Morality101.net

This Morality webpage should have been the very first, but it was long delayed by secondary considerations which I have allowed to distract me.  Even today, expect that I shall continue to enhance and fine-tune this page.

To myself, morality is very simple, but the objective of helping others to grasp, contemplate, accept and adopt as the principles by which one may have and build a life with happiness and prosperity — that requires example and elaboration.

“Morality” and “Philosophy” seem hugely daunting and intimidating words, but true morality is neither intricate nor complex, despite that the subject has inspired the penning of countless books, billions of words, has consumed the entire lifetimes of some and the never-ending diatribe of many, seeming to demand far more time and effort than most humans care to endure.

From our USA Declaration of Independence, which states … “All men [have] certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These few words contain the essence of true Morality. Your rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness are absolutes — they are not negotiable.  For You to compromise even any small part of those rights is immoral unto yourself, and unto your world.

Contrary to common belief, the above words are NOT contained within our Constitution. The Constitutional Amendments serve to partially correct that amazing oversight, but the sum of those Amendments fails to encompass the full meaning, and some contradict the meaning of that original phrase within the Declaration of Independence. Anyway, while the essence of morality is contained within that simple phrase, it seems that far too many do not bother to consider those words and thus cannot relate those to lives of true freedom.

Your RIGHT TO LIFE is an entirely personal and individual right, which cannot exist except that each person OWNS their life and all, which is necessary and thus proper, to sustain and enhance Life.  “Life” necessarily encompasses the entire spectrum of the components of Humanity.

Far beyond the basics of merely continuing to breathe, of having a beating heart, Human Life means not only the instincts necessary for survival, which are merely characteristics of all animals. Only Human life necessarily includes the the Mind and the ability to apply the human capability to Reason based upon all that is observable by one’s Senses, and to use one’s Reason to abstract and conceive of things beyond — innovation, improvement, expansion, and creation.

The only valid Morality is necessarily based upon our knowledge of that which Exists — those things which are known and knowable — which therefore can be perceived by our senses of vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell. Our senses proved our means of perceiving that which exists, and our mind can consider, expand upon and organize those perceptions, and by use of Reason can draw conclusions which necessarily conform to the knowable Existence, and/or provable by logical and scientific process.  Animals cannot Reason.  Reasoning is the unique, special and most precious characteristic of Humanity.

• Your life belongs only to YOU, which means… it does NOT belong to anyone else.
• Who has the right to your life? Only YOU!
• Who has the right to control or manipulate your Life? Only YOU!
• Who determines the level of quality of your Life? Only YOU!
• Who then is Responsible for your Life?  Hmmm, would that be YOU?
• Further, you are also responsible for the family which you have chosen, but no others.
• And in return your family is equally responsible for you.You may Choose to assume responsibility for others whom you value, but…
• The extent and longevity of responsibility for those others is strictly your Personal Choice.

Right to Life: Of course you have the right to life and therefore that life belongs to You.  If anyone else were to take your life, You would not exist, having neither Life nor any need or even desire for Life.  It sounds so elementary, doesn’t it?  Therefore, each of us must have our personal right to life.  To sustain and enhance that life is our primary duty to ourselves, for without life we are nothing.  Did I say something wrong here?  I think not,

which brings us to Your…
Right to Liberty: Most of us seldom think deeply about Liberty or Freedom – it’s just a word, something we’re supposed to have, and if “They” tell us we have Liberty, we tend to take “Them” at their word.  We truly do need to think about Liberty, each and every time we make choices affecting our Lives,  We need th consider whether we are truly Free to make those choices, or whether “They” have already made or limited those choices without your consent.

How is your Life sustained and enhanced?  With Your…
Property: — which is everything you own, hopefully because you earned it!  Property  includes your money, your income, your home, your earned assets, , your investments, even your wristwatch, your food and clothing.  But most importantly, Life includes Your Mind,  all Your Mind creates and does to enable your continuing survival and gain happiness and comfort for yourselves and your personal Circle.  Would you allow others to steal your property?  Of course not, for earning and accumulating and using your property is necessary to sustain and enhance your Life!  If you cannot and do not sustain your life, and if you fail to insist up your Right to do so, you die.  Being dead, you are unable to help your family, your friends, or your freely chosen charitable choices.  Once dead, how do you accumulate property to sustain and enhance the life of yourself and your loved ones?

Might you use your…
Mind? Would you use your mind to weigh the pros and cons of your every move, to make the best decisions toward your better Life?  Or would you cede your Mind for such  decisions over to someone else?  Who knows better than you what will be the best choices for your personal Life?  Would you turn your choices over to your neighbor, or to the criminal on another street, or to your mayor and council, or your governor, or your congressman, or your president?  Who can know better than you what is best for your personal life?  Who knows best of your circumstances, your desires, and your abilities?  Whose mind is really superior to Yours?

Which leads right into the necessity of having…
Personal Choice: Our choices are ours alone to make.  We can make good choices and reap the rewards, or we can make poor choices for which we will pay the price of decreased prosperity and happiness, or even cause loss of  Your Life.  If You turn your personal choices over to someone else, will that someone somehow care less about their own life, or will they be too busy making their own personal choices?  Can you really trust them to somehow make better choices for You than you can make for yourself?  This is not a rhetorical question!  If You will cede your Mind to another, then are you Human, or are you merely an animal, an entity without the unique  human ability to Reason?

Pursuit of Happiness. So long as you are alive and able, your property is yours with which to pursue the happiness you have earned, for yourself, your family and your chosen friends.  Happiness is not given, it is earned by your effort and your virtue.  It is to be treasured, and is not to be diminished by being stolen from you by neighbors, or governments or other criminals.  Happiness may be enhanced by sharing with those you treasure.  Even your charity via gift or effort may increase your happiness.

In furthering your Morality, realize that You are entirely responsible for your own Life.  You are also equally responsible allowing all others the same equal Right to Life.

This same post is always available as a Page.  With this present theme it always shows in the top header.
Thank you for your visit and any comments you might make.  If a comment  box is not showing, just click the Title, which gets to this page as a stand-alone with comment box.  You’ll need to login or register to comment.

I have wasted most of this past 13 months on Digg.com, in futile jousting with immoral collectivists who do not and will not understand the morality of the personal right to life of each individual on this planet, who seek to use the Force of government to negate our right to property, and don’t give one rip about the objective of happiness.  Our right to property is now diverted from sustaining our life and enhancing our happiness, and is now instead being ripped from our hands (stolen) toward furthering the immoral goals of collectivism via Force.

Much time was simply wasted, trying to avoid reading trivia completely irrelevant to the ongoing economic collapse, and even more trivia wading thru irrelevant comments often nothing more than ignorant abusive blurbs consisting of nothing more than FU, FTW.  While we still hang onto the thread of freedom of speech, having to deal with such ignorance wastes everyone’s time and energy for naught.

During this period we have been clobbered by the burst housing bubble, bailouts serving only to increase the national debt, to the election of a non-citizen communist who now purports to be the president of this new USSA, to an infinitely broad “stimulus bill” which we have now seen serving only to increase the already impossible mountain of national debt.  This cannot be funded because the Federal Reserve cannot find buyers for the T-bills and T-bonds, thus Government cannot pay it’s bills nor even fund the bailouts and stimulus.  This is a GOOD thing, although we doubt the liberals and socialists and collectivists will not understand this just yet!

So what has this to do with Digg?  Well, just yesterday Digg ended it’s Shout feature, which was the way we could pass good articles to our friends.  Digg now suggests Facebook and Twitter be used to compensate.  Now I don’t know that you feel this way, but having to play KissyFace and Tweeting is not my idea of useful productive time on the internet, so you’ll not find me there.  If someone knows an equally active social website devoted to active and serious discussion of philosophical political issues and ideas, PLEASE comment and let me know.

But worse with Digg is it’s now blatant attempts to promote bleeding heart crap and to conceal or even delete anything relevant to true Liberty and the current actions of Government seeking to destroy that last vestage of Freedom. For that reason alone, I am done with Digg.com.  I may submit more (of Morality101) articles to Digg, but will not be otherwise participating.  I see no compelling reason that Digg will survive these fatal mistakes.  Leave that to the collectivists to have a mutual admiration society and continue to scheme how to gain more powers to Force.

I hope to convert this blogger into THE major forum for the serious ongoing discussion mentioned.  I wlll need your help to accomplish this, there is too much for me to learn about doing this and so I need the collaboration of others.  I barely know how to “Submit” an article here via WordPress, much less to set up the tools for good interaction between us.

So, requested action(s)

• My email address is available only  to my Friends who know me as Striker101 on Digg.  If you are one of those, please either use your Digg handle or else email me so I know who you are.  You will be authorized as Authors and thus allowed to Post and to Submit.
• To others, you will find my eaddy at the root website of http://morality101.net.
• ONLY to those who understand the foundations of Objectivist or Libertarian philosophy, REGISTER here at  Morality101 so that you can participate, and then DO participate.
• We are not here to argue with collectivists, who are wholly without virtue.  We are here to expand upon the likes of Ayn Rand and Ludwig von Mises.  We are here to destroy collectivism before it destroys Capitalism, the free market and Liberty.

Leave your comments HERE, don’t even bother with Digg anymore.

To All My Valued Employees,

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of
this company and, more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy
has changed  for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the
good news is this: The economy doesn’t pose a threat to your job. What
does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in
this country.

However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help
you decide what is in your best interest.

First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against
employees, you have to understand that, for every business owner, there
is a Back Story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by
what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You’ve
seen my big home at last year’s Christmas party. I’m sure; all these
flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life.
However, what you don’t see is the BACK STORY:

I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300
square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living apartment was
converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building
a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you.

My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I saved
went  back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a
defective transmission. I didn’t have time to date. Often times, I
stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and
partying. In fact, I was married to my business — hard work,
discipline, and sacrifice.

Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a
modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy
cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes.
Instead of hitting the Nordstrom’s for the latest hot fashion item, I
was trolling through the discount store extracting any clothing item
that didn’t look like it was birthed in the 70′s. My friends refinanced
their mortgages and lived a life of luxury.  I, however, did not. I put
my time, my money, and my life into a business with a vision that
eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries my
friends supposedly had.

So, while you physically arrive at the  office at 9am, mentally check in
at about noon, and then leave at 5pm, I don’t. There is no “off” button
for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend
all to yourself. I  unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, and
breathe this  company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There
is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this business is
attached to my hip like a 1 year old special-needs child. You, of
course, only see the fruits of that garden — the nice house, the
Mercedes, the vacations… you never realize the Back Story and the
sacrifices I’ve made.

Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right
decisions and saved his money, have to bail-out all the people who
didn’t. The people who overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled
to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed more than a decade of
my life for.

Yes, business ownership has is benefits but the price I’ve paid is steep
and not without wounds.

Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is
starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell
you why:

I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don’t pay enough.
I have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes.
Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on
taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess
what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and
regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of
my time.  On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US  Treasury for $288,000
for quarterly taxes. You know what my “stimulus” check was? Zero.. Nada.
Zilch.

The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy
who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000
people per year with a flourishing business? Or the single mother,
sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next
welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the real
economic stimulus of this country.

The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you’d quit
and you wouldn’t work here. I mean, why should you? That’s nuts. Who
wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree, which
is why your job is in jeopardy.

Here is what many of you don’t understand … to stimulate the economy
you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly, the
government mandated  to me that I didn’t need to pay taxes, guess what?
Instead of  depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole, I
would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial
economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax
cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But – you can forget
it now.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don’t
defibrillate and shock his thumb, thinking that will bring him back to
life, do you? Or, do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the
heart of America and always has  been. To restart it, you must stimulate
it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the
poor of America are the essential drivers of the American economic
engine. Nothing could be further from the truth; this is the type of
change YOU can keep.

So where am I going with all this?

It’s quite simple.

If any new taxes are levied on me, or my  company, my reaction will be
swift and simple.  I’ll fire you.  I’ll fire your co-workers. You can
then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and
your child’s future. Frankly, it isn’t my problem any more.

Then, I  will close this company down, move to another country, and
retire. You see, I’m done. I’m done with a country that penalizes the
productive and gives to the unproductive.  My motivation to work, and to
provide jobs, will be destroyed and, with it, will be my citizenship.

So, if you lose your job, it won’t be at the hands of the economy; it
will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this
country, steam-rolled the constitution, and will have changed its
landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach,
retired, and with no employees to worry about….

Signed,  THE  BOSS

Ms LaLaGirl had troubles with her truck, stopped alongside the road, and leaned under the hood.  Redneck comes by, asks the problem, she says she doesn’t know.  Redneck slams the hood on her, undoes his big buckle and says, “Lady, this just ain’t your day”.

Such has been this day, and perhaps later I’ll feel sorry for writing this and zap it, but I’m feeling “had” about my supposed “Friends” over on Digg.  After many very long days of posting and commenting there, I finally figured I’d learned the ropes, and had about 60 friends.  So to all of them I shouted the link to morality101, asking my so-called friends to Digg It and Share it.  This because all the circumstances made it seem as though the timing was right to pick up this doggie and run with it.

Ya know what?  I learned I have exactly two friends there — those who answered this simple request.  I learned that unknown others have just been blowing smoke.  Too often I learn such things the hard way.

So I have been very angry and upset, and went on some threads and Digg and blew a bunch of people away — not by name but by challenging dumb comments and posts.  There was no attempt to pussy-foot around and be diplomatic, I could see no reason for maintaining a batch of people who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk; mostly they’re plain old phonies.  From long experience thru life, I guess that’s pretty typical.  Good and true friends are hard to find – those few deserve being kept amongst the true treasures of one’s life.  The others are simply wasting your time and using up your precious life.

Okay, that said, you folks should know that there is but one priority for whatever short time might remain of my life.  That is the issue of morality — not talking about religion here — the morality to preserve and enhance of our personal lives.  Morality is so simple, it is really about nothing else.

In our entire lives it is rare indeed that we would choose to hand our life to another, saying, “I trust you, here is my life, into your hands, do with it whatever you wish.”  How many are in YOUR life to whom you would give such total and unconditional trust?  Be honest now, those cannot be other than perhaps your life-mate or your child, correct?

Yet we live today in a society (what IS a ‘society’, anyway?) which demands that we must concede our minds, our lives, our property, our happiness… everything, to any unknown other.  What is a morality which would thereby claim your inferiority?  How does a supposedly “free” individual accept that some unknown horde of supposed humans is somehow superior to you.  How can you hand your lives over to unknowns whom you have had no occasion to learn of mutual trust or admiration?  How could you conclude, without evidence whatsoever, that any other unknown person or group might have your best interests as their goal?

You don’t really know me, no more than what I know you.  We are probably several states apart.  Perhaps we don’t even speak the same language.  Yet often we think we are “friends”. Wonder if and when that is true!

I’m cutting this short because of the collapse which headed for the dark age this morning.  Maybe later someday?