WarIs4Profit

I appreciate the debate from a regular south park viewer. I agree, nothing specifically links Cartman to Gail Wynand, but his character is nearly identical. Incidently, the newest episode (aired yesterday) is hilarious, and features Cartman in the role of a soulless assimilator once again. The majority of the similarities are very vague traits such as butter's similarities to two of Rand's characters Dominique being "raped" by Roark, yet enjoying it all the while. Roark taught her to love, by forcing himself upon her; this is suspiciously close to a comment near the end of that episode about BookMobile Guy raping a bunch of chickens in order to teach Barbrady to read. -In the episode "stupid spoiled whore", Butters go off to follow his grandfather's (maternal) footsteps, to make his fortune as a coal miner. Sound familiar? -Butters makes a very compelling stand in 1203-Cartman Sucks, this fortitude not being particular to any Rand hero, but common to them all. -In the "Raisins" episode, he maintains his composure after being crushed by a girl that he thought was in love with him. On that same subject, Butters has the quality of being so innocent that he cannot concieve of dishonesty, much like Henry Rearden. -He is essentially the model of a Randian hero: The world hates him for his indifference, yet he doesnt pay them any heed, and continues on in his own fashion. At times he reverts into his Professor Chaos alter-ego, which is similar to Galt's personna, that of a scorned angel, turned to distrust of human nature, and the urge to end what he sees as evil. The generator is very concrete, and bears a very close resemblance to Galt's masterpiece, as was stated. How many sparsely populated Colorado mountain towns have self sustaining generators? On another note, I have wondered if the premise of south park was that John Galt failed in his attempt to stop the world, and the Gulch was infiltrated by the dishonest, weak communists who formed the collective evil in AS. Butters remains alone in a town of idiots. As for the other comments, I was merely trying to establish the fact that I am a supporter of Ayn Rand's message, and my interest in this subject is not intended as an attempt to slander Ms. Rand in any way.

I guess your argument is self evident....

Theyre 8 year old children. If anything, cartman is comparable to gail wynand, the man with no integrity, seeking to destroy those who remind of the fact. Watch all of the episodes where butters makes appearances like I have, and then comment on my assertion please. He is the man who stands up to all opposition, the man who says no. He is young and gets taken advantage of by people like cartman, as did henry rearden. He frequently is given the role of the moral compass by which all the other characters are judged. How can you support the war in iraq? Its not even a war, so much as a hostile takeover. Ron Paul isnt a pacifist, he just doesnt believe in starting wars in order to make profit for the arms industry. Anyone who reads Ayn Rands books should be able to detect the kind of political corruption that is currently destroying the country. They are realists, and if you think file sharing can be controlled without reverting to a police state, you have clearly never ventured outside the realm of pure philosophy. And as to Howard Roark and Dominique, I mentioned already that it was satire. The creators are nearly universally irreverant, the fact that they bothered to conceal these references to Rand's work in their show is a compliment, morphed by their twisted black sense of humor. I hate to have to educate somebody on internet forums, but the words are "penis" and "seimen". I'd have hoped that most objectivists would be able to express themselves clearly in the language that Ayn Rand chose to shape her literature.

South Park is actually loosely themed after the works of Ayn Rand. The setting is the former "Galts Gulch" Consider the following: -In the episode "Cartmans mom is still a dirty slut", Kenny is tasked with activating the self sustaining backup generator. This is of course John Galts miracle invention, clearly forgotten about is the present day. -Butters Stotch is the child of the children of Hank Rearden (mother) and John Galt (father). I would venture a guess that Dagny Taggart is implied to be the grandmother in both cases. He is the hard working, scapegoat, individualist hero of the show, and he frequently is shown as being a little strange, and a reject from the rest of the children. He is the modern day incarnation of Ayn Rands heros; I believe the point that is being made is that our society does not value the ethics espoused by Ayn Rand in her works. -In the episode "Chickenlover", The bookmobile guy is none other than a reincarnation (or decendant) of Howard Roark. The symbolic chicken is Dominique Francon, and the manner in which he teaches Barbrady to read is modeled after the manner in which he taught the people in the Fountainhead to think for themselves. Note stans comment that the chickens dont seem to mind... Now, I love Ayn Rands books, and I am completely sold on objectivist philosophy. Ron Paul is the only politician I have voted for in my life (I am still young, hopefully there will be another), and the Libertarian ideal is the closest thing to my idea of a government system. I do not find these references offensive, for a number of reasons: -Trey Parker and Matt Stone obviously believe in Ayn Rands code of values, as many of their episodes would indicate. They are opposed to the masses dominating with mob energy, and they worship the individual spirit. -South Park has in modern culture immortalized Ayn Rand's name, which can only increase the circulation of her works. -South Park is a satirical examination of current day events (see disclaimer), and frequently the morals espoused by the characters in the show are shown in order to expose stupidity and illogical practice in society. Barbrady is an Idiot.