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To: Meaghan
Good point about Rand. She's one of the great charlatans of the age. But I'm not sure I agree with you about Rand and "the tribe." She's creating a ideological basis for a capitalist or individualist or objectivist or Randian tribe, a cult of "independent minds."

Randians have not objected to war to spread their ideas, and there's a real contradiction between their individualistic ideology and some of their actual political views. When one gets Manichean as the Randians, one can swallow a lot of extreme views. Like the other figures discussed on this thread, Rand came out of apocalyptic age of the Russian Revolution, and this colors her views with ideas of struggle, the enemy, righteousness versus depravity that really belong more to religion or myth than to politics.

I'm afraid I don't agree with you about sociobiology and evolutionary psychology and "the tribe" either. The America of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln with it's mixture of individual freedom and strong families and communities strikes me as preferable to the tribalism of Lebanon or the amoral familialism of Sicily, or the clannishness of Scotland and Ireland. So much of what we value is in culture or ideas and has no "objective" value at the genetic level.

Sticking with family is far better than abandoning it, but sometimes, if one sticks too closely one may regret not having developed one's own individuality and personal visions and preferences. The survival and continuity of the group have to be taken into account. Letting them dominate may not always be a good idea.

Sometimes, group survival and continuity can weigh very heavily indeed upon individuals, crushing some of their best qualities. The confusions and rebellions of adolescence can make real trouble for many of us, but if we survive them, we can see them as a time of testing to see what is living and what is dead in what has been given to us, what we wish to pass on to the next generation and what we would better let die.

126 posted on 06/23/2002 10:34:25 AM PDT by x
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To: x
I think I will respectfully disagree about Rand while she is not the most important thinker she has contributed to freedom.

"She's creating a ideological basis for a capitalist or individualist or objectivist or Randian tribe, a cult of "independent minds."

Perhaps for the weak minded.But in the right context Capitalism,Individualism and Independence are good for everyone.

141 posted on 06/23/2002 1:22:39 PM PDT by freeforall
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