DISQUS

This is bad stuff. In regards your first paragraph, who's showing their "mark of ideological immaturity"? If your statement about working conditions leads, in practice, to a decrease in someone else's standards of living by means of crappy--read: driven by ideological immaturity--legislation, then, absolutely, you should be apologizing for it. Your "genuinely formed moral imperative" cost someone else some much needed cash. It is Will's point precisely that this kind of self-righteous moral-imperative-forming makes itself morally unassailable--because why should I apologize for having such lofty moral standards--and completely irresponsible--why should I be held accountable for the imperfections of the world?!?

Your second paragraph makes no sense. You mix like four different arguments, but toss in an Ayn Rand reference, which I suppose is supposed to reveal us as high-school-level philosophy retards, but whatever. Yes, the existence of incredible poverty in the world means libertarianism is morally bankrupt.

Also, your "Cryptic One" handle sums up a lot of what I feel about Tyler.

I think you've got a good point here, Will.

What is strangest about Tyler's comment, however, is that he gives some pretty excellent advice on precisely the topic of time-management. I've benefited immensely from his talk on publishing, for example, and much of its substance had to do with maximizing the value of your time.

Normative issues aside...

The word "vote," like many others words, starts to sound kind of weird if you hear it repeated again and again.

That was actually really funny.

Will,
Your rejoinder to Chad's comment is mostly right, I think, but remember that reflective equilibrium goes both ways. You're stressing the on-the-ground side of the equation--the side that, as many point out, Rawls seems to grossly misunderstand--but we need to think, too, of the ways in which our normative commitments, presumably arrived at by attempting to disassociate ourselves with our position in society, *ought to* count for something.