Pride Month: Right On Target!

Life on Earth With Robert Nasir - Episode 95 - streamed live on Jun 1, 2023

WATCH and LISTEN! Pride Month: Right On Target! - Life on Earth With Robert Nasir - Episode 95

It’s Pride month! (Again!)

What on Earth could be better?

From Ayn Rand: “Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of man’s values, it has to be earned—that of any achievements open to you, the one that makes all others possible is the creation of your own character—that your character, your actions, your desires, your emotions are the products of the premises held by your mind—that as man must produce the physical values he needs to sustain his life, so he must acquire the values of character that make his life worth sustaining—that as man is a being of self-made wealth, so he is a being of self-made soul—that to live requires a sense of self-value, but man, who has no automatic values, has no automatic sense of self-esteem and must earn it by shaping his soul in the image of his moral ideal, in the image of Man, the rational being he is born able to create, but must create by choice—that the first precondition of self-esteem is that radiant selfishness of soul which desires the best in all things, in values of matter and spirit, a soul that seeks above all else to achieve its own moral perfection, valuing nothing higher than itself.”

Interestingly, Ayn Rand used the word Pride in describing the virtue, the attribute, the action.

As for the value, she ... we ... use the term Self-Esteem.

Pride is the virtue, self-esteem is the value. In my own words, pride isn’t something you have, it’s something you do!

And this is Pride Month! A month to recognize the fact that you are your own highest value ... and to act accordingly. A month to highlight this virtue, to pay special attention to this virtue, to celebrate this virtue ... to bring Pride, the attribute which Aristotle termed The Crown Of The Virtues ... to the fore.

What could be better than that?

And if that wasn’t already fortuitous, auspicious enough, one of my favorite fun retailers, the department store chain Target, has jumped right in with celebrating Pride.

Right on Target.

Now, somehow, a few of Target’s stores have taken some flack for this.

Well, the problem isn’t pride, it’s the kind of pride Target’s celebrating.

With store displays featuring rainbows.

Gay pride. And transsexual pride. And asexual, non-binary, wherever you find yourself, et cetera pride.

And I say, “a few Target stores” because, where I live (suburban Motown), the several Target stores I’ve been in over the last couple weeks all still have their Pride displays ... small, portable kiosks, or wheeled display stands ... with all sorts of rainbow-themed goods ... in the front of the stores.

But according to the news, some stores have wheeled the displays to the backs of the stores, because some shoppers walked in and couldn’t handle the sight of these colorful, rainbow-themed goods.

In fact, some rainbow-sensitive shoppers have been so affected, their protests are making the news. And in a big way! They’re organizing boycotts ... and the boycotts are making the news ... kind of like those crazy left wingers, the snowflakes and their so-called “cancel culture”.

In fact, the anti-rainbow crowd made enough news, that Target’s equity on the stock market recently took a big dip, to the effect of billions of dollars.

Happily, United States Senator Ted Cruz is predicting that, unlike the case of Bud Light, the effect won’t last. So, that’s good. (Of course, the effect of a case of Bud Light has always been minimal!)

Senator Ted also explained that Disney will be fine, too, because there’s just no way to replace Disney. American light beers are fungible ... interchangeable ... equally hardly drinkable. But there’s only one Mickey Mouse, only one Snow White.

One more prop to Senator Cruz, a man I used to vocally support, before the 45th President broke him.

If you heard yesterday’s Yaron Brook news roundup for May 31, then you know ... Ted Cruz has actually spoken up against the African country Uganda’s outrageous new anti-homosexuality legislation.

[Read from USA Today article] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/06/06/ted-cruz-florida-pastor-uganda-anti-lgbtq-law/70293354007/

Well, good for you, Ted. Faint echoes of the man who used to explicitly champion individual rights, the American constitution, and our founding principles, and who went so far as to read passages from Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged on the floor of the Senate of The United States of America.

So here’s a question, and maybe those of you who’ve seen a Target Pride display, whether at the front of the store, or moved to the back of the store, can answer it.

The question:

What percentage of floor space in a Target store is used for Pride displays?

Now, in answering, you should include the other quote-unquote “woke” items in the store ... if you can find them. They ARE there.

So, besides that 15 by 30 foot Pride space, add in the rainbow bathing suits ... including that infamous tuck feature, you know, for “girls with penises” ... and if that doesn’t sound like a phrase that makes any sense, this is a rare occasion in which the expression “ignorance is bliss” is actually true ...

But yes, add in all of those other Gay and Transsexual and Asexual and Non-binary Pride items ... now, what percentage does that make, of the space in a 135,000 square foot department store?

How does that compare to the other clothes, and linens, and housewares, and appliances, and electronics, and books & magazines, and DVD’s, and kitchenware, and school supplies and garden supplies, and greeting cards, and HBA ...

Look, I get it. The protests against Target aren’t about the tiny, tiny, tiny bit of space they’ve devoted to rainbows.

Mostly, it’s about fighting The Left.

Fighting The Left.

Now, the kernel of truth:

DEI, Woke & Cancel Culture are an issue ... a big issue.

But they’re not the one, single, defining issue some of us think they are.

The reactionaries’ sneering chant of “Go Woke, Go Broke” almost inevitably descends into them Going Anti-Woke, Going Morally, Ideologically Bankrupt.

Consider Matt Walsh, going around asking Leftists: What is a woman?

It’s a gotcha question, of course.

Look up ANY word in the dictionary, and the first thing you have to accept is, there’s usually more than one answer.

Look up Selfishness.

Or better yet, look up Pride. Not only will you find multiple definitions ... and that’s as it should, and MUST be, since the word has multiple, VALID usages.

But you’ll also find definitions which better suit self-esteem ... the value ... versus pride ... the virtue.

You’ll find both egoism and egotism ... a distinction which Ayn Rand describes having issues with, in writing The Fountainhead, in her 25th anniversary introduction.

Still think “what is a woman?” is simple? Fair enough. “An adult, female human” is certainly top on the list.

But what does that definition tell us about what a woman IS?

What does that definition tell us about what it is, to live a life as a woman?

What is femininity? Even if you want to unite gender and sex ... how does “female” play out? And how many elements of that, adopted by a biological male, say, with gender dysphoria, and living his-slash-her own best life as if he were a woman … how may elements of that is Matt Walsh trying to get his victim to deny or disrespect in demanding simplistic answers to surprisingly (but irrefutably) complicated questions?

This is not the way.

This is not the way reasonable people act, and it is not the way definitions, nor the process of induction, work.

Incidentally, in that regard, I highly recommend the most recent HBTV, AMA | How Was The Problem of Induction Solved? | HBTV 101 I’ve said before that Ayn Rand’s collection, Introduction To Objectivist Epistemology, IS that answer to The Problem Of Induction, but Dr. B. lays it out better than I do. Or at least as well!

Also, since I often recommend related shows, let me hasten to say the recommendation is one-way: I am not suggesting that Drs. Binswanger, nor Brook, agree with the connections I make to their statements! Obviously, I think they would, and should, but I am making no claims in that regard!

The point here is: definitions need to be clear and objective ... but that doesn’t necessarily make them simple.

So, Pride Month.

Here’s a second question for you: it’s Pride Month, so ... just what are gay and other proud people (Proud Boys?) proud of?

What are they proud of? Being gay?

No, they’re proud of the same thing that freed, abolitionist slaves, from heroes like like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas, to Union soldiers in the Civil War, were proud of ... the same thing that women throughout history, women through the early 1900’s and into my lifetime, victims of sexism, were proud of ... the same thing that black people and other victims of racism right through the civil rights era, were proud of ... surviving the ordeal, with their dignity intact, living their lives, fighting for what’s right.

Now, we don’t have an Honesty Month ... we should be honest every month!

And no, we don’t have an Integrity Month, nor a Justice Month.

Still, we DO have holidays to highlight and celebrate Productiveness (such as Labor Day).

And I’m good with that. Highlighting a virtue, or a value, does NOT undercut that attribute on the other days of the year ... if it does ... if you are only ever grateful on Thanksgiving Day, only ever patriotic on Independence Day, only ever romantic on Valentine’s Day ... well, let me know how that’s working out for ya’.

In a 135,000 square-foot Target store, the Pride Display is small. And it’s easy to ignore, if it holds no value for you.

Ditto Pride Month displays elsewhere. They only loom large if you let them ... like never noticing a particular model car until you’ve bought one too ... and then, every other car you see is the same as yours! ... so, too, with Pride Month.

If the whole idea annoys you ... if you’ve decided that there’s NO rational value there for people who’ve faced discrimination and who’ve survived, who’ve been strong, who’ve gratefully received support from friends, family, peers ... if all you see is The Woke and The Culture War ... then yes, those 20 square feet will drive you nuts.

But that needn’t be the case.

In Yaron Brook’s News Roundup, May 30, he discusses his friend, professor of economics Deirdre McClosky, and asks, why would anyone want to make this person’s life less pleasant by calling her “him”, or “Donald”, the name she was born with.

This is the right way to think about it.

This is individualism ... this is actual people, dealing with actual people.

There are reasons to fight violations of your free speech. Please do. This is nothing new, but it is bad.

And let me make this point:

It’s a fight that’s been going on since longer than I’ve been alive.

To the “you couldn’t tell that joke, or make that film, today!” crowd ... sorry, but you’re wrong. Yes, you could make that film. Yes, you could tell that joke. And not just by making it a rap song. Sure, there might be outrage. Always has been. In the past, it was the Hays Office. The burning of books, or record albums by church groups. Heck, they used to burn vinyl records by Elvis Presley for being too sexy, and by The Beatles for being too awesome. Comedian Lenny Bruce was thrown in jail for lewd gestures on stage.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) “G” through “X” or “NC-17” movie ratings (in the UK, that’s the British Board of Film Censors, or BBFC), the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) and record labelling, and the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) and videogame labelling.

Freedom-wise, free-expression-wise, we’ve still got a ways to go ... a long ways to go ... certainly “Karen” is alive and well ... but compared to the past, we are a remarkably Live-And-Let-Live society.

And that’s as it should be.

Still, the “long ways to go ...”

... that’s the kernel of truth behind the mess that is “woke”.

The kernel of truth ... the little bit that’s real ... is that there really IS irrational and unjust prejudice.

There really is racism.

And sexism.

And anti-gay sentiment (so-called “homophobia”).

And hatred for transsexuals.

Et cetera.

Fight the woke. Fight DEI.

Fight the culture war.

But don’t let it own you, don’t let it matter TOO MUCH.

Don’t let it take up residence within even the smallest nook, cranny or corner of your spirit, your joy, your lust for life, your love of this life ...

... and don’t let your outrage overwhelm you to the point that you no longer see individuals, straight, gay, black, white, male female, individual individuals.

WE are the individualists.

We are the VALUERS.

And for that, we are, and should be, PROUD.

Every day, certainly all this month, and throughout the year.

And THAT, for ALL of us, for EACH of us, gay, straight, man, woman, all or none of the above, is Life On Earth.