This practical guideline is a follow-up on "A Radical Strategy for Objectivists."
The only proper function of government, and therefore the only principled foundation for Objectivist activism on any political issue, is the protection of individual human rights. Rights merit my activism because they are the pre-requisite conditions for living a life appropriate to a human qua human. Because the species-specific evolved means of human survival is the judgment of one's mind, all individual rights are sub-categories of just one fundamental right: the right to live by the judgment of one's own mind. Therefore the essential guideline for Objectivist political activism is to relate the target issue to living by the judgment of one's own mind.
Corrolaries:
1. If I don't understand how the political issue at hand relates to living by the judgment of one's own mind, then I don't understand it well enough to engage in principled activism on the issue.
2. If, in the context of writing for the purpose of Objectivist political activism, I fail to link the political issue that I'm writing about to living by the judgment of one's own mind, then what I have written is not a contribution to principled Objectivist activism.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
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1 comment:
Professor Reed--
Today is the first time I've read your "guidelines" for Objectivists, as well as other writings of yours that I've clicked on. Your lengthy discussion with "Alice," for example, was an engrossing read--lots of food for thought.
Glad to know that we Objectivists have a man like you in the trenches. Keep up the good thinking and the forceful writing. --more later. jd
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