Ayn Rand's main premise (1 Viewer)

[Henry Ford]

Rand is right about monopolies in a free society. But what you guys fail to grasp is the the US in not a free society: it's crony capitalism, bordering on fascism.

I've watched the Donahue clip; Rand wipes the floor with Phil, a certifiable Marxist nut job.

And you guys who are so critical of Ayn Rand: what have you ever produced that people are willing to pay for, without force involved?

If you work for the government (and I'm guessing most of you do), you've never produced anything of value. You're tax eaters. Your salary, benefits and pensions are all created by confiscating wealth from the productive class.

Oh, and have a nice day.

I actually spend a lot of time slapping the government around. I feel valuable.

 

[fatness]

Look, either you're in the productive class -- people have to voluntarily trade with you -- or you're in the parasite class, a tax eater. Your income is plundered from the productive class.

God I miss being a teenager.

 

[pantagrapher]

Look, either you're in the productive class -- people have to voluntarily trade with you -- or you're in the parasite class, a tax eater. Your income is plundered from the productive class.

God I miss being a teenager.

Become an objectivist and you can be a teenager forever.

 

[Jack White]

Look, either you're in the productive class -- people have to voluntarily trade with you -- or you're in the parasite class, a tax eater. Your income is plundered from the productive class.

God I miss being a teenager.

That's a lame and worthless comment. You could rebut the point, but name-calling doesn't really get it done.

 

[Jack White]

Look, either you're in the productive class -- people have to voluntarily trade with you -- or you're in the parasite class, a tax eater. Your income is plundered from the productive class.

God I miss being a teenager.

Become an objectivist and you can be a teenager forever.

I am not on Objectivist.

 

[TobiasFunke]

Look, either you're in the productive class -- people have to voluntarily trade with you -- or you're in the parasite class, a tax eater. Your income is plundered from the productive class.

God I miss being a teenager.

That's a lame and worthless comment. You could rebut the point, but name-calling doesn't really get it done.

He doesn't have to rebut the point. Anyone who is smarter than a teenager already knows it's ridiculous.

 

[fatness]

eater

 

[pantagrapher]

Look, either you're in the productive class -- people have to voluntarily trade with you -- or you're in the parasite class, a tax eater. Your income is plundered from the productive class.

God I miss being a teenager.

Become an objectivist and you can be a teenager forever.

I am not on Objectivist.

OK.

 

[Jack White]

Look, either you're in the productive class -- people have to voluntarily trade with you -- or you're in the parasite class, a tax eater. Your income is plundered from the productive class.

God I miss being a teenager.

That's a lame and worthless comment. You could rebut the point, but name-calling doesn't really get it done.

He doesn't have to rebut the point. Anyone who is smarter than a teenager already knows it's ridiculous.

Murray Rothbard wrote on these topics until his death at age 69.

And he was smarter than everyone in here, combined.

"I don't agree with you, so you're an idiot teenager." I'm sure you won of lot of your high school debate matches with that one.

 

[Henry Ford]

Look, either you're in the productive class -- people have to voluntarily trade with you -- or you're in the parasite class, a tax eater. Your income is plundered from the productive class.

God I miss being a teenager.

Become an objectivist and you can be a teenager forever.

I think he's more of a Rothbardian, but that's just a general sense I get.

 

[Henry Ford]

Look, either you're in the productive class -- people have to voluntarily trade with you -- or you're in the parasite class, a tax eater. Your income is plundered from the productive class.

God I miss being a teenager.

That's a lame and worthless comment. You could rebut the point, but name-calling doesn't really get it done.

He doesn't have to rebut the point. Anyone who is smarter than a teenager already knows it's ridiculous.

Murray Rothbard wrote on these topics until his death at age 69.

And he was smarter than everyone in here, combined.

"I don't agree with you, so you're an idiot teenager." I'm sure you won of lot of your high school debate matches with that one.

Boom! Nailed it.

Edit: I can't believe I cross-posted him on that. Now it's going to look like shtick.

 

[McGarnicle]

Ohhh, I get it. I thought you guys were saying the actual Jack White is a gaping #######. I was confused because I heard an interview with him recently and he's a pretty interesting guy.

 

[moby fan]

Jack White? Or just a fan?

 

[pantagrapher]

Ayn Rand Reviews Children’s Movies

 

[rockaction]

Ayn Rand Reviews Children’s Movies

Whoa Whoa Whoa. Other than below, the rest is pure gold. "The Muppets do not take Manhattan, they merely visit it."

Altruism is pointless. So are dogs. A cat is a far more sensible pet. A cat is objectively valuable. —No stars.

 

[Clifford]

Anyway, on balance, I don't think Rand was too bad as a self-help thinker.

The sort-of-generalized premise that selfishness can help one attain his goals, and that this can benefit both the individual and society despite the egocentric focus, seems sound enough.

The issue so many have is that instead of writing self-help, she wrote fictional polemics, where she alone was able to mete out the good and the evil in her world, and she handled this with all the subtlety and restraint of Genghis Khan, making everyone who supported her fantasies godlike, and everyone who opposed them subhuman wretches out to destroy her people out of envy and hatred. Made for successful rah-rah storytelling, but has obvious crippling issues as a philosophical groundwork. She was nauseatingly solipsistic.

God I could have used that quote in my 20s. Would have saved me hours of pointless conversation.

 

[Clifford]

Ayn Rand Reviews Children’s Movies

Similar theme, answering advice column

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/ayn-randers

 

[fatness]

Ayn Rand Reviews Children’s Movies

“Bambi”The biggest and the strongest are the fittest to rule. This is the way things have always been. —Four stars.

 

[cstu]

Anyway, on balance, I don't think Rand was too bad as a self-help thinker.

The sort-of-generalized premise that selfishness can help one attain his goals, and that this can benefit both the individual and society despite the egocentric focus, seems sound enough.

Which is why Nathaniel Branden - after stealing from her as much as possible - took the parts of her ideas he liked and started the self-esteem movement.

 

[Maurile Tremblay]

I attended a talk by Nathaniel Brandon once. He seemed like a thoughtful guy. Much less dogmatic than Rand.

 

[cstu]

"The real loneliness started after Atlas Shrugged was published. What she wanted most was one thing, which was to find a peer. Someone who in his field had achieved something of great importance in the world and would stand up publicly and announce what kind of achievement it was.

There wasn't one."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1gqk0tdncek#t=3043

 

[rockaction]

"The real loneliness started after Atlas Shrugged was published. What she wanted most was one thing, which was to find a peer. Someone who in his field had achieved something of great importance in the world and would stand up publicly and announce what kind of achievement it was.

There wasn't one."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1gqk0tdncek#t=3043

You seem to have it out for her and are taking weird interviews out of context.

Is there something going on the in the real-world political Randian-industrial complex that's getting to you, or is this just for the thread?

Just figured I'd ask.

 

[fatness]

Who posted in: Ayn Rand's main premise

Member name Posts

cstu 23

rockaction 20

 

[rockaction]

Who posted in: Ayn Rand's main premise

Member name Posts

cstu 23

rockaction 20

This is a weird thing to do. Much like your smiley faces at comments, it proves no point other than being tautological. "A is A" and all that, fatness.

 

[cstu]

Who posted in: Ayn Rand's main premise

Member name Posts

cstu 23

rockaction 20

This is a weird thing to do. Much like your smiley faces at comments, it proves no point other than being tautological. "A is A" and all that, fatness.

I also don't see what's strange about posting a lot in a thread you feel strongly about.

 

[Maurile Tremblay]

The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says: “Merry Christmas”—not “Weep and Repent.” And the good will is expressed in a material, earthly form—by giving presents to one’s friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance . . . .

The best aspect of Christmas is the aspect usually decried by the mystics: the fact that Christmas has been commercialized. The gift-buying . . . stimulates an enormous outpouring of ingenuity in the creation of products devoted to a single purpose: to give men pleasure. And the street decorations put up by department stores and other institutions—the Christmas trees, the winking lights, the glittering colors—provide the city with a spectacular display, which only “commercial greed” could afford to give us. One would have to be terribly depressed to resist the wonderful gaiety of that spectacle.

-- Ayn Rand, on Christmas

 

[cstu]

The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way

So obvious she never had kids.

 

[Ramsay Hunt Experience]

The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says: “Merry Christmas”—not “Weep and Repent.” And the good will is expressed in a material, earthly form—by giving presents to one’s friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance . . . .

The best aspect of Christmas is the aspect usually decried by the mystics: the fact that Christmas has been commercialized. The gift-buying . . . stimulates an enormous outpouring of ingenuity in the creation of products devoted to a single purpose: to give men pleasure. And the street decorations put up by department stores and other institutions—the Christmas trees, the winking lights, the glittering colors—provide the city with a spectacular display, which only “commercial greed” could afford to give us. One would have to be terribly depressed to resist the wonderful gaiety of that spectacle.

-- Ayn Rand, on Christmas

This is what some ######## from the Ayn Rand Society had to say about Christmas.

I enjoy making fun of Ayn Rand, but not as much as I enjoy making fun of people who join the Ayn Rand Society today.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says: “Merry Christmas”—not “Weep and Repent.” And the good will is expressed in a material, earthly form—by giving presents to one’s friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance . . . .

The best aspect of Christmas is the aspect usually decried by the mystics: the fact that Christmas has been commercialized. The gift-buying . . . stimulates an enormous outpouring of ingenuity in the creation of products devoted to a single purpose: to give men pleasure. And the street decorations put up by department stores and other institutions—the Christmas trees, the winking lights, the glittering colors—provide the city with a spectacular display, which only “commercial greed” could afford to give us. One would have to be terribly depressed to resist the wonderful gaiety of that spectacle.

-- Ayn Rand, on Christmas

I just thought I would point here that in Rand's university giving pleasure by or getting pleasure out of doing anything is ok. Altruism is not ok.

If the motive is selfish in the respect that you get pleasure out of giving something, then that is good. If the motive is obligation or duty out of some sense of equality, obligation or fairness, then not ok.

I just think that's subtle, not sure if it stands up but there it is by her on the most giving day of all.

 

[fatness]

This is what some ######## from the Ayn Rand Society had to say about Christmas. I enjoy making fun of Ayn Rand, but not as much as I enjoy making fun of people who join the Ayn Rand Society today.

From that opinion piece:

A “season of trading” would make better sense than a “season of giving.” The central principles could be summarized as: Give when it’s in your interest to do so. Give because someone deserves it, not simply because he or she needs it. Don’t sacrifice yourself for others, and don’t ask others to sacrifice for you.