First Meeting this Semester

[Zachary Sorenson]

Greetings!

 

I'm Zack and will be acting club president of the Terrapin Objectivists this semester.  I'm personally very anxious to get started, so our first meeting will be this Thursday, Jan. 28 at 7:30 PM in the Baltimore Room of the Student Union (The extra table space near the fast-food area).  We usually gather near the entrance.

 

Our first meeting won't involve any pre-reading material, so you don't have to worry about that.  I will provide a discussion topic, but we will also spend a little bit of time talking about the club and possible activities for this semester.  Please come if you can, because it will be your chance to influence what we do!

 

I look forward to seeing you there!

[Zachary Sorenson]

I'm sorry if I may have missed some of you, but I have been waiting at
the specified meeting location since 7:00 pm and it is now 8:00, and
since no one has shown up, I am going home.

I am happy to try again next Thursday, or maybe Wednesday, but please
confirm if you are going to come. If there's a consensus about a good
time I will send another email. There are a lot of exciting things we
could do this semester, and I guarantee participation will be valuable
to you. Of course, you must also put value into the club for it to
serve you.

Thank you,
Zack

On Monday, January 25, 2010, Zachary Sorenson

[Zachary Sorenson]

It's Zack again,

 

I will be waiting by the door to the Baltimore Room of the Stamp Student Union, this upcoming Thursday, at 7:30PM for our next meeting.  I will be wearing a leather bomber jacket, and will be sitting at the bar-like table - you'll know what I mean if you go there.

 

We will still do some club planning and discussion of that nature, a little bit of get-to-know you, but I have selected a topic for discussion.

 

I will be there until 8:30 PM, and will work on my own project from the novel if no one shows up.

 

If you are coming, please review the first few pages of John Galt's speech from Atlas Shrugged.  You can stop at the point where John Galt defines Happiness (it's one paragraph).

 

Here are three questions we will discuss:

 

1) What is a value?  What are some of your personal values that support the ruling values Galt suggests: Reason - Purpose - Self-Esteem?

 

2) John Galt mentions a few virtues, here is a list: Rationality, Independence, Integrity, Honesty, Justic, Productiveness, Pride.  Do you have these virtues?  Do you make a concious effort to think, and abide these virtues?  Have you ever conciously considered whether these virtues are possessed by friends?  Romantic interests?

 

3) John Galt defines happiness as non-contradictory joy.  Is that how you view happiness?  Have you ever lived conciously aware of your happiness, by this definition, and pursued values and held virtues in order to obtain this sort of happiness?  If you haven't, do you think it's that simple?

 

Please let me know if you are coming!

 

Zack