The books of Ayn Rand make me literally, physically ill. How do you deal with her fans?

[arbusto_baboso]

You know, the kind of people who think all her books were masterworks and good blueprints for life? I've run into several of those at work recently.

It's really annoying when one of my clients (I work with people receiving welfare cash benefits) cites Rand as an inspiration and says that everyone should stand on his/her own, while I'm signing them up for cash aid, food stamps, Medi-Cal, etc. It's like they have no working irony circuits.

[Taverner]

1. I show them this:

[arbusto_baboso]

Nice! Ridicule makes the point far better than all my facts could!

[ColbertWatcher]

59. That cartoon does both. n/t

[Oregone]

2. I deal with her fans by throwing rotten tomatos at them. Unfortunately, Geithner stopped coming by

[Taverner]

4. Is Geithner a Randian?

[Oregone]

12. Why else would he think the key to recovery is bribing the smart private "investors" with...

taxpayer money? His plan shifts a load of unnecessary government cash into private investor's hands, for no other reason than to make them like us and be benevolent to us incompetent sub-humans. He must think it is necessary to make these people happy (in addition to providing liquidity). Otherwise, he wouldn't be doing it.

[Occam Bandage]

19. Wow, a twofer.

Doesn't understand Geithner's plan, and doesn't understand Rand's philosophies. I'd guess you haven't actually read either.

[Oregone]

21. I understand both

You will eventually see the pricetag of Geithner's plan. It will be far more than the Bush/Paulson plan, and the extra cost will be that money that is shifted to the private investor as a bribe.

The only justifiable reason to do this is to create a plan that pleases and encourages the superior humans (great individuals or minds if you will), the drivers and innovators of the economy, to benevolently participate in the economy on our behalf (since we can't do it ourselves).

[Taverner]

41. But that would be so Anti-Randian

Ayn Rand would say all the struggling companies should perish, because they are weak and led by weak men. Asking for a handout is Ayn Rand's equivilent of child murdering (especially since she doesn't see anything wrong with actual child murdering - see her jailhouse crush Hickman)

[Oregone]

48. You miss her hidden narcissism between the lines

These people (great "investors" buying the assets), which the entire world depends upon, are extraordinary and special, and no one else amongst the population is competent to do their jobs (that is why we must not allow the government to interfere with the development or their operations). But in times when they have withdrawn their expertise, capital, and genius from the market, its only logical that we much give them financial blow jobs to get them to help us.

I'm not talking about the bank owners and their failing businesses by the way. I'm talking about the "private investors" that Giethner is subsidizing to buy the toxic assets. The bribe is going to them to encourage them to come back to the market and play nice. This plan isn't just about the banks, but also about padding the pockets of the "investor class" (the type of heros in Randian thought). By not only allowing them to grow, but encouraging them to grow and develop, we can cross our fingers and hope it helps us in the end.

Ayn Rand philosophy is not just the foundation of libertarianism, but also a justification for corporatism (which this is). There was an early schism in this line of thinking. Since these individuals and great minds are superior, not only do we have to not interfere, but we must continue to capitulate and please them. It was the natural evolution of a juvenile philosophy, in the hands and minds of narcissists. She may rail against this activity, but she lays out the moral justifications and logic for it.

[Taverner]

66. Well her narcissism leads to hypocrisy and is contradictory to her main premise

I mean, basically she thinks the "Titans of Industry" deserve welfare, but the average human does not.

[cliffordu]

3. Fire axe and road flares.

[jobycom]

5. Just ask them something about the books, like

"Didn't she say in 'Atlas Shrugged' that everyone needs help sometimes? Somewhere around that chapter about street cleaning..."

Then they'll be afraid you've actually read the books, and won't bring them up again around you. Or conversely, they'll spend the next three months rereading Atlas Shrugged trying to figure out what you were talking about. :)

[Stevenmarc]

6. Ask them to name one country that successfully operates on that blueprint

[wicket]

16. Libertopia doesn't exist!

:D

[Teaser]

7. I send them this link

http://michaelprescott.net/hickman.htm

[backscatter712]

8. I talk to them with small words and simple sentences...

since they're too unintelligent to understand ethics more sophisticated than that shown by a two-year-old screaming "MINE!"

[Joe Chi Minh]

37. New Guinean hunter-gatherers understand the imperative of moral behaviour,

however imperfectly, and probably have since the dawn of mankind. But the subject of moral behaviour is too "sophisticated" for modern right-wing dim-wits to understand, even when expressed in monosyllables. Change the subject.

[graywarrior]

9. Mr Gray brought one of her books home from the library the other day

After I got up from ROFLMAO, I asked him for a divorce. He tried reading it, however, but it ended up in the trash after an hour of his suffering through it. So again, I ROFLMAO but changed my mind about the divorce.

[monmouth]

22. If its from the library you better grab it outta the trash. Dues are going to be astronom...LOL...n

[graywarrior]

27. You know what I mean

It got "removed from the premises"....it is "no longer in the building."

LOL

[monmouth]

32. I'm presently reading Gay Talese's book "Thy Neighbor's Wife" and

there is much of Ayn and her views in there.. Many references to "Atlas Shrugged"..

[Warpy]

45. I read all her trash when I was in my teens

A Randorrhoid suggested "The Fountainhead" first. Yeah, the characters were all made out of cardboard and none of them was likable, but you could almost buy the premise. I moved on to the rest. I found myself dissolving into silly giggles while I was plowing through all the lectures in "Atlas Shrugged," trying to envision the hard and driven Dagny Taggart with a whiny, hungry toddler clinging to her ultra sexy pencil skirt. That would have interfered greatly with the monologues all the characters spouted past each other.

It's also why impressionable young men (the biggest suckers for her trash) seem to outgrow it, usually around the time they marry and have children that they are now expected to cope with because the wife works her job, too. When confronted with a human being that can't fend for itself, one begins to understand the rationale behind altruism, starting with one's own child.

The books were given to me. I didn't pass them along, about the only books I've ever been given that I didn't pass along. They ended up in the trash.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

60. "Impressionable young men"

Really? The only people I know IRL who read/follow Rand have been exclusively self-absorbed females, all younger then 25. I've never known a male who liked Rand.

[Warpy]

61. Ever been to an Objectivist meeting?

I got dragged to one, Wollensack with the masters words on a wee table with a white lace cloth--depressingly like an altar.

Of course this was many years ago, but I sincerely doubt her fan base has changed all that much.

[RaleighNCDUer]

24. While I appreciate the sentiment,

throwing away library books is not a good thing. Unless, of course, this was one of those 'leave one, take one' giveaway books.

[graywarrior]

29. It got taken back today after sitting around untouched for several weeks

[arcadian]

31. Sounds like he understands Randian philosophy perfectly.

Trashing public property like that. He's well on his way. :P

[Sanity Claws]

10. I don't deal with them

People who identify with Ayn Rand are emotionally dead. They are not people you can reach because they have shut off an entire part of their humanity.

[MisterP]

33. Objectivism is explicitly anti-life: creativity is measurable by the wealth one's "earned," and any

ties beyond the contract are theft by the incompetent of what the superior have created: freedom is freedom to fail
their bane is altruism, which should tell you where they're coming from...
they're the Ritz Carlton towel girl who WANTS to give the AIG or Ford exec that happy ending
Robert Hunt notes that the real "hook" for Atlas Farted is the ravishing glamor of her jet set, with their 100-mph train rides, slender and dynamic GQ-model CEOs, sex, money, Happy Valleys, propeller planes, luminous skyscraper offices and penthouses, cigarette cases and fur stoles, expensive tailoring, and the novel's airtight isolation from anything resembling the real world. Hunt noted that she worked on DeMille extravaganzas like Madam Satan, ripping off his roiling mobs, peasant thugs, wrecks, and zeppelin orgies.
What America needs is to have someone rewrite Marx and Aldo Leopold, but with 20s and 30s Art Deco thrown in: DC-2 planes, Lalique glass, elegantly angled skyscrapers. However, that would require a cast of mindless characters and appeals to Western Marxism and environmentalism as blatantly-magical forces outside of human influence...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. I write them off as fans of Capitalist Porn.

[vaberella]

13. I call them Capitalists and move on. I actually liked Anthem though.

I usually put my likeness to the fact that I was 15 at the time of reading it and didn't know the affects of Capitalism on the free world.

[PatSeg]

46. I loved her books when I was twenty,

but as FICTION. Like many works of fiction, they just don't translate into reality well. She was the product of communist Russia and took an understandably extreme opposing view. I can't believe she is being resurrected in the 21st century.

Oh well, when these avid fans lose their jobs, homes, and healthcare, they'll toss her books quickly. I never knew a conservative who refused his/her social security payments. Even John McCain had no problem collecting his.

[onehandle]

14. I don't. They're usually pretty unstable and have guns.

Back away slowly.

[rucky]

15. steal their wallet.

they'll understand.

[EOTE]

26. Best reply yet!

After all, what is best for me is right. Right? Yeah, I'm sure they'd understand that. If they don't, they can't really consider themselves to be fans of Rand's work.

[arcadian]

34. I swear to Ba'al that I came up with my response down thread independent of yours.

:P

[rucky]

36. That does it...

I'm stealing your sigline pic.

:thumbsup:

[blm]

17. You mean people who never mentally/emotionally advance from being college sophomores?

heh

[onehandle]

20. That's pretty accurate. My impression is that Mein Kampf... I mean, Atlas Shrugged...

...is either the first and only book they've ever read or the last book they ever read.

They have a selfish moment of Satori and stop progressing forever.

[blm]

52. yep - just about every single Randian I've encountered fits the description....

and I say that regretfully.

[Occam Bandage]

18. To paraphrase Howard Roark: "But I don't think of them."

[Joe Chi Minh]

38. The perfect answer.

[KamaAina]

23. Haven't they all "gone Galt" by now?

Buh-bye... don't let the doorknob hit ya where the good Lord split ya!

[guitar man]

25. Backhanded compliments

I usually say something like "I think they're pretty well written, really good works of fiction. Of course, it's too bad that what she puts forth in the books would never work in the real world. Kinda like the Communist Mannifesto, it was great on paper, but didn't work so well in practice. Nonetheless, Ayn's books do make for a great read..." (even though I think they're crap)

:rofl:

[arcadian]

28. Next time you meet one of them. Punch them in the gut then take their wallet.

It's what Anne would have wanted.

[Joe Chi Minh]

47. Another perfect response, but with more humour and, well, punch, than expressing too

much disdain to think about her.

I'd never even heard of her until I visited Salon, I think, and when I read a little about her, was astonished that people could say they'd been impressed by her when they were younger, as she is a simpleton comparable with Milton Friedman. If an individual's assumptions are haywire, a high worldly intellect will render them, more than a person who is simply, notably unworldly - though they will be more likely to impress those who are deficient both intellectually and morally, than they would most people with a high worldly intellect, possessing any moral compass.

But it's part of the cultural madness of Anglo-Saxon capitalism, isn't it? The normal backdrop of daily life as imposed by the corporate media. Fortunately, most people don't fall for it, and most of those who do learn better soon enough.

[mitchum]

30. I ridicule them for their aesthetic taste and scorn them for their philosophical outlook

Alice Rosenbaum
bad novelist
bad philosopher
bad human being

[FudaFuda]

35. Isn't Neil Peart of "Rush" a fan of Rand?

I was a big fan of Rush back in the late 70's, early 80's. IIRC, a lot of their lyrics are based on Peart's reading of Rand's works.

[OnyxCollie]

40. That explains it.

Back in the 80's, I had a high school friend who was a Rush fanatic whom I remember reading Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

[mitchum]

42. Well, there's a reason for "drummers are dumb" jokes

[mitchum]

43. self delete

[BlueGADawg]

54. Rush's song The Trees

was supposedly based on her works. The maples complain about the oaks hogging all the sunlight, and the oaks don't understand the problem and think the maples should be happy in their shade. Laws were passed to keep the trees equal by hatchet, axe and saw. It was supposed to be about using the power of government to take from those sucessful and better off and make things more "fair". It's one of my favorite Rush songs and until I heard about it's basis on Rand's works, I always thought it was about the good government can do to give everyone an equal opportunity. Oh well, what do I know.

[Spike89]

57. Funny how those stories can work both ways

It's all in the heart and details. Vonnegut wrote a short story with pretty much the same plot line. It could be read as an indictment of government attempts at a level playing field, or more truly as an indictment of conformity.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

67. Yeah he is

2112 was a concept album based on Rand's works.

[Viking12]

39. I send this link....

http://world.std.com/~mhuben/libindex.html

[liberalitch]

44. Night of January 16th...

Great play the only thing I ever liked that she wrote.

[MindPilot]

49. It's tough because she appeals to a segment of the atheist/humanist/freethought community

I try to simply avoid them.

The Randians--not the atheist/humanist/freethought community. :D

[Ikonoklast]

50. Point and laugh, point and laugh.

It works unusually well on people that are emotionally bankrupt, and intellectually defective.

A society that cannot evolve past the flawed ideal of 'every man for himself' will cease to exist as the resources of this planet become scarcer.

Socialism and co-operation will come, or a war that will decimate human life on this planet.

[readmoreoften]

51. I move her "philosophy" books en masse into the "humor" section.

I'm serious. If I'm in a book store and I'm well-dressed that day, I like to help out the customers by providing this service. It's just one small act of charity. :shrug:

[LisaM]

53. I just keep chipping away

I've been sending stuff to one person for years. I think she's coming around!

[safeinOhio]

55. I love to ask

So how did her personal life turn out?

[mitchum]

56. She and her comb over died alone

[Manifestor_of_Light]

65. Read up on her boytoy Nathaniel Branden.

Author of books on self-esteem.

[Political Heretic]

58. See I actually enjoyed The Fountainhead

I can't explain it....

:crazy:

[Hamlette]

62. I say: "I loved Rand in my youth because she's an atheist. Then I grew up."

That usually makes them gasp, but if not, I add: "The world doesn't work that way. Libertarianism is just selfishness on steroids."

[bird gerhl]

63. Did you know Ayn Rand is increasingly popular among middle class youth in India?

It's the strangest thing.

[TexasObserver]

64. Ayn Rand is a joke. I ridicule those who favor her.

Her themes are so silly, they can only appeal to the tragically ignorant.

[The Leveller]

68. ATLAS SHRUGGED: THE ABRIDGED VERSION (with spoilers)

Atlas Shrugged (by Ayn Rand)
ATLAS SHRUGGED: THE ABRIDGED VERSION (with spoilers)

AYN RAND:
Hello, I'm Ayn Rand. I wrote a novel based on my Objectivist philosophy called The Fountainhead, but I don't think 700 pages was quite enough to get my point across, so I will write the exact same novel, only it will take 1100 pages this time.

READERS:
Hey, great.

HEROINE:
I'm Dagny Taggart. I am a railroad tycoon, woman-in-a-man's-world, stunningly beautiful heroine. I am the only person capable of running this railroad. I am the only woman in the universe worth a damn. I am also the only woman in the universe with a real job. I am basically the only woman in this novel.

LOVE INTEREST #1:
I have worshiped you, the only woman in the universe worth a damn, from afar for my whole life.

HEROINE:
That's nice.

LOVE INTEREST #2:
I have worshiped you, the only woman in the universe worth a damn, naked on the forest floor. Yet I will nobly step aside in the name of noble idealism, despite the fact that I love you and want you, the only woman in the universe worth a damn, desperately.

HEROINE:
Okay.

LOVE INTEREST #3:
I worship you, the only woman in the universe worth a damn. Let us have creepy rape fantasy sex now. I will not ask permission to do all these kinky things to you, but luckily you want to be forced into all the kinky things, you dirty bitch.

HEROINE:
This is clearly true love! Stick it in me.

ALL:
Who is John Galt?

AYN RAND:
I am not telling. Instead, please listen to someone pontificate about my Objectivist philosophy for a while.

SOMEONE:


VILLAINS:
There are many of us, but we are all exactly the same. We are caricatures of evil socialists and embodiments of pure evil. Let us create a perfect socialist world order ruled by the inept! We all suck! Socialism sucks! Ha ha!

HEROES:
We are all exactly the same. We are noble and perfect and have very angular and insolent faces. We can read each other's minds and the minds of everyone else in this novel, leaving less room for misunderstanding and more room for pontificating. And we are all in love with Dagny Taggart, the only woman in the universe worth a damn.

ALL:
Who is John Galt?

VILLAIN:


HERO:

If it's heads, I will gaze apathetically. If it's tails, I will laugh heartily.

VILLAIN:
Although these are the only two things any of you heroes have done for the past 800 pages, I am shocked at this response! How could you! How dare you!?!

HERO:
I will now pontificate about Ayn Rand's philosophy. It has been at least 50 pages since you've heard it.

AYN RAND:
It is so convenient that all of my heroes are in perfect agreement about my philosophy so that their pontificating is so interchangeable.

ALL:
Who is John Galt?

JOHN GALT:
Hello. In this, the culmination of all the pontificating, I will explain Ayn Rand's philosophy for a full 57 pages. No, I am not kidding. This one monologue will last for 57 pages. Oh and also, I love Dagny.

DAGNY:
I love you too. Man, this is really going to suck for Love Interest #3.

LOVE INTEREST #3:
Despite my passionate love for you and enjoyment of our rape sex, and the fact that there is no other woman on earth worth a damn, and the fact that I sacrificed my life's passion on your behalf, and that I spent my entire fortune to get a divorce to be with you, I will now nobly step aside in the name of noble idealism.

DAGNY:
Great! I will miss our creepy rape sex. Farewell.

LOVE INTEREST #3:
Bye.

READER:
Wait, what?

ATLAS:


THE END

http://www.mopie.com/blog/2006/01/atlas-shrugged-by-ayn-rand.html