Friday, September 10, 2010
You Ayn Rand Asshole, you - The ARA's
Ayn Rand popped up in the comment section of this earlier post Greetings from Idiot America ,so why not hear it straight from her very own lips...also, The Big Picture blog was referenced, as well, to this post
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/11/ayn-rand-the-bitch-is-back/
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Who you calling an asshole!?
ReplyDeleteLove the interview. You have peaked my interest in Rand.
Objectivism and Reason, Essentially the basis of Science, you asshole engineer you.
The human aspect has to be entered into the equation. Can the music of Mozart, Beethoven or Barber (previous August blog"Barber-Adagio for Strings) be appreciated simply as a sequence of notes, can a painting by Rembrandt or Rothko be understood by chromatic analysis alone.
What I agree on is Rands insistence on man's right to individual choice, qualified that ones choice does not endanger or deny another's individual choice. If ones choice is to act selflessly and join the Peace Corp that must also be accepted.
Following quote is another opinion on man's highest purpose:
“The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self.”
Albert Einstein quotes (German born American Physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. 1879-1955)
...the ARA is from the Ritholz blog post referenced...we had a great time talking about it in the comments section...
ReplyDeletein any case, Rand would view joining the Peace Corp is NOT an act of selflessness, but, indeed an act of SELFISHNESS, since the reason you join is not fundamentally to help others, but to satisfy your (self) NEED to help others, therefore, it is for your self first and others second...see her book The Virtue of Selfishness...seriously...
Now, extending her concepts to music and the arts is another thing...and I do not believe she would reduce these to numbers...but, to the rights of the individual to express himself, especially in a sublime manner, without corruption, without compromise, but, with 100% integrity to ones soul and purpose in life...
I would agree especially to your last paragraph on freedom of creative expression seeking a higher moral goal, through virtuous selfishness.
ReplyDeletein Howard Roarke's defense.
“And only by living for himself was he able to achieve the things which are the glory of mankind. Such is the nature of achievement."