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The BBC on Atlas Shrugged

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Thales

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Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged discussed by the BBC (on March 31, 2009). It's viewed as an "economic" novel, although the host doesn't think it's actually a "novel".

Some people are very shallow philosophically and it seems that journalists are typically a cut below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/news...iew/7975404.stm

They come across as somewhat humane to me. :P

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They come across as somewhat humane to me. B)

"Yes, well, she's quite mad with her push for freedom, don't you think?" Not an exact quote but it hits the mark. Yes, well anyone these days who wants a free market is quite mad, don't you think? And inhumane. There's no humanity in her, and one would think that if you had a pimple she would utterly despise you, don't you think?

Egads! Well, it was humorous to watch, but they don't get it at all. Oh, and Atlas Shrugged is good for fourteen year olds, but if you are any older, don't bother. How snidy can you be on British TV? Hopefully their snides will get droves of people to read it.

It's not even a novel, it's just so inhumane, no weaklings are allowed.

:P

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The amount of vitriol coming from this group while attempting to minimize Rand as "mean" is a bit much to suffer through. I had to eventually close the video.

Apparently the UK is still suffering from the brain drain.

The BBC has never reflected the culture. It raises its money by threatening to arrest people who don't subscribe (it's a crime to own a television without subscribing to the BBC... seriously). I get letters threatening to imprison me weekly!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a_QX3DECRE

That is the advert they use to "persuade" "customers".

Ordinary people outside of the BBC chatterati are quite receptive to Objectivist ideas.

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Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged discussed by the BBC (on March 31, 2009). It's viewed as an "economic" novel, although the host doesn't think it's actually a "novel".

Some people are very shallow philosophically and it seems that journalists are typically a cut below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/news...iew/7975404.stm

They come across as somewhat humane to me. :P

I'm angry. I find it hard to believe that they even read AS. If they did, then it's clear that they read it with "liberal" blinders on. They want to believe that individualists are crazy and it would appear that nothing will change their minds.

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Paraphrase: "All the main characters are the same, blond with angular jaws. Quite Arian"

Let's see...

Dagny - brunette

Roark - Brunette (? - could be wrong I don't specifically recall)

Fransisco - brunette/South American (tall dark and handsome type)

Galt - Blond --- see I told you they were all blond!

What crap.

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Paraphrase: "All the main characters are the same, blond with angular jaws. Quite Arian"

Let's see...

Dagny - brunette

Roark - Brunette (? - could be wrong I don't specifically recall)

Red hair, iirc.

Fransisco - brunette/South American (tall dark and handsome type)

Galt - Blond --- see I told you they were all blond!

Galt's features were very unique, unlike any human being I'd heard of.

What crap.

And were Wyatt or Rearden handsome? I don't remember thinking of them in that way.

So, she has one, Ragnar. I guess it's now a crime to be blond and handsome.

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This kind of drivel reminds me why I no longer own a TV anymore. First they try to force me to pay a tax to watch it, then they just pile nonsense on the screen. Even when they find a decent subject to talk about they go ahead get people on who slander the work with ridiculous remarks.

The only thing that was ever good about BBC programming were David Attenborough's Wildlife documentaries.

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Paraphrase: "All the main characters are the same, blond with angular jaws. Quite Arian"

Let's see...

Dagny - brunette

Roark - Brunette (? - could be wrong I don't specifically recall)

Fransisco - brunette/South American (tall dark and handsome type)

Galt - Blond --- see I told you they were all blond!

What crap.

As I recall, Roark had hair the color of orange-peel and Galt had copper-colored hair. Roark was also supposed to be somewhat unattractive.

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Galt's features were very unique, unlike any human being I'd heard of.

I couldn't remember exactly what Galt was supposed to look like beyond my impression he had dark hair, so I looked it up.

Chestnut brown hair, green eyes, bronzish skin is not so unique. Brazilian model Adriana Lima has that combination, just remembering off the top of my head.

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I couldn't remember exactly what Galt was supposed to look like beyond my impression he had dark hair, so I looked it up.

Chestnut brown hair, green eyes, bronzish skin is not so unique. Brazilian model Adriana Lima has that combination, just remembering off the top of my head.

Here is the description from Part III, Chapter 1:

"The light cloth of his shirt seemed to stress, rather than hide, the structure of his figure, his skin was suntanned, his body had the hardness, the guant, tensile strength, the clean precision of a foundry casting, he looked as if he were poured out of metal, but some dimmed, soft-lustered metal, like an aluminum-copper alloy, the color of his skin was blending with the chestnut-brown of his hair, the loose strands of the hair shading from brown to gold in the sun, and his eyes completing the colors, as the one part of the casting left undimmed and harshly lustrous: his eyes were the deep, dark green of light glinting on metal."

The way she describes him I get the sense that his skin color is unique. I also get the impression that Ayn Rand wanted him to stand out physically in a unique way, sort of like Doc Savage, aka "The Man of Bronze".

Looking on the web, aluminum-copper can refer to "aluminum bronze", which according to my Google search varies according to how much copper is in the aluminum. I pictured his skin as somewhat silver, but it could be more brown like Adriana Lima's.

Here is a picture of Adriana with a tan:

adriana-lima.jpg

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I have to say that, on my first read-through of Atlas Shrugged, I did think Dagny was a blond, but that may have just been wishful thinking on my part, and was, I as I later discovered, incorrect.

But, as for Rand's heroes, I never really thought of them as very handsome, in particular Hank Rearden gives me the impression of someone who looks like Abraham Lincoln when he first took the presidency.

Of course we know the veiled threat in the Aryan comment, that we are no better than Nazis. I guess if you take the most "charitable" impressions of them in B-movies, the cool calculating super-scientists, I can see how someone could make a similar caricature of an Objectivist.

But the actual historical Nazis, National Socialists submitting their will to a government, group, and race, could reasonably be described as the absolute opposite of an Objectivist. Indeed one of the key strengths of Rand's philosophy is that it applies to all people at all times, regardless of race or gender or any of the other holy grails of liberal politics. All that matters is the ability to reason, which I am sure that every member of Homo Sapiens can do, and everything follows from that.

Edited by Dikaiosyne
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I have to say that, on my first read-through of Atlas Shrugged, I did think Dagny was a blond, but that may have just been wishful thinking on my part, and was, I as I later discovered, incorrect.

But, as for Rand's heroes, I never really thought of them as very handsome, in particular Hank Rearden gives me the impression of someone who looks like Abraham Lincoln when he first took the presidency.

Of course we know the veiled threat in the Aryan comment, that we are no better than Nazis. I guess if you take the most "charitable" impressions of them in B-movies, the cool calculating super-scientists, I can see how someone could make a similar caricature of an Objectivist.

But the actual historical Nazis, National Socialists submitting their will to a government, group, and race, could reasonably be described as the absolute opposite of an Objectivist. Indeed one of the key strengths of Rand's philosophy is that it applies to all people at all times, regardless of race or gender or any of the other holy grails of liberal politics. All that matters is the ability to reason, which I am sure that every member of Homo Sapiens can do, and everything follows from that.

[emphasis mine]

Exactly!

Those guys are the primitive thinkers missing the obvious.

That is some outstanding research Thales, my compliments. :thumbsup:

You are quite welcome, Grames, but you had the idea, so you deserve the bulk of the credit! :P

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This is actually an interesting application of "Goodwin's Law."

More or less, the point is that once a conversation has descended to the level of invoking the Nazis, the first person to bring it up automatically loses the argument.

So, the silver lining in all of this?

We Win!

That is, if they play by rules including Goodwin's Law <_<.

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I dated a journalist and she was the smartest girl I ever dated. But she was radio, so that's a little different. Anyway, it's the BBC. The UK still generally hasn't found out about libertarianism, let alone Rand. They might as well be Swaziland. What a useless island.

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I dated a journalist and she was the smartest girl I ever dated. But she was radio, so that's a little different. Anyway, it's the BBC. The UK still generally hasn't found out about libertarianism, let alone Rand. They might as well be Swaziland. What a useless island.

Agreed !

How the mighty have fallen, the only respite is that Hong Kong is like England of old. Everything is familiar to an English person there, even if you've never been. That's the place for me !

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