David Silverman

What did David do?

"In the time since the initial complaint was made, the Board evaluated internal documents and records and, based on that examination, made the decision to terminate Mr. Silverman."  from the AA website.

evaluated internal documents and records... that sounds finical to me.

and so the stomach turns...  

Individualism

Individualism, a Philosophy for Life.

 I rise in defense of Ayn Rand. She called it Objectivism as Existentialism was already in use by others. A more descriptive name would be Individualism. I am not a apologist for Ayn Rand, however, her philosophy holds many truths. She is a good rich source for magpie approch to philosophy for life.

 She speaks of selfishness in the same ideology or context as David Silverman speaks of Atheism, and thus leaves little doubt about what he is saying or overstating.  For Ayn Rand, the individual is the primary unit of morality, ethics, economics, and politics. She was raised in Russia during the Stalin years, and was well acquainted with the damage forced altruism does to the morals, the drive to produce, and state run economy. That is the altruism that she was opposed to. It is based on what people could be, not on what they are.

 Ayn Rand's metaphysics and epistemology is not unlike that of most atheists, but the details need a bit of better explanation. Her economics and political aspirations are likewise based on what people could be, not what they are, hence are naive, dated, or otherwise weird. The individual is the primary unit of society, and any other method of dividing society will not work long term once the individual realizes that they are to primary unit. Religions work because they actively enforce group think, a pejorative term for following the prescribed concepts without thinking. Once we see that the individual must be satisfied and not lied to, the individual must step away from the religion and the wrong concepts. 

We see the same on issue for people on AISH here. It is a better life than on a minimum wage income. That is just not right. AISH is untaxed, while minimum wage is taxed. That is forced altruism, as taking from the poorer to pay for the less poor. Just not right, for they are making slaves out of the people. The pursuit and lust after money is the root of much evil. Yes the bible has some good lines, but it demonstrates the problem of baiting people with moneys.


         

Individual vs Society

 Individual vs Society

http://freethinker.co.uk/2018/04/06/china-v-vatican-official-says-no-religion-is-above-the-state/ 

So in our society, is the individual the unit or is the society, the government? China says that their state is greater than religion. There for sure, the state has control over the individual. What about here? It is not so clear. We would like to think individual but that is not true in so many situations.

The US was founded on the individual having the upper hand over the state. Canada it is not so clear. We we founded as Christian... well no, the founding fathers were some form of christian... but without christian sect... except for Quebec and Upper Canada, and the west was under their thumb. But all that has changed some.

I consider myself independent of the state; but I receive the old age security, medical, etc of the Canadian Citizen, as everyone does... well as much as anyone does. The Canadian Government, administered through the  provincial governments have made choices on what they will fund. But our society is breaking down. Consider the life a police officer here in Canada. At one time they were respected, member of the community. Now they are just revenuers, hiding behind lamp posts with their radar, ready to jump out and issue a ticket, or they will just mail it to you. Revenue, not safety. So is the individual or the state in charge. That same officer is then expected to deal with public, and the public is expected to be polite... good luck with that. You pissed in his rice bowl, and expect him to be nice. Good luck with that. Now the cops are nervous... when they stop anyone, the second has his hand on his gun.

So which is it, the individual or the state? Do not be fooled by elections. It is the power to develop the short list, not the selection from the short list that is the real power is. So is that a fair process. No. Oh well. Federally, Canada is a mess. We have too many parties, relational, and splinter groups. The unelected parties have too much influence, which is actually control. Oh well. I am too old to fight the system.

So what is the effect on the child that is told he was developing normally and then he got a vaccination and changed... and has always struggled. Do you think he will support vaccinations? It does not matter, the end is near. Co2 levels will take out the human population. The economy does not see the first two of reduce, reuse, recycle. There is no money in reduction, and reusing. Oh well.

So is it up to the individual? Yes. No one else can go against the state, the economy, and become frugal, cheep, and enjoy life. The state is power and money hungry and can never be satisfied anyway. It is up to each of us to enjoy our live as much as we can. Fuck the government.  

My Best Interests

Who has my best interests as there priority?  Not the US CDC. The Center for Disease Control, as there name implies is concerned with the spread of disease, not the health of the surviving. Andrew Wakefield produced a paper that showed a cluster of MMR vaccinated with autism, and it seems that early vaccination was the likely cause. The Drug manufactures and CDC discredited Andrew, oh well, but the cluster of autistic remained. Some have tried to produce guidelines to correct the problem (AlbertaHS, pre 2016) but caved. The CDC is correct that, for the control of the disease, that the vaccinations at one year is the best. Autism is not a disease, but a development issue, likely as a result of early exposure to mercury. By putting off MMR vaccination to 3 years, the rate of autism drops to about 1/2, and there are a few more cases of death due to MMR. But what about those children and the cost associated with raising a autistic from "birth to death"? Who pays for the severely handy capped? Not the CDC. It is not a disease issue.

So who speaks for the individual?  What right does the government have to push things on the individual? Well, no moral right. They may have a legal right, by force if necessary. In the world of overpopulation, as we now find ourselves, who will be looking out for the rights of the individual?

So we humans have long allowed religions to push beliefs onto the people. Some of these beliefs were just wrong, fairy tales, bullshit, and others were ok, but how does one separate fact from fiction? Not by the source. Consider the CDC, they are right if we fear diseases, but not if we fear autistic children. So who speaks for the individual in a overpopulated world? Just terminate the ungifted as a start? I would be gone. So how should we decide what is best for us? Assume everything is junk until it is proven and we have examined all sides? Not the CDC, they put to high of value on the fear of minor childhood disease, and not enough negative on a life of handicap.

So when it comes to morals, ethics and values, they come to us at three levels: the individual, externally from family, society, and like and from religion. The atheist can sort those from religion and abandon the bullshit, outdated, and just wrong, and retain the good, right and just.

But why do religions and government think they can force others to follow their arbitrary and goofy rules? What right do they have to even suggest that we should follow? The only thing of value is my life and the lives of others. Does it add to or detract from that value without making or becoming slaves? That is as far as I can take this now. 

Rebuilding a Hierarchy of Values

Having abandoned any reliance on a god concept, all we have is logic and reason to define a moral code of behavior. We do not wish to cause stress to people who utilize god concepts for comfort, but we will not be musseled either. All harm is unintended, but that is one of the issues weaknesses of being faith based. 

We all have some form of a hierarchy of values concept, just like we all have a philosophy of life. It may be essentially hereditary, as absorbed from your family traditions, unconscious or it may be a conscious developed concept. It is likely not logical unless it has been developed as such, later in life. So what does this hierarchy look like?

First, the foundation principal is likely that our like, human life is the most valuable thing we have, and that good things increase this value while bad things risk, devalue or detract from that value. We are individuals, yet cooperation is required for society. Equality is therefore implied into the decisions, yet we are individuals. At this value level, our ability to judge and prudence, to do the right thing must occur in a virtue table. Which virtue is most important must also be defined.  At this same level, there must also be an understanding of what is our responsibly, and what is others. Some things are up to us and some are not. We have the fundamental ability to assent to a concept or not. This is the limit of our free will, our control for we have only influence over our own body, not control. Knowledge of what is good and what is bad, that is increased or decreases the value of human life must follow shortly.

So there are quite a few concepts at this fundamental level, all packed closely. The value of the individual human life must be the primary value, else nothing else matters. The state, family, nor anyone has no claim over the individual. Do not make a slave of anyone, nor allow anyone to make a slave of us, equality, may be the second principal, but judgement is required to make that statement. This suggests to me that there a lump of equal second step hierarchy, or a splitting between values, virtues, behaviors, concepts, principals, abilities, skills, and similar concepts. It is like the force splitting phase change as space heats above absolute zero.

(aside) At absolute zero all movement stops, all forces must be zero, they are one. as heating occurs, all the forces split, movement starts, and particles come into existence. Before there was only cold empty space, nothing, no boundary's, nothing. It is an unstable space.

We measure time in term of revolutions of a planet around a nothing special star, our sun. If time is true and orthogonal to the other dimensions, we can only approximate it, and we are likely to be off, all depending on how we measure time. If we assume time is as we measure it, then we can conceive of time variation, as a fast clock vs slow clock, but that is only the measurement error. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.

So what is on the third step of the hierarchy.  Truth, knowledge, wisdom, evidence, from first principals. The term first principals was used in engineering, and had a definition of known simple processes, fundamental logic, and the like. Perpendicular planes remain plane was one of the fundamental concepts of bending formula, and that is true within the functional range of structural bending, and I do not remember enough about plastic hinges moments, and they do apply to limit state designs. Anyway, after the phase change like split into values, principals, behaviors, everything becomes messy and requires more work.

New Car Dealers

In Alberta, the new car dealers were so unethical that the Alberta Government required an organization to clean up the industry.

The Alberta Motor Vehicles Industry Council was started. So do AMVIC dealers follow the rules. No.

The AMVIC state that the dealer may charge the advertised price plus GST, that is all. But the dealers try to sucker the customers into paying a bunch of other fees as well, which is illegal. That does not stop them of trying. What does that say about their ethics?

Well ethical car dealers are hard to find. Do they exist? Well, I have not yet found one. Oh well. It is better to know that the dealer is unethical when you are in need of a car, rather to go in thinking they are ethical.

So what about a hierarchical priority of our values? So the unethical car dealer places dollars above there ethical reputation. Where do I place dollars and ethics in my values hierarchy?  Well, I considered my P.Eng ethics to be greater than any single job. I was pushed to "approve" bullshit a number of times, and rejected it, and then never got paid by one client. We lost another client for not approving fill that was dumped on snow and ice. We are a society awash in the unethical, on top of the 20% psychopaths, and 20% altruistic. It is a society problem, and will result in the failure of modern civilization. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.

Those who do not see or will not act on the looming Co2 contamination crises, the political corruption, the economic over-reach, the carbon free energy need of this country, and the similar issues; which one will be the end of our society?

But before the end is the good life, where we can all enjoy ourselves as we destroy our environment, society, the like.   

In Memory of the Past

We are thrust into life, not by choice but by random chance. We are dropped on this earth at a location picked by chance events of others lives. We are given genetic characteristics, and develop in a environment that happens to exist where and when we are dropped. Early on, some are expected to have gratitude for these chance events, even when much of our life has been spent in pain, even thinking the pains are normal. Later we make our own choices, based on feelings, aberrations of the future, opportunities that we perceive, often finding that when we arrive, the future we were promised does not exist, and we are left scrambling.

We are individuals, going through life mostly alone, or with someone else, but separate. By the time some of us have figured it out, it is gone, or changed so much. We now live in a overpopulated world of people who are too psychopathic on average. Not a pleasant place, but if we dart from one safe environment to the next, it is ok, and in the end we all just die anyway.

We are dropped on this world without influence, and some rise to a position of influence, but looking around, I do not see many nice people in these positions of influence. I do see a lot of not so nice people doing what ever they do, usually in search of money, and doing what they can to get by. There are some nice people mixed in. There are some nice in all the un-nice, few are all one way or the other, but I think, the number of ugly personalities is growing, fast.

We make the decisions we make for the reasons we make them, right or wrong. We did the best we could at the time. We can have no regret nor guilt. We can paint on our attitude of gratitude, peace, contentment, joy, wonder, understanding, whatever, and get on with living. Most lives are just common, unlike the fictional super humans of TV, just common. Some are money grubbers, forsaking ethics for money. It is likely the most common unsavory characteristic of these times.

Time is linear, one way, relatively consistent, and not something anyone can control. It has no beginning nor end, and is not circular. It is an unknown to mathematics shape, stretching back to negative infinity, and forward to positive infinity, which is a contradiction in terms, as that is two infinity, which cannot exist, by definition of infinity, so perhaps it is only say half infinity each way. But this does not matter to my lifetime.

As young adults we make decision, that set the course of our lives, for better or worse. We cannot hold any reservation nor regret. We must give life our full effort in one direction, choices are required. That is life.