalism, look she said that poverty was a gift from God and should be accepted should be welcomed. She believed that disease and poverty were necessary for the formation of a good character, and she opposed the only thing that is known to cure to poverty, there is only one known cure of poverty it's very simple. It doesn't matter whether you go to Bangladesh or Basra or Bolivia.

 

If you can give women control over their rate of reproduction up and come back to that village in 10 year’s time, everything will be better right away it's the only thing that works if you can throw in a handful of seeds in a bit of credit as well and generally try and funnel it through the mothers and the wives it'll  be enormously better right away.

 

If you don’t do it, people die all the time very horribly and they have rabid diseases like polio that they can spread to other people.

 

Well Mother Teresa spent her entire life saying that that solution was impermissible she waged her entire life making sure that didn't happen so I wish there was a hell to which she could go.

 

Because she has a lot of death on her conscience and a lot of misery and stupidity and ignorance and dirt and filth and disease as well.  A poisonous woman patronized by a poisonous pope whose national security advisor she was.

 

Idon't miss them and nor should anybody else religion. Religion is the enemy

 

How much is it gonna take to convince us our faith, faith is not a virtue but if it was it would be the most overrated of them all?

Hitchens and Whiskey

Christopher Hitchens was not just known for his writing, but also a fine connoisseur of fine whiskey.

Interviewee:

We have a number of questions, curiously enough about your favorite things. One wants to know things you can't live without when traveling, And one person, one well informed audience member, of course wants to know your favorite whiskey is. 

Hitchens 

Well, I don't know see what the difference between the two questions (is). (Laughter) The favorite blended, the best blended scotch in the history of the worlds which is also the favorite drink of the Iraqi Baath party, as it is still of the Palestinian authority, and the Libyan dictatorship and large branches of the Saudi Arabian Royal family. Johnny Walker Blend, breakfast of champions, accept no substitutes.