OT: Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”

[jstoesz]

[quote=gandalf][quote=jstoesz]To throw my two cents into the ring…

I think Atlas Shrugged should be required reading[/quote]

Same creepy line with creationism. If you teach evolution, you have to teach intelligent design. If you teach the Plato or Aquinas, you have to teach Rand. Required reading.

Right-wing zombies insist you subscribe to their moralizing bullshit, and are worse than Marxists. They aren’t conservative in any sense. Conservatives don’t do ‘required reading’.

As for Atlas Shrugged, it was interesting but not Great Books material. I don’t think anybody should be compelled to read it. The irony is laughable.[/quote]

Gandalf, your capacity for the cliche is so vast it subverts your sincerity.

Yes, by required reading, I meant we should go “clock work orange” on all the 14 year olds in america.

I love your use of the word “creepy.” It boiler plates you from any real intelligent criticism. And “moralizing” to you must be synonymous with expressing ones opinion on a matter, since I am darn near sure you can not debate this topic on facts. Not to mention you slipped in “right wing zombies,” Is that like a liberal rallying cry…or dog whistle or something? And your rounded out your critisism with comparing me to a Marxist…Nice choice on avoiding the knee jerk to Nazism…well played.

So all your response does is attempt to shame someone into shutting up.

I would love to have a debate about why Rand is not valid for people to read or think about, in whole or in part. My main point was that Rand provides a unique world view, as useful and flawed as many other great philosophical thinkers, and on such grounds, she is worth reading.

Here is how you can respond Gandalf…

I, Gandalf, do not think Rand is valid…I, Gandalf, do not think she is valid, (and here is the important part, the more detail the better!) because of X,Y, and Z.

[Butleroftwo]

gandalf is this blogs Obama franchisee. Be careful with gandalf, he(?) pretends to be like everyone else until one of his core issues is discussed. He has tried to establish his character here by letting us know that he is Tall, rides a motorcycle, owns a business, is Columbia educated and is independent.
His only goal is to push Obama’s agenda of higher taxes, government control (left of center or way left of center only), strange foreign policy, elitism and whatever this mysterious president has on his list. I would guess that he walked away from a party meeting sometime in 2005 with a list of blogs that he needed to infiltrate. Since then we have been graced with his “Social Marketing” techniques from some unpublished manual.

[Butleroftwo]

gandalf is this blogs Obama franchisee. Be careful with gandalf, he(?) pretends to be like everyone else until one of his core issues is discussed. He has tried to establish his character here by letting us know that he is Tall, rides a motorcycle, owns a business, is Columbia educated and is independent.
His only goal is to push Obama’s agenda of higher taxes, government control (left of center or way left of center only), strange foreign policy, elitism and whatever this mysterious president has on his list. I would guess that he walked away from a party meeting sometime in 2005 with a list of blogs that he needed to infiltrate. Since then we have been graced with his “Social Marketing” techniques from some unpublished manual.

[Butleroftwo]

gandalf is this blogs Obama franchisee. Be careful with gandalf, he(?) pretends to be like everyone else until one of his core issues is discussed. He has tried to establish his character here by letting us know that he is Tall, rides a motorcycle, owns a business, is Columbia educated and is independent.
His only goal is to push Obama’s agenda of higher taxes, government control (left of center or way left of center only), strange foreign policy, elitism and whatever this mysterious president has on his list. I would guess that he walked away from a party meeting sometime in 2005 with a list of blogs that he needed to infiltrate. Since then we have been graced with his “Social Marketing” techniques from some unpublished manual.

[Butleroftwo]

gandalf is this blogs Obama franchisee. Be careful with gandalf, he(?) pretends to be like everyone else until one of his core issues is discussed. He has tried to establish his character here by letting us know that he is Tall, rides a motorcycle, owns a business, is Columbia educated and is independent.
His only goal is to push Obama’s agenda of higher taxes, government control (left of center or way left of center only), strange foreign policy, elitism and whatever this mysterious president has on his list. I would guess that he walked away from a party meeting sometime in 2005 with a list of blogs that he needed to infiltrate. Since then we have been graced with his “Social Marketing” techniques from some unpublished manual.

[Butleroftwo]

gandalf is this blogs Obama franchisee. Be careful with gandalf, he(?) pretends to be like everyone else until one of his core issues is discussed. He has tried to establish his character here by letting us know that he is Tall, rides a motorcycle, owns a business, is Columbia educated and is independent.
His only goal is to push Obama’s agenda of higher taxes, government control (left of center or way left of center only), strange foreign policy, elitism and whatever this mysterious president has on his list. I would guess that he walked away from a party meeting sometime in 2005 with a list of blogs that he needed to infiltrate. Since then we have been graced with his “Social Marketing” techniques from some unpublished manual.

[NotCranky]

Something bigger than the collapse of the world is imminent…and was completely glossed over here, Arraya is contemplating becoming a breeder?
What’s next? Dave becomes a proud papa? (I think he would be a good father, BTW)

Congratulations guys!

[NotCranky]

Something bigger than the collapse of the world is imminent…and was completely glossed over here, Arraya is contemplating becoming a breeder?
What’s next? Dave becomes a proud papa? (I think he would be a good father, BTW)

Congratulations guys!

[NotCranky]

Something bigger than the collapse of the world is imminent…and was completely glossed over here, Arraya is contemplating becoming a breeder?
What’s next? Dave becomes a proud papa? (I think he would be a good father, BTW)

Congratulations guys!

[NotCranky]

Something bigger than the collapse of the world is imminent…and was completely glossed over here, Arraya is contemplating becoming a breeder?
What’s next? Dave becomes a proud papa? (I think he would be a good father, BTW)

Congratulations guys!

[NotCranky]

Something bigger than the collapse of the world is imminent…and was completely glossed over here, Arraya is contemplating becoming a breeder?
What’s next? Dave becomes a proud papa? (I think he would be a good father, BTW)

Congratulations guys!

[Arraya]

Objectivism is basically narcissistic mental masturbation to prove solipsism. It’s gives plausible sounding rational for the virtue of kicking people in the teeth for ones “rational self-interest”, while pretending you are not kicking them in the teeth – because pursuit of ones “rational self-interest has to be good for them as well. Part and parcel of our cultural stupidity that will, most likely, come to an exciting conclusion, some time in our lives, if you are under 60.

Rand was a grouchy old broad that was pissed that her families business was disrupted by the Russian revolution. In her later years, when she was having surgery for lung cancer, she was more than happy to take social security and complained about the pseudo-science of cigarettes being a carcinogen. Obviously, if there was a “market” for cigarettes and it was her “rational self-interest”, it could not be bad thing. She also praised a serial killer for his complete disregard for others and used him as a model for her protagonists. Gushing that “he did not realize other people around him”, as a virtue. Because, you know, thinking about other people is such a hinderance at achieving a perfect state of “selfishness”.

I think she fits in well with the line of thought going back to Aquinas through Hobbes, Locke and Smith. It’s a long line of mental masturbators.

[Arraya]

Objectivism is basically narcissistic mental masturbation to prove solipsism. It’s gives plausible sounding rational for the virtue of kicking people in the teeth for ones “rational self-interest”, while pretending you are not kicking them in the teeth – because pursuit of ones “rational self-interest has to be good for them as well. Part and parcel of our cultural stupidity that will, most likely, come to an exciting conclusion, some time in our lives, if you are under 60.

Rand was a grouchy old broad that was pissed that her families business was disrupted by the Russian revolution. In her later years, when she was having surgery for lung cancer, she was more than happy to take social security and complained about the pseudo-science of cigarettes being a carcinogen. Obviously, if there was a “market” for cigarettes and it was her “rational self-interest”, it could not be bad thing. She also praised a serial killer for his complete disregard for others and used him as a model for her protagonists. Gushing that “he did not realize other people around him”, as a virtue. Because, you know, thinking about other people is such a hinderance at achieving a perfect state of “selfishness”.

I think she fits in well with the line of thought going back to Aquinas through Hobbes, Locke and Smith. It’s a long line of mental masturbators.

[Arraya]

Objectivism is basically narcissistic mental masturbation to prove solipsism. It’s gives plausible sounding rational for the virtue of kicking people in the teeth for ones “rational self-interest”, while pretending you are not kicking them in the teeth – because pursuit of ones “rational self-interest has to be good for them as well. Part and parcel of our cultural stupidity that will, most likely, come to an exciting conclusion, some time in our lives, if you are under 60.

Rand was a grouchy old broad that was pissed that her families business was disrupted by the Russian revolution. In her later years, when she was having surgery for lung cancer, she was more than happy to take social security and complained about the pseudo-science of cigarettes being a carcinogen. Obviously, if there was a “market” for cigarettes and it was her “rational self-interest”, it could not be bad thing. She also praised a serial killer for his complete disregard for others and used him as a model for her protagonists. Gushing that “he did not realize other people around him”, as a virtue. Because, you know, thinking about other people is such a hinderance at achieving a perfect state of “selfishness”.

I think she fits in well with the line of thought going back to Aquinas through Hobbes, Locke and Smith. It’s a long line of mental masturbators.

[Arraya]

Objectivism is basically narcissistic mental masturbation to prove solipsism. It’s gives plausible sounding rational for the virtue of kicking people in the teeth for ones “rational self-interest”, while pretending you are not kicking them in the teeth – because pursuit of ones “rational self-interest has to be good for them as well. Part and parcel of our cultural stupidity that will, most likely, come to an exciting conclusion, some time in our lives, if you are under 60.

Rand was a grouchy old broad that was pissed that her families business was disrupted by the Russian revolution. In her later years, when she was having surgery for lung cancer, she was more than happy to take social security and complained about the pseudo-science of cigarettes being a carcinogen. Obviously, if there was a “market” for cigarettes and it was her “rational self-interest”, it could not be bad thing. She also praised a serial killer for his complete disregard for others and used him as a model for her protagonists. Gushing that “he did not realize other people around him”, as a virtue. Because, you know, thinking about other people is such a hinderance at achieving a perfect state of “selfishness”.

I think she fits in well with the line of thought going back to Aquinas through Hobbes, Locke and Smith. It’s a long line of mental masturbators.

[Author]

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