The Hypocrisy of Republicans and Democrats Alike in Modern Society

I don't have much time, and I'll elaborate on this more thoroughly later, but I need to get something out. I've been watching political debates recently, and the hypocrisies of both parties are making me sick. I suppose I should say right now, I'm a Libertarian Republican, but that doesn't stop me from attacking Republicans just as much as I do Democrats. I'll be brief:

The stance of modern Republicans: Let's have a capitalistic system because we're individualists! At the same time, lets make drugs illegal, ban gay marriage, allow religion in government, and listen to our citizens private phone calls without a warrent.

The stance of modern Democrats: Let's allow gay marriage because we want individualism. We want a secular society so everyone can be an individual. Let's have a regulated economy! Let's force people to buy insurance! Let's tax people more!

It makes me sad I even need to point out the ideological inconsistencies. We have Republicans supporting an individualist economic theory, but denying the individualist social theory, and we have Democrats supporting social individualism, but denying the means of achieving it, ie, free market capitalism.

One can't compromise with freedom! You either have it, or you don't. Capitalism is the corollary to an individualist social theory. We've created an artificial dichotomy and we wonder why there are so many problems today? The government needs to stop interfering with both. Both sides of the political spectrum say that the other side "supports big government," but in reality, both do; they just mask it in different ways. Let me provide a simple solution.

If one is to advocate free market Capitalism, one must realize that is foundation is the principle of individual rights. If one wishes to uphold individual rights one must recognize that Capitalism is the only system that can do this.

-L.C.

Helping my peers edit their college essays?

I wasn't aware I was the authority on the subject. Believe me, I think myself a mediocre writer at best, yet they're lining up to hear my opinion. If only I could just say no.....

My friend was asked in one of his prompts to describe an activity he does for pleasure alone; he only has 100 words so it needed to be brief. I thought we'd take a creative approach.

"I await the serve, crouched in a stance that would make Federer wet himself. Pink Floyd plays a calming frequency. The bass on my speakers deepens, bumping the garage, and creating the perfect soundtrack for what is to come. My opponent waits for that psychological moment that occurs when the song reaches crescendo. Suddenly, “ping!” The ball hits the table…”pong!” I redirect his serve over the net. My math mind takes over. “Decrease the angle! Hit it harder, Noam! Not that hard!” For 21 points, I’m in heaven. Then it’s over, until I realize it’s best two out of three."

-L.C.

Philosophy: Who Needs It? A book by Ayn Rand

This is a VERY brief overview of it's impact on my life. I'm far too tired to write more tonight.

Saying that Philosophy: Who Needs It, by Ayn Rand, “surprised, unsettled, or challenged” me would be an understatement. The book could best be described as the marijuana to my cocaine, my gateway into a realm of heightened senses, though in this case, of heightened intellect. There are few experiences in life which we can cite as “changing the way we think,” but reading the collection of essays did just that. It taught me to approach life the way I would a maze: by analyzing every possible angle to determine the proper course of action. It showed me a fundamental error with the way we’re taught to think in high school: to analyze consequences, not causes. When we do this, we assert that the universe is some unknowable realm of inexplicable occurrences that our mind is incapable of grasping. Rand’s book taught me that nothing is a given. We can’t accept something as “inexplicable,” because in doing so, we abnegate our means of survival, our rationality. Man’s happiness, man’s peace, man’s success, even man’s survival, these things must be learned and discovered by the individual. Only by consciously developing as Rand says, an “integrated view of existence,” a life philosophy, can we do this. Rand’s book set me on the path to defining my own philosophical system; I’m not entirely there yet, but things certainly make a lot more sense. Go buy the book; It will change your life.

-L.C.

Wake Forest and Colgate Essays

Prompt 2 - This year our Wake Forest Student Union invited expert students to become teachers of non-credit classes in the Wake Forest Experimental college. Provide us with the title of a course that you could teach your peers. 250 characters


2) Modern History Through Firsthand Accounts. I’ve always found that history through text is limited. The barriers of language make it impossible to capture an event and we’re left with essentially a negative waiting to be developed. The class relies primarily on guest speakers and student interaction. We’ll learn about 9/11 from firefighters. We’ll hear perspectives on the economic collapse from John Allison. We’ll discuss Iraq with military officials. The class will be presented in a non-CNN/FOX/NBC manner, meaning it’s uncensored, meaning it’s real.

Prompt 3 - Make a rational argument for a position you do not personally support. For clarity, please state your true opinion first and then argue the opposite position. 1000 characters

3) F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that genius is marked by the ability to hold two opposing viewpoints. This is essentially what your prompt is asking me to do. This is wrong. Rational presupposes an evaluation of the facts of reality, separate from the judgment being made and the person making it. The subjectivism posed in your question implies something can never be true prior to being judged. This denial of objectivity prevents a rational argument from being made because it means that judgment has no independent existence separate from the mind. Thus the question stated in the prompt makes every argument arbitrary, and groundless. Instead of asking this of applicants, let’s ask another one. While you’re at it, you can even ask yourself. “Make a rational argument for a position you support.” I’ve found that very few people can do this once the question “Why” has been posed. Why is honesty good? Why is killing evil? You’ll learn more about a person from their ability to answer those questions and rationally support them than their ability to counterfeit reason with quasi-rationalism.


Colgate

At Colgate we value global awareness and the diverse perspectives of our students. Through travel, students are able to experience different cultures and take advantage of new opportunities that can make our community richer when they return to campus. If you had the opportunity to travel anywhere in the world during your time at Colgate, where would you go, and why? 250 Words


No country is more appealing to me than Russia. Reading the history and literature of a people described by perhaps it’s most famous author as having a “rudimentary spiritual need…for suffering…everywhere and in everything” lifts us to greater heights than do the tragedies of ancient Greece. They meet life with an unusual vitality of character, able to flux between absolute joy and despair in a matter of minutes. For an outsider, one who’s experienced the Russian sense of life only through literature, it’s fiction brought into the real world. It’s this world I want to immerse myself in, a world in which I hope to experience that heightened sense of emotion that is so uniquely Russian. I want to see life through the eyes of Ivan Karamazov, to think the thoughts of the Underground Man, if only to better understand the human psyche. One, I feel, can’t truly do this until they’ve walked the streets of St. Petersburg, until they’ve experimented in morality like Raskolnikov (naturally not to that extent), and until they’ve shared Vodka with a fellow intellectual over a wooden table in a cold Russian winter. I want to stand where Lenin stood when he called for the most evil political system the world has ever seen and to hear the thunderous applause that greeted it. I want to walk in the forests of Siberia and feel the souls of the millions sent there to die, so I can know what human irrationality is capable of. I want to experience the extreme highs and extreme lows that mark the barometer of Russian culture in order to truly understand the human capacity to feel.


-L.C.

College Essay: Why I am Unique? Rough Draft

"Beyond your impressive academic credentials and extracurricular accomplishments, what else makes you unique and colorful?

We know that nobody fits neatly into 500 words or less, but you can provide us with some suggestion of the type of person you are. Anything goes! Inspire us, impress us or just make us laugh. Think of this optional opportunity as show and tell by proxy and with an attitude, but please restrict your submission to what will fit on one sheet of paper."

Lain Coubert

"This essay topic is particularly satisfying because it acknowledges what I had written in a previous rough draft of my common application; that 500 words were nowhere near enough words to describe something significant, and on this premise rests, ironically, the chance to discover other noteworthy aspects of oneself, such as a college experience.  Words are being wasted as I type however, and I’ve always found a certain amount of concurrence with Nietzsche, that “what is superfluous is hostile to what is essential,” so I’ll attempt in the 400 some words I have left to give you a brief description of everything quintessentially “Lain Courbert.”  I like to think of myself as versatile. My iTunes library ranges from Chopin to Buddy Holly to Adele. I’ve read Nicholas Sparks and Aristotle. I’ve refused cheese popcorn on moral principle and I’ve participated in a rave at the Christchurch Chaplaincy in Oxford. I’ve seen sunrises atop mountains, but I prefer the calming darkness of the beach at nighttime. I consider myself an Objectivist, but I staunchly believe in a higher power. I’ll choose an intimate drive over a party nine out of ten times; I’ve been to many parties; my yearly mileage is 18000. I’ve criticized Mayan pyramids for their wavering architectural integrity. The voice in my head is often an Albanian named Butrint, but I’ve never been to Eastern Europe. I started a political revolution at my school; a teacher of mine later commented on the absurd number of Anthem copies floating around. If I could choose a time period to live in other than my own, I’d choose Dostoevsky’s Russia. If I could recreate society, I’d shape it in the way of Ancient Athens (without slavery, naturally). I think impossibilities; I perform improbabilities. I find a great deal of charm in ambiguity. I’m politically minded and enjoy arguments; debates are daily occurrence for me. I’m anti-authority, in the sense that age or title has never been my standard for consensual governance. I believe political correctness is a worse prison than the words it’s meant to protect people from. I sometimes pretend my car is an X-Wing. My greatest source of frustration is incompetence; my greatest source of annoyance is the minivan (My apologies if you own one). Blackouts are a blessing for me; there’s something very spiritual in candlelight, especially when it’s coupled with my green laser pointer from Chinatown, which, no matter how often I use it, never ceases to amaze me. I’m concerned with everything, and indifferent to almost everyone. If my life could have a theme song, I’d want it to be Eden Roc, which, being purely instrumental, is unrestricted by the limits of language. I feel an intense joy in writing new lyrics in my each time I hear it. I'm a bibliophile, and often find myself trying to live the lives the characters. Your prompt says to explain how I’m unique, but I see myself as completely normal, except in one aspect, that I see myself as such."

           -L.C.