BoatBanter.com - Kia Sedona Rental

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oups.com...

I bet that if we took a poll here, we would find
that people here take my review more seriously than Rob'.

You are an engineer. Bobsprit reads and parrots the sales brochures. RB has
never had an original thought in his head ever. Engineers design, create,
evaluate cars, bridges, rockets, roads and all that has ever been built by
man. Bobsprit has created nothing unless one includes readi-mix cake batters
or a B movie rehash that would make Ed Wood choke.

"Thousands of years ago, the first man discovered how to make fire. He
was probably burned at the stake he had taught his brothers to light. He was
considered an evildoer who had dealt with a demon mankind dreaded. But
thereafter men had fire to keep them warm, to cook their food, to light
their caves. He had left them a gift they had not conceived and he had
lifted dardness off the earth. Centuries later, the first man invented the
wheel. He was probably torn on the rack he had taught his brothers to build.
He was considered a transgressor who ventured into forbidden terrritory. But
thereafter, men could travel past any horizon. He had left them a gift they
had not conceived and he had opened the roads of the world.
"That man, the unsubmissive and first, stands in the opening chapter of
every legend mankind has recorded about its beginning. Prometheus was
chained to a rock and torn by vultures-because he had stolen the fire of the
gods. Adam was condemned to suffer-because he had eaten the fruit of the
tree of knowledge. Whatever the legend, somewhere in the shadows of its
memory mankind knew that its glory began with one and that that one paid for
his courage.
"Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new
roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but
they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the
vision unborrowed, and the response they received-hatred. The great
creators-the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors-stood
alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed.
Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered
foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was
considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of
unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But
they won.
"No creator was prompted by a desire to serve his brothers, for his
brothers rejected the gift he offered and that gift destroyed the slothful
routine of their lives. His truth was his only motive. His own truth, and
his own work to achieve it in his own way. A symphony, a book, an engine, a
philosophy, an airplane or a building-that was his goal and his life. Not
those who heard, read, operated, believed, flew or inhabited the thing he
had created. The creation, not its users. The creation, not the benefits
others derived from it. The creation which gave form to his truth. He held
his truth above all things and against all men.
"His vision, his strength, his courage came from his own spirit. A
man's spirit, however, is his self. That entity which is his consciousness.
To think, to feel, to judge, to act are functions of the ego.
"The creators were not selfless. It is the whole secret of their
power-that it was self-sufficient, self-motivated, self-generated. A first
cause, a fount of energy, a life force, a Prime Mover. The creator served
nothing and no one. He lived for himself.
"And only by living for himself was he able to achieve the things which
are the glory of mankind. Such is the nature of achievement.
"Man cannot survive except through his mind. He comes on earth unarmed.
His brain is his only weapon. Animals obtain food by force. Man has no
claws, no fangs, no horns, no great strength of muscle. He must plant his
food or hunt it. To plant, he needs a process of thought. To hunt, he needs
weapons, and to make weapons-a process of thought. From this simplest
necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the
skyscraper, everything we are and everything we have comes from a single
attribute of man-the function of his reasoning mind.
"But the mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing
as a collective brain. There is no such thing as a collective thought. An
agreement reached by a group of men is only a compromise or an average drawn
upon many individual thoughts. It is a secondary consequence. The primary
act-the process of reason-must be performed by each man alone. We can divide
a meal among many men. We cannot digest it in a collective stomach. No man
can use his lungs to breathe for another man. No man can use his brain to
think for another. All the functions of body and spirit are private. They
cannot be shared or transferred.
"We inherit the products of the thought of other men. We inherit the
wheel. We make a cart. The cart becomes an automobile. The automobile
becomes an airplane. But all through the process what we receive from others
is only the end product of their thinking. The moving force is the creative
faculty which takes this product as material, uses it and originates the
next step. This creative faculty cannot be given or received, shared or
borrowed. It belongs to single, individual men. That which it creates is the
property of the creator. Men learn from one another. But all learning is
only the exchange of material. No man can give another the capacity to
think. Yet that capacity is our only means of survival.
"Nothing is given to man on earth. Everything he needs has to be
produced. And here man faces his basic alternative: he can survive in only
one of two ways-by the independent work of his own mind or as a parasite fed
by the minds of others. The creator originates. The parasite borrows. The
creator faces nature alone. The parasite faces nature through an
intermediary.
"The creator's concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite's
concern is the conquest of men.
"The creator lives for his work. He needs no other men. His primary
goal is within himself. The parasite lives second-hand. He needs others.
Others become his prime motive.
"The basic need of the creator is independence. The reasoning mind
cannot work under any form of compulsion. It cannot be curbed, sacrificed or
subordinated to any consideration whatsoever. It demands total independence
in function and in motive. To a creator, all relations with men are
secondary.
"The basic need of the second-hander is to secure his ties with men in
order to be fed. He places relations first. He declares that man exists in
order to serve others. He preaches altruism.
"Altruism is the doctrine which demands that man live for others and
place others above self.
"No man can live for another. He cannot share his spirit just as he
cannot share his body. But the second-hander has used altruism as a weapon
of expoloitation and reversed the base of mankind's moral principles. Men
have been taught every precept that destroys the creator. Men have been
taught dependence as a virtue.
"The man who attemps to live for others is a dependent. He is a
parasite in motive and makes parasites of those he serves. The relationship
produces nothing but mutual corruption. It is impossible in concept. The
nearest approach to it in reality-the man who lives to serve others-is the
slave. If physical slavery is repulsive, how much more repulsive is the
concept of servility of the spirit? The conquered slave has a vestige of
honor. He has the merit of having resisted and of considering his condition
evil. But the man who enslaves himself voluntarily in the name of love is
the basest of creatures. He degrades the dignity of man and he degrades the
conception of love. But this is the essence of altruism.
"Men have been taught that the highest virtue is not to achieve, but to
give. Yet one cannot give that which has not been created. Creation comes
before distribution-or there will be nothing to distribute. The need of the
creator comes before the need of any possible beneficiary. Yet we are taught
to admire the second-hander who dispenses gifts he has not produced above
the man who made the gifts possible. We praise an act of charity. We shrug
at an act of achievement.
"Men have been taught that their first concern is to relieve the
sufferings of others. But suffering is a disease. Should one come upon it,
one tries to give relief and assistance. To make that the highest test of
virtue is to make suffering the most important part of life. Then man must
wish to see others suffer-in order that he may be virtuous. Such is the
nature of altruism. The creator is not concerned with disease, but with
life. Yet the work of the creators has eliminated one form of disease after
another, in man's body and spirit, and brought more relief from suffering
than any altruist could ever conceive.
"Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the
creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue
to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the
current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the
creator is the man who stands alone.
"Men have been taught that the ego is the synonym of evil, and
selflessness the ideal of virtue. But the creator is the egotist in the
absolute sense, and the selfless man is the one who does not think, feel,
judge or act. These are functions of the self.
"Here the basic reversal is most deadly. The issue has been perverted
and man has been left no alternative-and no freedom. As poles of good and
evil, he was offered two conceptions: egotism and altruism. Egotism was held
to mean the sacrifice of others to self. Altruism-the sacrifice of self to
others. This tied man irrevocably to other men and left him nothing but a
choice of pain: his own pain borne for the sake of others or pain inflicted
upon others for the sake of self. When it was added that man must find joy
in self-immolation, the trap was closed. Man was forced to accept masochism
as his ideal-under the threat that sadism was his only alternative. This was
the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on mankind.
"This was the device by which dependence and suffering were perpetuated
as fundamentals of life.
"The choice is not self-sacrifice or domination. The choice is
independence or dependence. The code of the creator or the code of the
second-hander. This is the basic issue. It rests upon the alternative of
life or death. The code of the creator is built on the needs of the
reasoning mind which allows man to survive. The code of the second-hander is
built on the needs of a mind incapable of survival. All that which proceeds
from man's independent ego is good. All that which proceeds from man's
dependence upon men is evil.
"The egotist is the absolute sense is not the man who sacrifices
others. He is the man who stands above the need of using others in any
manner. He does not function through them. He is not concerned with them in
any primary matter. Not in his aim, not in his motive, not in his thinking,
not in his desires, not in the source of his energy. He does not exist for
any other man-and he asks no other man to exist for him. This is the only
form of brotherhood and mutual respect possible between men.
"Degrees of ability vary, but the basic principle remains the same: the
degree of a man's independence, initiative and personal love for his work
determines his talent as a worker and his worth as a man. Independence is
the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of
himself; not what he has or hasn't done for others. There is no substitute
for personal dignity. There is no standard of personal dignity except
independence.
"In all proper relationships there is no sacrifice of anyone to anyone.
An architect needs clients, but he does not subordinate his work to their
wishes. They need him, but they do not order a house just to give him a
commission. Men exchange their work by free, mutual consent to mutual
advantage when their personal interests agree and they both desire the
exchange. If they do not desire it, they are not forced to deal with each
other. They seek further. This is the only possible form of relationship
between equals. Anything else is a relation of slave to master, or victim to
executioner.
"No work is ever done collectively, by a majority decision. Every
creative job is achieved under the guidance of a single individual thought.
An architect requires a great many men to erect his building. But he does
not ask them to vote on his design. They work together by free agreement and
each is free in his proper function. An architect uses steel, glass,
concrete, produced by others. But the materials remain just so much steel,
glass and concrete until he touches them. What he does with them is his
individual product and his individual property. This is the only pattern for
proper co-operation among men.
"The first right on earth is the right of the ego. Man's first duty is
to himself. His moral law is never to place his prime goal within the
persons of others. His moral obligation is to do what he wishes, provided
his wish does not depend primarily upon other men. This includes the whole
sphere of his creative faculty, his thinking, his work. But it does not
include the sphere of the gangster, the altruist and the dictator.
"A man thinks and works alone. A man cannot rob, exploit or rule-alone.
Robbery, exploitation and ruling presuppose victims. They imply dependence.
They are the province of the second-hander.
"Rulers of men are not egotists. They create nothing. They exist
entirely through the persons of others. Their goal is in their subjects, in
the activity of enslaving. They are as dependent as the beggar, the social
worker and the bandit. The form of dependence does not matter.
"But men were taught to regard second-handers-tyrants, emperors,
dictators-as exponents of egotism. By this fraud they were made to destroy
the ego, themselves and others. The purpose of the fraud was to destroy the
creators. Or to harness them. Which is a synonym.
"From the beginning of history, the two antagonists have stood face to
face: the creator and the second-hander. When the first creator invented the
wheel, the first second-hander responded. He invented altruism.
"The creator-denied, opposed, persecuted, exploited-went on, moved
forward and carried all humanity along on his energy. The second-hander
contributed nothing to the process except the impediments. The contest has
another name: the individual against the collective.
"The 'common good' of a collective-a race, a class, a state-was the
claim and justification of every tyranny ever established over men. Every
major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive.
Has any act of selfishness ever equaled the carnage perpetrated by disciples
of altruism? Does the fault lie in men's hypocrisy or in the nature of the
principle? The most dreadful butchers were the most sincere. They believed
in the perfect society reached through the guillotine and the firing squad.
Nobody questioned their right to murder since they were murdering for an
altruistic purpose. It was accepted that man must be sacrificed for other
men. Actors change, but the course of the tragedy remains the same. A
humanitarian who starts with declarations of love for mankind and ends with
a sea of blood. It goes on and will go on so long as men believe that an
action is good if it is unselfish. That permits the altruist to act and
forces his victims to bear it. The leaders of collectivist movements ask
nothing for themselves. But observe the results.
"The only good which men can do to one another and the only statement
of their proper relationship is-Hands off!
"Now observe the results of a society built on the principle of
individualism. This, our country. The noblest country in the history of men.
The country of greatest achievement, greatest prosperity, greatest freedom.
This country was not based on selfless service, sacrifice, renunciation or
any precept of altruism. It was based on a man's right to the pursuit of
happiness. His own happiness. Not anyone else's. A private, personal,
selfish motive. Look at the results. Look into your own conscience.
"It is an ancient conflict. Men have come close to the truth, but it
was destroyed each time and one civilization fell after another.
Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole
existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the
process of setting man free from men.
"Now, in our age, collectivism, the rule of the second-hander and
second-rater, the ancient monster, has broken loose and is running amuck. It
has brought men to a level of intellectual indecency never equaled on earth.
It has reached a scale of horror without precedent. It has poisoned every
mind. It has swallowed most of Europe. It is engulfing our country.
"I am an architect. I know what is to come by the principle on which it
is built. We are approaching a world in which I cannot permit myself to
live.
"Now you know why I dynamited Cortlandt.
"I designed Cortlandt. I gave it to you. I destroyed it.
"I destroyed it because I did not choose to let it exist. It was a
double monster. In form and in implication. I had to blast both. The form
was mutilated by two second-handers who assumed the right to improve upon
that which they had not made and could not equal. They were permitted to do
it by the general implication that the altruistic purpose of the building
superseded all rights and that I had no claim to stand against it.
"I agreed to design Cortlandt for the purpose of seeing it erected as I
dedigned it and for no other reason. That was the price I set for my work. I
was not paid.
"I do not blame Peter Keating. He was helpless. He had a contract with
his employers. It was ignored. He had a promise that the structure he
offered would be built as designed. The promise was broken. The love of a
man for the integrity of his work and his right to preserve it are now
considered a vague intangible and an inessential. You have heard the
prosecutor say that. Why was the building disfigured? For no reason. Such
acts never have any reason, unless it's the vanity of some second-handers
who feel they have a right to anyone's property, spiritual or material. Who
permitted them to do it? No particular man among the dozens in authority. No
one cared to permit it or to stop it. No one was responsible. No one can be
held to account. Such is the nature of all collective action.
"I did not receive the payment I asked. But the owners of Cortlandt got
what they needed from me. They wanted a scheme devised to build a structure
as cheaply as possible. They found no one else who could do it to their
satisfaction. I could and did. They took the benefit of my work and made me
contribute it as a gift. But I am not an altruist. I do not contribute gifts
of this nature.
"It is said that I have destroyed the home of the destitute. It is
forgotten that but for me the destitute could not have had this particular
home. Those who were concerned with the poor had to come to me, who have
never been concerned, in order to help the poor. It is believed that the
poverty of the future tenants gave them the right to my work. That their
need constituted a claim on my life. That it was my duty to contribute
anything demanded of me. This is the second-hander's credo now swallowing
the world.
"I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to one
minute of my life. Nor to any part of my energy. Nor to any achievement of
mine. No matter who makes the claim, how large their number or how great
their need.
"I wished to come here and say that I am a man who does not exist for
others.
"It had to be said. The world is perishing from an orgy of
self-sacrificing.
"I wished to come here and say that the integrity of a man's creative
work is of greater importance than any charitable endeavor. Those of you who
do not understand this are the men who're destroying the world.
"I wished to come here and state my terms. I do not care to exist on
any others.
"I recognize no obligations toward men except one: to respect their
freedom and to take no part in a slave society. To my country, I wish to
give the ten years which I will spend in jail if my country exists no
longer. I will spend them in memory and in gratitude for what my country has
been. It will be my act of loyalty, my refusal to live or work in what has
taken its place.
"My act of loyalty to every creator who ever lived and was made to
suffer by the force responsible for the Cortlandt I dynamited. To every
tortured hour of loneliness, denial, frustration, abuse he was made to
spend-and to the battles he won. To every creator whose name is known-and to
every creator who lived, struggled and perished unrecognized before he could
achieve. To every creator who was destroyed in body or in spirit. To Henry
Cameron. To Steven Mallory. To a man who doesn't want to be named, but who
is sitting in this courtroom and knows that I am speaking of him."