Philosophy? Or Not?

We ALL have a “philosophy of life,” whether or not we realize it. Most people's philosophy of life is self-imposed. It is a set of “ground rules”: we use to govern our lives. Sometimes it is only to ACCEPT (and live by) the ground rules set by others. Other times, it is ground rules WE set for ourselves. Organized religion, for instance, is what “rules” the lives of most of us who observe it. Christianity has a few, but not too many ground rules. Catholicism has more. Islam has MANY, even to the point of dictating how women can urinate in public without anyone knowing they're doing it. When to pray, how many times a day, and it even dictates the CONTENT of their prayers. It commands them to “stay away” from “unbelievers” and to ostracize them. The Koran even exhorts them to KILL those they cannot “convert” to Islam, though some Muslims don't take that too seriously. Others do.. But this is not a discourse on what is good or bad about various religions. This is about PHILOSOPHY, or the lack of it. But there IS no lack of it. Even if you swear you have NO philosophy, that is a philosophy, in itself. Collectivism vs. the free market is a philosophical decision.

Collectivist philosophy says that if one man earns more than the other for ANY reason, that is unfair, and the one who makes more should “share” his “wealth” with those who have NOT earned as much. The free market says just the opposite: that to gain riches, you must EARN them. That “fairness” is not GIVING, unearned, the fruits of one man's ideas and labor to another. One who does NOT have the initiative to earn for himself, but wants to live at the EXPENSE of another. Both visions ARE a philosophy. In short, you cannot live your life without SOME kind of a philosophy to guide you; even of that philosophy is the REJECTION of all other known philosophies. My own philosophy is very close to Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy, which is the polar opposite of collectivism (socialism, communism, Fascism, Progressivism, and any others that say it's okay to steal from the producer of new wealth, for the benefit of those who do not earn it). It is what I call, “rational individualism,” in which I do not allow others to dictate any part of my philosophy of life, but make the rules for myself. (Just common sense)