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Randroids On The March


This is golden:

2009's most influential author is a mirthless Russian-American who loves money, hates God, and swings a gigantic dick. She died in 1982, but her spawn soldier on. And the Great Recession is all their fault.

It's a brilliant take down of Rand.

One more quote. I just can't resist:

The days during which that 19-year-old has Rand's worldview vectored into his cerebral cortex are feverish and sleepless. Days of beautiful affliction during which the intransigence of others—roommates, a coed the patient has been hitting on, professors, parents, everyone—are shown to be the product of their shortcomings, their idiocy and sublimated envy of the patient's intelligence and talent. Days during which the infected comes to see himself and Roark/Galt as avatars of one another: superheroically mirthless protagonists in a drama of historical import. It's the damnedest thing. One day you've got a bright young kid dutifully connecting the dots of his liberal-arts education; the next, he's got Roark and Galt in the marrow and has become . . . an insufferable asshole.

Heh!


Sean Paul Kelley November 16, 2009 - 11:24am
Sean Paul Kelley's diary | printer friendly version | digg
( categories: Global Financial Crisis )

Magnificent Ayn Rant.

... some snapped out of it after a semester or two, becoming people who later in life—like Hillary Clinton—could refer with a shake of the head to their "Ayn Rand phase." Some didn't, and I lost them as friends. And for years I've wondered whether they:

(a) bolted upright in bed at three in the morning a year or two after we'd graduated and exclaimed, "Mon Dieu! I have been an Ayn Rand Asshole! I must immediately cease and desist!"

(b) took it all the way, and now spend their days in the bowels of the Cato Institute, stroking hairless lap cats and smirking sourly as they develop strategies for deregulating the law of gravity...

I tip over my king.

"The best-informed man is not necessarily the wisest. Indeed there is a danger that precisely in the multiplicity of his knowledge he will lose sight of what is essential."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Escher Sketch November 16, 2009 - 12:30pm
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How About Naming Your Kids..

...after the characters in Rand's books. I knew a major asshole who did. Pass the Cheerios, Atlas. God help them.

alyosha November 16, 2009 - 1:42pm
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I give you...

Rearden Companies, a pile of failed home entertainment startups.

Why is John Galt, anyway?

"Turning Japanese I think I'm Turning Japanese I really think so da-da-da det det det det" - The Vapors

Tonsure Wimple November 17, 2009 - 1:22am
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Not sure of the source, but love the quote...

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.

One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.

The other, of course, involves orcs.

dot_txt November 16, 2009 - 12:52pm
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lol I love it

:)

Tina November 16, 2009 - 1:06pm
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LOL, wonderful

We need a NATION WIDE STRIKE for Real healthcare reform

Joaquin November 17, 2009 - 12:33am
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Randy for Rand

That is one outstanding piece Andrew Corsello!!!

The Hellenistic Greeks in Alexandria had a saying: "A big book is a bad book" (and they knew something about books). There's a certain amount of truth to that but it's uniformly the case for Ayn Rand. What a dreadful author and philosopher. Aside from any closet Randies, here is a partial list. Look who shows up first. Figures.

Famous Randies

Well known for their bad works:
Alan Greenspan - Federal Reserve Chairman
Clarence Thomas - US Supreme Court Justice since 1991
Ken Calvert - U.S. Congressman, representing California's 44th District
John Fund - columnist for The Wall Street Journal
Neil Peart - drummer for the rock band Rush
John Stossel - Libertarian television reporter

Well known for being Objectivists:
Steve Ditko - comic book artist, (devout Objectivist)
Andrew Bernstein - famous Objectivist lecturer
David Kelley - philosopher, writer, evangelist for Objectivism
Leonard Peikoff - Objectivist philosopher and proselytizer
Nathaniel Branden - prominent psychotherapist, author of self-help books, promoter of Objectivism

Michael Collins November 16, 2009 - 3:32pm
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Not exactly a Who's Who of premium talent there

Perhaps that's part of the attraction of Rand's philosophy-- it offers elitism to the provably mediocre (or worse).

Not having to worry about the disadvantaged (or whether you're getting an unfair advantage at their expense) is another big draw, just like it is for most branches of conservatism.

chalo November 16, 2009 - 8:43pm
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Pseudo elitism

Nice one - "it offers elitism to the provably mediocre (or worse)."

Michael Collins November 17, 2009 - 12:40am
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Randies are kind of like the krischuns who think of

themselves as Moses II or Elijah II when the visit Israel.

Delusions.

of.

Grandeur.

KingElvis November 17, 2009 - 12:23pm
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Mr. Corsello doth protest

Mr. Corsello doth protest too much and not too well.

Dismantling the Rand philosophy is one thing; employing multiple S&M references in what purports to be literary criticism and disemboweling anyone whoever found merit in Rand's writing, is quite another. Halfway through his piece I felt the need to put on a rubber apron.

Maybe the first mistake was to go to GQ for enlightenment.

"Lord! What Fools these Mortals be!"

Doug Richardson November 16, 2009 - 8:58pm
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