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Monday, July 26, 2004 - 10:20amSanction this postReply
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"I know it will not come about in five minutes, but if & when it does, it will last for millennia."

This is encouraging. Thanks Linz, you reminded me that I should enjoy my personal satisfaction in thoughts and deeds rather than suffering disappointment at the state of others' minds. 

Jauntilly Yours,
Fraser



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Monday, July 26, 2004 - 1:33pmSanction this postReply
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Lindsay, thanks for a strong and powerful message.

I wrote an essay on We The Living many years ago called, Philosophically Superior and Reality Challenged, which said basically what you are saying here, that some Objectivist-oriented people use philosophy to miss the real world, and thus are reality challenged.
 
I would venture to say this has a lot to do with their attempt to skirt the crucial, fundamental issues outlined by Ayn Rand, what you describe as the "malignant unity of mysticism, collectivism, and the ethic of self-sacrifice that together, in one permutation or another, suffuse political tyranny & near-tyranny around the world."
 
You nailed it to the wall, Lindsay, and this is of monumental importance, especially to those who put their head in the ground and don't want to see the effects of the "malignant unity" you mention. This is the issue that must be challenged if we hope to change the world. And as you say, Objectivism and Ayn Rand are the only anecdote to this poison.
 
If the sight of 19 men crashing planes into the civilized world, intent on self-sacrifice for a mystical new Islamic paradise, is not proof of what Ayn Rand was alluding to, then what more could one say? That day was a triumph for all the death-laden, swamp monsters of the world, the champions of darkness and death, from the Khymer Rouge to the Taliban to the narcotraficantes of Latin America who murder and terrorize for power and blood lust. And underlining all of this is that "mystical unity" so aptly described by Ayn Rand.
 
Some libertarians like Scott Ryan, philosophically trained and armed to the teeth, bend over backwards intellectually to ignore this fact, and create scenarios where altruism means "helping others." Others, as you describe, think privatizing the streets or the prisons is a step toward freedom, while at the same time, the hearts and minds of the young are being won away by religion and the attraction of social justice causes that promise a new world or even a revolution where men will finally cooperate unselfishly.
 
Ironically, where I live in Latin America the word revolution still has credence in regards to Fidel Castro, in that many naive youngsters dream of that new and better world. Yet, as you state, Ayn Rand's intellectual and moral revolution is the only force that will bring lasting freedom, good-will, and prosperity to the world. In my opinion the defects of the Objectivist Experience are easily correctable, and the benefits monumental. By why wait until next year? There may not be a civilized world to work with on her centenary.
 
Alan Tucker
 
 
 
 
 


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Post 2

Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 3:48amSanction this postReply
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Fraser & Alan - thank you for your comments, & for writing in such a heartfelt way. I really appreciate it.

Fraser - I'm concerned that nothing more has been heard of the "jaunty lads & lasses of SOLO-UK" since the excursion to the opera. Seems to me that such a talented & good-looking elite should be communing *at least* once a week! :-)

Alan - do not fret about the timetable. SOLO is on track for world domination by the end of next year.

Seriously, I'm intent on writing a treatise on "The Curse of Rationalism" as soon as time permits. "Rationalism," as discussed briefly in my article here, has *much* more to answer for than is yet realised, *especially* in Objectivist circles.

Linz

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Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 5:08amSanction this postReply
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Lindsay - I eagerly await the centenniel concentration, as I have no doubt it will be a "Magnificent Obsession". I am SOLOHQ convert and I am expecting (pregnant with anticipation) the delivery of my first Free Radical, which, contrarily, will I'm sure be a brain oxidant.
I will come to these sources because you and many of your colleagues have remembered the animus part of the "Rational Animal" definition. I have had enough of slow, tortured death by meaningless analysis and nitpicking word upmanship to last a lifetime, thank you.

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Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - 2:12amSanction this postReply
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James - I'm afraid I'm a bit like a little boy when I see posts like yours. When someone really *gets* SOLO like that, I am absolutely tickled pink, irrepressibly bubbly like a baby. Two other posts in the last few hours have given me similar delight - Barbara's about her experiences at Las Vegas, & Regi's about his long-lived, chain-smoking forebears, one of whom died at 97 just after extinguishing a cigarette. Well, that'll teach her. Hahahaha! Give me someone like that over a po-faced, kill-joy calorie-counter antiseptic type *any* day of the week.

Oh yes, it's been a good day! :-)

Linz

Oh, & the next FreeRad comes off the presses on Friday of this week. Woo-hoo!!!!!!!

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Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - 8:13amSanction this postReply
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you are not the only one to be [and is ] obscessed of Objectivism this coming year... and your comments on the issue is very pertinent... as an artist, and spending time developing out in more detail her assertions of Art as 'showing' that ideal world, would suggest a slight change in word usage... altruism is and probably will long remain the confused word - why not use 'otherism' instead, as it clearly states that essence of the other word, and makes clear beyond any supposed 'beneficance'... after all, otherism is the polar side of 'selfism', and can much easier be given the 'slave morality' stigma so deserved...

oh yes... am so glad I was born now, not later, so as to have been 'at the beginning' of this most worldly and rational of philosophies...


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Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - 2:18pmSanction this postReply
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Lindsay,

Regi's about his long-lived, chain-smoking forebears, one of whom died at 97 just after extinguishing a cigarette.
 
Yep, she chain-smoked too, and ate garlic straight, just 'cause she like it. Her breath would curl your hair. (Of course it wouldn't curl mine.) 

What a way to go. A nice bite of fresh garlic, a long deep satisfying drag of sweet tobacco smoke, a long ahhhhh, "life is good," and to sleep, forever content.

Glad I could contribute to your good day. You deserve many more. Of course, that's just my rationalistic opinion.

Regi



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Post 7

Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - 4:58pmSanction this postReply
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Ha! My dear Regi, you are my absolute *phavourite* rationalistic old phart!

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