| "Extreme?"
"If by 'extreme' you mean principled, then I accept
your calling me that, even though I find it distasteful. However,
if you mean 'too outrageous to take seriously,' then I reject your epithet
and call into question your motives. Are you one of those people
who think politicians and bureaucrats should be allowed to mess with your
life any time they want? Or any time 'the majority' wants?
Is the concept of the sovereign individual citizen so unthinkable to you
that you consider it 'extreme'? Or are you so defensive about how
sloppy a thinker you are that you resent, and are even hostile to, people
who strive for intellectual clarity? Or are you just so comfortable
in your intellectual mediocrity that you can't be bothered to think about
the long-term consequences of your principles or lack thereof, and hate
to be challenged to?
"I consider the term 'extremism' to be a word
deliberately chosen for its vagueness and used by intellectual slobs who
are too desperate, sneaky or lazy to say exactly what they mean.
Its only purpose is to deliberately try to confuse the difference between
people who are extremely good (usually because of devotion to their principles)
with people who are extremely bad. The sleazeballs who use this supposedly
scary, yet undefined, word are not only trying to smear people of conviction
and integrity, but they're also trying to divert attention away from the
fact that they are obviously not people of principle themselves."
-- Rick Gaber
"If an uncompromising stand is to be smeared
as 'extremism,'
then that smear is directed at any devotion to values, any loyalty
to principles, any profound conviction, any consistency, any steadfastness,
any passion, any dedication to an unbreached, inviolate truth -- any
man of integrity." -- Ayn Rand in " 'Extremism' or The Art of Smearing",
Chapter 17 of Capitalism:
The Unknown Ideal
"I would remind you that extremism in the defense
of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation
in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!"
-- Karl
Hess and Barry Goldwater; attribution to Cicero
"A moderate is either someone who has no moral code of his own,
or if he does, then he's someone who doesn't have the guts to take sides
between good and evil." – Rick Gaber
"In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit."
--Ayn Rand
"Extremism in pursuit of moderation is not necessarily a virtue." --
Jonah
Goldberg
"In matters of principle,
stand like a rock." -- Thomas Jefferson
"I suppose people who vilify those who make judgments
on a moral basis (instead of, or in addition to, a simply legal one) are
the 'moral relativists' who believe it's really bad, even evil, to
make
moral judgments." -- Bert Rand
"If you want government to intervene domestically,
you're a liberal. If you want government to intervene overseas, you're
a conservative. If you want government to intervene everywhere, you're
a moderate. If you don't want government to intervene anywhere, you're
an extremist." -- Joseph Sobran (1995)
"The Democrats and Republicans stand at two extremes,
characterized by which parts of our lives they emphasize their desire to
control. Libertarians reject both extremes in favor of the government
leaving control of your life to you." -- Michael
Badnarik (2004) |
