On 10/30/2015 10:01 AM, Sean Lynch wrote:


On Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 9:56 AM Razer <Rayzer@riseup.net> wrote:
On 10/30/2015 09:52 AM, Sean Lynch wrote:
Something that one might call "societal equality" is of interest to me, too. But different people have different ideas of what that means.
And that is the point of commonality we work from. The idea is to work towards more of that commonality without sacrificing our individual ethics or morals. Ideas are the 'mutable' element.

This may seem like something of a red herring, but I wish more people read Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments before, instead of, or at least in addition to An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. And definitely instead of (or at least before) anything written by Ayn Rand. I think Rand and cherry-pickers of Smith have done a lot of damage to the cause of individualism and free-marketism.

Entirely agree. Rand cherry-picked Smith to fit the American narcissistic dream. Smith didn't idealize that pin factory either. Nor did Marx in any way support "Marxists". He denounced them on his death bed, and Lenin, in the process of being poisoned by his Stalin-appointed nurse said his legacy belonged to Trotsky, NOT Stalin. Lenin wasn't fond of murderous anti-Semites.

RR