Daily Archives: August 25, 2022

Facing a personal reckoning, with a dose of absurdity, on a bus tour of Naziland – Forward

Posted: August 25, 2022 at 1:40 pm

Jerry Stahl promoting "Nein, Nein, Nein!" at The 92nd Street Y. Photo by Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images

By Jim SullivanAugust 25, 2022

Editors note: This article contains discussion of suicide.

Jerry Stahl was on a bus tour of what he calls Naziland three concentration camps and related museums in Eastern Europe six years ago when his understanding of how the world perceives the Shoah did a somersault.

Stahl, the 68-year-old author best known for his 1995 memoir Permanent Midnight, knew hed be trodding upon, as he said in an interview, ground where the bones of the dead are buried and ashes had drifted. He had some inherent trepidation, and expectations of somber reflection.

My heart is open. Im one big emotion waiting to happen, Stahl said on the phone from his home in Los Angeles. Who do I think I am to think I can grasp the enormity of this suffering and honor it?

Yet grasping that enormity is precisely what Stahl tries to do in his new book, Nein, Nein, Nein!: One Mans Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust. The account contains a crazy quilt of emotions captured with dark humor and keen insight.

The book, Stahl said, is a chronicle of what he felt on the trip as a human, as a Jew, as a man, as a citizen of the planet.

What it isnt at least, not always is an account of the somber reflection Stahl expected. The first thing he saw in Auschwitz, he said, was a guy in an Im With Stupid T-shirt slamming a Fanta and stuffing his face with pizza.

I just wasnt ready for it. I dont know why.

So, it wasnt the historic horror that struck him first. It was the mundane nature of people doing what people do in their day-to-day lives, no matter where they are. They eat, drink, crack bad jokes, respond in almost comically inept ways to their circumstances. Three Filipina girls who spotted Stahl became convinced that he was Michael Richards the actor who played Kramer in Seinfeld and kept yelling Kramer! because they wanted a selfie with him.

He let them snap the picture.

I agreed to do the most grotesque thing you can do, especially in a death camp, Stahl said of the selfie, but I think there is a certain human truth to people acting that way.

While Stahl took his trip in 2016, he only wrote about it during the 2021 pandemic-driven lockdown. Stahl faced serious roadblocks in finally beginning the book. He had lost many of his notes from the tour, and there were continual distractions from other projects mostly failed projects for TV, film and print.

And the subjects he planned to write about were challenging to revisit. As he writes in Nein, Nein, Nein!, he was not in a good place before taking the trip. He felt his career had run aground. His third marriage was in tatters.

He peered into the abyss or more precisely, looked down from a bridge in Southern California. He was discouraged from doing it, he writes, when he realized hed have to climb a fence and likely be caught by the suicide-prevention mechanism he described in our interview as these weird chain-link macrame large-enough-for-a-human-being bags.

Theres a lot of athletics involved, Stahl said. They make it hard. I would have been News at 11 Worlds Biggest Baby Caught in a Net, Swaddling.

So, Stahl said he thought, Why not go somewhere where complete and utter despair and depression is wholly appropriate? Like Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Dachau.

Another factor in his decision: Donald Trump was ascendent, and more than a few people were equating Trumps tactics and autocratic bellicosity with Hitlers. With Nazism on the rise here, Stahl said, it was almost like, Why sit here and watch the previews? Why dont we go to where it happened and where it was shot?

The book examines how Stahls own personal demons collided with the ghostly demons of the Holocaust, with a dose of absurdity added by his being on a tour with mostly Midwestern tourists early on the journey, he likened it to a 4-H Club trip complete with a forced, though not entirely unwelcome, camaraderie.

He told his tour guide, Suzannah, and his fellow tourists that he planned to write about the trip. I made the decision to be straight up about that, Stahl says. Being a writer, youre a little bit outside the main community. Everybody can take you aside and tell you their deepest and darkest. As cornball as it sounds, I grew to love these people at the end.

Part of what makes Nein, Nein, Nein! an engaging read are Stahls (sometimes) purposeful digressions. Some of these are whimsical, but all are pointed, like one about little salt-shaker-sized Lucky Jews statuettes of rabbis clutching coins sold at Warsaw gift shops. The idea: Place one at the door so money wont leave the house.

In Poland, we have a saying: A Jew in the hallway a coin in the pocket, the shop owner told Stahl.

I take six, Stahl writes. Because why not? Yes, theyre a racial stereotype, but in Stahls eyes, compared to the range of offensive depictions of Jews, these rabbi dolls feel almost benign. All Talmudic beard and soulful eyes. But maybe benign is more insidious.

There are gruesome details about the Nazis ingenious forms of torture and Josef Mengeles medical experiments. There are stomach-churning accounts about Ilse Koch, The Bitch of Buchenwald,who used her victims tattooed skin and body parts for crafting.

As to experiencing the camps themselves, Stahl notes the contrast in presentation of the museums at each. Though the high-tech, immersive exhibition at Dachau is more informative and far-reaching, he writes, for him it had a less powerful effect than the silent horror of Auschwitz.

Stahl also realized that being overwhelmed by an experience can also leave you underwhelmed. I cant remember a time when I wasnt aware of bodies piled up in mounds, he said, citing Lou Reeds song Heroin. Through no fault of its own, these images are so numbing and so overwhelming.

At one point late in the trek, Stahl found himself getting burned out on the concentration camps, he writes.

Ive become the weird guy who doesnt talk much on the bus. I try to front that Im gripped by the torment, soul-savaged by the in-your-faceness of strolling down the landscape where Hitler ripped the world apart, like a child tearing the head off a doll.

In the end, Stahl attempts to step back from the statistics and the stock images of the Holocaust to cast an eye on the lives of its victims, and what they may have been like before Hitler came on the scene. He considers how terrifying it must have been to have their ordinary lives stripped away the futility of all those wasted hours thinking about sex and money, did their hair look right, success and failure and all the things that drain the life out of life when life is so fucking vulnerable and fragile and easy to pluck away?

With a book so stark and revelatory as is pretty much anything Stahl touches one wonders, what didnt make the cut? Are there worse, more self-denigrating points not in print?

The eternal question, said Stahl, with a laugh. I think that answers going to go to my grave, but I dont know if theres much worse than what is actually in there. If I think about it too much, I will start pulling back, which for my purposes wouldnt ring true.

To bring up another great Jewish writer, Bruce Jay Friedman he said, If you write a sentence that makes you squirm, keep going. Somehow, I squirmed my way through this book.

Stahl has got two more books and another movie project in the works in addition to a possible film adaptation of Nein, Nein, Nein! which has been optioned by Robert Downey, Jr. but fears talking about them may be a detriment to doing them.

At my age, Im a lot closer to a man being dead than being 40, he said, so Im writing like a man being chased.

Jim Sullivan wrote about music and pop culture for The Boston Globe from 1979 to 2005. Currently, he writes for WBURs ARTery, among other sites.

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Facing a personal reckoning, with a dose of absurdity, on a bus tour of Naziland - Forward

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Ezra Furman and the Tireless, Sacred Work of Being Alive | Interview – The Line of Best Fit

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Like much of her work, All of Us Flames is informed by a practice of Judaism if not in an immediate aesthetic sense (my suggestion of alter ego Klezra Furman gets a laugh but probably not real consideration). "I am often thinking, in between sips of coffee, [of Jewish theologian Heschels quote]: 'who is worthy to be present at the unfolding of time?' But I cant really seem to work that in," she sighs.

All of Us Flames is religious music in its dutiful ethic towards work and gratitude, in its responsibility towards history. She quotes the ancient book of Jewish law, the Talmud: Its not your obligation to complete the work, and you are not free to desist from the work. Basically, were not gonna finish the job of making a better world. Were just not. And yet were still supposed to work. Perhaps this is what it takes to get in touch with the divine. The dogged determination that grinds through All of Us Flames arrives at moments of true ecstasy (like Forever in Sunsets sudden explosion into exultant, Springsteenian glory), just as a disciplined practice of spirituality can help us access moments of true transcendence.

Its rabbinically emphasised that the mundane is more important than the peak experience moments, she says. The Torah, after all, is not all high drama. Theres a lot of miracles and smiting, but theres also a lot of boring tasks. The weekly portion for my own Bar Mitzvah a passage from the Torah that corresponds with the week of the ceremony, as per for the Hebrew Calendar was mostly instructional text on preparing garments. Not so thrilling. I mention this and Furman, miraculously, is familiar with the specific portion. Those boring parts, the menial tasks, she says, are the most important. Theres this wonderful conversation in the Talmud about whats the most important line in the Torah. And all these people have their different ideas God is one, Love your neighbour as yourself, etc. And then somebody else says, The most important line is, Slaughter one calf in the morning and one calf in the afternoon every day. And everyones like, Okay, thats the correct answer. The idea is that a high-minded moral principle may be really important, but what do you actually do everyday? Thats what holds us together.

You keep going, and thats how you keep going; forever in sunset. We owe it to ourselves and each other and everyone else to figure it out and keep figuring it out, she muses. One of the promises of a religious practice is that by taking part in a choreography a prayer, a ritual, a song we can unite ourselves with both everyone who has and everyone who will take part, living and dead. It can be a key into eternity, in both directions every apocalypse before and every apocalypse to come: every sunset in every forever. Thats whats inspiring its sustained. Its everywhere. At all moments we have to try, somehow, to weave love and devotion into our mundane life, she says, sitting on her patio. We both fall silent for a moment and listen to the birds chirping around us.

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The Long and Short of a Well-Rounded Shabbos – The Jewish Press – JewishPress.com

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We often refer to summer Shabbosim as long Shabbos and winter Shabbosim as short Shabbos, based on the time Shabbos ends. But the truth is, Shabbos is always the same 25 hours every single week, and from my perspective, it is definitely not long enough! It is still only a fraction of our week. Given the potential of Shabbos to impact us on a weekly basis, we may have high expectations of what we want our Shabbosim to look like. Of course, while we may have had certain expectations before the pandemic, our experiences during the pandemic may have given us a different frame of reference for what Shabbos can be in our lives.

How might we frame what a successful Shabbos looks like? Is there a method for how we can approach this? In my own experience, I realized that I do not aspire to have davening to take longer than is necessary. But I also do not want to nap for too long. And I dont want to be at the lunch table until 5:00 p.m. Is any of this blasphemous? Am I too caught up on time? It occurred to me recently that while I had certain disparate expectations of my own of what I want to get out of Shabbos, there is potentially a systematic way of looking at this from the lens of halacha that could help us on a communal level to frame our Shabbosim, which I am calling the Well-Rounded Shabbos.

The Talmud (Pesachim 68b) tells us that half of Shabbos is for Hashem and half is for us. Therefore, a good Shabbos does contain a few different components: tefillah, oneg (i.e., kiddush and meals), Torah study, and napping. While we may be aware of these components in isolation, I began to wonder, how does one balance all of these? How should these different parts of the Shabbos experience interact to ensure that all have their proper place and time?

Lets begin with tefillah. It should be stated from the outset that tefillah should not be a burden. While we are in Hashems home and standing before Hashem, we should seek ways to make it meaningful. With that said, the pandemic raised many conversations about the length of tefillah in shul. There is clearly a large contingency of people who want a more streamlined tefillah. The truth is, this is not a new discussion. Although tefillah is not supposed to be a burden, poskim throughout the ages have argued that this does not mean the length of davening in shul should be indefinite. The Sages instituted only seven blessings in the amidah in an effort to avoid burdening people with lengthy tefillah on the day of rest. While I enjoy singing in tefillah, poskim encourage a balance to ensure tefillah is not too long; in fact, Maharshal writes that even if the community desires it, singing should not be stretched out on Shabbos and Yom Tov. Peri Chadash and R. Yaakov Emden both write in teshuvot that if our Sages instituted only seven blessings in order to eschew long tefillah, then that should be reflected in the amount of singing and Mi Shebeirachs.

But when I discussed these ideas in a shiur recently, someone said, Well, where are people rushing to if they make davening short? To kiddush, to shmooze?

Yes, kiddush and our Shabbos meals are part of our Well-Rounded Shabbos as well. We encounter the verse (Yeshayahu 58:13) vkarata la-Shabbat oneg, which is understood to refer to partaking of food to our delight. The Gemara (Shabbat 118b) says one who delights in Shabbat will be granted the desires of their heart. Kiddush in shul is not just a way to entice people to come to shul but is a fulfillment of the directive to have oneg Shabbat. Likewise, Shabbat meals shared between families are not merely a concession to social needs but rather a true fulfillment of the opportunity of oneg Shabbos. In addition, the opportunity for people to gather both at kiddushim and in each others homes for Shabbos meals contributes to the fabric that holds communities together. I stress that these are not bdieved concessions; they are vital for the vibrancy of our kehillot kedoshot.

Yet, with the great value that Shabbos meals hold, it is appropriate to ensure they come to a close in a timely fashion. The Rama writes that if one regularly naps on Shabbos afternoon, they should not skip it because this, too, is oneg (Orach Chayim 290:1). For those who nap on Shabbos, this opportunity may be part of a Well-Rounded Shabbos. I think it would be worthwhile to set a norm that Birkat Hamazon is said around two to two-and-a-half hours after a meal begins. This does not mean that guests have to leave if everyone is enjoying themselves and wants to stay longer. Yet, having the closure sooner than later will give people the opportunity to go home for their nap when they are ready without having to wait for their hosts to get the hint that some people are about to (or are trying not to) fall asleep at the table!

Still, as praiseworthy as the Shabbos nap is in a Well-Rounded Shabbos, I usually set an alarm for Shabbos afternoon to wake up from my nap (that I still usually sleep through). This may sound ridiculous, but the Mishnah Berurah (290:3) reminds us that our naps should not extend too long, as it is important to learn Torah on Shabbos as well. Indeed, the Talmud Yerushalmi (Shabbat 15:3) tells us that the whole purpose of Shabbos and Yom Tov is for the Jewish people to learn Torah. Rav Eliezer Melamed, author of Peninei Halacha, gives a quantified amount of time one should spend learning: six hours. How does he derive this? He explains that assuming one legitimately has to sleep seven hours every night, that leaves 18 hours to be divided between what we do for Hashem and what we do for ourselves. This leaves nine hours for our own enjoyment and nine hours for Torah/tefillah. If one is in shul for three hours, that would leave six hours of learning. Perhaps, based on average shul schedules in America, maybe it is four hours of tefillah and five hours of learning. Indeed, to make any sort of meaningful progress in what they are reading or learning, one probably needs a few hours. Whether one has a Gemara open or is reading an actual book as part of Rabbi Dovid Bashevkins I Read This Over Shabbos movement on Twitter, spending time engaged in wisdom is a crucial component of the Well-Rounded Shabbos.

When we take these different opportunities together, we see that not only are we fulfilling half for Hashem and half for ourselves, but were also including three major components of mitzvah categories. Torah and tefillah help us develop our Bein Adam La-Makom, while our kiddush/meal times help us develop our Bein Adam La-chaveiro, and our napping (and to some extent, learning/reading) helps us develop our Bein Adam Le-atzmo.

Shabbos is supposed to be relaxing and bnachat, not a day of time pressure. I do not suggest that it is worthwhile to time all of our Shabbos activities and rush from one thing to another. In fact, running is forbidden on Shabbos! Furthermore, it is obviously up to each individual to emphasize the parts of Shabbos they enjoy most.

However, I think it could be helpful to use these halachic perspectives to create a communal framework and language for what Shabbos can look like. We may have already been aware of these individual components, but I hope this perspective can give us a vision of implementing this type of Shabbos experience on a wider scale. With a bit of mindfulness about what we want our own Shabbos to look like and how we can help others create their ideal Shabbos experiences, we can ensure that the Jewish people is having a Well-Rounded Shabbos experience.

Rabbi Judah Kerbel is the rabbi of Queens Jewish Center and a middle school rebbe at Yeshiva Har Torah.

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At many Bay Area synagogues, the real action is social action J. – The Jewish News of Northern California

Posted: at 1:40 pm

The golden-domed sanctuary at Congregation Sherith Israel is known for its glorious stained-glass windows. Its most famous one depicts Moses receiving the Ten Commandments in Yosemite Valley a modern promised land.

In another, a Biblical woman hands out food to the needy, with the words Feed the hungry Clothe the naked Shelter the homeless above her head. The message is one that resonates with Nancy Sheftel-Gomes, who considers it a call to social action for her synagogue community.

Its a commandment thats repeated in Torah over and over again. Its really a basis of humanity, she said. I think thats why it means a lot to people to participate because they know that theyre making a difference in somebodys life.

Sheftel-Gomes is a longtime member at the Reform S.F. synagogue, where she helps to run the HaMotzi program, a food-assistance initiative started in 1993. Every Sunday, she and her volunteers meet to prepare more than 100 meals for Compass Family Services, the San Francisco Womens Shelter and various community members in need. Once a month, Sheftel-Gomes also heads the Chicken Soupers meal program. Founded in 1988 to support those with AIDS, it now feeds the community at large.

We have an obligation to do this, she said. Thats our covenant with God.

Sherith Israel is not uncommon in its commitment to social action. Nearly all synagogues have similar projects in one form or another, whether its starting a community garden or building a homeless shelter from the ground up. For many Jews, social action is a mitzvah and an important part of their religious practice. Across the Bay Area, different communities have committed to a range of social justice issues to better themselves, their fellow humans and the world.

One of the projects at Or Shalom Jewish Community, a Reconstructionist synagogue in San Francisco, is called Sanctuary Or Shalom. A congregation-wide initiative to support immigrants in California, its reach is broad: accompanying people to their immigration hearings, protesting outside Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) centers and calling elected officials to advocate for legislative change.

Social action is part of the fabric at Or Shalom. In fact, social action is one of just five tabs on the homepage. Clicking on it leads to the Safety Net Action Committee (dedicated to advocating for universal health care), the Environmental Action Committee, and the Interfaith Action Committee (which works with Faith in Action Bay Area on issues of voter engagement, gun control and housing reform). Another project was a 2016 listening campaign that asked congregants to suggest social issues they wanted the synagogue to address before the election, and myriad topics were raised.

Leslie Roffman, a longtime member and the chair of the Sanctuary Or Shalom project, said this kind of work is part of how her community practices Judaism. Social justice is at our core, she said.

Similarly, at Bnai Israel Jewish Center in Petaluma, the social action team doesnt have just one project it has many.

Congregants are part of a rotation that helps run the Interfaith Food Pantry at Elim Lutheran Church in Petaluma. Members of the Social Action Committee have taken up a green mitzvah to reduce the synagogues carbon footprint, removing cleaning supplies, paper towels and anything else at the synagogue that can be replaced with more environmentally friendly alternatives. And at Hanukkah, the independent synagogue works with Jewish Family and Childrens Services in Santa Rosa to provide gifts for children in low-income families.

This month, volunteers held a drive to collect school supplies for the children of farm workers, collecting notebooks, art materials and water bottles to be distributed to children across the state. Last year, they donated more than 300 filled backpacks.

Abbey Levine, co-chair of the Social Action Committee and executive vice president of the Bnai Israel board, said her fellow congregants are always ready and eager to become involved in a new project. Social justice work is a fundamental part of Judaism and being Jewish, she said.

I think that as Jews and as survivors of so many things ourselves, to repair the world is really critical.

In Berkeley, members of Modern Orthodox Congregation Beth Israel have been volunteering at a local mens shelter for more than 15 years. Before the pandemic, they would cook and serve food to the shelters guests once a month. For now, with the kitchen closed for safety concerns, the program is on hiatus, although the shul still supports the shelter with donations and other supplies.

The popular program has helped connect Beth Israel to the larger community, said Maharat Victoria Sutton, who retired from the shul Aug. 1 after eight years as director of education and community engagement. She was among the many volunteers, and she brought her young daughter along to help out.

Chesed is a foundation of Judaism, she said. Often translated as lovingkindness, chesed means giving oneself fully, with love and compassion.

Meanwhile, the Tikkun Olam leadership team at Congregation Beth El in Berkeley has spent two years focused on the Care First Community Coalition, an organization dedicated to reducing the arrests and incarceration of people with mental health issues. Congregants at the Reform synagogue have lobbied the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to earmark funds to improve services for mentally ill people, and in 2021 the board approved a Care First, Jails Last policy resolution and set aside $8 million for services. Theyve been involved at every stage, helping to draft budget recommendations, facilitate connections between Care First and other local organizations, and publicize the coalitions mission.

The challenge is how do we bring this [mission] forward in a way that makes [Alameda County residents] care and helps them feel connected, said Becki Cohn-Vars, co-chair of the Tikkun Olam leadership team. The Care First Community Coalition is lobbying the county to again set aside funds for these services for another year.

Rabbi Rebekah Stern, Beth Els senior rabbi, said for her, like others, social justice work is integral to her Judaism. You cant read the Books of the Prophets without understanding that outcry against injustice is core to who we are as Jews, she said.

At Kehilla Community Synagogue in Piedmont, a commitment to social action is at the core of its mission statement. In 2017, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, congregants formed the Belonging and Allyship Project, an initiative to address white supremacy and racial justice internally within Kehilla, at all levels of our organization and community, according to the website.

Ruthie Levin, a Kehilla congregant for more than 16 years, oversees the Belonging and Allyship Project as the synagogues people of color organizer. A Black Jew, Levin had experienced her fair share of prejudice, both within the Kehilla community and out.

What we want to work on is ways of improving how folks of color experience Kehilla moving forward, Levin said.

Kehilla now hosts a number of affinity groups to foster discussions on shifting focus away from whiteness and white supremacy in the community. A diversity, equity and inclusion team has been formed to offer training and advice to synagogue leaders. Levin wants to see everyone involved.

Its one thing to show up at synagogue and listen to a sermon and hear [tikkun olam] talked about in passing, she said. But to really embody it, in all that you do thats my goal.

At Peninsula Temple Beth El, Covid threw a wrench into its plans for an ambitious green initiative, launched shortly before the pandemic started. Following a listening campaign at the San Mateo Reform synagogue, where climate change emerged as members greatest concern, leaders of its Rodfei Tzedek (pursuing justice) team began focusing on steps they could take to reduce the synagogues carbon footprint.

PTBE members have started a community garden at the shul, donating what is grown there to Samaritan House; attended rallies for climate justice; and plan to install solar panels to help power the synagogue with clean energy. Yet the campaign has been different from what leadership imagined, said Marla Becker, one of the team members. Their vision for environmental justice work was based in group action, in the community with others. But the pandemic-led shift has not diminished their commitment to the cause, Becker said.

Theres a quote from the Talmud that we refer to often: Do not be daunted by the enormity of the worlds grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it, she said. We really believe that.

At Congregation Beth Jacob in Redwood City, social action has always been a priority, said Rabbi Nathaniel Ezray, who has been at the Conservative synagogue for 28 years. The communitys most recent work has been with United Hatzalah, a volunteer-based, free-of-charge emergency medical service throughout Israel.

Beth Jacob supports United Hatzalah through fundraising and spreading awareness about the organization. Bill Futornick, the synagogues ritual director, also leads trips for congregants to visit United Hatzalahs headquarters in Jerusalem and see its work in action. Ezray called the experience of visiting the sites in Israel that Beth Jacob supports transformative.

Social action is fundamental to the practice of Judaism, he said, and has been from the beginning.

I think that when we have a religion that talks about basic human dignity, about connecting our core story of having been slaves with the obligation to help others who are enslaved, when we have a series of values that say you may not stand idly by, when we define ourselves by loving our fellow human those things all create an imperative to act when somebody is suffering, Ezray said.

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Ethical Theories Summarized & Explained … – Objectivism In Depth

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The purpose of this article is to explain different ethical theories and compare and contrast them in a way thats clear and easy for students to understand. There are three major categories of ethical systems that students typically learn about in philosophy classes: consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics. I will describe all of them briefly, then describe each one of them in more detail, pointing out their defining features and major variants. Ill then discuss the nature of Objectivist Ethical Egoism and how it compares and contrasts with each of these types of ethics.

The Ethical Theories: Brief Summary

Consequentialism names a type of ethical theory that judges human practices, like actions or rules, based on their consequences. Human practices that produce good consequences are morally right, while ones that produce bad consequences are morally wrong. Roughly speaking, a consequentialist says that you should do certain things, because those actions produce good consequences. By far the most common historical variantof consequentialism is Classic Utilitarianism. Classic Utilitarianism was advocated by such philosophers as Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.

Deontology names a type of ethical theory that judges human practicesbased on whether they are consistent with certain duties that the theory holds as intrinsically moral. Consequences are irrelevant to a fully deontological theory. Deontological theories tend to focus on the motives of actions, and whether a given action was motivated by duty or something else. In many deontological theories, motivation by moral duty itselfrather than other factors, like self-interestis essential to an actions being morally right. An advocate of deontology says that you should do certain things, just because those things are the right things to do, (they align with duty.)The originator of deontology as a formal theoretical framework was the German philosopher, Immanuel Kant. Later advocates have included W.D. Ross, Robert Nozick and Christine Korsgaard.

Virtue ethics names a type of ethical theory that takes virtues of character, rather than individual actions or rules, as the most fundamentalethical concepts. Moral virtues like honesty, courage, integrity, temperance and generosity are takento be inherently good first, then actions are evaluated based on whether they express those virtues. That is, do the actions match what a virtuous person would do in those circumstances? Basically, a virtue ethicist says that you should do certain things, because they are examples of good character. Modern virtue ethics takes inspiration from the moral theories of Ancient Greek philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics, (especially Aristotle.) Prominent advocates include Christine Swanton, Rosalind Hursthouse and Alasdair MacIntyre.

Objectivist Ethical Egoism, unlike the other terms here, names one specific theory. It takes human life as the abstract or general standard of moral evaluation. Roughly speaking, that which promotes human life is the good, that which damages or destroys it is the bad. Because Objectivism, the whole philosophy from which this ethics springs, views human life as fundamentally individualneeding to be lived, maintained and enhanced by each individual through his own actionObjectivist Ethical Egoism (OEE) takes each individuals own life as his own effective standard of value. That which promotes the individuals own life overall is the good for him, that which damages or destroys his own life is the bad for him.

But OEE does not simply say that actions that end up promoting your life are moral, and actions that end up damaging it are immoral. Objectivism holds that the fundamental job of morality is to guide human choices in the context in which they aremade. Objectivism accepts the obvious truth that humans are not omniscient, and so cannot predict all the exact consequences of their actions in advance. It says that the way humans gain general or conditional knowledgeknowledge thatcan be applied to predict future consequencesis by forming rational principles from empirical observation and experience. In the field of morality, this means derivingrational moral principles from experience. These principles are general statementsof fact that are then applied to particular situations to determine a proper course of action. Thus, OEE says that a chosen action is moral, if and only if it represents a proper application of a life-promoting moral principle to the acting individuals current circumstances.

Among the principles that OEE holds as true are the idea that the rational self-interests of individuals do not conflict, and that initiating force against others (murder, slavery, theft, etc.) is destructive not only to the victims lives, but also to the perpetrators.

Basically, Objectivist Ethical Egoism says that you should do certain things, because those things actually support and/or enrich your own life.OEE is Ayn Rands highly distinctive theory that is widely misinterpreted by academic philosophers and the general public. It has been advocated and explained by such philosophers as Leonard Peikoff, Tara Smith, Allan Gotthelf and Gregory Salmieri.I will discuss OEEs relationship with the three ethical categories, and whether it can be considered a memberof any of them, when I discuss it in more detail later in this essay.

Consequentialism

Jeremy Bentham

Consequentialism is a category that includes those ethical theories that judge human practices as morally right or wrong based on their consequences. (Practice here is used very broadly to includea specific action, a rule guiding actions, a motive guiding actions, or a virtue of character.) Consequentialist theories say that morally right practicesare those that tend to increase or maximize whatever is inherentlymorally good. (1) If apractice tends to produce more moral goodness than any alternative practicewould have, then it is a morally right practice. Consequentialist philosophers differ on whether practices that tend to increase that which is morally good, but increase it less than an available alternative practice, can be called morally right. Are practices that produce less goodness wrongpractices, or merely sub-optimal but permissible rightpractices? In any case, for a pure consequentialist, the practice that tends to maximize moral goodness is the morally best practice.

There are many different types of consequentialism that people can adopt. Consequentialist theories can be divided into types in threemajorways. The first way is in what exactly it is about human practices that is being morally evaluated. A theory can evaluate individual actionsthis is called act consequentialism. Or a theory can evaluate the rules by which someone actsthis is called rule consequentialism. Or a theory can evaluate the motives by which someone actsthis is called motive consequentialism. Or a theory can evaluate the character traitsone demonstrates when one actsthis is called virtue consequentialism.

The secondmajor way consequentialist theories can be divided is by whose consequences count as morally relevant. That is, what beings are directly morally relevant in evaluating the consequences of a practice.Is it all conscious creatures? Is it all humans? Is it a subgroup of humans? Is it only the agent? Or is it all humans except the agent? Respectively, these choices among beneficiaries can be called broad consequentialism, human-centered consequentialism, group chauvinism, consequentialist egoism, and consequentialist altruism. (2)

The thirdmajor way of dividing consequentialist theories, as far as I can tell, only makes sense when applied to act consequentialism. Act consequentialist theories can be dividedby the sort of consequences that are relevant to the evaluation of an act. Are actual consequences the relevant factor? Or is it the consequences that analysis would show are most probable at the time of the decision to act?Or is it the consequences that the acting person (the agent) actuallyforesaw at the time he acted? Or is it the consequences that were reasonably foreseeable by the agent? Or is it the consequences that the agent intended to occur? (These different sorts of consequences could be called different epistemic statuses.)

The reason philosophers may want to consider the alternatives to actual consequences as the relevant type, is that people are not omniscient and cant predict the future consequences of actions perfectly. So it doesnt necessarily seem right to morally judge a decision, that was made at a given time and with a limited state of knowledge, by all of the actual consequences that followed. It would seem that one is saying that a person whose action produced bad consequences due to factors outside his possible knowledge was acting immorally. So, with actual consequentialism, people will sometimes be judged as acting immorally because they are not infalliblepredictors of the future. This tends to go against common-sense ideas of what morality demands.

Once we select an option from each of the three above lists, we have a pretty good idea of what sort of consequentialist theory were discussing. But we still havent narrowed our selection down to a single theory. For that we need a separate theory of moral goodness, more technically called a value theory or axiology.

The ethical approachof consequentialism depends on the notion of producing morally good consequences. But the consequentialist approach, by itself, does not answer the question of what the moral good is. So specificconsequentialist theories are partly defined by what they believe to be morally good.

Moral goodness may be identified with pleasure, preference satisfaction, justice, beauty, knowledge, wisdom, honor, peace, etc. Or, in the case of what is called negative consequentialism, moral goodness may be associated with the lack of something. This could be pain, injustice, ugliness, etc.

Historically, the most common version of consequentialism wasClassic Utilitarianism. Classic Utilitarianism (CU) defines moral goodness as pleasurespecifically, the aggregate pleasure of all sentient creatures. This pleasure is also called subjective happiness. So a common statement encapsulating utilitarianism is that it advocates for the greatest happiness of the greatest number. In this theory, pain is held to be a negation of pleasure, so it would be counted as subtracting fromaggregate pleasure. This function of pleasure minus pain is generally called utility.

Classic Utilitarianism is a form of act consequentialism, soit is a persons individual actions that are judged morally as good or bad, according to whether their consequences tend toincrease or decrease utility. CU also takes the actual consequences for net utility as the morally relevant kind, rather than probable, foreseen, or intended consequences at the time of the action. And it clearly takes universal consequences as the relevant kind, since it evaluates actions according to their effects on aggregate human and animalutility.

Classic utilitarianism was advocatedwith some variationsby philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill and Henry Sidgwick. (It should be noted that the distinction between act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism was not well defined at the time these philosophers were active. So they were not explicit nor necessarily perfectly consistent about choosing one over the other.)

Act Consequentialism Table

Rule Consequentialism Table

Virtue Consequentialism Table

Motive Consequentialism Table

If we alter one parameter of CU, we can get a different theory. Instead of aggregate utility of all sentient creatures, we could count only the utility of the agent as morally relevant. This would generate a theory we could call Classic Utility Egoism.(As well see in more detail, this form of egoism is very different from Objectivist Ethical Egoism.)

If we also switch act consequentialism for virtue consequentialism, we get a category we could call Virtue Utility Egoism. The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus would fit into this category rather nicely, since he regarded the pleasure of the agent as the good, and virtue as instrumental to that pleasure.

If we switch Classic Utilitarianism from act consequentialism to ruleconsequentialism, while keeping its other categories and its axiology, we get a theory that could be referred to as Classic RuleUtilitarianism.

Finally, if we take CU and only change its axiology, we get a different theory. If we no longer consider classic utility (pleasure minus pain) to be morally good, but instead consider the satisfaction of the preferences of conscious organisms to be good,we get an approximation of Peter Singers contemporary preference utilitarianism. (Peter Singer is a well-known Australian moral philosopher who teaches at Princeton University. It should be noted that he was a preference utilitarian prior to 2014, when he announced that he had switched to Classic Utilitarianism. See Footnote (3).)

It should be noted that different forms of consequentialism can be categorized and distinguished based on other criteria that I have not mentioned here. Most of these criteria can be considered part of the theories axiologiestheir varying explanations of what ismorally good. There are pluralistic theories, that hold that moral goodness cannot be reduced to one factor, like utility, but that it consists of more than one irreducible component. And there are also theories that attempt to hybridize different types of consequentialism with each other, or hybridize consequentialism with other types of ethical theories. For more detail on the various forms of consequentialism, you can see the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) entry on Consequentialism.

Deontology

Immanuel Kant

A deontological theory judges human practices as morally right or wrong based on whether they are consistent with certain duties that the theory holds as intrinsically moral.

As a classof formal ethical theories, deontology has its origins in the ethical approach of the 18th-Century German philosopher, Immanuel Kant. Kant described two types of ethical rules or imperatives: hypothetical and categorical. Hypothetical imperatives are rules that you follow in order to attain some goal. For example, if you always tell the truth to good people in order to have authentic, healthy, win-win relationships with them, this would be a hypothetical imperative: a policy for the sake of a goal. On the other hand, a categorical imperative is a rule thats followed for the sake of no other goal. It is followed just because a moral law commands it. For example, if you never lie to anyone, simply because its the right thing to do, regardless of any consequencesgood or badthat might follow, then you would be acting on a categorical imperative.

Kant believed that only categorical imperatives could properly be considered part of morality. And he argued that there was one and only one such imperative that could be rationally justified, which, in Kants philosophy, is called the Categorical Imperative. Kant first stated this rule as: Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law. This moral law, according to Kant, was supposed to prohibit murder, theft, lying to others, cheating, suicide, etc. Those acts that could be seen to violate the Categorical Imperative were morally prohibited, regardless of any good consequences that might be gained from committing them, or any bad consequences that might be avoided by committing them. (4) Kant held that, in order to have moral worththat is, to be good and praiseworthy from a moral standpointactions must be motivated by obedience to the moral law, (duty.) If someone does something in accordance with the moral lawsay telling the truthbut is motivated by the desire to have good relationships or to avoid being convicted of fraud, the action is not a morally rightaction. The action must be performed not merely according to duty, but from duty.

Some early followers of Kant, such as Friedrich Schiller, as well as many later critics up through the mid-20th Century, interpreted Kant as holding that actions must be motivated purely by duty to be unambiguously morally worthy or right. Most commentatorsfound this requirement implausible and overly austere. Starting around 1980, the dominant interpretation shifted, following an influential paperby Barbara Herman. It is more typical now to interpret Kant as saying that an action having other motives can have moral worth, if the persons motive of duty would be sufficient in itself to produce the proper action, and thus stands ready to override all other motives when they would produce an action not in accordance with the Categorical Imperative.

Theorists of deontology since Kant have taken his basic approachi.e. treating categorical moral duties as fundamental to normative ethicsand adaptedit to formulate their ownmoral theories. In the early-to-mid-20th Century, W.D. Ross developed a moral theory that, instead of appealing to one categorical imperative, appealed to five irreducibledeontic principlesthat were supposed to govern a persons obligations. From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, these are:

a duty of fidelity, that is, a duty to keep our promises; a duty of reparation or a duty to act to right a previous wrong we have done; a duty of gratitude, or a duty to return services to those from whom we have in the past accepted benefits; a duty to promote a maximum of aggregate good; and finally a duty of non-maleficence, or a duty not to harm others.

Ross supplemented his duty to promote a maximum of aggregate good with statements of what he considered to be intrinsic goods:virtue, knowledge, justice, and the pleasure of others, (not of oneself.) So this makes his ethical system a sort of combination of deontology and consequentialism: deontology at the base, with consequentialism added on as one of the duties.

SinceKants deontology includes only one irreducible categorical imperative, it can be called monist. Rosss deontology, in contrast, has more than one irreducible (basic) categorical imperative, so it can be called pluralist. (5)

Kants and Rosss ethical theories are both deontological theories that focus on the general obligations of the agent as a moral agent. (This means that individuals have duties to themselves based ontheir own agency.) These are called agent-centered deontological theories. On the other hand, some philosophers have theorized that human rights can be based on deontological imperatives. They see an agents rights as irreducible moral constraints on the actions of others toward that agent. (So this means thatindividuals have duties to others based on the agency of those others.) These sorts of theories are called patient-centered deontology.This sort of deontology is most oftendiscussedand advocated by academic libertarians, both right and left. Notable sourcesincludeRobert Nozick, Eric Mack,Michael Otsuka, and Hillel Steiner.

On the level of particular duties, bothagent-centered and patient-centered dutiesduties based on ones own agencyand duties based on the agency of othersare generally understood as being in the Kantian tradition, and are oftencontained together in deontologicaltheories. The difference between the two types of theories lies in where the overallfocus of the theory is: duties to self or duties to others. Typically, agent-centered theories like Kants include patient-centered duties, while patient-centered theories like Nozicks often dont include agent-centered duties.

Virtue Ethics

Aristotle

Instead of focusing primarily on the consequences of actions or duty fulfillment, virtue ethics takes virtuesqualities of moral characteras fundamental to the ethical life.

Modern virtue ethics got its start when Elizabeth Anscombe wrote her article, Modern Moral Philosophy in 1958. In this article, Anscombe expressed dissatisfaction with the utilitarian and deontological ethical theories of her day. She suggested that the ethical theories of the Ancient Greeks, such as those of Plato and Aristotle, could bethe most plausible and satisfactory ones, once they were more theoretically developed.

In the academic revival of virtue ethics that followed, Aristotles ethics became the most popular model for the basic concerns of the virtue ethicists. So to understand modern virtue ethics, it will help tremendously to understand Aristotles ethical views.

For Aristotle, a virtue is an excellence of a persons functioning in a certain area of life. It is a stable character trait that governs a persons actions in some respect. It is not a superficial habit or routine, but permeates every aspect of a persons character, including his emotions, desires and intuitions. The Greek term for such a virtue or excellence of character is arete, and this term is still sometimes used by virtue ethicists today.

Aristotle holds that every virtue is a meanan average or middle groundbetween two extremes which are both vices. So, for example, Aristotle believed that courage was a virtue and was a mean between the vices of cowardice and rashness. The virtue of courage consists of having the proper amount of the quality of confidence in ones character. Too little confidence, and the person is a coward. Too much confidence, and he is rash and foolish. In the practice of indulging in pleasures, temperance is the right amount of indulgence, where licentiousness is too much and insensibility is too little. Other qualities that Aristotle considers virtues, include truthfulness, magnanimity, modesty, and pride. (Pride meansactually being deserving of great things and knowing that one is, not unjustified arrogance.)

So how does one know the boundaries between too much or too little and the right amount? Well, Aristotle didnt think that ethics was an exact science, so he didnt think ethics could answer this directly. Aristotle thought that, in order to act within the boundaries of arete, a personneeds practical wisdom. The Greek term for this faculty isphronesis. (6)

A person who achieves virtue orarete in all the various areas of life, arrives at a condition often called happiness or flourishing. The Greek term for this condition is eudaimonia. Though eudaimonia is sometimes translated as happiness, it does not merely denote an emotional state or subjective feeling.A person in a state of eudaimonia is, according to Aristotle, living in a way that fulfills his natural potentialas a human being. He is living in harmony with his essential nature as a rational animal. Thus, eudaimonia is supposed to be a holistic condition of a person, potentially observable by others. (That is, eudaimonia is supposed to be an objective condition that encompasses both mindand body.)

Virtue ethicists today generally take this basic approach to ethics and make modifications. For virtue ethicists, eudaimonia is not a logically distinct consequence of being virtuous, but in fact consists of being virtuous. Anyone who thought eudaimonia could be treated as a distinct consequence ofarete, would not be a true virtue ethicist, but a virtue consequentialist, with eudaimonia as the moral good. So when a true virtue ethicist is asked what eudaimonia is, their full answer must include their favoredvirtues as being at least partially constitutive of it. This makes eudaimonia a moralized or value-laden concept, according to virtue ethicists, which must be derived from the virtues. Here, the virtues cannot be derived as the causal means toeudaimonia, because eudaimoniajust is the exercise of all the virtues, (perhaps with other conditionsadded.)

Virtue ethical theories can be divided into those thatare universalist and those thatare culturally contextualist. Universalist theories see virtues as applicable in the same basic form to all human beings, regardless of culture. These theories are like Aristotles in this respect. Proponents of universalist theories include Philippa Foot and Rosalind Hursthouse. Cultural contextualist theories see virtues as taking different forms depending oncultural tradition. Even if the virtues in different cultural contexts have the same name, like honesty or justice, they may well be different in theiressential content. The main proponent of this sort of theory has been Alasdair MacIntyre. (7)

There are various different views within virtue ethics about what the exact nature and meaningof the virtues is, and there are sometheorists whotakeinspiration for their theories from Plato and other ancients. Modern virtue ethics is a relatively young movement in the modern academic world. So it hasnt been explored, labeled and categorized to the degree that consequentialism and deontology have.

Objectivist Ethical Egoism

Objectivist Ethical Egoism (OEE) holds that human life is the abstract standard of value in morality. For each individual, who is making moral decisions and acting, this means his own life is his own standard of right and wrong.

OEE was developed by Ayn Rand, and further explicated by philosophers such as Leonard Peikoff, Harry Binswanger, Tara Smith, Darryl Wright, Allan Gotthelf and Gregory Salmieri.

OEE arises in the context of the whole fundamental philosophy that is Objectivism: that is, the Objectivist metaphysics and epistemology. OEE is the application of Objectivist epistemology to the fundamental problem of how to live as a human being in reality as it is.

Principles, Human Nature, and Morality

Objectivist epistemology holds that, in order to successfully predict the future (not exactly, but within certain parameters) human beings must observe the world with their senses and develop principles by reasoning on the basis of those observations. This holds whether the prediction is made in the fieldof the natural sciences, the humanities, or morality.

Rational principles are not mere rules. They are general statements of fact that, when combined with a situation and a goal, yield a normative guideline. So, for example, if I have a person on the surface of theEarth, the Newtonian principle of gravity tells me that I can put that person into a circular Earth orbit by launching him to a certain height at a certain speed and in a certain direction. If my goal is to do this, then I have my basic normative guideline: I should launch him to that height, speed and direction.

If you recall the section on deontology, you should recognize this sort of normative guideline as a hypothetical imperative, in Kants terminology: a normative guideline followed for the sake of a goal. According to Objectivism, all genuinely normative guidelinesthat is, all normative guidelines based in realityare hypothetical. This holds whether the normative guideline is in morality or some other field. Objectivism rejects categorical imperatives altogether as baseless.

As with physics and space flight, principles of chemistry normatively guide individuals action for successful chemical synthesis and characterization, principles of psychology guide action in the pursuit of mental health, principles of electronics guide action in the making of televisions and computers, etc. So what do principles of morality guide action in achieving? According to Objectivism, principles of morality guide action in the maintenance and promotion of ones own life, as a human being.

I hasten to addthat life, as it is used here, is not equivalent to being biologically living by having a beating heart, and promoting my life does not mean striving to maximize the length of time myheart is beating. Being comatose or in a vegetative state until one dies is not life in the relevant sense, and it cannot be sustained beyond a few days without the intervention of other humans, who are actually living and sustaining themselves as humans. The life as a human being for which moral principles are required, is a life of conscious value pursuit: that is, it is the deliberate choosing and thoughtful pursuit of goals that sustain oneself.

Humans cant survive like plants do, by rooting themselves into the ground and drawing nutrients from the soil. Nor can they survive by sheer emotions, drives and instincts, like other animals do. To survive for any significant length of time, humans have to think, plan, and obtain what they need using their minds. At the most rudimentary level, this can mean making tools and weapons, hunting animals and gathering fruit and vegetables. Or, atincreasingly advanced stages, it can mean subsistence farming, or producing and trading artisanal goods, meat and farm produce, or it can mean a modern industrial society with a division of labor between industrial farmers, steel producers, car manufacturers, transportation services, etc.

Humans survive by pursuing and achievingobjective values. Objective here does not mean mind-independent or agent-independent. It means based on facts of reality and not a matter of faith, personal whim or arbitrary convention. Objectivism understands that values are relational to each individual, but also that the relationship is a matter of fact, not a matter of faith or whims.

So, as a simple example, food is valuable to the person who is hungry. It only directly supports his life if he is the one to eat it. Food is not valuable in itself, apart from the needs of the hungry person. Yet it is not a matter of faith, whims, or convention that people need to eat to live; it is a matter of fact. (SeeValues Are Relational, But Not Subjective for a more detailed explanation of this point.)

The characteristic and necessary mode of human survival, which is self-sustaining action (i.e. pursuit of objective values) on the basis of thought, is the foundation of an objective account of human happiness, in Objectivism. This happiness is not merely a subjective assessment of ones own psychological state, but a state of consciousnessthat is the psychological aspectof living ones life as a human being. It is the experience of living well as a human being which can be called flourishing or, using Aristotles terminology, eudaimonia.

So here we see that Objectivism identifies eudaimonia with successful and sustainable life. It provides a solid theoretical foundation for Aristotles ultimate good. It clearly explains what eudaimonia means and gives it content in a way that is not dependent on assorted virtues of character as its irreducible foundation. It thus avoids the logical circle of: What are the virtues? The character traits that combine under auspiciousconditions to produce eudaimonia. What is eudaimonia? The state that is the combination of the virtues under auspicious conditions. For Objectivism, happiness is the mental experience of eudaimonia, which is surviving as a human, par excellence. It is the mental experience of engagingto the fullest of ones capacityin the sorts of actions that enable humans to survive and be healthy in the long term.

At this point, lets take a moment to observe an important issue:Earlier, I said that principles of morality guide action in the maintenance and promotion of ones own life. Yet all true principles can potentially be helpful in supporting and enhancing an individuals life. Principles of physics and electronics can enable the development of life-saving medical technology, the deployment of satellites for instant long-distance communication, etc. Principles of chemistry can enable the development of life-saving and life-enhancing pharmaceuticals. Principles of psychology can be used to improvea persons psychological health and help them lead a more fulfilled life. Etc.

So what actually differentiates moral principles from the principles of other fields? The Objectivist answer is first to note that moral principles are one subcategoryofphilosophical principles. Then we say that what differentiates philosophical principles is that, unlike the principles of other fields, the principles of philosophymust be utilized in some capacity by every human being, in the course of living a full human life. Morality is the branch of philosophy that deals withall freely chosen human actions. Basic moral principles apply to every free choice of action any person might make. So while principles of physics may be inapplicable and useless for a psychologist treating a patient, and principles of chemistry may be inapplicable for a student studying music, moral principles are applicable for everyone in virtually every waking moment, in every aspect of life where they are not being coercedby others. (8)

Moral principles are the principles that apply to all freely chosen actions as such, not just actions in the particular field of applied physics, or of music composition, or of applied psychology. Notice here that Im saying that normative morality is analogous to the applied fields of knowledge: applied physics, applied music theory, and applied psychology, but on a broader scale of application in ones life. So what is the field of knowledge that morality applies? The field of knowledge is fundamental human nature, which, in Objectivism, is understood to be a branch of metaphysics. In Objectivism, morality is applied metaphysics. It is the application of metaphysics to the chosengoal of living ones own flourishing, happy life. (9)

It was principles of fundamental human naturemetaphysicsthat I was discussing when I was explaining the concept of life and how humans cant survivelike plants or other animals, but must use their minds to live.

So now that we have a general idea of the nature of morality, in the Objectivist view, and moralitysconnection to Objectivist metaphysics and epistemology, lets discuss the content of Objectivist Ethical Egoism in more detail.

The Cardinal Values

So what does an individual need in order to engage in the sorts of actions that enable survival as a human in thelong-term? Objectivism holds that three cardinal values are needed by everyone in every waking moment: reason, purpose and self-esteem. The fundamental need of reason should be clear from what wasdiscussed earlier about human nature. It is the most basic value required for human life. One should do things that improve ones ability to reason, such as gaining knowledge and learning how to think. One should not do things that destroy ones ability to reason, such as abusing drugs or alcohol, or accepting things on sheer blind faith. One should avoid contradictions in ones thinking, since holding contradictory beliefs is the violation of reason.

Purpose is an aspect of reason, properly conceived. Holding it as a value emphasizes the need to treat reasoning as a means to goals, and not merely as an end in itself. Reasoning that is purely idle contemplation, with no further life-serving goal in view, is a detriment to life. (Please note here that intellectual goals can serve ones life in very indirect ways, as in many cases of increasing ones knowledge of highly abstract, theoretical topics.) In the Objectivist view, reasoning must be directed toward the production of knowledge that is ultimately used in reality in some fashion, in order to be worthwhile and genuine. All human thought and actions must be organized around some sort of reality-based purpose.

Self-esteem is the judgmentof ones own life and self as valuable. On the most basic level, humans need some amount of self-esteem for purposeful, life-sustaining action. This self-esteem is acquired through the judgmentexplicit or implicitthat one is capable of achieving happiness, and the knowledge that one fully intends to pursue that goal. A fuller self-esteem is gained as one actually achievesrational goalsand develops good character.

The Objectivist Virtues

According to Objectivism, these values are the fundamental goals one should pursue. They encompass many particular careers, hobbies, relationships and lifestyles. The fundamental means by which an individual pursues these goals are virtues. According to Objectivism, virtues are not fundamentally traits of character, (as virtue ethicists hold.) They are intellectual principles guiding action. If an individual consistently applies these principles in his life, then they can be automatized and can be said to form a basic part of the individuals character.

There is one fundamental virtue, according to Objectivism: rationality. Rationality is acting in accordance with ones reasoning to the best of ones ability. Being rational does not mean that an individual will be infallible. A fully rational individual may make mistakes in regard to facts, as well as in regard to methods of thinking (logic.) (10) An irrational person is one who doesnt consistently strive to be correct in every issue significant to his life. Irrationality is willfully turning away from facts and logic as ones guides to action. This may be done openly, through an appeal to something other than reason as a guide, such as faith, sheer intuition, emotion, or instinct, or it may be hidden by rationalizations, (thinking processes corrupted by emotionalism and/or dogma.)

The virtue of rationality, on its own, is very general, and so doesnt give people a lot of guidance in how to live moral lives. Thus, Objectivism breaks rationality down into six component virtues: honesty, independence, productiveness, integrity, justice and pride. Ayn Rand described each of these virtues as the recognition of certain fundamental facts about reality, human consciousness, and ones own nature as a human being:

Independence is your recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape itthat no substitute can do your thinking, as no pinch-hitter can live your life

Honesty is the recognition of the fact that the unreal is unreal and can have no value, that neither love nor fame nor cash is a value if obtained by fraudthat an attempt to gain a value by deceiving the mind of others is an act of raising your victims to a position higher than reality, where you become a pawn of their blindness, a slave of their non-thinking and their evasions, while their intelligence, their rationality, their perceptiveness become the enemies you have to dread and flee

Integrity is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake your consciousness, just as honesty is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake existencethat man is an indivisible entity, an integrated unit of two attributes: of matter and consciousness, and that he may permit no breach between body and mind, between action and thought, between his life and his convictions

Justice is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake the character of men as you cannot fake the character of nature

Productiveness isyour recognition of the fact that you choose to livethat productive work is the process by which mans consciousness controls his existence, a constant process of acquiring knowledge and shaping matter to fit ones purpose

Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of mans values, it has to be earned

(Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, (50th Anniversary Ed.) p. 932-934)

Of course, when Rand says you cannot fake she does not mean that its impossible to attempt to fake. She means that you cannot fake and hope to live fully as a human being. Faking puts you on a path to self-destruction. The applicability of the virtues, as with all of morality, depends on an individual making the choice to live, in some form, explicit or implicit. The alternative to the choice to live, according to Objectivism, is to slip into self-destruction. Such self-destruction may be very slow, very fast, or somewhere in between, but if one does not choose to livethat is, to pursue self-sustaining values rationally, keeping ones own life as the ultimate goal of ones actionsthe decay toward death is inevitable:

Man has been called a rational being, but rationality is a matter of choiceand the alternative his nature offers him is: rational being or suicidal animal. Man has to be manby choice; he has to hold his life as a valueby choice; he has to learn to sustain itby choice; he has to discover the values it requires and practice his virtuesby choice. A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality.

(Ayn Rand, The Objectivist Ethics in The Virtue of Selfishness, p. 23)

Lets look at a hypothetical example to see how the Objectivist virtues are necessary means tothe achievement of values.Lets say theres a young woman who has studied Objectivism and who wants to become an architect. She attends college atanarchitectural school.

She is honest and doesnt cheat, since this would undermine her competence as an architect and expose her to the risk of being caught and discredited and/or punished. Shestudies diligently to follow through with her plans, so she exhibits integrity. She is working toward a self-supporting life as an architect, so she exemplifies productiveness.Shes ambitious in her coursework, she doesnt try to skate by with the minimum, and she doesnt apologize for her excellence to others who may resent her for making them look bad. So she demonstratespride. She doesnt try to muddle throughby imitating or copying others, or by relying on them to do all the work in group projects. So she shows independence. She selects her study partners according to their ambition and ability in the class, rather than their need for help. To the extent she can, she selects her instructors according to her best judgment of their teaching abilities. So she acts onjustice.

Now if we contrast this woman with one who exhibits the opposite qualities, it should be fairly apparent who will tend to become an architect in a sustainable way, (what we would typically call a successful architect.) Someone who lacks the above virtues may be granted the temporary illusion of success by making friends and going along with a certain social crowd. But regardless of any false esteem granted by others, the reality will be that a continually dishonest, lazy and unambitious person will not actually be a successful architect.

The Harmony of Rational Interests

Objectivism holds that there are no conflicts of interests among rational individuals. The interests of rational individuals do not consist of short-range, out-of-context desires (whims.) Rather, they consist of goals that are the result of careful thought and planning. This means that rational interests cannot be served by pursuing self-contradictory goals, or effects without the requisite causes.

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Ethical Theories Summarized & Explained ... - Objectivism In Depth

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Human Rights in the Crosshairs – Just Security

Posted: at 1:37 pm

The human rights movement is in the crosshairs. As democratic backsliding has spread across the globe, human rights are increasingly seen as losing or having failed.

When I embarked on my career more than three decades ago, human rights were seen to matter. I first went to Central America in 1987 to document killings by US-backed armed forces, right-wing death squads, and left-wing guerrillas. At the time, human rights were part of the zeitgeist of US foreign policy and media attention. After I co-authored a report on numerous breaches of labor rights in El Salvador, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, President Reagans former UN Ambassador, felt compelled to respond in the Washington Post in order to shore up congressional backing for continued military and economic aid. When I monitored Myanmars elections in 1989 (the first of Aung San Suu Kyis victories stolen from her) and investigated summary executions and torture in Indias Kashmir and Punjab regions in 1990, rights to vote, to live, to enjoy physical security carried weight in international diplomacy. Our findings were of interest to states. A few years later, when I oversaw human rights monitoring for the OSCE in Bosnia following the Dayton peace agreement and then litigated cases at the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Roma victims of violence and discrimination from several countries, rights lay at the core of Europes broader political project aimed at reuniting the continent in the aftermath of the Cold War.

How times have changed.

In recent years, as democracy has receded and authoritarianism has risen in much of the globe, human rights are getting a large share of the blame, whether for provoking sharp backlash from illiberal strongmen [and] right-wing populists, for acting with hubris in refusing to acknowledge its failures or for not taking seriously the forces that lead so many people to vote in majoritarian strongmen in the first place.

Lets concede that, like other struggles for justice and equality, the human rights movement is far from perfect. Some of the critiques have merit.

So, it is said, rights defenders place too much emphasis on moral principle to the exclusion of real-world results. As a rights lawyer, I take pride perhaps too much in trying to stand on what I see as the correct side of an issue. And its true that popular support for democracy and rights rests at least as much on their ability to deliver social and economic advances for real people. The human rights movement is often most effective when it marries principle to the pragmatic reality of everyday struggles through strategic planning and nimble adjustment.

Another concern is that human rights have become a lawyers playground. Yes, legal backing and judicial enforcement give rights tangible force. Still, too much rights discourse is freighted with legalese and dominated by those with legal training.

And some activists have until recently not given sufficient emphasis to the rights implications of widening economic inequality that has contributed to polarization and popular frustration. Many may wonder to what extent the dependence of so many human rights groups on wealthy private philanthropy has affected their focus.

But some critiques go too far. The naming and shaming tactic long favored by many NGOs has no doubt lost some capacity to galvanize in an age when social media offers up a ready supply of mass shootings and atrocities. And yet, recent controversies make clear that rights rhetoric, and the reputational gains and damage that it bestows, can still pack a punch. Earlier this month, Amnesty Internationals allegation that the fighting tactics of Ukrainian forces endangers civilians provoked a firestorm of outrage. This spring, during and after a historic visit to mainland China, Michele Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, encountered withering criticism for declining to speak out about Chinese government abuses in Xinxiang. Amnestys action and Bachelets inaction stung because, like it or not, words retain some power to shame.

And its a distortion to lay much of the blame for the rise of populist authoritarianism at the feet of the human rights movement. Its not the tools of human rights that are giving rise to autocrats; rather, its the absence of economic opportunity for many, the paucity of imaginative political alternatives and those strongmens own ruthlessness in flouting democratic rules. For better or worse, rights activists many of them thinly-resourced lack the financial or political capital to compete on an even playing field with governments that command vast tax revenues, multi-national corporations or well-heeled political candidates and parties.

More to the point, most human rights actors have a fundamentally different mission from political leaders and once-liberal governments even though many critics conflate human rights advocates with those political forces. Whether in office or in opposition, well-intended or not, most politicians have as their principal goal the assumption, preservation, and consolidation of political power. By contrast, the main aim of the human rights movement is to hold those in power accountable for the way they exercise it.

Politicians in electoral regimes seek to build and retain numerical majorities. Rights activists are concerned with the rights of all, including the economically disadvantaged and racial, gender and other minorities often overlooked or overridden by the majority.

Many critics focus their concerns on the most prominent brand names, but much rights work today is carried out, not by international organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, but by an array of national and grassroots groups addressing problems with care and sophistication in the countries where they live and work.

For example, in Argentina, in recent years reproductive rights groups joined forces with a diverse coalition of women to challenge long-standing abortion prohibitions. By carefully framing abortion as an issue of social justice and public health, they sparked sustained popular mobilization and protest which led the Argentine Congress to legalize abortion in December 2020. Rights groups have engaged in similarly variegated and comprehensive campaigns to gain legislative and judicial victories for the right to abortion in Colombia, Ireland, and Mexico.

In Kenya, local human rights groups have forged robust partnerships to capitalize on their respective strengths to slow a government-led rush to adopt an imported, exclusionary digital identification system. In the process, they have enabled advocacy with government officials and litigation in domestic courts on issues of data privacy and non-discrimination. Some groups focused on community mobilization and awareness-raising, while others sponsored social media campaigns and WhatsApp groups and still others led talks with government insiders and took cases to court. As a result of this well-coordinated campaign, the government was compelled to promulgate a legal foundation for digital identity and a law on data protection that had been sought for more than a decade.

Creative legal argumentation has persuaded courts in Germany, the Netherlands, and other countries to ground recognition of corporate and state responsibility for climate change in rights-based claims on behalf of children, future generations, and other stakeholders.

By defending and expanding the space for public dialogue, by lifting up the voices of marginalized communities, and by protecting the guardrails of systems which aspire in principle, if not in practice, to the rule of law, rights defenders have played major, if indirect, roles in enabling mass movements and political parties to push for systemic changes in Chile, Colombia and, potentially, Sri Lanka.

Even in the United States, the ground-breaking achievements of the civil rights movement more than half a century ago in the streets, in the courts, and in the halls of government laid a crucial foundation for more recent mobilization by Black Lives Matter activists to confront the continuing manifestations of white supremacy in the United States and abroad.

Finally, rooting rights work in local communities and tailoring it to the needs of each place do not mean that we should give up on universal principles. Recalling that certain commitments have been subscribed to by most governments grants them more weight than they would otherwise have. Values shared by all, or nearly all, matter even though they are often honored in the breach, in part because they underscore our common humanity. The fact that virtually the entire world has agreed to outlaw torture, and to protect the rights of children, sets down a marker of what is not acceptable (even if it remains possible) and provides a framework for political discussion both within, and among, nation states.

The rights movement has much room to grow as it contends with political forces in many ways less favorable than those that prevailed a quarter century ago. Honest reflection prompted by thoughtful critics is essential. But the pathways to winning dont require that we abandon the movements moral foundations or its distinctive methodologies. To the contrary, rights advocates should draw on their own increasingly diverse experiences to highlight and tackle inequality, address corporate as well as state violations, strengthen alliances with popular movements, and build on the numerous examples of creative activism that have produced positive, if limited, results.

Around the Circle This Week: August 25, 2022 – lakesuperior.com

Posted: at 1:37 pm

Finding Rest: After the desecration of grave sites and the forced eviction of an Ojibwe village more than a century ago, lands of Wisconsin Point in Superior have been returned to the Ojibwe people. Last Thursday, tribal, state and federal officials signed the lands back to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The celebration and ceremony transferring the sacred lands was held on the Fond du Lac reservation. An exhibit of images from Wisconsin Point were displayed. Among those attending were Fond du Lac Chairman Kevin Dupuis, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Superior Mayor Jim Paine, Superior City Council President Jenny Van Sickle and U.S. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland. Jenny, the first Indigenous president of Superior's City Council, told Quinn Gorham of KBJR6

that while this does not fix the past, it sets a better future. Taking responsibility is difficult and not something we can do all the time, but something we can always work towards." Since before the arrival of Europeans to the area, Wisconsin Point hosted an Ojibwe community and burial sites. Many though not all remains in the site were removed about 1918-19 after U.S. Steel expressed an interest in building an ore dock there. Later the company decided against the location as too sandy to accommodate the docks, according to a history piece posted by the Catholic Diocese of Superior. Less obvious grave sites were left on the point and later a stone marker was placed and members of the Fond du Lac Ojibwe maintained the site. The removed remains, including those of Chief Joseph Osaugie, were placed on a hillside along the Nemadji River, part of the St. Francis Xavier cemetery. Descendants of Chief Osaugie (at the table in the photo) attended. Superior Mayor Jim Paine posted of the ceremony and celebration, "Moments ago I presented the deeds returning the Wisconsin Point cemetery and Nemadji burial site to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. It may be the most important thing Ive ever done. Over a century ago, the City seized the cemetery from the Indigenous peoples of the Point, exhumed the bodies, and placed them in a mass grave by the river, where erosion stole away most of the remains. But now, thanks to the patient work of the Fond du Lac leadership, St. Francis Church, city staff, and especially the unstoppable Councilor Jenny Van Sickle, these people have come home. The Governors of Wisconsin and Minnesota, Senator Tammy Baldwin, Deputy Secretary of the Interior, and countless local elected officials and indigenous leaders came to pay their respects as we all made history. Im a bit overwhelmed at the magnitude and significance of it all but I mostly just feel humbled and grateful." Tribal Chairman Kevin Dupuis told WCCO, "The things they fought in the past, it's not a new fight. We just picking up where they left off and our job is to secure something here in present so we have a future for the unborn and that should be for everybody."

Say What??: Michigan Technological University doctoral student Ryne Rutherford made quite the discovery recently which made a lot of media headlines. Ryne discovered new-to-the-U.P. cacti growing in the heights of the Huron Mountains. Megacast did a video interview with Ryne, who says this isn't the first time cacti have been found in Marquette County's granite glades. Ryne explains his study by noting, "basically I'm doing an ecological study on granite bedrock glades in the Huron Mountains and my study includes insects, a lizard, lichens, and plants. It consists of a study of the microclimate on rock outcrops and the impacts of human recreational use on granite bedrock glades." There are places in the U.P. where the landscapes and climate conditions more resemble those out West, he says, "and in a couple of places, there are cacti." A small species the fragile prickly pear was known, but this most recent discovery may be the first example of theeastern prickly pear cactus found in the Upper Peninsula. Other stories on the discovery were from Liliana Webb of the Detroit Free Press andSheri McWhirter of MLive. Ryne tells Sheri that the eastern prickly pear has been spotted near Lake Michigan, but not in the Upper Peninsula.

Sharing Space: The wild rice harvest and the waterfowl hunting season will again overlap this year in September on the same waters, the DNRs in Wisconsin and Minnesota have noted in advisories this week. Wisconsin has newly "date regulated" four bodies of water with specific harvesting dates. Those are Chippewa Lake in Bayfield County; Island Lake in Vilas County; Minong Flowage in Douglas County; and Pacwawong Lake in Sawyer County. A full list of wild rice waterbodies and regulations for Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan can be found on the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission Manoomin (wild rice) site. "Taking precautions and keeping an eye out for other people in and near rice beds can keep everyone safe as they enjoy their time outdoors," the Wisconsin DNR notes. In Minnesota, wild rice waters on the reservations of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and White Earth Nation are closed to early hunting seasons for teal and geese. "Since wild rice is ripening at the same time as Minnesotas early waterfowl hunting seasons, over-water waterfowl hunters are urged to be aware of and cautious about wild ricers no matter where they hunt," the Minnesota DNR notes. Inland, the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa released an update Wednesday on the Nett Lake wild rice harvest forecast, anticipating harvest by the second week of September.

All Access: The beaches of Thunder Bay have a new ally for folks needing an extra lift on sandy terrain. The city has posted a photo with the Sleeping Giant in the distance and the new floating beach wheelchairs up front. The chairs are available at Boulevard Lake and Sandy Beach. "We are excited to offer all visitors access to our beaches, as well as the water," the Community Aquatics posted. "The float-able armrest and special tire feature allow easy transport from the beach into the water. One can float in the chair or easily slide off into the water. If you are interested in using our beach wheelchairs, please ask a lifeguard for assistance."

Make Plans: Here are a few events coming up soon to put on a fun-do list:

Monday, Aug. 29: Peter White Public Library in Marquette hosts a night of surfer rock with the band Ramble Tamble. Set up your umbrella and beach chair, slather on some sun screen, and hang 10 on the Front Street steps of the library.

Today, Aug. 25: Come join local musicians Steve Brimm and Erika Vye playing, as they say, Mostly Americana influenced songs you dont know by heart but should. They take the stage tonight at 7 p.m. in the Donnie Kilpela Memorial Park in Copper Harbor for the weekly Performances in the Park.

Thru Saturday, Aug. 27: These will be the last few days of the Grand Marais Art Colony's 7-5 Exhibition, part of its 75th anniversary celebration. Stop by Studio 21 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. until Saturday to see the works of seven incredible artists Leslie Smith III; Danny Saathoff; Mika Laidlaw; Tony Ingrisano; Jonathan Herrera Soto; Magdolene Dykstra and Mary Brodbeck. Each has five pieces in the show.

Friday-Sunday, Aug. 26-28: Esko hosts the 61st annual Lakehead Harvest Show with all things farm-related. There will be a petting barn, tractors (and a tractor pull) parades, harvest competitions and plenty of family friendly activities, food and fun. Gates open daily at 9 a.m. First prize at the raffle is a 1950 John Deere MT or a John Deere 110 Riding Mower from Moose Lake Implement.

Fridays: Renegade Improv is back on stage, 10:30 p.m. Fridays at Zeitgeist Teatro Zuccone in Duluth. Improv, of course, can be dangerously funny. Enter at your own risk.

Thru Sept. 2: Don't miss a ride on the Murder Train Express, pulling out of The Depot in Duluth for one more week. The North Shore Scenic Railroads Elegant Dinner Train promises a meal, mirth, merriment and mayhem on its "disoriented express." The trains leave the station at 6 p.m.

Today, Aug. 25: Head down to the latest Porchfest concert at the SS Meteor Whaleback Museum Ship in Superior to enjoy Hodag and Hooch starting at 6 p.m. You can also enjoy free tours of the Meteor and mocktails in the bar. Mystery Mobile Catering and Concessions will be on site.

Friday-Saturday, Aug. 26-27: The dragons have returned to Superior. The Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival will liven up Barkers Island with opening ceremonies Friday evening and a full day at the races for the special dragon boats and the teams paddling them. Upwards of 90 teams of 20+ paddlers participate. There will also be vendors, food and outside fun.

Saturday, Aug. 27: Reel Livin Resort & Campground is sponsoring the 2nd annual Kilt Golf Outing & Fundraiser, held at the Spider Lake Golf Resort Course. This year Golfing for Gavin in Hayward will help with medical expenses for Gavin Gochenaur, injured while on a family skiing trip. Currently he has no sensation or movement below his neck and shoulders except for a little movement in one bicep. The family needs medical equipment and funds for other expenses. For the Saturday event, there are golf competitions plus a raffle for great prizes like Brewers tickets including tailgate party passes, fishing pontoon for a day, and fishing guide. beautiful hand carved bench and coat rack, bags set, and custom fire pit. Find details online.

Friday, Aug. 26: Enjoy a safety conversation with "everyone's favorite redneck" Hurbert Rowland along with Kristen Almer at Heartwood Resort in Trego. ATV/UTV Safety Presentation starts at 4:30 p.m.

Today, Aug. 25: Star Wars fans converge on the Sault Ste. Marie Museum from 4-6 p.m. for its Night @ The Museum: Lego Star Wars. Enjoy the massive collection of Lego Star Wars sets on display from The Brickspace. These sets cover almost the entire Star Wars saga and go as far back as the theme's launch in 1999. Battle your way throughout the galaxy with SvennyMCG who will have some classic and modern Star Wars games on site. Or nibble Star Wars-themed donuts and beverages while supplies last. There will also be giveaways throughout the night. You are encouraged to dress up in your favourite Star Wars cosplay for a chance to win cool Lego Star Wars prizes. This event celebrates the 45th anniversary of Star Wars, the 90th anniversary of the Lego Brick and the 2nd anniversary of The Brickspace!

Friday-Sunday, Aug. 26-28: Ribfest, one of Thunder Bay's most popular and tastiest festivals, pairs the saucy creations from some of North Americas very best professional ribbers with talented local food vendors, artisans and live music. It's at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition and proceeds go to Our Kids Count.

Notable: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is hosting three public scoping meetings for Enbridge's Line 5 Pipeline Tunnel project Environmental Impact Statement. A public scoping meeting is specific to the National Environmental Policy Act process where the lead federal agency gathers comments of the proposed project. Two sessions are virtual and one is in St. Ignace. The virtual sessions, limited to 1,000, are Sept. 1 from 5-8 p.m. EST and Oct. 6 from 1-4 p.m. EST. The meeting in St. Ignace will be on Sept. 8 from 3-8 p.m. EST in the the Little Bear Arena. In addition to allowing verbal public comments, the in-person meeting will also provide opportunity for attendees to comment in private to a stenographer and there will be live computer stations to submit comments via the Line 5 Tunnel Environmental Impact Statement website.

Photo & graphic credits: U.S. Indian Affairs; Nedahness Rose Greene Photography; Ryne Rutherford; Bois Forte Band of Chippewa; Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission; City of Thunder Bay; Peter White Public Library/Grand Marais Art Colony/Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival/Sault Ste. Marie Museum

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Around the Circle This Week: August 25, 2022 - lakesuperior.com

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Australias Lockdown and Vaccine Narrative Has Fallen Apart – Brownstone Institute

Posted: at 1:37 pm

Australias former Prime Minister (PM) Scott Morrison has created a political firestorm for having himself sworn in with five additional ministerial portfolios, mostly without the knowledge of the cabinet collectively or the individual minister concerned. The first of these was the health portfolio, done with the knowledge and concurrence of the health minister.

The justification was the realization that the declaration of a biosecurity emergency had transformed the health minister into a de facto dictator with the power to ignore Parliament and override all existing laws, including human rights protections against state excesses. Yet, the chief problem is the law itself that grants such sweeping power to one person and should thus be repealed or amended. Im not holding my breath.

The biggest mistake was to hand over control of the Covid agenda, in the name of The Science, to federal and (especially) state chief health officers who tend to be bureaucrats more than leading scientists engaged in cutting-edge medical research. In the blink of an eye, they morphed from obscure officials to petty tyrants.

The former federal chief medical officer Brendan Murphys footnote in history might yet be his refusal to define a woman in Senate hearings because its a very contested space. Timidity ensured he prioritized career ambitions over biological fact. Then again, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) talks of pregnant people, so maybe Im the one who needs to get with the zeitgeist.

Australian authorities in effect copied New Zealand PM Jacinda Arderns doctrine of the health ministry as the single source of truth on coronavirus.The unavoidable consequence of this was attempts, with legacy and social media help, to marginalize and silence all dissenting voices. The more the latters warnings come true, the greater is the loss of trust in experts, institutions and ministers.

On August 13 the Australian Medical Professionals Society published a wide-ranging letter addressed to all Australian colleges and associations of health, medicine and science. Along with the attached report by Dr Phillip Altman, the letter is an authoritative catalogue of mistakes made in Australias pandemic management and the many harms resulting from it, the dubious science behind it, the limitations of vaccines, and the questionable efforts of regulators to come between doctors and patients.

The Covid report from New South Wales Health for the week of July 1016 said: The minority of the overall population who have not been vaccinated are significantly overrepresented among patients in hospitals and ICUs with Covid-19. Just two pages later, the same report gave the number of unvaccinated people admitted to hospital and ICU as zero.

The sentence is repeated verbatim in the latest weekly report for August 713, with the number of unvaccinated people admitted to hospital just one and to ICU zero. By contrast, of those whose vaccination status was known, 98.7 percent of Covid patients admitted to hospital and 98.2 percent admitted to ICU during the week (and 84.8 percent of the dead) had received two or more vaccine doses.

Even by the standards of public health authorities across the world gaslighting the people in order to nudge them into docile and often performative compliance with official edicts, this level of internal contradiction of narrative with data is breathtaking.

Covid vaccines are undeniably leaky. Their real-world effectiveness lasts a disappointingly short time. One explanation could be that with mass infections and the resulting naturally-acquired immunity, the vaccinated have lost their competitive advantage. Mass vaccination campaigns in the middle of a pandemic can possibly also give anevolutionary advantage to mutations with greater vaccine escape properties.

Professor Kenji Yamamoto of the Okamura Memorial Hospital reinforced a warning from the European Medicines Agency of the potential for frequent booster shots to harm the immune system. Another study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows infections among double-vaccinated and boosted people can last somewhat longer. An Icelandic study showed a significantly higher probability of reinfection of the boosted. The Epoch Times reported on studies showing successive doses of mRNA vaccines can desensitize the body and teach it to become more coronavirus spike protein-tolerant.

Conversely, breakthrough reports in the mainstream media of evidence of the deadly long-term harms of lockdowns themselves are growing. On August 18 the UK Telegraphs science editor Sarah Knapton reported official statistics indicate that The effects of lockdown may now be killing more people than are dying of Covid.

The causes are exactly what many had predicted from the start:

Even now, however, as Will Jones points out, there is a great reluctance to discuss the serious adverse events, including deaths, associated with and caused by vaccines themselves. Concerning safety signals continue to grow. For example, a preprint study in June by several experts analyzed data from Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccine trials. They found that the risk of hospitalization from a vaccine-related adverse event was higher than the risk of hospitalization from Covid itself. Until such time that these are properly investigated, we will lack accurate and reliable data on the scale and severity of the problem.

Australias relative success in 202021 was helped by fortuitous circumstances. Being an isolated island country, geographically distant from the worlds major international traffic hubs and population centres, made border controls easier to institute, police and enforce. The international and domestic restrictions on travel, movement and activities kept Covid-related deaths to around 1,000 until September 2021.

Then they exploded (Figure 1). In 202021, the governments response to the harsh international spotlight on the curtailment of many freedoms was to point to results. By now the performance-based international comparison has lost lustre. Australias rate of cumulative Covid cases per million people has surpassed the US, UK and EU rates. Both case and mortality figures track the rise in the boosted since mid-December 2021. To be fair, though, the death toll is still well below the European, British, US and South American figures (Figure 2).

Its worth looking more closely at the change from 202021 (Figure 3) to the trajectory this year (Figure 4).

Until the end of last year, European, North and South American countries experienced the worst of Covid-19-related fatalities while the Asia-Pacific was mostly clustered towards the bottom. This year, by contrast, despite Omicron not being as deadly as the earlier variants, this region has suffered quite badly, as can be seen in the shift of the eleven countries death totals from Figure 2 to Figure 3.

Once again, this is suggestive of the intuition that virus gonna virus and waves are regional and policy-invariant. Even for Japan, the cumulative death rate for 7.5 months this year has already reached its total death rate for 22 months until the end of 2021.

The mantra that vaccines are safe and effective has become a tiresome cliche. They are partially protective for a limited time, certainly not effective and may not even be all that safe. The best pathway to herd immunity was through the combination of natural immunity from prior infection and vaccines.

Countries that avoided mass infection through strict isolation measures built up an immunity debt that left their populations more vulnerable once they reopened to globally circulating pathogens.

When the highly infectious if less lethal Omicron variant struck, vaccines developed to combat the original Wuhan strain proved unfit for purpose in controlling the spread.

Meanwhile Denmark has banned vaccines for anyone under 18 unless prescribed by a doctor based on an individual assessment of high risk. Similarly, people under 50 will no longer get a booster unless recommended by a doctor.

Bowing to the growing body of studies and the weight of accumulating data, on August 11 the globally influential CDC issued new guidance. It marks a quiet yet major retreat from previous Covid management, based on the triple acknowledgment of transient protection from vaccination and boosters against infection and transmission, breakthrough infections among vaccinated, and naturally-acquired immunity through infection. The CDC also quietly dropped the false claim that the mRNA and spike protein do not last long in the body.

The guidelines have moved sharply away from social distancing, quarantining, track-and-tracing, asymptomatic testing and even vaccine requirements, abolishing the distinction by vaccination status for most settings. Their net threefold effect is to transfer much of the responsibility for risk reduction from institutions to individuals, to prioritize preventing severe illness over slowing transmission, and to switch from sweeping population-wide precautions to targeted advice for vulnerable populations.

If this looks similar to the much-reviled Great Barrington Declaration of October 2020 that merely restated the pre-Covid-19 medical-scientific consensus, thats because it is.

This is a revised and updated version of an article first published in The Weekend Australian on August 2021.

Ramesh Thakur, a former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, is emeritus professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.

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Australias Lockdown and Vaccine Narrative Has Fallen Apart - Brownstone Institute

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Why Dont Millennials Have Hobbies? – The Walrus

Posted: at 1:37 pm

On a mundane Saturday night during lockdown last year, I was tapping through Instagram Stories to pass the time. Like so many millennials, I turn to the app mostly to send my friends memes and screenshots that sum up universal truths about our late-twenties lifestyle. A tweetmade into an Instagram postby Canadian author Jonny Sun caught my attention. It read:

Im an ADULTwhich means I dont have any HOBBIESIf I have any FREE TIME AT ALLI will go LIE DOWN

I came to a stark realization: I dont have any hobbiesand nobody else I knew seemed to either. It had been nearly a decade since I played the piano. Aside from the dodgeball league I joined impromptu at the height of unemployment one year, I never fostered the time and commitment toward a joyful activity when I wasnt on the clock.

In the first several months of the pandemic, I remember calculating the weekly hours I saved by not commuting and asking myself how I could use that time more effectively. Naturally, I relied on Instagram trends to help with my identity crisis. I started by aggressively completing an adult colouring book while everyone around me made body-shaped candles. Photos of sourdough baking and people concocting at-home quarantinis cluttered my timeline. While these activities captured the zeitgeist of the pandemicespecially in those early monthsI allowed myself to believe that in the midst of those hours between solving puzzles and baking bread, my hobby would miraculously turn up. Surely, if everyone was struggling with the long and dark days of the pandemic, posting an Instagram Story would make me feel less alone. I found myself leaning into all of my online community, determined to share my DIY renovations with my small but loyal audience. At the peak of my crafting phase, I painted my bedroom walls purely out of boredom. Ever since that accomplishment, I have been possessed by a certain kind of hubris and invincibility. What handy task will I do next?

But the popularity of these social mediadriven pastimes also faded. And therein lies the problem: I had sought the help of an algorithm to help me figure out how to spend my free time. In my mind, it was easier to get lost in a rabbit hole of content than take the time to discover what might actually interest me. But amid all this pressure to find my hobby, Ive been asking myself: What does it actually mean to have one, especially at a time when were living so much of our lives online?

When I asked Robert Stebbins, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Calgary who specializes in leisure studies, about whether any of my pandemic pursuits added up to a hobby, he told me that hes been contemplating questions on the subject for the better part of fifty years. Leisure, in a common-sense version of it, is fundamentally not work, he told me over the phone. It doesnt define anything. It defines what its not.

So, then, what is it?

Few people in sociology seem to find this a remarkable or regrettable deficiency in the field, Stebbins tells me. Serious leisure, a term he coined, is the systematic pursuit of an activitylike rock climbing or singingthat usually requires a special skill. In other words, we need to put serious effort into a hobby in order to reap its rewards over time. Just like we dedicate our time and energy toward a career, committing ourselves to a serious leisure activity is one of the keys to achieving a fulfilling life, he says.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the monotony of specialized industrial work and increasing urban expansion led workers to demand more time away from the bustle of the city. In response to the rapid industrialization that followed the American Civil War, when the emerging labour movement advocated for reduced work hours, eventually leading to the eight-hour workday and the five-day workweek, there was finally time for leisure.

Over the next century, as lavish Silicon Valley headquarters, pizza stations, and in-office gyms became the new norm, work culture blurred the lines between our professional and personal lives. Somewhere along the way, many people within my Y2K cohort took work merch and free booze to compensate for long hours and unpaid vacation. For a lot of us, the rise of precarious employment and job insecurity created a toxic relationship with work that left little time or energy for anything else.

Millennials have been dubbed the lost generation, destined to be poorer than those who preceded us. As numerous studies have shown, even the best-off millennials, who are generally more educated than their parents, suffer from high unemployment rates and stagnant earnings trajectories. Unfortunately, as many in my generation slogged their way through the Great Recession, overpriced avocado toast in hand, they proved those miserable studies true. Its no wonder the number of young adults staying or returning home has steadily risen, especially at the peak of the pandemic. A meme that keeps cropping up on my timeline sums up the predicament perfectly. It reads: Im 1st world poor. Which means I own a smart phone and an expensive laptop so I can go online and check that I have no money in the bank.

As a cohort, were constantly being told to have side hustlesmasked as hobbiesin order to have multiple streams of income in todays gig economy. It can be hard to foster new skills that have nothing to do with a pay cheque when were constantly being told well never afford a house. According to Rentals.ca, the average rent for all Canadian properties listed on the site in March 2022 was $1,818 per month. Considering that the national average annual market income was about $55,700 in 2020, for many people, this works out to approximately one-third of their monthly pay cheque. If the purpose of a hobby is to fulfill me outside of my professional life, how can I attain some level of satisfactionor, better yet, happinesswithout the pressure of needing to monetize it looming over me?

Im not the only one struggling with this question. For proof, look no further than Etsy, where you can find local artisans selling everything from wedding face masks to seed kits. According to its 2020 Seller Census report, the mean age of the almost 200,000 active Etsy sellers in Canada is 38.7an older millennial. Of those surveyed, over 70 percent said that their small businesses provide an important source of supplemental incomeon average, nearly 10 percent of their household earnings. This monetization of hobbies demonstrates where the future of work might be headed: its not hybrid, its asynchronous. So what does this mean for how we think about hobbies?

According to Sarah Frier, the author of No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram, hobbies arent dead; our definition of what they are is just changing. More often than not, she says, millennials are now finding visual hobbies online. Pandemic obsessions like cross-stitching and at-home bartending became desirable skills because we kept seeing posts that endorsed them. Whether or not we consider ourselves to be influencers or curators, the very nature of Instagram teaches us to be. The actual design of the app encourages us to perform for others, says Frier. Even something like reading, which isnt an inherently visual hobby, has been turned into a kind of aesthetic. As of July 2022, a quick Instagram search under the hashtag #bookstagram yielded a casual 79 million posts. Each score we get on a post teaches us how to make our next one gain more likes, comments, and shares. Thats a feedback cycle that encourages us to go after these really visual hobbies, says Frier.

Its impossible to ignore the cultural weight we put on our online personas. Even those who dont actively use social media cant avoid its impact, since the items we buy and the vacations we take are often influenced by the app, says Frier. For better or worsebut mostly for worseour personal brands require continued upkeep and innovation at great emotional expense. Unlike TikTok and Snapchat, which value consumption and entertainment, Instagrams focus has always been on displaying the version of yourself you want others to see. Simply put, Instagram has become a resume for how interesting you are.

During my identity crisis over the past two years, Ive become a cyclistbecause its not enough to enjoy cycling, I must be a cyclist. In the fall of 2020, I ordered a lavender beach cruiser on Amazon. My best friend came over and helped me assemble the bike, which became my raison dtre in real life and online. I tracked my progress on Strava and photographed my fall rides every day for thirty daysboth of which I regularly shared on my Instagram profile.

Of course, my physical and mental well-being has improved thanks to cycling. But attaching these listicle-friendly identifiers to our social media bios obscures a muddier truth. My time on the internet has certainly blurred the distinction between my online identity and my offline personhood. Ive placed a lot of value on metricson numbers that are meant to determine how funny I am, how insightful, how attractive, how talented. But I would not genuinely invest in these things if I had not, on some level, agreed that I am my social media profile.

As we reemerge into the world, hopefully feeling a little more grounded in the newer versions of ourselves, I sense many of my peerslike meare starting to rethink how they spend their free time. Over the past two years, being stuck indoors allowed me to pause, to reevaluate how I can enrich my life without the scrutiny of an online audience all the time. That doesnt mean these apps have become less relevant. Instagram, and social media in general, is a tool at best. Ive embraced the ways it has allowed me to learn more about social justice issues, connect with other writers and, of course, to try new things.

Im still figuring out what hobbies Id like to pursue, but Im not on a deadline. Maybe I wont find my next great hobby on the app, or maybe I wont find one at all. But learning about myself has no expiration date. That could be a hobby in itself, right?

Alisha Sawhney is a writer, editor, and podcaster based in Toronto. She has written for the Opinion section of the New York Times and for Macleans, among others. She was previously a staff editor at HuffPost Canada.

Isabella Fassler is a Toronto-based illustrator with a BAA in illustration from Sheridan College.

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Why Dont Millennials Have Hobbies? - The Walrus

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Cheap, green vehicles are taking off overseas. Why are they banned here? – The Spinoff

Posted: at 1:37 pm

Were a nation of drivers, acquiring more cars with bigger engines and driving them further every year. But, despite our emissions crisis and congestion problems, the worlds bestselling and cheapest EVs arent allowed on our roads and the transport minister says thats not changing any time soon.

The worlds most popular EV isnt available in New Zealand. The Wuling Hongguang Mini EV jointly developed with US car giant GM sells for between US$4,000 and US$6,000.

If it was available in Aotearoa and attracted the clean car discount you could pick one up for less than the price of an e-bike or possibly even for free. No doubt its that super low price that saw it nudge the Tesla Model 3 from the top-selling EV spot in March last year.

So, what do you get for that bargain-basement price? A boxy, four-seater car with a top speed of 100km/h and a range of 120km.

And China is far from alone in having micro-EVs on offer for under NZ$12,000. The Citroen Ami sells for 7,300 (NZ$11,660). With a top speed of 45km/h and just two seats, the Ami is not technically a car and therefore can be driven by anyone over the age of 14.

The micro-car was Citroens biggest-seller last year and is popular not only in Frances cities but in rural areas.

The Ami is the first of what promises to be a new category of micro-EVs in Europe. The very funky, BMW Isetta-inspiredMicrolino goes into production in Switzerland in the coming months.The Ami and Isetta are classified as quadricycles rather than cars, but in terms of urban transportation they provide many of the benefits of a car for a fraction of the price. The problem is they cant be legally driven on our roads.

The Wuling is currently in a grey zone with a Waka Kotahi spokesperson saying it would probably also be classed as a quadricycle. However, a Lithuanian-produced model of the Wuling recently went on sale in Europe as a fully-fledged motorway-capable car and European safety regulations are every bit as stringent as New Zealands.

Transport minister Michael Wood says he saw an Ami on a recent trip to Oslo and has been lobbied about allowing quadricycles on our roads but isnt yet convinced theyre right for New Zealand. The appropriateness of micro-vehicles for New Zealand conditions was identified as an area that needed attention under the Emissions Reduction Plan, he says, but was unlikely to be done before the end of 2023 or 2024.

Its a dialogue weve had and clearly there are some benefits on the electrification side but were pretty successfully electrifying our fleet anyway. The other argument is about road space which is more of a congestion argument than a decarbonisation argument.

The key tradeoff and regulatory issue is around safety, he says. They almost all inevitably rate at the lowest safety rating of zero to one star. So thats the policy challenge.

Paradoxically, Wood says the potential popularity of micro-EVs could be in conflict with the governments commitment to reducing the kilometres travelled by privately owned automobiles conversely encouraging people who walk, cycle or take public transport to use a micro-EV instead.

Self-described micro-car evangelist Toa Greening says safety concerns are overblown when compared to the risk posed by e-scooters which can be legally driven on our roads without a helmet. Hes sceptical of Woods suggestion that micro-EVs could see a modal shift from active and public transport modes to micro-EVs. As a casual cyclist I really doubt it, as we cycle in part for the enjoyment of it.

Greening has been banging on about micro-EVs for the best part of a decade. He made it on toCampbell Live back in 2014 when he imported a Tango 600 to try to drum up interest in mass producing the US-designed micro-EV in New Zealand. Its a very narrow, very fast micro-EV that made headlines around the world when actor George Clooney bought one in 2005.

In 2018 Greening launched a Pledge Me campaign seeking half a million dollars to fund the setting up of a micro-car leasing programme. Just $2,000 was pledged possibly because the Tango 600 wasnt and isnt road legal in New Zealand.

Greening is convinced the Tango 600 ticks off the biggest two challenges facing transport in the 21st century: congestion and emissions.

If youre wondering how any car can help reduce congestion, the answer, according to Greening, is in the Tango 600s width. Its narrow enough that, in theory, you could fit two side-by-side in a single lane.

The Tango 600 like Elon Musks Tesla aimed to attract car drivers over to EVs with the promise of high-speed and high-performance vehicles that could hold their own against top-of-the-line ICE (internal combustion engine) competition.

With a top speed of more than 240km/h, the Tango 600 is more an enclosed superbike than the electrified shopping trolley that is the Citroen Ami. Greening says micro-EVs are the perfect replacement for a familys second car: ideal for trips to the supermarket, school drop-offs and city commuting.

Greening has estimated that a fleet of 280,000 micro-EVs similar to the Tango 600 would reduce Aucklands carbon emissions by 2.1 million tonnes per year. In 2018, transport contributed 4.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions to Aucklands total.

Greening calculated that 1.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions would be saved from the switch from petrol and diesel cars to EVs, and 0.8 million tonnes from a reduction in congestion due to vehicles like the Tango being able to drive two abreast in a single lane.

Congestion increases emissions simply because traffic is slowed and cars spend longer on the road.

Micro-EVs might be a new concept in New Zealand, but micro-cars arent.

The Fiat 500, better known in New Zealand as the Bambina, weighed in at just under 500 kilos, about the same as the Citroen. More than 5000 of the tiny cars named for its CC rating, not its weight were assembled locally and in 1960 you could buy one for just 499.

The contrast with its direct descendant, the Fiat 500 Dolcevita, encapsulates the story of motorcars over the last half century. While still one of the smallest cars on the road, the Dolcevitas 1.2 litre engine is more than twice the size of the Bambinas. The new model is nearly double the Bambinas weight, and its grown in length by more than half a metre.

The Bambinas price tag adjusted for inflation comes to just under $25,000 about what you would pay for the Dolcevita.

There have been numerous safety and performance improvements over the years, but the one metric thats barely changed is its fuel efficiency and therefore its carbon emission. The newer car manages 4.8 litres per 100km compared to 5.1 litres for the original.

Sixty years of technological improvements have barely moved the petrol, or emissions, gauges. (The Bambinas fuel efficiency would see it qualify for a clean car discount.) The Dolcevitas 1.2 litre engine is about half that of the average car sold in New Zealand, where the number of vehicles per person trebled between the 1950s and early 2000s. And between 1980 and 2000, total annual vehicle kilometres travelled in New Zealand more than doubled, from 18.52 billion to 37.33 billion. Engines have also grown in size. By 2006, the average engine size of a vehicle in NewZealand was more than 2.2 litres, up from 2 litres at the beginning of the decade.

It would be a stretch to say the Bambina was an expression of the motoring zeitgeist of the time its production run coincided with the height of the yank tank phase in the US but it offered an alternative vision that was in line with the nascent environmental movement of the 1960s and 70s.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction, E.F. Schumacher wrote in the 1973 bestseller Small is Beautiful.

Only time will tell whether New Zealand has the courage to embrace the micro-EV trend being embraced from Beijing to Paris.

Follow Bernard Hickeys When the Facts Change on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast provider.

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Cheap, green vehicles are taking off overseas. Why are they banned here? - The Spinoff

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Daily Archives: August 25, 2022

Facing a personal reckoning, with a dose of absurdity, on a bus tour of Naziland – Forward

Ezra Furman and the Tireless, Sacred Work of Being Alive | Interview – The Line of Best Fit

The Long and Short of a Well-Rounded Shabbos – The Jewish Press – JewishPress.com

At many Bay Area synagogues, the real action is social action J. – The Jewish News of Northern California

Ethical Theories Summarized & Explained … – Objectivism In Depth

Human Rights in the Crosshairs – Just Security

Around the Circle This Week: August 25, 2022 – lakesuperior.com

Australias Lockdown and Vaccine Narrative Has Fallen Apart – Brownstone Institute

Why Dont Millennials Have Hobbies? – The Walrus

Cheap, green vehicles are taking off overseas. Why are they banned here? – The Spinoff

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