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A Demented Mind?


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Periodically I type "Ayn Rand" into Google's search engine, click on "news" and review the results. Sometimes a result with get framed into the thread "In the news".

Three days ago, the third part of a review of Atlas Shrugged showed up on Alternet, dubbing themselves as Alternative News and Information, while leaving open the question "Alternative to what?"

To locate the article again, the search had to be refined to "Ayn Rand, Alternet" in order to get the article to appear in the results. A side conversation about "sense of life", "emotion" in regard to "The Romantic Manifesto" have brought it back to the front and center of contemplation for a spell.

Two paragraphs stand out at this time with regard to Ayn Rand's Demented Mind Is Best Understood by Her Idea of the 'Happy Ending' in Her Bestseller 'Atlas Shrugged', but you might want to wait before clicking on the article just yet.

Two passages from The Romantic Manifesto stand out in this short evaluation. The first from the opening paragraphs of Chapter 3, the second from the closing paragraph of the same.

IF ONE saw, in real life, a beautiful woman wearing an exquisite evening gown, with a cold sore on her lips, the blemish would mean nothing but a minor affliction, and one would ignore it.

But a painting of such a woman would be a corrupt, obscenely vicious attack on man, on beauty, on all values—and one would experience a feeling of immense disgust and indignation at the artist. (There are also those who would feel something like approval and who would belong to the same moral category as the artist.)

and

When one learns to translate the meaning of an art work into objective terms, one discovers that nothing is as potent as art in exposing the essence of a man's character. An artist reveals his naked soul in his work—and so, gentle reader, do you when you respond to it.

So, where is this leading? An author reveals his naked soul in his work, or a reader reveals his naked soul when responding to it. From the Alternet article:

Over the past year, I've been reading and reviewing the third and final section of Ayn Rand's epic celebration of I've-got-mine-so-screw-youism, Atlas Shrugged.

I've got mine, so screw [egoism (whatever the f*@# that is)].

1. Good doctors put profit above saving lives.

You might think that a doctor's first responsibility is to help the sick, and not to deliberately withhold lifesaving medical advances (that is, if you were the American Medical Association). [Link broken]

The Hippocratic Oath is apparently supposed to be interpreted as a life in indentured servitude.

2. Laws should be made up by one person without any voting or debate.

The fact that Dagny is standing on private property while John Galt delivers this verdict demonstrates a lack of familiarity of what evidence consists of. She ignored the evidence presented by the ray screen to follow Galt's plane into the valley.

3. When capitalists gather in large enough numbers, consumer goods materialize all around them.

Okay. Maybe there is some merit here, but still, what is the minimum number of producers needed to produce the necessary consumer goods? Isn't this the experiment the collectivist are still trying to empirically validate?

4. True capitalism looks a lot like true communism.

Hmm. An attempt to package deal with point 3?

5. Women and children aren't necessary.

My intention was not to deal with this entire article point by point. Here I would defer to her point in The Romantic Manifesto dealing with myth conveying "dramatized allegories based on some element of truth, some actual, if profoundly elusive, aspect of man's existence. "

 

Thoughts?

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14 hours ago, dream_weaver said:

Three days ago, the third part of a review of Atlas Shrugged showed up on Alternet, dubbing themselves as Alternative News and Information, while leaving open the question "Alternative to what?"

From what it appears, Alternet is an alternative from reading High Times, or playing video games.

Adam Lee, the author of this book review, has analyzed a work of fiction, as if it were a piece of non-fiction. His altruistic perspective would allow for no other conclusion than a general condemnation of Ayn Rand. But is there any merit to his criticisms? If one holds to altruism as a moral standard, then, yes. On this forum, many people have delved into the deeper meaning and various questions provoked by the characters, relationships, and scenarios constructed in Atlas Shrugged. I suppose it does require some suspension of disbelief to accept the idea of an orange grove in the Colorado Rockies. But, the novel is premised on the idea that the greatest technical, medical, scientific, legal, financial, and artistic minds are gathered in one place for the purpose of denying their talents to a world that only seeks to dictate to them, rather than negotiate terms voluntarily. And, of course, they wish most of all to live for their own sake.

If it would have really helped to have added a geneticist to the Strikers, one who engineers "mountain grown oranges," then I suppose Ayn Rand would have done so. But I see no point. And I see no point for this book to be interpreted as if it were reality.

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Alternet as an alternative to High Times was not a connection I had considered.

Albeit a work of fiction, the events leading up to the Winston Tunnel calamity struck me with the level of detail paid to many events for the sense of plausibility it conveyed. Yet the fresh orange juice never struck me as odd until cast in the light Adam Lee put forth. He does so disregarding a potential source of the fresh orange juice.

The valley is almost self-supporting—and as to the goods that we can't yet produce, I purchase them from the outside through a pipe line of my own. — Midas Mulligan

As to Atlas Shrugged being interpreted as if it were reality, several critiques I've encountered employ the same tactic.

I should probably take into account that I'm giving Adam Lee a generous benefit of a doubt by considering his book report in what The Romantic Manifesto set forth as a qualifier: to " translate the meaning of an art work into objective terms" and to apply the principle to a contrarian case.

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