What's your life philosophy: the way you make decisions, examine other's decisions, attitudes, etc.? Mine is fairly simple. People act in their own interest. I don't mean narcissism, people can act out of love or brotherhood or courage. What I mean is: it is in your interest to care for a loved one because it fulfills your sense of morals. Or it is in your interest to (let's go in the total opposite direction) to kill that guy in order to fulfill your mental need for wealth. It is in our interest to post to the forum in order to fulfill our need for intellectual gratification or at least recognition, as well as to fulfill our need for social interaction which we find stimulating.
I make decisions based off two principles, how they will effect others and how they will effect myself. Depending on the present situation I may go with one over the other (usually I place others over myself) though in certain aspects I will admit I act selfishly and go for my own gain, even sometimes when I help others I do it selfishly to say gain favor with someone I like. I try not to, but my nature has made such that I do. People do what they want to do because it befits, some have joined the forums for Intellectual gratification while others for entertainment.
Thank god we have FascistPatriot and his new-blood posts. I follow the school of Yarpenism, and for only 99,99$ I can teach you the ways to achieve eternal happiness!!! Just send me an email to scam@lol.com with you credit card numbers.
Personally, I share the values of my avatar. Politically, I believe in the principle of "status quo porro motus", or (in so many words) "the state of things moving forward". It boils down to supporting the basic institutions, at both the international and national levels, that make up government. At the end of the day, change isn't a problem for me, but the means by which it's achieved have to be legitimate. Additionally, I consider myself an IR realist, and believe that the competition between states is a zero-sum game. Logically, I reject positivism, though beyond that I suppose I'm more of a skeptic than anything else. Theologically and philosophically, I am an optimist and a deist. Nominally I'm a Catholic, but I'm not a Christian in any real sense of the word.
I said this in the last life philosophy thread, but Freud summed up the ideal life in three words - "Love and Work." and that's how I want to live my life.
The primary school of IR (international relations) theory. It's also the only one that actually works. The fundamentals of IR realism are that: 1) above all else, geopolitics is inherently anarchic and competitive; 2) that states are the primary international actors; 3) that states will behave in a manner that suits their self-interest, and; 4) that morality has no place in either the study or activity of international relations. Additionally, IR realists believe that given certain information about a situation, it is possible to accurately predict the response of any state, no matter its type of government, economic system, or prevailing ideology. Realism itself has a number of sub-doctrines, including a few that have been disowned by 'traditional' realists. The biggest division is between the classical realists and neo-realists, with the classical realists describing the state of international relations as result of the nature of man, and the neo-realists describing international relations as a result of certain "natural" systems and structures. Both offer predictive analysis and explanations for political outcomes, and they aren't really contradictory, though the classical realist model is more philosophical than practical. I consider myself a general realist, as I don't really dispute the claims made by classical realists, but I don't usually think along those lines (which are far more tangential). The primary opposition to the realist school is IR liberalism, though its more direct antagonists are constructivism, feminism, and Marxism. None of those other models have any serious clout in the field though, because none of them (apart from liberalism in limited circumstances that are also explained by the realist model) can actually see their claims observed in the real world.
