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Interesting article on Ayn Rand

Skeptic said:
Well, yes, but the "factoid" that she thinks a train full of innocent folks had it coming to die horribly because they didn't recognize her genius is a rather big "factoid". I mean, I'm sure -- say -- Charley Manson has good points, besides that annoying "factoid" about those murders.
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You forgot "With Notably Rare Exceptions." Get with the meme already.
 
dudalb said:
I note that the film of Atlas Shrugged is vanishing and probably won't leave a trace.
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And it was just part one of a projected three part saga. Even the Mr. Moneybags behind the project is owning up to the cold hard reality..... Atlas Shrugged is da bomb! He's going Galt! :D

"Critics, you won," said John Aglialoro, the businessman who spent 18 years and more than $20 million of his own money to make, distribute and market "Atlas Shrugged: Part 1," which covers the first third of Rand's dystopian novel. "I’m having deep second thoughts on why I should do Part 2"...

Though the film has made only $3.1 million so far, Aglialoro said he believes he'll recoup his investment after TV, DVD and other ancillary rights are sold. But he is backing off an earlier strategy to expand "Atlas" to 1,000 screens and reconsidering his plans to start production on a second film this fall.

"Why should I put up all of that money if the critics are coming in like lemmings?" Aglialoro said. "I’ll make my money back and I'll make a profit, but do I wanna go and do two? Maybe I just wanna see my grandkids and go on strike."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/mov...ucer-critics-you-won-hes-going-on-strike.html
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marksman said:
Because there's a universe of opinions one might have about Ayn Rand. The specific subset that the author possesses says a lot about the author, and much less about the subject.

If I hadn't already read biographies of Ayn Rand, from both supporters and detractors, the article may have given me some information. But this one didn't. He selected those factoids about Rand that supported his conclusion and ignored any contrary factoids. That tells me a whole lot more about him than about Rand.
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You about sum it up. Last time I got into a discussion about a Slate article, it was a smear of Glenn Beck based on mis statements of and about a Birch Society guy....about as weird as this one.

I'm sure there are some quality articles in the mag, though.
 
Somebody remind me to send a thank you note to the drongo for making the movie. Not often some rich sociopath hands you $20 million worth of schadenfreude. I have not heard a single progressive commentator say a good word about he film, nor does the MSM seem to be fawning over it.

Has anybody heard anything from the rightwing blathermeisters, or are they all trying to pretend it didn't happen?
 
mhaze said:
You about sum it up. Last time I got into a discussion about a Slate article, it was a smear of Glenn Beck based on mis statements of and about a Birch Society guy....about as weird as this one.

I'm sure there are some quality articles in the mag, though.
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Indeed, I subscribe to Hitchen's rss feed there, never lets me down.
 
mhaze said:
You about sum it up. Last time I got into a discussion about a Slate article, it was a smear of Glenn Beck based on mis statements of and about a Birch Society guy....about as weird as this one.
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You prejudices are clouding your judgement. Beck is smear-proof. Nothing will stick to his slime coating.
 
It's pretty sad when the Scientologists are laughing at your cult because their movie "Battlefield Earth" is so much better. That must sting.
 
leftysergeant said:
Somebody remind me to send a thank you note to the drongo for making the movie. Not often some rich sociopath hands you $20 million worth of schadenfreude. I have not heard a single progressive commentator say a good word about he film, nor does the MSM seem to be fawning over it.

Has anybody heard anything from the rightwing blathermeisters, or are they all trying to pretend it didn't happen?
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The droll blogster Roy Edroso has been keeping tabs on the right-wing blogosphere's reactions to the movie's disappointing box office returns on his alicublog. :D

http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html#2843944986994623415

http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html#4791470594228208711
 
The problem with Rand is that her book is about as interesting and readable as most of, say, Marx's works, only the good guys and bad guys are reversed. Yes, I've read both Marx and Rand.
 
Joey McGee said:
Indeed, I subscribe to Hitchen's rss feed there, never lets me down.
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Good find, thanks, I will subscribe to it.

Joey McGee said:
Michael Shermer, titan of skepticism, weighs in.

Why Liberals Should See (and Like) Atlas Shrugged Part 1

Are you convinced now? :xtongue
....
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I saw the movie and laughed all the way through it. It's not a Rand thing all all, it is just sort of a story of the evil gubbernment and the good capitalists. Doesn't pull any punches. I rate 8-9 on a scale of 10. But then I have always liked dystopian movies: Idiocracy, They Live, Delicatessen, Brazil, as examples.
 
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Joey McGee said:
Michael Shermer, titan of skepticism, weighs in.

Why Liberals Should See (and Like) Atlas Shrugged Part 1

Are you convinced now? :p

ETA: I think Shermer got an inbox full of wut? because the next day he tweets

That's an interesting article! Nice one Mikey.
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Her stated ideals are worthy, but why should I give a **** about someone who is so self obsessed and dysfunctional, they are disappearing up their own fundament. If what she preaches is going to create something better, why do they create someone who is so obviously not.
 
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a_unique_person said:
Her stated ideals are worthy, but why should I give a **** about someone who is so self obsessed and dysfunctional, they are disappearing up their own fundament. If what she preaches is going to create something better, why do they create someone who is so obviously not.
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Yeah I'm most interested in the hubbub about this fandango. It's interesting to see the interplay between the separate factions. Some of these people are absolutely insane. There's a spectrum of crazy that's marginally creepy, and then there are some apologists that can make a decent case for her good side.

But the cult signs were everywhere. She created a cult. The viral aspects are still there. The malware software is not detecting the rootkit.

Shermer's article...

Incredibly, and here is where the philosophical movement became a cult, they came to believe that (pp. 255-256):

* Ayn Rand is the greatest human being who has ever lived.
* Atlas Shrugged is the greatest human achievement in the history of the world.
* Ayn Rand, by virtue of her philosophical genius, is the supreme arbiter in any issue pertaining to what is rational, moral, or appropriate to man's life on earth.
* Once one is acquainted with Ayn Rand and/or her work, the measure of one's virtue is intrinsically tied to the position one takes regarding her and/or it.
* No one can be a good Objectivist who does not admire what Ayn Rand admires and condemn what Ayn Rand condemns.
* No one can be a fully consistent individualist who disagrees with Ayn Rand on any fundamental issue.
* Since Ayn Rand has designated Nathaniel Branden as her "intellectual heir," and has repeatedly proclaimed him to be an ideal exponent of her philosophy, he is to be accorded only marginally less reverence than Ayn Rand herself.
* But it is best not to say most of these things explicitly (excepting, perhaps, the first two items). One must always maintain that one arrives at one's beliefs solely by reason.
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Bloody hell.
 
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mhaze said:
Good find, thanks, I will subscribe to it.
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I should have mentioned Daily Hitchens. They are tracking him and post all of his articles, debates, updates, interviews etc, a fine job whoever runs that.

I saw the movie and laughed all the way through it. It's not a Rand thing all all, it is just sort of a story of the evil gubbernment and the good capitalists. Doesn't pull any punches. I rate 8-9 on a scale of 10. But then I have always liked dystopian movies: Idiocracy, They Live, Delicatessen, Brazil, as examples.
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The trailer was akin to a superhero movie which I found funny. Personally, I think people just need to be reasonable. The funny part is that it seems this movie is acting as a call for people to be just that, but not in the way the movie was meant :p
 
Joey McGee said:
Yeah I'm most interested in the hubbub about this fandango. It's interesting to see the interplay between the separate factions. Some of these people are absolutely insane. There's a spectrum of crazy that's marginally creepy, and then there are some apologists that can make a decent case for her good side.

But the cult signs were everywhere. She created a cult. The viral aspects are still there. The malware software is not detecting the rootkit.

Bloody hell.
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Oh, by the way, you're quoting about "a cult" phenomenon some 40, 50 years ago, not today. That's basically the Shermer article as I recall which you quote from.

And by the way, Not Quite a Titan is Shermer.

He the guy that wrote his "epiphany" came when he watched da AlGoreMovie Incon Truthy. Anyone suckered in by ManBearPig, well, he ain't no titan.
 
mhaze said:
Oh, by the way, you're quoting about "a cult" phenomenon some 40, 50 years ago, not today. That's basically the Shermer article as I recall which you quote from.
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Correct, it's important to point that out, I'm only suggesting, somewhat tenuously but by all accounts accurately, that there are memetic remnants of some of that in the menome if you will.

And by the way, Not Quite a Titan is Shermer.

He the guy that wrote his "epiphany" came when he watched da AlGoreMovie Incon Truthy. Anyone suckered in by ManBearPig, well, he ain't no titan.
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Heh, I read his coming out letter from then recently actually. I remember him saying he was convinced by the data that was presented from the the consensus of climatologists. That you care to use such blatant ad hominems in casual conversation about him shows a desperation. I now notice your signature. Instead of derailing threads I suggest you spend your efforts in the scientific discipline. If you can convince people global warming is wrong when it really doesn't happen, you'll be a multimillionaire fo sho yo
 
Nada.

Ayn Rayn appears to be some well known biggie in the US. Never heard of him before this thread, and after reading it, I wasn't impressed.
 
DanishDynamite said:
Ayn Rayn appears to be some well known biggie in the US.
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I doubt that she would have ressonated much with the European mind set. There were during her life time very few people whio fanied themselves self-made millionaires in Europe. Nor was there such deep-rooted hatred of anything ressembling socialism.

We were still at a point in our development as a nation that there seemed to be no limit to the fronteers of our expansion, no limit to the resources that we might exploit.

In the America of 1850, she might have made sense, perhaps to the point that she would not have been considered a sociopath by most rational thinkers.

By 1950, her time had come and gone and she was never more than a polutant in the intellectual gene pool.
 
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