Jackson Jambalaya

Needs some prune juice.

" Who is John Galt?"
Well, I know who Florence King is Ayn Rand was .
King wins.
Rand never took more than a few college level courses. She was promoted by long list of powerful men ( first was Cecil B. DeMille) and not primarily for her MIND.
She was an athetist and devotee of Nietzsche so that Christians would ever admire her astounds me.
She was a decent screen writer and novelist...of FICTION.
No doubt she'd admire Madoff et al as she gave such men permission to put their egos first.

You have a lot to learn about Nietzche. She had a brain and a very good one at that but her philosophy was a ripoff of Nietzche. Halfway through Atlas Shrugged I realized I was reading a fictionalized version of Beyond Good and Evil. Anyone who can write a critique as she did of the Birth of Tragedy is no dummy. I guess you don't like Paglia either. A viewing of Rand's interviews with Wallace and Donahue will refute your claim.

Don't want Christians to think now, can't have that. Nietzche was an excellent observer of politics and the human condition and there is much to learn about such things from his writings.

I saw the interviews in real time and just reviewed them in case I missed something.

I didn't say she was stupid or inarticulate. I said she was promiscious, undereducated, scorned religion and that the men she slept with furthered her career.

I could have added that she wasn't an " original thinker" by any means. We agree on that.

"Objective morality" has translated into "convenient ethics" . The assumption that through reason and self-reflection man can easily overcome the deadly sins is attractive but we just haven't had a glut of sainted geniuses in human history.

The percentage of mankind with the intelligence and psychological stability to throughly examine and analyze all the possible outcomes of their acts of self-interest so as to conclude that their self-interest is tied to their society's success and therefore ultimately moral as Rand suggests they will is a very small percentage if one assume such men exist.

But, historically we've had plenty whose egos allowed them to imagine their self-interest and society's long term interests are one and the same .

Rand and Nietzsche are the ultimate " elitists".

I'm a bit puzzled about why you throw in Paglia. She hates elitism and sorta prides herself on not getting along with anybody.

You have a lot to learn about Nietzche. She had a brain and a very good one at that but her philosophy was a ripoff of Nietzche. Halfway through Atlas Shrugged I realized I was reading a fictionalized version of Beyond Good and Evil. Anyone who can write a critique as she did of the Birth of Tragedy is no dummy. I guess you don't like Paglia either. A viewing of Rand's interviews with Wallace and Donahue will refute your claim.

Don't want Christians to think now, can't have that. Nietzche was an excellent observer of politics and the human condition and there is much to learn about such things from his writings.

While we are at original thinkers, I think I will start with Kierkegaard b/c he was the true start of the existential discussion. Then you can bring in Nietzsche and Rand. Although I will be honest, all eventually held the same simple message for me, "Be true to thyself." Heck if we really want to go back to the original thinkers on this debate lets start in the Grecian and Roman philosophers.

KF would have been a fun date in college:-)

For me, the bottom line is we're talking about a slut, a lesbian and a man who had a psychotic break. For me, that calls their thought processes into question.

But, I know you guys like the slut one.;-)

Nice to see a truly Conservative analysis of an ideological hack like Rand. Nietzche sewed a crazy quilt, but he should be read for his many glimpses of the truth. Personally, I prefer Kierkegaard, as re-presented by Walker Percy.

I don't know if I'd call her a hack. She was very brilliant and a gifted writer. Something to be said for taking Nietzche and reducing it to where the masses can understand it.

One thing people forget about rand was she escaped Russia back in the 1920's. We the Living gives a pretty good idea of what she faced over there. Just think Dr. Zchivago. Her philosophy was somewhat of a reaction against it just like Voltaire's was somewhat against the Church.

I guess we could add untreated PSTD to Rand :-)

Yes, "hack" is too derogatory. And anyone who lived in Russia in that time period deserves deference.

But she was wrong-headed. Nature demands balance and slow change; it will not entertain procrustean ideologues of whatever hue.