[482] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
affirmative action
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Hesky Fisher)
Thu May 3 09:12:16 2001
Message-ID: <000f01c0d3d2$cfff93c0$8700dd12@mit.edu>
From: "Hesky Fisher" <hfisher@MIT.EDU>
To: <mit-talk@MIT.EDU>
Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 09:13:14 -0400
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On whining:
I'm hearing people complain, "oh my god, what if the reason I got picked to
come here over thousands of qualified applicants is because of my race (or
some other nonsense). "How can I possible live with myself?" Frankly,
that's some of the funniest garbage I've ever heard.
Life isn't a game and working hard doesn't entitle you to get into MIT or
any other school. It takes a while to get used to it but nobody owes you
squat. Going to school here is an opportunity, like many others, to get
ahead in life. If you are here then you have the opportunity to get a good
education and, perhaps more useful, a diploma with the name MIT on it. It
doesn't actually matter where this opportunity came from. If you are so
intent on fair play you may want to adopt the following habits:
Give your business competitors part of your VC funding
wear a Harrison Bergeron style outfit everywhere you go
donate to charity any money or items your parents give you that your friends
don't have
If I got in here for reasons other than academics or whatever is currently
deemed an "appropriate" reason by everybody then I have no qualms about
being here and taking advantage of it. If anything would keep me awake, it
would be laughing about it all night long.
On Objectivism:
You can correct me if I'm wrong (and I'm sure you will) but if you are an
objectivist and are more likely to get in here with Affirmative Action then
shouldn't you be selfish about it and accept it? If you are trying to
change the system, who are you changing it for? Is it so that other people
will have an equal or better chance than you? Wouldn't that be (gasp!)
Altruism?
Final note:
I have yet to see anybody concerned enough to withdraw on principle.
