Posted on 02/28/2009 7:49:58 AM PST by Publius
I'm fully behind you on that one. That was my philosophy as well when my daughter was little. As long as the consequences wouldn't kill her, I let her experience them. And you know what? At three she was cooking in the kitchen with the adult size knives, using the stove that had a fire inside instead of a light bulb (though she DID tease me about cooking up the cat) and now at eighteen she has a ton of common sense and is very self reliant and chooses and achieves her own goals.
BilltheDrill: What Rand has running through Hank’s head as they speak about his bridge is a rape fantasy...
Eh, I disagree. I don't think it is so much a rape fantasy as it is just a fantasy of a raucous encounter. Juxtapose it with Lillian picking up her book afterwards, without a hair out of place....
What does this say about Rand's philosophy of sexuality? Maybe that it shouldn't be a "duty" or a "chore". See Jimmy Taggart and Betty Pope. Were there ever two more bored people? Could they actually have enjoyed it?
OK, so Rand has an edge about her. Not so much that I'd call it kinky. I mean, no monkeys or clowns or anything. Just a lot of, ahem, enthusiasm.
Alright, now what insight do we get into Hank? Dagny sees him as ascetic. Whoa! I guess not. Lillian has tormented him about his base nature and base needs. He is a split personality. He has a passionate nature, but, like any good Catholic, feels it has to be suppressed. He hates that part of himself, because he cannot control it entirely.
p.s. getting the Catholic thing from personal experience....
I believe the correct, Presidential way of saying it would be, "I screwed up."
Carry on :)
Mea culpa. I recall in a 'former life' coming home from the salt mines and turning on the tube. I remember watching on the evening news a group of welfare dependents marching on Washington and demanding their 'rights'. The thought that came to mind was 'how do they manage to take off work so they can go protest like that!' Ha ha, that's a long time ago. In some ways it is reassuring to me. It is possible to enlighten yourself about what is really going on. Along the same lines, I have worked in manufacturing, both union and non-union shops. My take on the dumbed down crowd is that many are too busy just trying to make ends meet. They don't have the time to go march on Washington or learn how to manipulate the press. When they start getting hungry and cold _and_ have lots of free time, watch out.
I should clarify - I give the average person much more credit than this. It is Dr. Stadler and the other libs in charge in the book and in real life who have this opinion about people.
And that's hard to do in this day and age - people look at you like you're a horrible person if you let your kid go out without a coat (If he decides he doesn't like being cold, he'll remember to wear it next time, won't he?) They try to take away the knife, even if the child is using it carefully. It must be gratifying to see the results now that your daughter is older. I have a few years to go - I hope mine are equally self-reliant at that age.
No, I knew that’s what you meant, and that’s what I was disagreeing with. My point is that he’s actually partially right, and you don’t have to attribute stupidity or a childlike nature to them to explain it, just apathy, ignorance, and fatigue.
That's not hard. If you want hard, try being one of those people minding my business.
Besides, different people DO feel cold differently. I think kids metabolisms are enough higher than ours that they don’t feel the cold like we do. Doesn’t seem to hurt them any, anyway.
I see...
I sometimes wonder how much of the dumbing down is by design, to keep the Sheeple ignorant and apathetic. Maybe I’m getting into tinfoil hat territory, but... sometimes I wonder.
I think it’s equal parts that, and that the educators are liberals themselves and they don’t think anyone should feel bad because they don’t achieve as much as someone else, so the curriculum is lowered to the level of the minimum student so everyone’s achievement is roughly equal. Somebody once said about Communism “Everybody is miserable to exactly the same degree”. (Obviously he wasn’t including the ruling elite)
RE coats and busybodies - good for you! It still irks me when I get the disapproving looks and comments - and my kids HATE to wear coats (or shoes, sometimes). If you have a good zinger for those people, I’d love to borrow it.
Nothing special. Just a stern look and an inquiry if they know something about my child’s physiology that I’ve overlooked in the “X” years I’ve been caring for them. And that the kids seem to still have all their arms and legs so my parental malpractice must not be too bad.
Here’s a zinger for you. She was homeschooled for a while and if anyone expressed concern about her “socialization” I would look at them and ask why the heck I would want to raise a socialist!
LOL!
Fortunately, the people we run into at baseball, soccer, basketball, Scouts, martial arts, theater club, Robotics club, Youth Group, etc. don’t give us grief about socialization...
If Atlas Shrugged is working as a template for what is going on now, it is the role of the Democrats to use all the nostrums of the New Deal to fix our problems -- and to fail miserably. Only then can a whole new paradigm be unveiled, and it may turn out to be a very old paradigm.
Still Thinking: I'm not sure I agree with that.
Let's go a layer deeper. Remember the calendar displayed on a skyscraper and erected by the mayor of New York in the first chapter? I posed a question about that, and a few FReepers got it. (Go back to that thread if you don't remember the dialog.)
I don't remember it, so I'll have to go back and review. I'll try to post about it this evening.
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