Freethought & Rationalism Archive

RED DAVE · 12-29-2002, 04:33 AM

The Forum is a bore this weekend, so I thought I'd start a thread about one of the great bores of the 20th Century.

Sr. Rand made her political reputation as a McCarthyite with brilliant anayses such as this:

Quote:

Rep. John R. McDowell: You paint a very dismal picture of Russia. You made a great point about the number of children who were unhappy. Doesn't anybody smile in Russia any more?

AYN RAND: Well, if you ask me literally, pretty much no.

Mr. McDowell: They don't smile?

AYN RAND: Not quite that way; no. If they do, it is privately and accidentally. Certainly, it is not social. They don't smile in approval of their system.

Mr. McDowell: Well, all they do is talk about food.

I mean, does it get any better than that? You owe it to yourself to read the whole thing!

Ayn Rand's HUAC Testimony

But since we're dealing with a writer, a quote from her collected works is appropriate. From Atlas Shrugged :

Quote:

I like to think of fire held in a man's hand. Fire, a dangerous force, tamed at his fingertips. I often wonder about the hours when a man sits alone, watching the smoke of a cigarette, thinking. I wonder what great things have come from such hours. When a man thinks, there is a spot of fire alive in his mind�and it is proper that he should have the burning point of a cigarette as his one expression.

After that, who the fuck needs Shakespeare? (Rand, herself, was a big fan of Mickey Spillane.)

My own personal views are in an essay I used to start the thread "Against Libertarianism."

Essay On John Cleland and Ayn Rand

So come on Objectivists, Libertarians, Conservatives. Are you gonna let The Great Mother get slandered like this. Unsheath your swords of logic! Scale the heights of knowledge. Rouse all that is best in you and put this miserable socialist/collectivist in his place!

RED DAVE

jayh · 12-29-2002, 04:54 AM

Are you expecting much. Many libertarians consider her the same way you do. (as do most atheists).

j

RED DAVE · 12-29-2002, 05:07 AM

Then, if nothng else, I invite people to submit favorite Stupid Ayn Rand Tricks, Quotes or Stories.

I am partial to her affair with Nathaniel Branden. He was an extremely good looking man, and she was as ugly as sin. Her photographs are, I believe, invariably airbrushed.

Also, a list of Stupid Ayn Rand Character Names would be fun. For a Jew (like myself), she was awfully partial to WASP names like Dagney Taggert.

RED DAVE

elwoodblues · 12-29-2002, 09:54 AM

*shrug*

Karl Marx is an ignorant slut. Rod Stewart (aka, The Inanimate Carbon Rod) is a talentless hack. Foghorn Leghorn is a supercilious bastard. Whee, that was fun.

12-29-2002, 10:12 AM

Excuse my ignorance, but I'm not sure why the hate is on for Ayn Rand. I've read Atlas Shrugged and Anthem, and I found both to be quite entertaining reads.

fando · 12-29-2002, 12:49 PM

Hey, if it's a slow day, would you folk mind explaining to me who Ayn Rand is? I admit not knowing much about her or her works. What I'm particularily interested in is why she's so popular now and what the source of the popularity is, in a nutshell if you will.

12-29-2002, 01:03 PM

Ayn Rand is a novelist and philosopher who sort of supported the individual. She supported a life lead by reason, and was deathly afraid of socialism. She was born in Russia, worked for a bit as a screenwriter, and wrote a couple of novels.

Perhaps Rand�s philosophy of Objectivism has received the most attention.

Quote:

Ayn Rand summarized her philosophy in "The Objectivist Newsletter" in 1962:
1. Metaphysics: Objective Reality
2. Epistemology: Reason
3. Ethics: Self Interest
4. Politics: Laissez-faire capitalism
1. Reality exists as an objective absolute--facts are facts, independent of man's feelings, wishes, hopes or fears.
2. Reason (the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses) is man's only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival.
3. Man--every man--is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
4. The ideal political-economic system is laissez-faire capitalism. It is a system where men deal with one another, not as victims and executioners, nor as masters and slaves, but as traders, by free, voluntary exchange to mutual benefit. It is a system where no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force, and no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. The government acts only as a policeman that protects man's rights; it uses physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use, such as criminals and foreign invaders. In a system of full capitalism, there should be (but historically has not yet been) a complete separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church."
The Ayn Rand Lexicon (HC) p344 quoted from "Introducing Objectivism," TON, Aug. 1962, 35.

You can find more information about Objectivism at http://home.nuclei.com/phil/

Krieger · 12-29-2002, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by fando
What I'm particularily interested in is why she's so popular now and what the source of the popularity is, in a nutshell if you will.

Rand is popular? Perhaps to Libertarians/Objectivists.

99Percent · 12-29-2002, 01:37 PM

Quote:

My philosophy, in essense, is the concept of man as a heroic being

Ayn Rand was a genius!

fando · 12-29-2002, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Krieger
Rand is popular? Perhaps to Libertarians/Objectivists.

Well, Rand has been making subtle waves in the media. I've seen her books being read in the background of popular TV shows that young adults watch. And since 2000 or so, her name has been cropping up very frequently in discussion fora. Her presence feels like a fad, and I'm sure it will come to pass.

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12-29-2002, 04:54 AM	#2
jayh Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 4,606	Are you expecting much. Many libertarians consider her the same way you do. (as do most atheists). j

12-29-2002, 05:07 AM	#3
RED DAVE Banned Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: NYC Posts: 10,532	Then, if nothng else, I invite people to submit favorite Stupid Ayn Rand Tricks, Quotes or Stories. I am partial to her affair with Nathaniel Branden. He was an extremely good looking man, and she was as ugly as sin. Her photographs are, I believe, invariably airbrushed. Also, a list of Stupid Ayn Rand Character Names would be fun. For a Jew (like myself), she was awfully partial to WASP names like Dagney Taggert. RED DAVE

12-29-2002, 09:54 AM	#4
elwoodblues Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Dunmanifestin, Discworld Posts: 4,836	shrug Karl Marx is an ignorant slut. Rod Stewart (aka, The Inanimate Carbon Rod) is a talentless hack. Foghorn Leghorn is a supercilious bastard. Whee, that was fun.

12-29-2002, 10:12 AM	#5
FloatingEgg Guest Posts: n/a	Excuse my ignorance, but I'm not sure why the hate is on for Ayn Rand. I've read Atlas Shrugged and Anthem, and I found both to be quite entertaining reads.

12-29-2002, 12:49 PM	#6
fando Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Los Angeles Area Posts: 1,372	Hey, if it's a slow day, would you folk mind explaining to me who Ayn Rand is? I admit not knowing much about her or her works. What I'm particularily interested in is why she's so popular now and what the source of the popularity is, in a nutshell if you will.

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