Atlas Shrugged 2: one hour later

In Rand's crazed universe (which many people on this board apparently visit on a regular basis) the workers of the world were lucky for what they got. Without the courageous entrepeneurs, the inventors, and other Randian-men of vision and intellect, the mob would be out chasing animals and living in mud-huts. So it doesn't matter what righteous, enlightened CEOs did to the masses because a world without CEOs would be much, much worse.

It's a narcissistic "philosophy" that appeals overwhelmingly to socially-maladjusted, young white males.
 

It's a narcissistic "philosophy" that appeals overwhelmingly to socially-maladjusted, young white males.
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I did read Altas Shrugged, it's like a mental childhood virus, you have it for a week or two then it's gone.
 
IllegalArgument said:
I did read Altas Shrugged, it's like a mental childhood virus, you have it for a week or two then it's gone.
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Aw, I forget the joke, but someone once said: "Yeah, I read _Atlas Shrugged_ two weeks ago and I'm still an a**hole." The exact wording was special.
 
IllegalArgument said:
I did read Altas Shrugged, it's like a mental childhood virus, you have it for a week or two then it's gone.
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I think it's the absolute worst book I've ever read.

Apart from the crazy ideas, and bad writing, and boring characters, and stupid plot....argh! Who the heck thinks they can make Greek heros out of industrialists? Yeah, nothing says "modern day Achilles" like a steel baron.

If literature is food for the mind, Atlas Shrugged is a corrosive enema.
 
TragicMonkey said:
I think it's the absolute worst book I've ever read.

Apart from the crazy ideas, and bad writing, and boring characters, and stupid plot....argh! Who the heck thinks they can make Greek heros out of industrialists? Yeah, nothing says "modern day Achilles" like a steel baron.

If literature is food for the mind, Atlas Shrugged is a corrosive enema.
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In retrospect, I'm rather proud that I managed to get all the way through Gault's speech without dying of boredom.
 
geni said:
Wasn't Malachi151 a comunist of some form?
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Yes, also Mr. Manifesto and the N. Korea apologist Huzington. IIRC, Malachi left in a snit, Huzington got banned (I don't know why) and Manifesto left in shame after revealing he was a permanently unemployed lazy-a$$ living off his mama's hard work. But I may be wrong, as I had a few extended absences here after I moved and again after my motherboard fried.
 
WildCat said:
Yes, also Mr. Manifesto and the N. Korea apologist Huzington. IIRC, Malachi left in a snit, Huzington got banned (I don't know why) and Manifesto left in shame after revealing he was a permanently unemployed lazy-a$$ living off his mama's hard work. But I may be wrong, as I had a few extended absences here after I moved and again after my motherboard fried.
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There's a user named Malachi at www.infidels.org, I always wondered if it was the same person.
 
Cain said:
Aw, I forget the joke, but someone once said: "Yeah, I read _Atlas Shrugged_ two weeks ago and I'm still an a**hole." The exact wording was special.
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I think I found the source for your joke.

America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction, by the Writers of the Daily Show and Jon Stewart

From the back cover: “This is similar to my works in that anyone who reads it is sure to be an a**hole for at least a month afterward.” Ayn Rand

Found it here:
http://www.skepticfriends.org/forum/showquestion.asp?faq=17&fldAuto=184
 
If you in your mind can correctly put her works and ideas in the proper places in a more comprehensive framework of her life, you come to understand how she had become such a fervent individualist, and one to a largely irrational extent at that. I suspect the emotional pangs which eventually led to her penning such books as Atlas Shrugged stemmed from her denigration at the hands of the Russian Revolution, which had led the government to expropriate her father's pharmacy and deprived her and her family of food on several occasions during her youth. An improper association with such a jarring trauma and the general ideas behind socialist philosophy unadulterated by the wily and devious designs of the leaders of the USSR must certainly have lingered with her throughout her life.
 
I think Orwell is overly threatened by objectivism. I note he/she communicates by hit and run link. He/she seems incapable of forming individual thoughts and making arguments.

"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

--Ayn Rand
 
RandFan said:
I think Orwell is overly threatened by objectivism. I note he/she communicates by hit and run link. He/she seems incapable of forming individual thoughts and making arguments.
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Isn't that exactly how Scientologists defend themselves against the Xenu TV guy?

If you read the articles he links to, you can see that most Objectivists are notorious for having acted as empty mental vessels for the entertainment of Rand, so talk about not being able to form individual thoughts ...

Oh, and by the way, I've been meaning to ask you: does your handle mean that you're a fan of Ayn Rand, or is the "Rand" meant to be an abbreviation for "Randi"?
 
Threatened by objectivism?

:dl:

Ayn Rand is the ranch dressing of modern philosophy!

It's always a riot to make fun of it: Rand followers usually have no sense of humor.
 
Speaking of Rand, what's the deal with her torrid affair and subsequent split with her main disciple? Are the Rand people still pissed off that he founded his own branch of Objectivism?

Nothing makes a religion interesting like a good sex scandal.
 
Yes, also Mr. Manifesto and the N. Korea apologist Huzington. IIRC, Malachi left in a snit, Huzington got banned (I don't know why) and Manifesto left in shame after revealing he was a permanently unemployed lazy-a$$ living off his mama's hard work.

Can't say I'm surprised about Mr. Manifesto, but Huzington wasn't really a Marxist... just a troll. I believe he came back claiming to be an ultra-orthodox anti-racist jew recently, which is a bit of a jump from a pro-North-Korea communist Asian...

...then again, the Chinese Communist israel Epstein just died. Perhaps that was Huzington???
 
Batman Jr. said:
Isn't that exactly how Scientologists defend themselves against the Xenu TV guy?
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Sorry? What?

If you read the articles he links to, you can see that most Objectivists are notorious for having acted as empty mental vessels for the entertainment of Rand, so talk about not being able to form individual thoughts.
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Really? I'm not much for arguing by link. I think the practice shallow and to be frank stupid. If I post links favorable to Objectivism would you take the time to read them? Really?

I admire those who are smart enough to distill the essence of a web site and post a quote or two and then make a point and perhaps some logical argument. There are millions of web pages. Many of them specious. Why should I spend my time with any of them when the person posting the links lacks the grey cells enough to form a cogent thought.

Oh, and by the way, I've been meaning to ask you: does your handle mean that you're a fan of Ayn Rand, or is the "Rand" meant to be an abbreviation for "Randi"?
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Ayn Rand, I'm a huge fan. Is that a problem? FWIW, I'm not an objectivist. I don't dismiss altruism and I don't believe that we can absolutely know the truth of anything. I am a skeptic and a libertarian. I like Rand because she embraced reason and objectivity and spoke out at a time when it was not popular for a woman to do so. She also distilled an important aspect of human nature that was sorely missing in intellectual thinking at the time.

Rand threatens cultural elitists who cannot give any quarter to her ideas and therefore her philosophy must be destroyed at all cost. In fact many dismiss Rand as even having a "philosophy". That she challenges intellectual snobs is, I think, reason alone to so admire her.

I hope that clears up any confusion.

RandFan
 
Orwell said:
It's always a riot to make fun of it: Rand followers usually have no sense of humor.
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You might be right. Most that I know of however are capable of making coherent argument which is more than can be said of some. BTW, I'm a huge fan of George Orwell, my favorite socialist.
 
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