[Objectivist]

Quote by: Alive Jesus also said I come to bring a sword, and his followers have tended to be quite explicit in their condemnation of heretics. It was not "self-sacrifice" that they fought for, but the spread of their particular brand of the religion, which was perhaps proxy for other causes, self-sacrifice not among them. Similar story with Marxists, who advocated forms of violent overthrow against the enemy from the beginning. And love was never the motive.

History upholds everything that I have said.

Christians believe that altruism is an ideal. Objectivism holds that that is the greatest sin. Nothing good has come from the belief that you must sacrifice yourself for others. Only the countless wars and bloodshed.

Marxists believe in a form of government where it was ok for the government to seize private property and control industries so that your brother gets the same as you. It didn't matter whether you made more then that brother, you still got the same compensation for it.

The Marxist ideas were sanctioned because people believe that the greatest virtue is to sacrifice your production and your strengths and give them to people that need. [Being your brother's keeper]

This is fairly true, especially in our modern industrialized economy that relies on specialization and trade of goods produced through that specialization. These days, wealth is very much based on skills, and trading of those skills, which means that everyone working for one's own interest often creates optimal situations. However, this was not so true in the neolithic age, when land for farming was the biggest source of wealth. In those days, happiness is far more zero-sum; only a small minority can live well because the need for farming labor just for human substinance is so high. That minority elite is often determined by ability to kill those who reject it. Perhaps objectivism makes limited sense as a philosophy for our age, but this historical problem shows it entirely non-universal.

Why are we concerned of the past? Concern yourself of the present and what applies to the world currently as we see it. The realities of the present make an impact on us, not the actions of the past.

This is not self-interest or particularly rational. A person who punishes an evil-doer does so at full cost to himself, and to everyone's benefit; as has been noted by evolutionary biologists examining human society; punishment is itself an altruistic, "irrational" act (at least when not enacted by a governing body), not really different than, say, charity.

It is self-interest to hold an evil-doer accountable. It might save your life or protect you from them. The act of punishment is not altruistic. You are not sacrificing yourself to punish another. You help yourself by punish another.

Why? What is rational about honesty or integrity?

Because when you lie you fake reality. Reality is what you live in, it's where you exist. Do you want to live a fake life? Is it rational to want to live in something that does not exist?