| | She was wonderful. Over the years, many such have drifted away, or been marginalized. I understand and appreciate the fact that this board is for the discussion of ideas, themes, issues, questions, etc., of interest to Objectivists.
If it were about Abstract Expressionism, you would still have the same problem: artists who sell abstract expressionist works in galleries would still post basic questions even doubts about the genre; but that would not be the same as Dadaists and Pop Artists coming in to say you guys all wrong about everything. So, yes, it is important to keep the commons both open and not over-grazed. And, no, it has not always gone well.
We used to have dozens of active posters, most of them interested in Objectivism and aware of its nuances.
This board started as SOLO: Sense of Life Objectivists, a collaboration between Lindsay Perrigo and Joseph Rowlands. Lindsay, however, has a huge ego, even for an egoist. Just as SOLO was peaking - even Barbara Branden was a regular - Lindsay's own persona became a discussion topic, which could not end well... could not end at all, actually... until he and Joseph created two different boards meeting two different worldviews. In short order, people sorted themselves out. Also, Michael Stuart Kelly created his own, Objectivist Living (a different story there). On the one hand, this all sort of streamlined things for everyone, letting people find that brand that suits them. On the other hand, the loss of vibrancy, texture and complexity is obvious. All three boards are dim reflections of what SOLO was.
I think that this speaks to a deeper problem with the "Galt's Gulch" movement. I understand and appreciate the need in avoiding Vandals, Huns and Mongols. I get that. But then you never enjoy Cairo, Samarkand, and Cathay. You never bring in spices and all your intellectual exchange has the nuance of English cooking. The coins get small and thin. And you discover that you cannot exchange wool for silk ... even as the Vikings are trading their fox pelts for silk and importing those big dinar and dirhem coins. There was an English king, Offa of Mercia. We wonder now if he was actually himself a Muslim because his coins so closely mimicked theirs, a reflection of a brief and shining moment that might have been a Camelot. Anyway... myself... the primary ethic for a Trader is to make friends with strangers, but too many Objectivists have the Guardian ethic. Ideas have consequences. The quest for ideological purity has cost us a lot.
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