[Taka No Kimi]

Just thought you might like this. (passes out)

[BibChr]

Huh?

[Corin Stormhands]

I don't know what to think about this, but here's a ping with the pancake bunny.

[Doctor Stochastic]

The Bad Guys in Atlas Shrugged are much more evil than those in Lord of the Rings.

[JenB]

Er... well... let's see. I've read Lord of the Rings dozens of times. I feel asleep working my way through Atlas Shrugged. Tolkien and Rand really wouldn't have liked each other at all.

What's "Taka"? Are you an anime buff?

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/involved?group=409

[laishly]

Very interesting analysis! I might add the thought that scum bucket Clinton's administration was a sequel to Atlas Shrugged, which his evil Mistress-of-Darkness concubine is seeking to continue. I think they may have found another ring!

[jdege]

Rand believed that you could determine the proper rules for society by a simple rational process.

She was, to put it plainly, wrong.

Hayek makes it clear - human societies are far too complicated to manage in any kind of rational manner - they are an evolutionary construct.

[EternalHope]

Interesting.

Thanks for posting it.

[Junior]

One of the most unique aspects ...

I got this far and gave up. "Unique" is an absolute. Nothing can be more unique or less unique than something else. "Most unique" is logically and grammatically incorrect. Writing is a window onto thinking; if this writer is this sloppy in his writings, his thinking must leave much to be desired.

[Mamzelle]

Tolkien's is a tragic vision replete with the tradition of Origianal Sin. The humans and other mortals depend, in large part, on the help of spiritual guidance. Those guides, themselves, fall into sin--sin generally based on greed.

Rand would have hated LOTR. Tolkien would not have even noticed the existance of Rand.

[IronJack]

I think the comparison is strained; even the author draws no real similarity -- other than the broad theme of Good vs. Evil -- between the two works. But I agree with his analysis of each work individually.

I wouldn't make too much of the symbolism in LOTR. In the end, it is a myth. A very complete and compelling myth, to be sure. But a story as old as Time, populated by mysterious sylvan creatures and shadowy, looming demons. A ripping good yarn.

[Euro-American Scum]

Bump for future reference.

[Liberal Classic]

I can't be the only libertarian who hasn't read Rand.

[Androcles]

I like Tolkien and Rand, but they would have loathed each other's books. While Tolkien's characters are fairly formal in speech and manner, that is written in the style of the sagas and early histories. Rand's dialogue and characters are so wooden you'd think she was creating roles for Pinnochio.

There's also the key issue - Rand would have loathed the LOTR because it shows the triumph of the masses she rallies against in her works. Consider the Hobbit - a story of an ordinary little fellow nicking an object owned/created by others and using it to steal things from those who've worked hard to acquire them (ie Smaug, the Ellfking).

In LOTR proper, we see that Sauron went to a great deal of trouble building a solid well-defended state and a number of artifacts. he has added something to their world. It may be fear, pain, misery, etc but at least he has given the world something. On the other hand we have the Elves/Men/Hobbits and Dwarves who seem to be very good at pulling the great ones down (Saruman, Sauron) but not quite so good at putting anything in their place.

Ah, but what of the great individuals who were 'good', I hear you cry! Who? Elrond - supposedly a mighty half-elf lord. Why then has he spent millennia in his equivalent o f a hippie shack smoking Longbottom and listening to bards. Sounds like the alternative lifestylers of the welfare state to me! Galadriel - a new age overbearing woman who prances round the woods in impractical dresses and is likewise unwilling to accompany them. Aragorn - supposedly a truly great fellow yet he bases his struggle on the belief that his blood gives him the right to a throne which he hasn't been too concerned about for the last few centuries, thank you very much!

Then, once Sauron is defeated what happens? The principal 'wreckers' bugger off to the Grey Havens with their ill gotten gains, the Grey Havens no doubt being the Elvish equivalent of the Bahamas!

On a more serious note, Tolkein was a genius and a great writer and lover of language. Rand may well have been a genius but she was stilted and wooden. Despite my musings above, Tolkein's a far better book. I do believe however that Rand would have favoured Mordor and Isengard with their factories and their work ethic over the rural ordinaryness of the lands of Middle-Earth. Tolkein believed in individuals who were ordinary folk and cherished their communities. Rand believed only in strong-willed indidividuals who would forsake their fellows and view in dividuality as more important than the welfare of their friends, family and so forth.

[PatrickHenry]

Tolkien and Rand were talking about different evils, so the struggles they wrote about were entirely different. I'm not sure what Tolkien thought of altruism, but Rand thought it was destroying the world. And I'm not sure what Tolkien thought about individualism, but Rand thought it was the antidote to the world's problems. So these are two very different works, by very different authors, with very different messages.

[gorush]

"John Galt, the protagonist and embodiment of Objectivism, is the leader of the war against Evil, a ringleader of a strike in which those shouldering the burdens of Evil shrug them off and step aside to watch the world collapse in order that they may rebuild it in a new age of freedom. "

The strict-constructionists among us (myself included) understand that our diminished Constitution will never be reinstituted at the ballot box. No, I'm not voting for Kerry to hasten a purifying revolution, I'm just saying that voting for GWB isn't going to delay the inevitable by all that much.

[Tench_Coxe]

bookmark

[SuziQ]

Bump for later reading.

[TigersEye]

ping