Obama on the meaning of life
“I guess what I’ve discovered is that life doesn’t count for much unless you’re somehow giving yourself to something larger to yourself.”
Apparently the meaning of life is that we should all be ants — cogs in the great gear of “Society.” The best part of that quote is the “somehow.” It is arguably the nicest word for “by threat of physical assault and imprisonment” ever used.
It’s sort of sad that so many people are buying into Obama’s hollow message of “change” and “hope” — but then the alternative offered by McCain is essentially one of arrogance, militarism and fear. In the end, both campaigns are offering more of the same: more government intervention and less freedom. Now that’s status quo you can believe in.
See, I think this whole “change” thing started because of a misunderstanding. Someone misheard him saying something about “chains”, and next thing you know, he’s got a “movement”.
Imagine the voters’ surprise when they notice they’re being fitted for a new set of iron links for their ball-and-chain accessories.
I’ll tell you what that quote means. It means that life isn’t about you. it is about making the world a better place for everyone. What will you leave behind when you die? A tombstone?
Honestly, no one cares about you or what you do in your life save your closest friends and family.
Life is about building for the future. It is about finding joy in helping others. If that means socialism (which it doesn’t) then socialism it is.
I’m not endorsing any candidate. I just find your view to be narrow minded and for lack of better words, COMPLETELY IDIOTIC.
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… okay, that’s really stretching the quote, dude. If you don’t like Obama, that’s cool, whatever. But can you find something to actually rag on him about, as opposed to just twisting crap around to fit your own views?
What if someone doesn’t want to live their life in servitude to the species? What if they want to just live their life?
Sure. He wants to raise taxes (i.e. force people to give their money to something “greater to themselves”). One of the only things he took a firm stand on (opposing immunity for law-breaking telecoms) he completely abandoned when it became politically expedient to do so. So he’s gutless. He’s so dedicated to the pro-abortion crowd that he voted against a bill to ban infanticide (reasonable people can disagree about abortion, but killing a human outside of the womb is detestable). Obama wants to require all students at public schools to perform community service (here we go with forcing people to “give to something greater to themselves” again). He’s against free trade.
I could go on, but after “wants to raise taxes,” there’s really no point. Anyone that economically retarded has no business being president (McCain ain’t much better).
The point is that people often unintentionally reveal their guiding principles. Here, Obama has revealed that he values the individual less than he values “something greater” (infer: community, nation, species). I can’t vote for someone who disagrees on such a fundamental point.
Hi Mark. One of many things I love about this country is that you can easily run into refreshingly candid people. From my admittedly jaded frame of mind, as I am a yurpeen invader (ha! one at a time!) I guess that’s mostly a result of the USA being an enormous country (both in the geographic and demographic sense) combined with a quite short history of the nation state, and two inert neighbors that hardly present an existential and close up and personal sense of survival issues at stake, certainly in recent times; at least in relative terms that’s my observation, compared with the tumultuous history of the relatively tiny, overcrowded and war-worn places in Europe.
But I digress.
Here’s to shamelessly defending lazy egotism! That’s what I meant in the opener: your unabashed claim of an absolute right to be an absolute selfish, socially disengaged (and unburdened) freeloader is something to admire.
Even when we stand on clearly diametrically opposed political positions (to make matters worse: I’m a socialist - or social democrat if you prefer that term), I salute your candor. And no, I’m not facetious about that.
(In case you wonder how the heck I straggled into this one, over a month later: I came in via a reference to your Clutter Free plugin, on the iPhone / Mobile Admin page on WP. So, I reckon you’re not at all on principle against doing the community a favor, you just don’t like to be “forced”. Trust me: no-one forces anyone to do anything on the other side of the big drink - that’s something communists and fascists do, and I strongly dislike both, as little as I see differences between ‘em.)
Last observation: could be interesting to very occasionally compare notes, too, as I don’t like the Oh-man either. (I also like the design of your place - great job.)
Certainly. I have no problem with charity (that is, voluntary giving of assets or time). But I don’t know that I’d characterize my WordPress work as charity. I make a comfortable living as a direct result of my work on WordPress and various plugins. And even before that, I did it because I enjoyed it — selfishly! In any case, I’m not being forced.
Living a life of rational self interest doesn’t mean that you’re a “freeloader.” Freeloading implies that someone else is paying your way. I don’t endorse that. If it is immoral for me to be forced to pay for other people’s lives, it is certainly immoral for them to pay for mine! But yes, as long as you’re not violating anyone else’s rights (and I mean real human rights, not the sort of “rights” that let you demand something from other human beings), you can be as selfish as you want. “Egotism” isn’t quite the right word for it… that’s more about self esteem. I’m defending the right of people to act in their own self interest, so long as they don’t intrude on anyone else’s right to do the same.
Design of this site is based on the Blueprint CSS framework.
I find this opinion of yours a bit of an overstatement. I’m European and in my country, Portugal, we faced the shadows of communism 30 years ago or so after the the coup d’etait on the fascist regime.
In the 70’s, we were on the verge of civil war caused by a power struggle between the almighty communist party at the time (strong pusher of the coup d’etait) and the democrats.
Fortunately enough, communism failed to impose itself at the time and is slowly dying.
I consider myself a social-democrat (right wing in Portugal) and knowing the realities of a party which was one of the most similar to the soviet matrix I cannot even begin to find the slightest similarity with Obama, I mean, it’s insane.
The recent events in the economy of your neo-liberal paradise and the subsequent governmental measures were far “more commumnist” than anything I’ve seen here under the rule of the so called socialist party which has clearly changed itself towards a much more capitalist profile than even your right wing government.
The world has changed and so has politics and socialism or whatever you want to call it isn’t what you love to portrait in movies about the cold war.
I don’t understand the american phobia from the state. Scandinavian countries for instance possess gigantic state machines which actually work for the benefit of everybody. I’ve lived there for a while and it’s a paradise. Yes, you pay a small fortune for every item considered to be a luxury or an addiction such as cosmetics or alcohol, yes they tax your ass to the bone taking easily 50% of your income but guess what? You have high quality totally free healthcare, schools which provide for every single need of every single student (computers, books and even hearing aids), the streets are heated in the winter, public transportation is cheap, efficient and confortable, college is broadly available to those who prove themselves and housing is extremely accessible at a very young age, in two words: quality of life.
And is there any freedom may you ask? I’ve never felt freer in any other place. There exist strong restrictions on smoking in closed spaces for instance and only in things which clearly damage others directly. Any other thing is completely acceptable.
And I assure you that they assume themselves as completely anti-communist and I believe their position in the global markets proves that easily.
What about you americans which I’ve learnt to hate and love? You appear to live in some sort of internal capitalistic anarchy in crucial sectors of society which should be secured as healthcare and basic education for instance and I won’t even start on external affairs. Your country is well known for prejudice against minority groups such as gay and foreign communities for example in which armed violence actually take place. I mean, how is that freedom?
You stand for values of individuality when economy is concerned but completely change faces when talking about sex, gender, race or even culture or religion.
Your country spends millions on military industries, research and development, operations, etc and completely fails to relieve a a major city from a climacteric catastrophe. Certain interior zones of your country look like a lot worse than third world countries lacking every basic infra-structure.
How is all this possible in the richest country of the world, I don’t understand.
One thing I’m certain, your society has fallen victim of excessive excess consumption and invented needs, greed and social abysses or so it seems to the world. If you don’t level yourselves you may be sure all your people will suffer the consequences. Europeans know this well.
If you change that through individualism or socialism or whatever you which to call it, it’s up to you.
There is a great international expectation out of your elections. We are specially worried about the possible victory of McCain because the last thing we need here in Europe is a cold war between american and russian and of course the now and then middle eastern represalia against american interests in Europe. Palin said the world is a dangerous place and doesn’t understand the need to talk with enemies. I believe North Korea for instance heard her well.
Using a portuguese proverb, we guys herd the winds and the rest of the world gets the storms. There is a feeling your country pull strings form your little corner in there and we get the shit here. Enfin… We are probably paying for our past…
You’ve been repeating you won’t vote for McCain. I don’t really care if you vote for Obama but as a citizen of the world I thank you if you don’t really contribute to get his ass in the White House.
It’s simple: the state can only act with coercion. The state is violence. We minimize that violence by narrowly defining the role of government.
The thing that really throws me off when I see complaints like those of Gary above — who seems to think that opposing forced “charity” is a sign of self-centered, destructive, meaningless living — is the fact that I really can’t see how someone could so obstinately fail to “get it”.
What will I leave behind? I don’t know. I hope, if I’m remembered, what I’m remembered for will include my tendency to fight (in words if nothing else) against the tendency of others to attempt to enslave their fellows to fabricated “duties” handed down by hypocritical self-styled authorities. I’d like what I leave behind to be a legacy of having opposed the chains of such perfidious, and oppressively enforced, “duties”, and of having supported the right to give freely of ourselves if and when — and only if and when — we choose of our own volition.
As you say, Mark, real charity’s fine, and even to be emulated to some extent. Legal troubles and social opprobrium should not be forthcoming simply because I don’t want to give up 40% of my hard-earned income to pay for some inefficient and ultimately counterproductive social program (like the Community Reinvestment Act of 1997 and its “enhancement” in 1995).