Nothing Surprises Me Anymore (Translated from French)

This was on my Facebook from months ago, and I wanted to share it here:

They divided up the world, Nothing surprises me anymore

If you leave me Chechnya

Me, I will leave you Armenia

If you leave me Afghanistan

Me, I will leave you Pakistan

If you don’t withdraw from Haiti

I will invade Banui for you

If you help me bomb Iraq

Me, I will take care of Kurdistan for you

They divided up the world, Nothing surprises me anymore

If you leave me the uranium

Me, I will leave you the aluminum

If you leave me your mineral deposits

Me, I will help you hunt the Taliban

If you leave me a lot of wheat

Me, I will fight the war at your side

If you let me mine your gold

Me, I will help you overthrow the general

They divided up the world, Nothing surprises me anymore

They divided up Africa without consulting us,

and then they were astonished when we disunited ourselves

One part of the Mandingue Empire

Is located in the Wolof’s home

One part of the Mossi Empire

Is located in Ghana

One part of the Soussou Empire

Is located in the Mandingue Empire

One part of the Mandingue Empire

Is located in the Mossi’s home

The divided up Africa, without asking us

Without asking us, without our advice

They divided up the world, Nothing surprises me anymore

 *The word 'gisement', which I translated as mineral deposit, could also refer to oilfield but the word by itself is vague and there are no extra details to help decide what he means.

* The original french says "chez les Mossis" etc. Literally translated, home of the Mossi. I'd be more prone to say the Mossi Territory, or the Mossi's land. I tried to keep it as close to the original connotations, so I didn't change it to make it sound 'better'.

I don't want your power. I don't have a need for it. (Translated from French)

I translated a song that really had an impression on me.

I don’t want your power. I don’t have a need for it

I am not your mirror, but your nightmare.

I don’t want your glory. I live with hope.

I don’t want your power. Here is my story.

I am like a child. Naïve and without limitation.

Like you’ve already seen, and your gaze is disappointing.

You run after time. But time passes quickly.

Me, I am here. I walk. And I live in the present moment.

I just wanted a life, me too.

The mountains often, but mine are made of rocks and yours of money.

I don’t want your power. I don’t have a need for it.

I am not your mirror, but your nightmare.

I don’t want your glory. I live with hope.

I don’t want your power. Here is my story.

I live off bread, laughter, and sun.

You give to others, and don’t finish the deal.

Those who give me their hand.  Those who give me their ear.

I have found treasures that you will never have.

I just wanted a life, me too.

The mountains often, but mine are made of honey and yours of money.

I don’t want your power. I don’t have a need for it.

I am not your mirror, but your nightmare.

I don’t want your glory. I live with hope.

I don’t want your power. Here is my story.

If you could have stopped yourself.

On the side of the road.

If you could have stopped yourself.

You would have understood, no doubt.

Power and happiness are neither brothers nor cousins.

I won’t go. I am not afraid to serve myself in your garden.

I don’t want your power. I don’t have a need for it.

I am not your mirror, but your nightmare.

I don’t want your glory. I live with hope.

I don’t want your power. Here is my story.

Homeschool Prep

I am getting so excited to start our school year! We are using Ambleside this year. That's a curriculum based on the Charlotte Mason method. We will be doing A LOT of reading classic literature, and observing nature and the world around us as the core of our school work. We will be reading Aesops Fables, Kipling's Blue Fairy Book, 50 Stories Retold, and A Child's Garden of Verses, among many others. We will be studying birds. We will be studying the art of John Singleton Copely, and the music of Franz Josef Hadyn. Additionally we will use Progressive Phonics  and Easy Peasy Math.

 I have a calendar all set for September and all the books and supplies. Woot! I <3 Homeschooling :) Just have to assemble the lesson plan for French lessons :) (Yes. I speak French.) Of course, my children already know some phrases just from being my children, but I figured 1st grade was a good time to start more formal learning. So we will begin with the alphabet. I found this during my search for fun resources:

Obviously Ratounet is French Canadian :D I plan to set goals for the year and more concrete lesson plans for each month.

I spent time this afternoon trying to get everything prepared for the school year....and my six year old lost her laptop. Seriously? So I suppose step 1 is FIND THE SIX YEAR OLDS LAPTOP!!! Then I can load the links to things we will use on there.

As for the little ones, we will mostly unschool. I do plan for a more "formal" lesson two days a week for them. Mostly cutting, coloring, tracing, etc. And of course Homeschool Co op begins in just over a month. That's very exciting! My three year old will begin to attend the preschool class. All very exciting for me.

My Library SUCKS

I'm having a large issue with my little town's library. Over the past three years that we live here, we have gone less and less.

- The story time for young children is in no way designed with young children in mind.

- They refuse to post any fliers that I, or any other conservative, bring in. These are to inform the community about *community* events! But they have to go through the head librarian, a super liberal. So they never - I mean I have literally never seen one - get onto the bulletin board.

- The head librarian is an ass. (Yeah I said it.) He makes snarky remarks to parents, and that discourages community involvement at events. (We pay for these with our taxes, we don't need your attitude.)

- The "children's librarian" made my daughter cry, teasing her, and so we never returned to summer reading program. We didn't even try this year.

And the final straw?

I go to get two books today, and I was informed I owed $27 in fees ($5 of billing charge). I was 12 days late. I admit it. $27?! And I was not allowed to check books out until it's paid. I offered to pay 1/4 of the fee (it's all the cash I had on me), if I could check out books today. That wasn't good enough.

What the hell is this fee for? No one called to remind me my books were due. Nothing came in the mail. I was 12 days late, because I was severely ill. But instead of setting up some kind of payment plan on the fees (no clue what they go for, because I typically have to order books from other libraries - ours is so old, and the selection is severly lacking) I just got AGAIN a shitty attitude and a pay or leave situation from the lady behind the counter.

You would think we want a warm, welcoming library with a family and child centered enviornment; with people working there that are friendly and make you feel happy to go there instead of dreadful.The fees are punitive, and there's no leeway. Don't we want the poor to have access to books for themselves and their children?

Apparently not. And it's such a shame, because we LOVED our library in Seattle. It is so depressing to me. I'm a voracious reader, and I want my children to love the library. I'm really angry, but also, I'm really sad.

Yes, I have deleted my Facebook again. I don't know how much more explicit I could have been about things last time. My only guess is that people don't realize what a quick temper I have.

 It's not about what you do or say. It's about attitudes and implications. So.. If I feel like I am being disrespected, I am going to get angry quick... and did I mention that I'm also a grudge holder? I've been this way since I was a little kid. I also have zero (I mean absolutely zero) tolerance for drama, or for people causing me what we will call hassle. If I seem like an unreasonable person, then please do not associate with me. 

 I guess the bottom line is, because of things like Facebook people assume that they know you. And that's a very bad thing. Tread carefully with people. Show love when you choose to communicate with someone. Have some respect.

 I made no announcement about my leaving this time. I don't know if I will return or not. I'm just tired of people's crap. I have a dear friend who insists I am isolating myself. Maybe I am a little bit. Who cares? For those of you who begin to miss me, you know how to find me. 

Selfishness: The beginning of a series

Since the release of the film version of “Atlas Shrugged”, I’ve noticed a marked uptick in conversation about philosopher Ayn Rand. The dialogue varies depending on who you are speaking with; noticeably two camps: the pro and anti Rand crowds. It seems as though Ayn Rand is continually misunderstood, even in libertarian circles. It’s trendy to dislike her, and anti-capitalists revel in quoting her out of context; maiming her message of non-violence.

This morning I was reading an article titled, “5 Myths About Libertarianism”. Which you can read here The article has made its way from Reason, to the Wall Street Journal, and finally to my own local paper. It’s a light read, detailing (as the title would suggest) 5 common myths about Libertarians. Overall it was a good article, although I couldn’t help but thinking that it railed pretty hard against Ayn Rand, even quoting her out of context (further perpetuating what the anti-capitalists have so enjoyed using to defame her philosophy).

I thought it only proper to reply in kind, with 5 myths about Objectivism. So I’m using my blog to mull over the idea, in order to write a concise, clear, and only slightly biased article to share on a larger scale. Since I have small children it’s hard to do any prolonged critical thinking. Today I am focused on selfishness.

Objectivism is Ayn Rands own philosophy, which she writes about via both fiction (Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead) and non-fiction (Virtue of Selfishness, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, etc.). The idea of selfishness, as espoused by Ayn Rand’s philosophy, is blatantly and purposefully belittled by the intelligencia. It’s only with an open mind, and full research into Objectivism that we are able to paint a clear picture of what Rand was really talking about. 

So let’s begin with a quote from that article I read this morning, in which the author purports, “And given the influence of Ayn Rand among many libertarians, it’s easy to think that they care only about themselves. “I will never live for the sake of another man,” runs a characteristic line from Rand’s 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged.”

…. Objectivists only care about themselves

This is the most commonly held belief about Ayn Rand’s philosophy. Ayn was careful to explain such ideas in her non-fiction writing. Let’s take a few quotes from the Ayn Rand Lexicon to clear up this conundrum.

On “Selfishness” Rand writes:

“The meaning ascribed in popular usage to the word “selfishness” is not merely wrong: it represents a devastating intellectual “package-deal,” which is responsible, more than any other single factor, for the arrested moral development of mankind.

In popular usage, the word “selfishness” is a synonym of evil; the image it conjures is of a murderous brute who tramples over piles of corpses to achieve his own ends, who cares for no living being and pursues nothing but the gratification of the mindless whims of any immediate moment.

Yet the exact meaning and dictionary definition of the word “selfishness” is: concern with one’s own interests.”

On “altruism” Rand writes: 

“What is the moral code of altruism? The basic principle of altruism is that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the only justification of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, virtue and value.

Do not confuse altruism with kindness, good will or respect for the rights of others. These are not primaries, but consequences, which, in fact, altruism makes impossible. The irreducible primary of altruism, the basic absolute, is self-sacrifice—which means; self-immolation, self-abnegation, self-denial, self-destruction—which means: the self as a standard of evil, the selfless as a standard of the good.”

It’s clear why this line of thinking would baffle and offend the simple minded. Isn’t altruism a good thing? Ayn Rand insists it is not only a bad thing, but a blight on the human race. While Rand did not object to charity, she did object to forced charity. And the difference between the two are immeasurable.

On “charity” Rand writes: 

“The fact that a man has no claim on others (i.e., that it is not their moral duty to help him and that he cannot demand their help as his right) does not preclude or prohibit good will among men and does not make it immoral to offer or to accept voluntary, non-sacrificial assistance.

It is altruism that has corrupted and perverted human benevolence by regarding the giver as an object of immolation, and the receiver as a helplessly miserable object of pity who holds a mortgage on the lives of others—a doctrine which is extremely offensive to both parties, leaving men no choice but the roles of sacrificial victim or moral cannibal . . . .”

On “hedonism” Rand writes: 

“I am profoundly opposed to the philosophy of hedonism. Hedonism is the doctrine which holds that the good is whatever gives you pleasure and, therefore, pleasure is the standard of morality. Objectivism holds that the good must be defined by a rational standard of value, that pleasure is not a first cause, but only a consequence, that only the pleasure which proceeds from a rational value judgment can be regarded as moral, that pleasure, as such, is not a guide to action nor a standard of morality. To say that pleasure should be the standard of morality simply means that whichever values you happen to have chosen, consciously or subconsciously, rationally or irrationally, are right and moral. This means that you are to be guided by chance feelings, emotions and whims, not by your mind. My philosophy is the opposite of hedonism. I hold that one cannot achieve happiness by random, arbitrary or subjective means. One can achieve happiness only on the basis of rational values. By rational values, I do not mean anything that a man may arbitrarily or blindly declare to be rational. It is the province of morality, of the science of ethics, to define for men what is a rational standard and what are the rational values to pursue.”

Not only does Ayn Rand decry hedonism as morally illegitimate, but declares that objectivism is its opposite. She opposes altruism, but maintains that charity (when voluntary) is good. She believes that self-esteem and self-love are highest values for man, but in the same breath states clearly that one cannot use other men to achieve their goals. Ayn Rand was staunchly anti-collectivist, and it is easy to see why those with a pro-socialist/pro-collectivist agenda would vilify her philosophy of non-aggression and self-esteem.

Overall, I believe that the argument that Objectivists only care about themselves is a logical fallacy and serves beautifully to promote the statist agenda. After all, if we followed the objectivist philosophy we wouldn’t need to rely on the benevolence of politicians. And they’re counting on that: our need for them. Merely saying that objectivists only care about themselves writes off the philosophy, before even taking into account its message and its potential to improve our world.

More to come on this topic. For more Ayn Rand visit the Ayn Rand Lexicon (where all of these quotes were rounded up): http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/