Thread:User talk:Reckless Noise Symphony/And Stalin was an atheist/reply (17)

The distinction I've often heard most that differentiates Objectivists from libertarians is that (and, again, this is only to my social-anarchist ears), at the end of the day, libertarians seems interested in having some sort of collective good as the ends to their means. Most objectivists I've heard speak (the majority of which are, like it or not, from ARI) seem to have an individualistic good as the ends to their means. In other words, most libertarians I've listened to believe that the collective society is better with less intervention from corporations and governments because we'll all be better able to take care of ourselves and, when we can do that, we can then take better care of those (the elderly, the poor, the sick) around us.

Contrast that with the oft-promoted (accurate or otherwise) Objectivist goals of a completely individualistic society: a society where I've got mine, now you go get yours or starve to death. I've actually, factually heard a member of ARI state on Thom Hartmann's program that giving to charity was immoral because it goes against "your own interests to give money to others and not expect a return." I don't care who you are, a society that is 100% about the interests of the individual is not a society but, rather, nihilism. A society that bases itself around social Darwinism as its goal cannot last (as noted by the fate of the Ik people in Charles Derber's book The Wilding of America)