Posted on 05/23/2004 5:50:20 PM PDT by Hank Kerchief
He's 29 and still in high school? My oh my...(ok...I know what you meant....)
It seems silly from the perspective of a woman, but it sure is a motivator for men to imitate the "ideal man".
I disagree. "Anthem" is an embarrassment and a big turn off to Rand. Best to start with either her essays or one of her 2 big novels. You get the ideas without all the cringing. Maybe "Anthem" would work at the grade school level, or with histrionic teenage girls.
I think socratic's comment depends on how the book is being read. As an ordinary novel, there is a lot of extraneous stuff. As a statement of philosophy, everything is essential. I had the same impression as socratic the first time I read Atlas Shrugged. After I read, "Objectivism, the Philosophy of Ayn Rand" I saw the meaning dripping off of each and every word choice.
Her books ascribe a metaphysical meaning to raw animal lust. She carries that female stereotype to a new height. That is not a mistake a man is ever likely to make. Strange how such an insightful person can have such a lack of insight into the psychobiology of sexual reproduction.
If all you want are the direct ideas, just read the 50 pages of Galt's speech at the end. Or, read her essays instead. The character developments and subplots in AS are all relevent as a demonstration of those ideas. I think she showed restraint, since she could easily have included many more characters and developments to illustrate her philosophy.
Not sure what you mean here. She makes Puritans look like drunken brawlers. There have been few people as rigidly uncompromising and outspoken about every minor detail of their moral philosophy as she was. Hardly a "good-time Charlie".
"demonstration of those ideas."
How many times do you have to repeat the same core ideas? How many times do you have to relate anecdotes illustrating a character's noble character? How many times do you have to take the reader to a "top-of-tower" restaurant to show the dismay of the clueless social elite? Cut, cut cut.
But the problem of anti-business bias begins much earlier than high school. Saturday morning cartoons, after-school programs, and elementary school science texts push the enviro-nazi gospel that paints business as bad and enviro-nazis/government as saving the world, so children are brain-washed long before high school.
Though the polarity in college education is lopsidedly PC-status quo it wouldn't be if elementary education hadn't started that path.
The following is a brilliant essay by John Taylor Gatto entitled, "The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher" -- one of several such essays found in Gatto's book, Dumbing Us Down.
Call me Mr. Gatto, please. Twenty-six years ago, having nothing better to do at the time, I tried my hand at schoolteaching. The license I hold certifies that I am an instructor of English language and English literature, but that isn't what I do at all. I don't teach English, I teach school -- and I win awards doing it.
Teaching means different things in different places, but seven lessons are universally taught from Harlem to Hollywood Hills. They constitute a national curriculum you pay for in more ways than you can imagine, so you might as well know what it is. You are at liberty, of course, to regard these lessons any way you like, but believe me when I say I intend no irony in this presentation. These are the things I teach, these are the things you pay me to teach. Make of them what you will....
Click here to read the article at: http://members.aol.com/singletax/7lesson.htm
(Posted by SauronOfMordor's 15 year-old daughter)
When I was younger, about 8 or 9, I found out what Communism was. I had heard about it from an older, Liberal friend, and thought it was a pretty grand idea. I told my dad about Communism, and how great it was, that everyone could work together for a common good.
Instead of arguing with me about what a flawed view this was, my dad handed me a thick book, Atlas Shrugged. He told me to read a certain chapter, entitled "Money". It was about a motor factory. So I read the chapter. And it blew my mind.
It made perfect sense. Communism would never, ever work. I just read that one chapter of the book at that point, but it stuck with me forever. After a few years, I read the whole of Atlas Shrugged, and loved it just as I had loved that one chapter.
This book has helped me through the years to take everything Liberals tell me with not just a grain of salt but a whole carton of it. I have never veered away from Capitalism and all it entails since.
It's still one of my favorite books, and I think everyone should read it at some point in their life.
Thank you so much for your very interesting and encouraging post.
I do not mean to embarrass you, but you are obviously very intelligent and articulate, which should probably not be surprising, since you have a very wise father.
I am very happy to hear that you, "have never veered away from Capitalism and all it entails since," and I hope you never do. There are going to be many who will attempt to discourage you, and others who will attempt to change your mind. While we can all learn from others, never accept anything anyone says as true, just on their authority alone, without fully understanding it yourself (with the exception of what your dad tells you, of course); and, never let anything anyone else does or says discourage you from pursuing what you know is right and enjoying your life in the way that is best for you, because only you can know what that is.
(If you really do that, most of the other young people your age will not understand you, and may even think there is something wrong with you--but its only because there is something wrong with them, they don't know as much as you do.)
I know you appreciate what a good dad you have, so tell him for me how much I appreciate what a good daughter he has. She has given my a lot of hope.
Thanks again!
Hank
The more examples, the better the understanding. If she simply wanted to state, "This character is noble", then she wouldn't have written a novel.
Oops! My bad. I suppose that I could plead that it's been 24 years since I read the book, in my senior year in high school.
Mark
A wonderful book that should have been brought to the big screen, but hasn't because the premise is anathema to the Hollywood liberals. Levin once commented that TPD was written partly to recognize Ayn Rand. Highly recommended reading for the "individualism set."
I'm unfamiliar with that interview. Could you recall when and where you saw it?
I couldn't have stated it any better. This dumbing down is having disastrous effects on the way politicians view our society.
Am I the only one surprised a Professor at Wheeling Jesuit University would consider using this text? Atlas Shrugged faily completely denies the existence of a creator and promotes man as God. Its a facinating read, but . . .
faily = fairly
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