 "West of the Wall" -- May It Rise Again
by Rodney Rawlings
The almost-forgotten 1962 record “West of the Wall” by Toni Fisher was intended by the songwriter as a denunciation of the barrier separating West from East Berlin and East Germany. Though it reached moderate success on some charts, there are indications that moral cowardice and ideological factors held the song back. (For example, the record’s performance in the United States was among the lowest, it did not make the charts at all in Britain, and a German release was halted.) The song is still relevant to our time, and deserves to be revived in whatever form possible.
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 Robin Field, the Peter Pan of Reason
by Rodney Rawlings
Robin Field’s many-faceted background in light entertainment—vaudeville, impressions, acting, pantomime, radio, theater, cartooning, puppetry, and ventriloquism—makes him a fitting representative of that joyous, benevolent American sense of life which Objectivism defends. And the persona he portrays in Three Questions: A Philosophical Oratorio is like nothing so much as Disney’s Peter Pan: “fearless, laughing, confident, able, free, independent, victorious.” (Read more...)
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 667; or, How Objectivists Are Not Materialists
by Rodney Rawlings
Some thinkers have charged that Objectivism is a materialist philosophy in spite of itself, since it sees the world exclusively in terms of reason. In a thread titled “The Number of the Beast,” the poster “Citizen Rat” put forth an articulate version of this viewpoint. He also suggested that to escape such a soulless, deterministic worldview Objectivists should leave open the possibility of God’s existence and recognize that toleration of religious principles can be expedient in moving us all closer to a capitalistic society. The present essay addresses the charge of materialism with a special focus on various aspects of Citizen Rat’s argument. (Read more...)
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"Errors of Modern Science" - A Philosophical Magic Act
by Rodney Rawlings
It all began with Ed Sullivan. In my early teens I used to watch his show regularly, and one day it included a tuxedoed magician who seemingly pulled colored hankies, billiard balls, and even entire decks of cards out of thin air. Much later, I would develop a theory that it is those who are most used to understanding the world who are most intrigued by a magic act. This was true in my case: I, who loved nature and thought I might one day be a scientist, was mesmerized. (Read more...)
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Evaluating Music -- and Franz Lehar
by Rodney Rawlings
The title of this article might make some modern intellectuals scoff. They hold the subjectivist theories that art is anything intended or recognized as such, and that it has only to be "sincere" to be pronounced worthy. So how can one say any art is good or bad? To them, music is even more problematic, because when it stands alone (as opposed to occurring in a song or play) nothing in it seems to refer to the outside world. (Read more...)
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