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Ayn Rand in Mad Men

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Mammon

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Last night I ended up watching the show Mad Men on AMC after Breaking Bad came on. My roomate and I like Breaking Bad but we never seem to watch it when it comes on and were talking about getting it on DVD, and then Mad Men came on and we thought "Breaking Bad is good, we're impressed with AMC's original series... lets watch this!"

It's set in the 1960s at an advertising firm, so the entire time I was reminded of Rand because it was the time period she lived in and wrote about. I was looking it up on Wikipedia this morning to read up on the show and found out this:

Bertram Cooper (Robert Morse): The senior partner at Sterling Cooper. He has a behind-the-scenes, hands-off approach to business, leaving day-to-day affairs to Sterling and Draper. He is a Republican with an admiration for the ideas of Ayn Rand. He is also fascinated by Japanese culture, especially Japanese art.

The funny thing is, last night when I watched the show for the first time I instantly liked the Mr. Cooper guy. He bought this horrendous painting and everyone in the firm couldn't figure out why he bought it and then he reveals he didn't like the art at all, he just bought it because it would double in value. Which is a good for me because I was thinking "this guy has horriable taste in art"

I don't know how much Rand is mentioned in the show, but I noticed some Objectivist features popping up here and there. I plan on defiantely watching it more now.

As they say in the business... any publicity is good publicity right? ;)

Edited by Mammon
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I made a post about Mad Men and Cooper's character's affinity for Ayn Rand previously. I highly recommend this show.

That's odd, when I do a search for "mad men" (w/ or w/o quotes), nothing comes up. I have done okay with the search function before.

Definitely a great show, amazing set design and period accuracy. The writer wrote an episode or two for the Sopranos and it shows to an extent: there is a definite nod towards the eventual and real consequences of being immoral and/or not lacking integrity. But there is also a nod towards nihilism that suggests that you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.

As far as Ayn Rand, I sense that the writers are trying to skewer her as a hero to out-of-touch, arrogant conservative types who are looking for a cheap rationalization for their cutthroat behavior. I don't think the writers would say that advertising is nothing but smoke and mirrors- they clearly have some respect for the craft of advertising- but neither would they see them as "prime movers" or "producers".

Basically a classic mixed bag of good and bad premises. But highly entertaining. And for those who are up to date on the episodes, it looks like Don Draper's chickens may be coming home to roost next week..

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That's odd, when I do a search for "mad men" (w/ or w/o quotes), nothing comes up. I have done okay with the search function before.

Definitely a great show, amazing set design and period accuracy. The writer wrote an episode or two for the Sopranos and it shows to an extent: there is a definite nod towards the eventual and real consequences of being immoral and/or not lacking integrity. But there is also a nod towards nihilism that suggests that you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.

As far as Ayn Rand, I sense that the writers are trying to skewer her as a hero to out-of-touch, arrogant conservative types who are looking for a cheap rationalization for their cutthroat behavior. I don't think the writers would say that advertising is nothing but smoke and mirrors- they clearly have some respect for the craft of advertising- but neither would they see them as "prime movers" or "producers".

Basically a classic mixed bag of good and bad premises. But highly entertaining. And for those who are up to date on the episodes, it looks like Don Draper's chickens may be coming home to roost next week..

Just an FYI:

http://forum.ObjectivismOnline.com/index.p...9&hl=Madmen

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