[ALawPoker]

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And yes, the choice has massive affects on your personal relationships. And that is exactly what you are affraid of. And there lies the beauty of it all. Once you get rid of comformist relationships you will realize how beautiful your life will finally become, when you can FINALLY be yourself, WITHOUT having to fear ridicule from people who CANNOT be themselves, because THEY TOO are affraid of being true to their nature and their natural freedoms.

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I guess that's the thing though. I don't want to rid myself of my current relationships. I value my friends and family as ends and not means to an end; so riding myself of those relationships (if you meant it so literally) is not pleasant.

Something I don't quite get about Ayn Rand (and that's not to say that you or any ACer necessarily is a "Randian", but I think it's worth saying) is that the whole belief system (correct me if I'm wrong, all I know of her is some Youtube clip someone linked in SMP) revolves around the idea that suicide or waste of life is understood to be bad. Well, my idea is that maybe suicide (in the literal sense) is the ideal, but we are too biased by our human condition to act on it. Life must be biased to think life is good, right? It seems like all other actions are just meant to approach but never reach comfort.

What does that mean regarding this discussion? I don't know. But I feel like we're so biased by our condition anyways that comfort wins out over my motivation to do good things.

You've basically convinced me. Well, I don't know if "you" have convinced me or if posting and thinking made it inevitable, but you certainly helped. I just know I can't act on it and would be a hypocrite to call myself that. So, I keep coming back to the idea that maybe comfort even if seemingly objectively destructive is OK or even good.

But basically, I am on your side. The rest is just rationalizations for why I probably won't ever act that way.