[annalex]

Very good. I agree. Do you consider this view of kindness to be a Randian position, a logical expansion of the Randian position done by you, or would you say that it contradicts the Randian position?

You realize that I need to reconcile your statement with Rand's celebration of greed and view on altruism as another form of greed.

[jackbob]

I would say a little of all three. Some from Rand, some from my expansion of Rand, and definitely a lot in contradiction of Rand. But also it is from conclusions I've drawn from other writings on ethics unrelated to Rand or libertarianism. I have never studied ethics, and any insight I might have is limited to writings I accidentally fell upon, and impressed me.

You realize that I need to reconcile your statement with Rand's celebration of greed and view on altruism as another form of greed.

I plead ignorance here. Your meaning escapes me, and am thereby unable to answer.

[jackbob]

Please accept my apology. The meaning of what you ask is quite clear. My excuse is that I am responding while also doing paper work that has to be done before I go off to work. I will answer tonight after working a few hours. Business must come first.

[jackbob]

You realize that I need to reconcile your statement with Rand's celebration of greed and view on altruism as another form of greed.

First off let me say I have never had a need to reconcile my opinions with Rand's opinions. She has never had a major influence on my points of view. As far as greed goes, my position, unlike Rand and her followers, is not of the view that greed should be seen as a positive. For me, greed is a neutral term, usually used negatively because of an often wrongfully implied excessiveness. Which by the way, is the reason I also usually choose to use the word greed as a negative.

Now for altruism. I have never said altruism is an another form of greed. What I have said is that it is phony and does not actually exist. I say it is self deceptive point of view, which feeds various selfish needs, and thereby is an unconscious form of selfishness. Unlike self centeredness (which I always view as a negative), selfishness to me is a neutral fact, viewable correctly as both negative and positive. I choose to use it as a positive most of the time, as it can make easy explaining more hard to explain concepts regarding various forms of profits earned from human action.

But now after writing this I must admit that since I do view altruism (practice by individuals, as opposed to advocated) as excessive, and thereby quite possibly instigated by an excessive want of certain forms of non-material profits, it may very well be a form of greed. But I have not thought this one through enough to assert it to be so.