Thread: Ayn Rand, teabagger's matron saint, debunked

Even the reviewer for The New Yorker gets in on the lambasting in this bit on two not-so-glowing biographies of the huffy--and long winded--priestess of selfish.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...fa_fact_mallon

[quote name='Davocrat' date='12 November 2009 - 09:49 AM' timestamp='1258037385' post='57872']

Even the reviewer for The New Yorker gets in on the lambasting in this bit on two not-so-glowing biographies of the huffy--and long winded--priestess of selfish.http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...fa_fact_mallon

[/quote]



I think most of us who admire Rand do so because of her ideas, not her example....



"I would step in the way of a bullet if it were aimed at my husband. It is not self-sacrifice to die protecting that which you value: If the value is great enough, you do not care to exist without it."



"You must be the kind of man who can get things done. But to get things done, you must love the doing, not the secondary consequences."



"To say 'I love you' one must know first how to say the 'I'."



"Peter Keating: "Do you always have to have a purpose? Do you always have to be so damn serious? Can't you ever do things without reason, just like everybody else? You're so serious, so old. Everything's important with you. Everything's great, significant in some way, every minute, even when you keep still. Can't you ever be comfortable--and unimportant?"



Howard Roark: "No."

[quote name='kmiller1610' date='12 November 2009 - 10:30 AM' timestamp='1258039833' post='57899']



"Peter Keating: "Do you always have to have a purpose? Do you always have to be so damn serious? Can't you ever do things without reason, just like everybody else? You're so serious, so old. Everything's important with you. Everything's great, significant in some way, every minute, even when you keep still. Can't you ever be comfortable--and unimportant?"



Howard Roark: "No."

[/quote]



I was ALMOST suckered into admiring the example of Howard Roark. And in some ways I still admire some of his characteristics about not selling out.



And if you have any acceptance of Buddhist philosophy, whether you're devout or not, just in the most philosophical sense, the state of being "unimportant" is an excellent way to find importance. Roark is understandably appealing to angry young men, as I once considered myself. Then I realized it wasn't much fun and women didn't find it that attractive after the first week or so.



What Rand doesn't seem to get, however, is that some aspects of collectivism ARE VERY SELFISH. I want public health care for me AND by giving it to those less fortunate it makes my life better, too.

Well, props to her for bagging a 19 year-old! Way to go, sista...

[quote name='Gypsy' date='12 November 2009 - 01:36 PM' timestamp='1258051012' post='57962']

Shouldn't there be a cut off limit for a cougar? I mean, my son is 22. He's still a baby to me lol

[/quote]



One woman's baby is another one's fresh meat, I guess.

[quote name='Gypsy' date='12 November 2009 - 02:04 PM' timestamp='1258052687' post='57972']

I guess. 30 is my limit lol That age will increase as my son continues to age lol

[/quote]



So a 50-year-old woman could date your son, but you'd draw the line at 52?