That damn motion picture has given me "objectivism on the brain"....
More and more I am given to think that the sheer downfall of Ayn Rand can be traced back to her reflexive hatred of academics & intellectuals. The whole subtext of "Atlas Shrugged" (regardless of Dagny Taggart's quest to mate with some species of heavy machinery) reeks of anti-intellectualism and a visceral loathing for academics holding any sort of position of public trust.
Well...to be fair, Rand was never too popular with the academy (philosophers & theologians with "sophomore appeal" all have this problem) so there is an element of tit for tat at work here. And what better way to subvert academia than by creating a faith that would unite the monied sectors of the overclass and immantenize the libertarian eschaton?
And so thus a militant atheistic founds a cult...
***
Objectivists are burdened by the lack of a homeland some sovereignty they can point to as triumph of thought turned to action, they way ye Olde Comintern could always point with pride to the USSR as a model of the coming Marxist Leninist Utopia.
On the other hand, minus the small town Baptist shamanism, Texas looms more and more as a sort of Objectivist paradise.
The Governor is a constitutionally powerless loudmouth, the state is largely controlled by corporations, lawyers and sundry shills. Politics is completely corrupted by payola, life of the street is violent despite the frequent recourse to the gallows and the whole state is polluted to an absurd degree...but then again taxes are low and education is held in low regard by almost everyone.
Sounds like "Galt's Gulch" to me....
Showing posts with label Ayn Rand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ayn Rand. Show all posts
Monday, October 15, 2012
Sunday, October 14, 2012
"Atlas Shrugged Part II" duly reviewed and blogged
Over at Channel Zero.
To which I can only add, how is it that when Objectivists (that self selected elite of would be herrenvolk) make a movie of their Messiah's own Koran it ends up being a cheap tawdry exploitation movie enacted by E-List helots?
***
Ah but Ayn Rand was never known for her irony or subtle wit, she set out to create a anti-communist theology and largely succeeded at least as far as her tiny band of cultists are concerned.
Of course the theme of the book is nothing new the Overclass goes on strike to end the predations of the ravenous looters and their underclass hirelings. As far back as 1907 Ernest Bramah described a strike by the middle and upper classes of Great Britain to oust an all powerful labor government in his book The Secret of the League. The conspirators break the power of the coal miners union and are then free and clear to set up a non-parliamentary government that keeps the trogs down and upholds the natural rights of the aristocracy and the "producing classes".
All sounds very much like "Galt's Gulch" to me...but then Counter Marxist thought clearly predates the Russian Revolution as a matter of record.
***
Of course, Atlas Shrugged is less a novel and more a nine hundred page work of raw ideological warfare, combat divisions of straw men are shot shelled & strafed on every page by poor persecuted financial supermen & their adoring passive aggressive superwomen.
Well what of it?
The Chimes at Midnight is nothing but raw ideological warfare, but Humble Elias at least tries to keep it short and simple.
And if he can't do that, he will always lunge for the cheap laughs.
To which I can only add, how is it that when Objectivists (that self selected elite of would be herrenvolk) make a movie of their Messiah's own Koran it ends up being a cheap tawdry exploitation movie enacted by E-List helots?
***
Ah but Ayn Rand was never known for her irony or subtle wit, she set out to create a anti-communist theology and largely succeeded at least as far as her tiny band of cultists are concerned.
Of course the theme of the book is nothing new the Overclass goes on strike to end the predations of the ravenous looters and their underclass hirelings. As far back as 1907 Ernest Bramah described a strike by the middle and upper classes of Great Britain to oust an all powerful labor government in his book The Secret of the League. The conspirators break the power of the coal miners union and are then free and clear to set up a non-parliamentary government that keeps the trogs down and upholds the natural rights of the aristocracy and the "producing classes".
All sounds very much like "Galt's Gulch" to me...but then Counter Marxist thought clearly predates the Russian Revolution as a matter of record.
***
Of course, Atlas Shrugged is less a novel and more a nine hundred page work of raw ideological warfare, combat divisions of straw men are shot shelled & strafed on every page by poor persecuted financial supermen & their adoring passive aggressive superwomen.
Well what of it?
The Chimes at Midnight is nothing but raw ideological warfare, but Humble Elias at least tries to keep it short and simple.
And if he can't do that, he will always lunge for the cheap laughs.
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