Home for mother’s day, but I screwed up the Daily Bruin web site, so I may have to spend some of today fixing it (if I can). Kelly and I just got into another argument about political theory, human nature, reason etc. She and I never do seem to be able to have constructive discussions about it.

It started when we were talking about physician assisted suicide, and then suicide in general. I made the assertion that a person has the right to commit suicide if they so choose - she thought otherwise. What I don’t understand is where she and most others think their right to force their will upon others comes from. Does god give them a right to do it? Are we a collective and I’m just too dumb to see it?

BEGIN RANT On that note, why is it that whenever someone talks about communism (even me circa two years ago) they always preface it with, “Well, it’s a good idea, and works in theory.” Are they trying to apologize? Like, the theory is right, if only human nature would live up to it. Aren’t we damning ourselves with that preface? And what’s this about working in theory? It does not work in theory, unless you have a theory not based on reality. END RANT

I’ve found it difficult as of late to argue with people who don’t want to use reason and reality as their basis for argument. Those of you who know me well enough to know I recently finished reading Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead will probably attribute this attitude of mine to them. Clearly this is partly true, but it is not because I have just taken it in as my own. I’ve thought about it many times before, but I never really had anyone that agreed with me. I’ve always felt that there is something wrong with the world when people say that they are not self-interested and that they want to work for the good of the community etc etc. This attitude leads to unhappiness in many of the cases I’ve seen, including my own.

I thought earlier that I’d seen some of the error in Atlas Shrugged, and I have. There are problems with that philosophy. The fact that I’ve given a little ground has apparently not closed the chasm between me and my sister. I’ll try to avoid the issue in the future, since neither one of us gets anything out of it. If she wants to continue to live in a world that by definition has no rhyme or reason, so be it - it is her life, after all.