Obama and Selfishness
Barak Obama recently made a speech in which he said that people would accuse him of socialism because he shared his toys and peanut butter sandwiches when he was a child.
I'm not going to call that socialism. If he CHOSE to share HIS stuff with others, that is great. Socialism is when a third party forces you to share what you have with another person of their choosing.
And then he delivered this whopper:
And this brings me to two problems I have with a lot of peoples definition of selfishness. Many seem to think it is any desire to have control over what is done with your own money,or time, or your toys or your peanut butter sandwich. The man who is, like Howard Roark, "the one man who wished neither to serve nor to rule" is selfish.
By this definition, selfishness might not be a virtue, but it sure as hell ain't a vice.
My second problem is that somehow people that want others to take care of their needs or desires are not selfish. Like this woman:
I know her desires are rather modest. But they are still self-interested. Why is she not selfish,but someone who wants to keep the money they earn so they can put gas in their car and pay their mortgage is?
I'm not going to call that socialism. If he CHOSE to share HIS stuff with others, that is great. Socialism is when a third party forces you to share what you have with another person of their choosing.
And then he delivered this whopper:
Click to viewAnd this brings me to two problems I have with a lot of peoples definition of selfishness. Many seem to think it is any desire to have control over what is done with your own money,or time, or your toys or your peanut butter sandwich. The man who is, like Howard Roark, "the one man who wished neither to serve nor to rule" is selfish.
By this definition, selfishness might not be a virtue, but it sure as hell ain't a vice.
My second problem is that somehow people that want others to take care of their needs or desires are not selfish. Like this woman:
I know her desires are rather modest. But they are still self-interested. Why is she not selfish,but someone who wants to keep the money they earn so they can put gas in their car and pay their mortgage is?