Given the opportunity to function cooperatively and to live peacefully with each other, humans will do that because that is how we, in general, are hardwired. If we were not, we would have expired as a species a hundred thousand years ago. It doesn’t take altruism or particular “social consciousness”. Our intentions are irrelevant (as has been revealed time after time through human history – the road to hell having been paved over and over again with “good intentions”. My point is that libertarianism is NOT utopian and it is the only political philosophy that is not and the side effect of liberty is a more humane society and that i more people understood that they would find that their contempt for libertarians is entirely misplaced. My best, Doug

Sounds fine to me because all I want is a world with no “Thou shalts” and very few “Thoou shalt nots.” Y’know, the simple things, like no murder, stealing, torture, telling lies that get other people into trouble…oh, wait…we call those the people part of the ten commandments, don’t we?!

The “rule of law” once ENFORCED peace and justice, now rationalized away:

http://www.nazisociopaths.org/......php/c1/34

“The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern. The law of liberty tends to abolish the reign of race over race, of faith over faith, of class over class.” ~ Lord Acton

Darwin also warned us: Survival EQUALS ability to adapt to environment EQUALS ability to choose correctly EQUALS freedom:

http://www.nazisociopaths.org/.....cle.php/36

THINK about it:

http://www.nazisociopaths.org/......php/c1/33

Blink. What set YOU off? As part of “do unto others” how about starting off being nice? It always works for me–and I could always turn nasty if it didn’t.

You made an excellent point that the people who bought the pups were trying to get something for nothing. Most of them deserved what happened to them, but all of us were damaged by their actions and the greed (or helplessness) of bankers and lust for power of politicians. That is all beyond our control, and Epictetus is ALWAYS right. Ignore it, and go on living a moral life. I disagree totally; the statists have taught for over 50 years that the world is in shades of gray…but it is not so. Almost everything is black or white with a very few instances of mitigating circumstances. Go live the best, most moral life that YOU can, and work out how to protect yourself and yours. At least you like goats! Linda

OMG…you are confused. All these people in houses they can’t pay for are the result, not of anyone’s good intentions, nor progressive thought come true, but the leavings of opportunists who led down the primrose path people who couldn’t figure out where it would all end for them. And the opportunists looked just to the next bonus for signing up the most people that week, They didn’t have the integrity not to take advantage of those they fleeced. Follow the money….everybody in the chain looked towards the Friday paycheck. So locked away their social and person conscience.
And when did anyone in this society ever stress the principle that one never, never, never, risks the roof over one’s head? Those of us who repeated this were ignored and laughed at. The money would pour down forever. There was too much money to be made taking both money and dignity from” the least of these.” The worst thing this country has endured is the opening of the big money pot that Social Security and Medicare created. And then the government guarantee of insurance against risky behaviour. Wherever there is a pot of money, somebody will go after it. And sure enough, they did. But what is the cost to us all of having people sleeping on our sidewalks, as in Calcutta, and dying of contagious untreatable diseases in the slums of our nation? Nothing, until it’s your family that contracts one of these diseases.

The trouble is, life is complicated–especially when there are large numbers of people involved. There are few or no rights and wrongs anymore. Most of it is a grey area. Education and wisdom are needed, but MTV and comic strip thought rule.

“Do unto others…” seems like a good rule to me. I’d like to see more of that in my world.

Get you some goats. They don’t take forty acres. And the dream you put off is the one most likely not to be realized.