Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Rands quote and Casey Anthony

Rate this topic


Recommended Posts

I came across this quote of Rand in regards to Hickman in her journals, and reading it, it reminds me of the public in regards to Casey Anthony. Do you think it's applicable in any way?

"The first thing that impresses me about the case is the ferocious rage of a whole society against one man. No matter what the man did, there is always something loathsome in the 'virtuous' indignation and mass-hatred of the 'majority.'... It is repulsive to see all these beings with worse sins and crimes in their own lives, virtuously condemning a criminal...

What does she mean by it?

Edited by intellectualammo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't see how it wouldn't be applicable to Casey. Especially when you mention the media, the media's portrayal, people's portrayal and thinking of her as a murderess, a baby killer, etc. before her trial and after. Mass hatred of her big time, she was dubbed the most hated woman in America.

Edited by intellectualammo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't see how it wouldn't be applicable to Casey. Especially when you mention the media, the media's portrayal, people's portrayal and thinking of her as a murderess, a baby killer, etc. before her trial and after.

You do realize that that part is true, right? She is a child murderer.

Edited by Nicky
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I came across this quote of Rand in regards to Hickman in her journals, and reading it, it reminds me of the public in regards to Casey Anthony. Do you think it's applicable in any way?

"The first thing that impresses me about the case is the ferocious rage of a whole society against one man. No matter what the man did, there is always something loathsome in the 'virtuous' indignation and mass-hatred of the 'majority.'... It is repulsive to see all these beings with worse sins and crimes in their own lives, virtuously condemning a criminal...

What does she mean by it?

Perhaps, let he who has committed a lesser sin (or perhaps no sin at all) be the one to cast the stone.

ruveyn1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, the proper principle is "judge, and prepare to be judged."

I am not going to try to read profundity into the private journal entries of a then still amateur aspiring writer just into her 20's. Elements of the Hickman situation had dramatic potential in that 'one vs. the masses' style, that is all. Going into the full quote makes it clear what she was focusing upon, and it was not Hickman himself.

There are other threads here about that, you (intellectualammo) have been here long enough to have encountered them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, the proper principle is "judge, and prepare to be judged."

Is that only in reference to moral judgements?

I don't see the point of judging in many other circumstances. It really doesn't do anything for me, the judger, or for the person being judged. For instance, a coworker spends all day working on the wrong task, one that had already been completed. Once it's brought to his attention, he'll probably feel embarassed and silly for making that mistake. My opinion of him wouldn't lessen because of that single error (unless he had done it repeatedly).. but it would rise a whole lot if he decided to stay late working on the task that he was actually supposed to do. People beat themselves up enough when they make mistakes, or slack off, etc. Most of the time *pronouncing* judgements is unnecessary and a waste of time because it doesn't help either party resolve the issue.

This little story relates: "Bob Hoover, a famous test pilot and frequent performer at air shows, was returning to his home in Los Angeles from an air show in San Diego. As described in the magazine Flight Operations, at three hundred feet in the air, both engines suddenly stopped. By deft maneuvering he managed to land the plane, but it was badly damaged although nobody was hurt. Hoover's first act after the emergency landing was to inspect the airplane's fuel. Just as he suspected, the World War II propeller plane he had been flying had been fueled with jet fuel rather than gasoline. Upon returning to the airport, he asked to see the mechanic who had serviced his airplane. The young man was sick with the agony of his mistake. Tears streamed down his face as Hoover approached. He had just caused the loss of a very expensive plane and could have caused the loss of three lives as well. You can imagine Hoover's anger. One could anticipate the tongue-lashing that this proud and precise pilot would unleash for that carelessness. But Hoover didn't scold the mechanic; he didn't even criticize him. Instead, he put his big arm around the man's shoulder and said, "To show you I'm sure that you'll never do this again, I want you to service my F-51 tomorrow." -DC: http://archive.org/stream/BooksOfArslanhowToWinFriendsAndInfluencePeople/ebookDaleCarnegie-HowToWinFriendsAndInfluencePeople19371981_djvu.txt

Edited by mdegges
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since you made the parallel, do you at least realize that Hickman was evil, despicable and loathsome?

I don't know much about him. But I do Casey. Perhaps her mass hatred was way worse in degree than Hickman because he was convicted of murder, while Casey was not, and people call her all kinds of things, a child murderer, etc., such as Nicky just did.

Btw, you did not back up or substantiate your claim Nicky.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know much about him. But I do Casey. Perhaps her mass hatred was way worse in degree than Hickman because he was convicted of murder, while Casey was not, and people call her all kinds of things, a child murderer, etc., such as Nicky just did.

Btw, you did not back up or substantiate your claim Nicky.

As someone who followed the case very closely, it is clear she played a role in the death - murdered or death as a result of her neglect. Either way she is responsible. My guess, although it is speculation, is that she probably drugged the kid so she can go out and ended up over drugging her.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We can speculate till we are blue in the face, I won't. I wonder how comparable the mass hatred of her is to Hickman. I guess I would have to familiarizemyself with him and what they were saying about him. Casey situation has to be far more loathsome of said masses hatred of her, because she was not convicted of murder, while Hickman was.

Edited by intellectualammo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We can speculate till we are blue in the face, I won't. I wonder how comparable the mass hatred of her is to Hickman. I guess I would have to familiarizemyself with him and what they were saying about him. Casey situation has to be far more loathsome of said masses hatred of her, because she was not convicted of murder, while Hickman was.

Are you asserting that she had no responsibility in the death of her daughter?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't assert that, but now that you brought it up, her convictions, 4 in total, but now 2, as 2 were just invalidated, have nothing to do with the death as such of her daughter, but were for false information. I will not make any claim that she is responsible in any way for the death of her daughter.

Edited by intellectualammo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the only questionable comment that Rand made was this:

"It is repulsive to see all these beings with worse sins and crimes in their own lives, virtuously condemning a criminal."

What sins and crimes is she condeming them for? What does she think they are guilty of? It must be pretty bad if it's worse than murder and mutilation. Was their crime their ordinariness? Or their resenting people who were more successful than they were, or more individualistic, or what? Did she really believe that such sins and crimes were worse than the murder and mutilation of a little girl?

And how did she know that masses of people held the beliefs that she claimed they held? When they expressed outrage at Hickman's crimes, how did Rand determine that they weren't really outraged about the crime, but about the criminal's heroic and individualistic demeanor?

J

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I came across this quote of Rand in regards to Hickman in her journals, and reading it, it reminds me of the public in regards to Casey Anthony. Do you think it's applicable in any way?

"The first thing that impresses me about the case is the ferocious rage of a whole society against one man. No matter what the man did, there is always something loathsome in the 'virtuous' indignation and mass-hatred of the 'majority.'... It is repulsive to see all these beings with worse sins and crimes in their own lives, virtuously condemning a criminal...

What does she mean by it?

Let me see if I have this right. This Hickman person was a loathsome kidnapper and killer but (according to Rand) he suggested something heroic to Rand.

I used the wiki article for my information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Edward_Hickman#Ayn_Rand.27s_The_Little_Street

I can not think of any rational basis on which Ayn Rand evaluated Hickman. But then again, I am not a novelist.

ruveyn1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is that only in reference to moral judgements?

Yes.

Hoover made the judgement that the mechanic that refueled his plane made an error of knowledge because it was hard to discern the difference between avgas and jet fuel. Perhaps in the spirit of "prepare to be judged" he could imagine himself making the same mistake. He went on to invent (or just publicize, wiki is unclear here) the Hoover Nozzle and Hoover Ring to solve that problem. So he did judge, and act.

Even when deciding not to be outrageously outraged, it is still a moral judgment to reach a negative conclusion about moral culpability.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even when deciding not to be outrageously outraged, it is still a moral judgment to reach a negative conclusion about moral culpability.

Ok- I see. What I appreciate from that story is the way in which Hoover handled the [negative] situation. I would call it graceful... or at least it appears that way on paper.

Edit: I remember most of my family and friends jumping on the Casey-Anthony-bashing train, and even the Geore-Zimmerman-bashing (aka wear-a-hoodie-for-Trayvon-Martin) train. You know, when you make hasty judgements based on a 20 minute news report and that's the end of it. But I like to think that if they had all the facts of these cases laid out for them, they would reach the same conclusions. How could they not?

(Isn't it best to reserve moral judgements until a point in time when all the information is present and has been reviewed? Not that your judgements are written in stone or anything, but I haven't seen any people go from 'george zimmerman hates black people' to 'oh wow, the zimmerman case wasn't about racism at all. I was totally wrong.' And all the people who believe that the cause of the Martin's death was racism, if they actually reviewed the facts of the case, they couldn't still believe that, could they? It wouldn't make any sense.. How can you not change your mind when your presented with contrary evidence?) The bolded part is something that's really been bugging me.

Edited by mdegges
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I came across this quote of Rand in regards to Hickman in her journals, and reading it, it reminds me of the public in regards to Casey Anthony. Do you think it's applicable in any way?

"The first thing that impresses me about the case is the ferocious rage of a whole society against one man. No matter what the man did, there is always something loathsome in the 'virtuous' indignation and mass-hatred of the 'majority.'... It is repulsive to see all these beings with worse sins and crimes in their own lives, virtuously condemning a criminal...

What does she mean by it?

When I read your posts I'm constantly reminded of this quote from David Harriman:

"A favorite pastime among academics today is to find “feet of clay” in great men."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...