Daily Topics - Thursday April 21st, 2011
By shawnt56
Get the new IPhone App for Thom Hartmann
Truthout proudly presents weekly installments of Thom's bestselling book "Unequal Protection"
Check out Thom on The Oprah Show!
Hour One: Do you have the right to be forgotten? / Plus, the latest on the war on democracy - John Nichols, The Nation Magazine
Hour Two: Atlas Shrugged, the movie...hit or miss? James Hirsen, The Left Coast Report / Plus, Geeky Science Rocks - Strawberries...not just tasty, they could save your life!
Hour Three: "Gas Hole"... What Big Oil doesn't want you to know! Scott Roberts, Gas Hole
Comments
#2
Thom, with respect to your discussion of privacy and Google, I have a story that reveals the hypocrisy of Google. A member of our Unitarian Fellowship works for a non-profit organization concerned with the internet. He often goes to DC for meetings with congressional staff members. In any case, he thought it would be interesting to test the hypothesis that Google didn't see anything wrong with their policly of lack of privacy. He searched the web for everything unsavory about one of their top executives and posted it. The response from Google was extremely interesting. They called his employer and wanted to have him fired. They called a key sponsor of the non-profit and asked them to stop funding the organization. Both the sponsor and the employer told google no.
Thom, if you have any interest in the names of the people and the organization involved, I can dig them up. If you would like the member of our fellowship as a radio guest, I can talk to him. His wife listens to your show all the time.
#3
...still regarding People as Producers of wares for Profit ----
Cogs... in the Machine.
This silly man (James Hirsen? -- was that who you just talked to?) says we need this crazy profit motive to induce people to get off their lazy asses and "produce" MORE and more for the Machine and the "men" at the Top. Bu--sh-t.
What motivated real Men to produce art, music, weaving, dance? What motivated real Women to produce language, community festivals and gardens, exquisite lifestyles wherein every member was valued, every member was treasured -- and every member was regarded as being born an artist, a creative being....
We have let others who are under the spell, make the conversation be about Producing money for the top tier -- what nonsense.
#4
Not to be nit-picky Thom, but the first Apple computers had command line operating systems too. I believe it was the Macintosh that was apples first GUI operating system that Apple produced. Apple's first major contribution to the computer world was making viable and popular home PC's.
N
#5
...the Thing that destroyed those wonderful cultures --
and don't believe the lies -- they were wonderful -- no one seems to remember what it was like to wake up in a sacred world -- where your day was guided by your sense of honor, your intuition, your creativity, your participation in the community, and your love and reverence for the world around you -- and DO Not tell me that World didn't exist -- Ask the Elders -- (those we have not yet killed).... What destroyed that World was the curse of Greed under the bloody name of "Colonialism" ...
And now we are being Colonized ourselves, and oh shock, upon shock -- we do not like it.
Is this what it takes for the World to Wake From History???
Go back to our roots -- what is the purpose of standing on this planet?
To Breath. To See. To Love. To Hear. To Sing Your Song without Fear.
#6
The best refutation of Atlas Shrugged ever:
#7
Just out of curiosity, did Ayn Rand say what she liked about Hickman was his brutal actions, or his "I don't care about other peoples judgements"? There is a difference, between idealizing a trait vs idealizing actions.
Not that I agree with Ayn Rand's point of views, but I'm just considering that as a fiction writer she's essentially an artist, and perhaps it was the common artistic desire to shock, that brought her to find the fascinating story of Hickman alluring. It seems that she was enamored with the idea of not caring a whit about what other thought about her, and probably was sensitive to exactly that. A sort of opposites attract, type of issue. Seems like she preferred to live in fantasy world, a world in which powerful people are morally aligned and not ultimately corrupt.
Also, what about Leon Straus Thom, he's another right wing wack-a-do from the 50's any thoughts on him?
N
#8
I've always said Ayn Rand had the luxury of writing fiction which allows the writer to control the outcome no matter how plausible. The problem with Rand's followers is they don't seem to understand this.
#9
Oddly, one thing Maslow left out of his hierarchy of needs is pleasure. Once you have safety and sustenance, you seek pleasure. To some that means hedonism, to some it's helping others. But some people also forego safety in the interest of helping others, so Maslow's linear arrangement needs to branch and be more than one-dimensional.
#10
Ain Rand took the philosophy of a nihilist (Nietzsche) and combined it with the social conscience of a psychotic killer (Hickman) to produce an ideology of sociopathy that perversely appeals to the narcissism of mediocre intellects.
#11
We are talking Greed vs. Cooperation
The Original Cultures were Cooperative. The Raiding Cultures, born of the exiled few, driven to get -- not by making, not by creating (except weapons), not through loving relationships, not by working themselves -- but by stealing from other Communities -- that is where we are -- the pinnacle of that story...... Time to right the balance and tell the true story -- the Whole story -- not today's headlines which are written by those who cannot see anything but dollar signs pasted on everything -- even on human beings (measuring their "productiveness")..............Will we honor the raider -- the thief -- the destroyer of Life and Communities?
Or will we honor the tradesman, the mother and the father who devote more time to their children than they do to their bank accounts? Will we honor the organic farmer getting up at 4 am to hand load every box of fresh and healthy food onto his/her truck? Will we honor those who have spent their lives unselfishly fighting to Protect our beloved home Planet from the vile poisons dumped every day and everywhere by those who seek to amass personal wealth in the squabble over resources?
Will we honor the humble man who volunteers in his community, the woman who holds the hand of the dying? Or will we continue to worship the arrogant fools who do not know that they too will die? They too will account for their souls and their choices -- they too will face the fundamental truth that we keep nothing when we leave -- but the good we have done for others............... which at the end of life is the source of joy.
#12
Dear Thom:
I read most of Ayn Rand's novels, books, and newsletter, The Objectivist, many years ago. What no one is saying is why Ayn Rand was so attractive to young people. From my perspective, it was because she made you, as an individual, feel valuable, meaning "I" was important even if society wanted me to be a clog in wheel in a system. She gave self-esteem to young people seeking identity. Also, I think that Ayn's heroic characters were not dishonest like Rand believers are now. Meaning, I can find some good in her works while I do agree with the harm that her philosophy has engendered.
Like I said, I read almost everything she wrote as well as what Nathaniel Branden wrote. Branden was responsible for making Ayn Rand the public figure she became through the development of the Nathaniel Branden Institute that offered classes in Objectivism. In the end, though, I walked away from Rand because she did not allow anyone to have a different opinion. She saw things in black and white and I felt there were some grays.
Also, she used people and that was another area of contention with me. She could not see this and that blindness was just another wedge that drove me away.
But, I am grateful that she introduced me to some understanding of philosophy and my take-away message from all of that was -- to know someone's philosophy don't look at what they say or do, look at the results. That concept has served me well. If you look at the results of what neo-cons do, you can see what they really stand for -- it's a power grab, it's all about them, it's all about money, with little regard for law or anyone else including their own families.
Ayn Rand was so focused on her own philosophy that she literally lived in a world of her own. Atlas Shrugged was a fictional world that to my mind could not exist in reality. Also, Ayn Rand was so affected by what happened in her home country of Russia that I feel her whole life was an attempt to refute the communist philosophy.
#13
Ain Rand's fetish of the unfettered individual reminds me of a quote by Bernard Devoto (later repeated by Wallace Stegner) to the effect that: "the only true rugged individualist in the West generally wound up at the end of a rope whose other end was in the hands of the cooperating citizenry."
#14
True Community celebrates the individual ---
Somehow all that has gotten lost in this 2011 cacophony -- to be a part of a Community is NOT to surrender your individualism. How could that be so forgotten? Have we moved that far away from all memory of the joys and comfort of real Community?
The whole idea of Community was that every individual brought something different....... That is why the Community WAS so much more powerful and meaningful than just the individual slugging it out alone....
....That we all have different skills, different insights, different inclinations, different goals -- and that TOGETHER -- they very naturally combined to compose a Whole Creative Community -- not through restriction of those gifts -- but through recognizing them.
The invention of Repressive communities comes very recently in history. Communist China or Russia: -- mass conformity imposed through force -- is an outgrowth of fear, and is not a natural form of Natural Community -----------These are Top-Down...
... Natural Communities are extremely multidimensional -- not top-down, allowing room for natural leaders to take shape, and allowing for each individual to express their talents and contributions and receive recognition -- which is all any human really wants, after all -- even those who seek wealth in the perverted form of this desire -- to build the biggest pyramid, the tallest skyscraper, to create the Dubai version of a false Atlantis ----
We are all looking for the recognition that comes naturally in a healthy family -- in a healthy Community.
#15
Thom, listening to your show yesterday and your interview with (whoever that was) about Ayn Rand and whether financial incentive was the most important motivating factor in life. What about always bringing up the Internet when "those people" get started. It was invented in the public sector and no one connected to it early on innovated thinking they were going to get rich. Sure, later that came. But Tim Berners Lee did not invent WWW thinking about becoming rich. The early comp sci people that invented ethernet, and created the internet were doing it for scientific advancement and public defense (in case of a nuclear attack). getting rich is not and never has been the prime driver in innovation.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
At Mondragon - both the mountain and the cooperative city - in Spain (written about in "Threshold" book)
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Through compelling personal stories, Hartmann presents a dramatic and deeply disturbing picture of humans as a profoundly troubled species. Hope lies in his inspiring vision of our enormous unrealized potential and his description of the path to its realization."
From Screwed:
"Hartmann speaks with the straight talking clarity and brilliance of a modern day Tom Paine as he exposes the intentional and systematic destruction of America’s middle class by an alliance of political con artists and outlines a program to restore it. This is Hartmann at his best. Essential reading for those interested in restoring the institution that made America the envy of the world."
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Thom Hartmann seeks out interesting subjects from such disparate outposts of curiosity that you have to wonder whether or not he uncovered them or they selected him."
NLRB is turning away from Bush era pro-corporatist agenda. It's about time.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/business/21boeing.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha25
When will it start taking on companies moving jobs out of the country?