[MD] Value and the Individual

[Ham Priday]

[Arlo]:
> Synthesize these two positions for me, Ham.
> Do we not experience our "cosmic purpose"?

No.  We "intuit it" if we believe it at all.  Clearly, many do not.

> I don't know about my cosmic purpose but like
> Steve Martin's character in "The Jerk" I found my
> "special purpose" at an early age. About all I have to
> say about that I said earlier to Ron,
> "Thank God for the internet!"

Glad you found your special purpose via the Internet, but what, apart from 
arrogance, makes you think it's your "cosmic purpose"?

> What in the world does this have to do with a collectivist view?

I find that the post-modern, elitist, nihilistic concept of reality 
invariably hangs on a collectivist view of mankind.

> I get confused a lot. If collectivists and nihilists are
> the same, were Jesus and his disciples nihilists?

This is a non-sequitor statement.  Collectivism as a social system didn't 
appear until Marx in the 19th century.  A dozen followers selected by a 
prophet doesn't constitute a collective, nor were the Hebrews of Judea 
nihilists, as you well know.

Since you're not asking me whether whales and dogs have a cosmic purpose, 
I'll let you hash those vital questions out with Arlo.

--Ham