Voluntary Association, Individual Optimization

Our battle is not simply one between competing political ideologies and policy decisions. Instead, our fight extends far beyond political implications into the very heart of this nation's true issue:  a failure in philosophical doctrine.

While our opponents rest with the philosophy of forced altruism, the idea that says people should be required to sacrifice themselves to benefit their fellow man, we rest on the side of individualism. We support the idea that the state can't require support of anyone but oneself -- one's own needs, convictions, and personal efficiency without obligation to anyone with whom he doesn't voluntarily associate.

However, our philosophy does not apply solely to individuals, but also corporations, businesses seeking to make a profit for themselves and not their competitors.

This provocative article displays the struggle one of these corporations -- Apple Computer, Inc. -- to do what is personally best for it rather than succumbing to the will and desires of those who only seek to exploit it.

Ayn Rand 101

This is all humour of course, but whether you like Rand (as I do, to an extent) or if you hate her, it's cleverly correct to an extent.

DHS Teachers Embrace Collectivism

As a student at Dixon High School, which is located in the rather conservative community of Dixon, CA, I never expected to see collectivism so boldly embraced by faculty members.  

Today, Friday, Dec. 11th, I had the amazing pleasure of arguing with a biology teacher who had the audacity to say, "There should be no individualism." A biology teacher looked straight at me and said that, her words ringing in the empty classroom with a slight pitter-patter of rain from outside. The statement was provoked after a relatively lengthy argument about a disciplinary issue that had faced the bureaucrats in the school administration.

I serve as a representative in DHS's Leadership assembly, and this week was supposed to be a school-spirit week that ended was to end as all school spirit week -- with a rally at the end. However, two students got in a fight on Thursday, the day before the rally, and the rally, in a knee-jerk decision by the administration, was cancelled. The Leadership Assembly had been planning the event for a month and a half and was therefore very indignant, however the YAL@DHS actually did something about it.

Howard Roark's Defense of Individualism

This stellar defense of individualism is from the movie based on Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.