
Ursprungligen postat av
hundradelssekund
"Many Objectivists are willing to pronounce the judgment of evasion after little or no debate with their opponents. If such an Objectivist decides that an opponent's idea is 'inherently dishonest,' then of course no debate is necessary, and we may proceed with the hanging. Frequently an Objectivist will make an argument (sometimes repeatedly), and when his opponent continues to disagree, the Objectivist will simply decide that his opponent is evading. "After all," the Objectivist reasons, "I have just made a shatteringly brilliant argument that no honest man could fail to understand. Therefore if my opponent still claims to disagree, then he must be evading." Needless to say, this is an incredibly naive (and stupid) conclusion."
"Rand defined 'evil' as "anything that is anti-life." This is quite different from the working definition of evil that most people have, namely that evil is a man's deliberate choice to do something he knows to be immoral. This difference in definition leads to a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding. For example, Objectivism considers the idea of socialized medicine to be a very bad idea. Many non-Objectivists would agree with this characterization. However Objectivism also declares that the idea of socialized medicine is evil because it is anti-life. Most non-Objectivists who would categorize socialized medicine as a bad idea, would not call it evil. Most non-Objectivists would not consider false ideas to be evil. This is because, unlike human beings, ideas do not possess the volition necessary to make evil possible. Since evil (in the layman's term) requires that one choose to do something immoral, only humans can be evil. Objectivism agrees that humans who deliberately do immoral things are evil, but Objectivists also use the term in a much broader sense to indicate any human activity that is anti-life. For example, Objectivists are in the peculiar position of declaring socialized medicine to be an evil idea, but they also claim that the supporters of socialized medicine are not necessarily evil.
The concept of 'evil' should be reserved solely for human beings who deliberately do things they know to be immoral. Why Rand would insist on using the term 'evil' to characterize anything that is anti-life, when the term 'bad' is much better suited to the task, is a mystery. As Rand defines it, the term 'evil' loses virtually all of its impact and meaning."
"As a result, Objectivists end up treating their intellectual opponents (and each other) as people who can be despised and hated. This is what has torn the Objectivist movement apart for the last thirty years, and will continue to do so. The players change, but the game remains the same.
The power of moral judgment is enormous. The power to pronounce someone as an evil evader is the greatest power of all. By making such power available, subject only to whim, with no objective facts or principles to restrain it, Ayn Rand has unleashed a reign of intellectual terrorism. She has transformed many honest, well-meaning individuals into unjust dogmatic moralizers.
This propensity to engage in unjust moral condemnation is also what keeps Objectivism a tiny, insignificant intellectual movement that has all the appearance of a religious cult, and is seldom taken seriously in the academic world. People of self-esteem will not remain in a movement where a single mistake can result in having one's character, morality, and honesty attacked. In the same vein, spokesmen for other philosophical movements will not debate, nor take seriously, Objectivists who constantly attack their opponents' morality and intellectual honesty."