Quote: from finchmiester at 7:50 pm on June 17, 2008
Well i guess it depends on the severity of the selfish persons, to love yourself and want to help yourself is one thing, but to demand people agree with you and do things like you is quite another, to consider yourself better and more worthy then all others is not what i would call good man. 
As I wrote earlier, selfishness is NOT evil or immoral, regardless of its "severity", as you put it. Your point seems to be addressing something OTHER than selfishness--specifically the idea that one's own desires should trump the freedoms of others. This is NOT an ideal held by a libertarian.
A libertarian does NOT demand others to agree with him. Rather, he demands that HE not be forced to agree with others if he does not so wish.
For example, a libertarian does not believe that he should be forced to use the fruits of his productivity to provide for others. That is not to say that he won't engage in charitable giving, or that he wants to prevent others from giving. He just doesn't want to be FORCED to do it.
Similarly, a libertarian will generally support liberties such as gay marriage/civil unions, decriminalization of drugs, restaurants/bars permitting smoking, etc.; however, a libertarian is NOT in favor of being forced to ACCEPT those livestyles as normal, healthy, or appropriate. Remember, there is a difference between "tolerance" and "acceptance"--for example, you will probably tolerate a crying baby in a restaurant, but that doesn't mean you have to find it acceptable for a parent to have a crying baby in a restaurant.
Think of a libertarian as someone who says, "You do your thing, and I'll do mine."
I'm kind of tired, so hopefully there aren't too many grammatical or spelling errors to keep this from making sense.
Edit: I guess the big point I'm trying to make is that selfishness (regardless of the "severity") is not bad at all. Any supposed problem with selfishness ACTUALLY lies with WHAT people choose to view as being in their self interest (e.g., a socialist believing that he is entitled to the fruits of someone else's creativity or production, a fascist believing that a certain ideology must be forced upon people, etc.). But selfishness is NEVER bad.
Post edited at 9:19 pm on June 17, 2008 by mikeg80
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