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DavidV

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Hmmmm.

Gee, Dean - do you suppose that you, David and I can be the only people on this big forum who are from the 5th largest metropolitian area in the country?

Personally, I think setting up a local forum is a pretty cool idea - but what good is it if nobody posts to it? Come on folks - unlurk and identify yourselves! :P

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Hi Dismuke,

My understanding is that there are about 6 million people within 100 miles of Dallas/Ft. Worth. Even if only one in a thousand people are interested in Objectivism, there must be a few thousand around here!

Hi Toad -

I suspect that one in a thousand might be a bit optimistic. Of course, that depends on where on the continuum of knowledge between someone who has just finished The Fountainhead and Dr. Peikoff one wishes to start counting.

Let's say that a good starting point would be someone who has read the novels, most of the non-fiction paperbacks, has a general understanding of the overall Objectivist position in the five branches of philosophy and, for the most part, agrees with it, regards the philosophy as a value and has a strong interest in learning more about it. I wonder if even one in ten thousand would be too optimistic. But let's say that it is somewhere between one in twenty five thousand to one in fifty thousand. Using the 6 million figure, that would still be somewhere between 120 and 240 people. That's more people than I have the time or opportunity to become acquainted with. And even if it is on in a hundred thousand, which I would think is way too pessimistic, that would still leave us with 60 - again, more people than I would really have the ability to become acquainted with to any significant degree.

Now if one expands that to include people who have, at some point in their lives, read something by Ayn Rand and enjoyed it - I suspect that there might even be more than one in a thousand. But that would also include a lot of people who have significant disagreements with Objectivism in many important areas such as religion, laissez faire capitalism, etc. Rush Limbaugh, for instance, speaks highly of Ayn Rand - but he is a far cry from being an Objectivist.

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My understanding is that there are about 6 million people within 100 miles of Dallas/Ft. Worth. Even if only one in a thousand people are interested in Objectivism, there must be a few thousand around here!

Based on experience I would guess that the actual figure of people who are *seriously* interested in Objectivism would be much closer to 1 in a million, or about 6 people in the DFW area, which sounds about right. Unfortunately a very small number, but growing, especially among the young exposed to Ayn Rand in high school now thanks in significant part to ARI's efforts.

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Based on experience I would guess that the actual figure of people who are *seriously* interested in Objectivism would be much closer to 1 in a million, or about 6 people in the DFW area, which sounds about right. Unfortunately a very small number, but growing, especially among the young exposed to Ayn Rand in high school now thanks in significant part to ARI's efforts.

I personally know more than 6 such people in the D/FW area and I am sure that, anymore, there are probably quite a few I have not met.

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We already have 9 who have posted in the DFW forum:

Greedy Capitalist -- our Web God

Old Toad -- yours truly

Dismuke

Lock_and_Rand

Poncho Villa

Kirk

dbc

Unconquered

SoftwareNerd -- not sure where he is, though.

Unless several of us stand up as being libertarian, moral-tolerationist, "Christian Objectivists," anarchist, conservative, or other, I think we have already blown through the 1 in a million number.

Edited by Old Toad
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We already have 9 who have posted in the DFW forum:

Greedy Capitalist -- our Web God

Old Toad -- yours truly

Dismuke

Lock_and_Rand

Poncho Villa

Kirk

dbc

Unconquered

SoftwareNerd -- not sure where he is, though.

Unless several of us stand up as being libertarian, moral-tolerationist, "Christian Objectivists," anarchist, conservative, or other, I think we have already blown through the 1 in a million number.

Simply posting here doesn't necessarily mean you're in the DFW area - unless I've missed a rule to that effect :D I'm in Indianapolis myself. And as I mentioned above, perhaps it's gone all the way up to 1 in 100,000 ;) It'll be nice when there are more Objectivists than Christians. One of these centuries maybe.

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I wouldn't despair too much if the numbers are relatively small to the rest of the population. It's usually a relatively small minority of dedicated people that advances a particular ideology or philosophy anyway. Others just sort of pick up the ideas without really realizing that they are doing so or where they got them. I've had this experience with friends who aren't objectivist telling me things I've said, and forgetting that I originally told them that. Just keep doing what you can to move the ball forward, even if it's just little things, like attending my OPAR discussion group that will probably start on October 15th. (Like how I did that plug?)

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  • 2 years later...

Hello Greedy and company. I'm Paul, originally from the cliff but now in Arlington.

Im currently re-reading Atlas Shrugged, and it is even better than I remember.

browsing the website, it looks like we have some deep thinkers here.

I read the rules before registering and I had to laugh at the grammer and language one, because my grammer and spelling are pretty atrotious, so that is a challenge.

there is so much here its hard to know where to start so I figured start from home

one thing I noticed in Rand's world during Atlas shrugged is the lack of sports teams. I mean, they talk about composers, culture etc but never sports.

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