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Is Ayn Rand the McDonald's Hamburger of American Philosophers?
- Thread starter Sunstone
- Start date
Buttons*
Glass half Panda'd
Glad I never had one then.... man, my gut wouldn't be able to handle it. >.<
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber & Business Owner
I'll diss on everything McDonalds serves, even their sweet tea, which is so sweet that I have no idea how anyone can drink it without shriveling up from mass dehydration. Few times I've drank I get not even a 1/4 cup of sweet, and the rest unsweet to balance it out. And an interesting fact, nutritionally speaking, the Quarter-pounder with cheese is better for you than the classic grilled chicken sandwich. Now that is just wrong that a quarter pound slab of grease is somehow not as bad for you than a grilled chicken sandwich. Personally, I'd rather just skip out on meals if McDonalds was the only available choice. Maybe Ayn Rand isn't quite as bad as McDonalds though, because even the double cheese burgers remind me of the belly buster burger.
The Colbert Report Mercilessly Mocks Competitive Eating – Eat Me Daily
BTW, that dude actually ate the entire burger in 4 hours 39 minutes.
Buttons*
Glass half Panda'd
lol! Well, I just wanted your opinion to ask why you think Ayn Rand isn't original. For all the things I've read and heard about her, she may be crazy, and she may not be the best philosopher out there... but I've never read anything like what she's written before I read her. Do you know any authors who are similar to her?
Buttons*
Glass half Panda'd
Kathryn
It was on fire when I laid down on it.
I just wish I could get to the TRUTH of just how many respondents on this thread have actually read an entire Ayn Rand book.
I don't agree with all of her ideals and and approaches - not by a longshot. But I wonder how many people here have made a judgment based on snippets of passages, what their professor said in college, or some editorial they read a few years back.
I'm sure I'll never know the real answer to my question.
I don't agree with all of her ideals and and approaches - not by a longshot. But I wonder how many people here have made a judgment based on snippets of passages, what their professor said in college, or some editorial they read a few years back.
I'm sure I'll never know the real answer to my question.
Kathryn
It was on fire when I laid down on it.
Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
Ayn Rand
Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.
Ayn Rand
Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter.
Ayn Rand
There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.
Ayn Rand
Upper classes are a nation's past; the middle class is its future.
Ayn Rand
When I die, I hope to go to Heaven, whatever the Hell that is.
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.
Ayn Rand
Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter.
Ayn Rand
There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.
Ayn Rand
Upper classes are a nation's past; the middle class is its future.
Ayn Rand
When I die, I hope to go to Heaven, whatever the Hell that is.
Ayn Rand
lunamoth
Will to love
I have only read Atlas Shrugged, but I read the whooooole thing. :angel2:
Unfortunately I think she makes greed into a virtue, and her philosophy has no soul.
More people than you would suspect, would be my hunch. She's been very popular. How many people -- even those who come to destest it -- have eaten at McDonald's?
Buttons*
Glass half Panda'd
I'm sorry, I didn't read the part where you said you've read all of Rand's works. I thought you some kind of authority on the subject, since you know so much about everything!
Don't be so silly. In the first place, I never have claimed to know everything about anything, let alone know everything about something as unimportant as Ayn Rand; and in the second place, it is ridiculous of you to think someone would need to read every last word Ayn Rand wrote in order to know some of her opinions. By your silly standards, Ashley, a person would know nothing about an author until they had read all of an author's works. Well, if that were the case, then few people would know anything -- for how many people have read all of any author's works. I don't think you thought through your opinion here before you announced it.
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Kathryn
It was on fire when I laid down on it.
I would bet that the average person eating at McDonald's has never held an Ayn Rand book in their hands, let alone heard of her.
I also doubt that more than 10 percent of the participants in this forum have ever read an entire book by Rand.
It's just a hunch and absolutely unprove-able but I'm probably right.
What has that got to do with the price of tea in China?
Suit yourself. What matters more to me than whether someone has read "an entire book by Rand" -- or all of her books, as Buttons* would have it -- is whether they know anything about her ideas. I think an honest criticism of someone's notions about Rand begins with "you are mistaken about Rand's ideas", not with "You haven't read enough Rand". But you have your own ways of reasoning about these things. Enjoy!
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lunamoth
Will to love
I'm going to remember this argument next time a discussion of Dawkins' views comes up. It's good to know that it is accepted rhetoric here to defame a person's character without reading their works.
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Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
I've read all of Atlas Shrugged, and about the first 1/3 of The Fountainhead. Sure, there are plenty of individual Ayn Rand quotes that I agree with, and many of her ideas ring true in an isolated context, but this has nothing to do with the validity, or efficacy, of the "philosophy" of objectivism, as a whole. I can find quotes and ideas that I agree with, from just about any book, philosophy, or ideology, regardless of how incorrect the work is as a whole.
I have no idea how many people here have actually read Ayn Rand, but it was very popular among people in college when I read it. In my experience, a pretty good portion of educated people have read it at one time or another.
When I read it, at 19, it appealed to me greatly, and I held objectivism as a valid and true concept for probably a couple of years. The concepts appealed to me as someone who had left home at 18, was financially independent, and had gotten into a good college a year out of high school, all based on my own work and merit, without anyone's help. Objectivism appealed to my sense of superiority because of my independence compared to the other students around me. This, of course, makes sense at a time of life when we are all emotionally immature, despite our experiences or accomplishments.
At the core, regardless of any particular tidbits that might have merit, objectivism fails because it discounts empathy as a valid concept. It tries to eliminate the one attribute that actually makes us human. People are emotionally creatures, not rational ones - although we may be able to think and act rationally, the experience of being human will always be emotional.
I have no idea how many people here have actually read Ayn Rand, but it was very popular among people in college when I read it. In my experience, a pretty good portion of educated people have read it at one time or another.
When I read it, at 19, it appealed to me greatly, and I held objectivism as a valid and true concept for probably a couple of years. The concepts appealed to me as someone who had left home at 18, was financially independent, and had gotten into a good college a year out of high school, all based on my own work and merit, without anyone's help. Objectivism appealed to my sense of superiority because of my independence compared to the other students around me. This, of course, makes sense at a time of life when we are all emotionally immature, despite our experiences or accomplishments.
At the core, regardless of any particular tidbits that might have merit, objectivism fails because it discounts empathy as a valid concept. It tries to eliminate the one attribute that actually makes us human. People are emotionally creatures, not rational ones - although we may be able to think and act rationally, the experience of being human will always be emotional.
Don't misunderstand me. I do not believe it is necessary to have read Newton or Darwin in the original to have a good idea of what Newton or Darwin said through secondary sources. That is quite different, however, from what you call "defaming" people without knowing anything about them at all.
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Troublemane
Well-Known Member
I think more importantly, is the McDonald's Hamburger the Ayn Rand of fast food?