From: Elizaphanian (elizaphanian@tiscali.co.uk)
Date: Wed Mar 26 2003 - 12:49:22 GMT
Hi Steve,
Sorry not to have responded on this one before - it slipped through my net.
Ayn Rand I find very interesting, although I have only read the one book,
Atlas Shrugged. I think I will now always have in my mind the image of John
Galt, being tortured, in order to force him to 'take charge', as a symbol of
what state-socialism is ultimately about.
I agree with what Platt says about her - "No philosopher IMO has analyzed
and traced the implications of intellectual level premises better than Rand.
As Pirsig pointed out, the intellectual level demands individual freedom, a
conclusion which Rand fleshes out in full. Where Rand fails is her lack of
understanding of the role of the social level in blocking biological forces.
Nor does she take into account, or account for, man's intuitive
understandings. Metaphysically, the MOQ has more explanatory power than
Rand's Objectivism."
I am not convinced that her 'no-holds-barred' capitalism is either desirable
or attainable, but, as Platt, says, as a description of what a society
wholly inhabited by intellectually dominated people might look like, she is
a striking writer. I originally thought the fourth level should be called
the 'individual' level (before I read Rand) and there seems to be a large
area of compatibility between what I call a 'eudaimonic MoQ' and substantial
elements of Objectivism.
However, as you expect, I agree that Rand is an entirely secular thinker,
and so falls down in that regard. Her conceptions are entirely unmystical;
she seems just to describe the fourth level; she has no regard for the value
of the social level; and she has no conception of DQ. I would say that she
grasped an important truth, but it was a partial truth - and a truth that
can be incorporated within the MoQ
Sam
"You have seen the Atlantis they were seeking, it is here, it exists - but
one must enter it naked and alone, with no rags from the falsehoods of
centuries, with the purest clarity of mind - not an innocent heart, but that
which is much rarer, an intransigent mind - as one's only possession and
key. You will not enter it until you learn that you do not need to convince
or to conquer the world. When you learn it, you will see that through all
the years of your struggle, nothing had barred you from Atlantis and there
were no chains to hold you, except the chains you were willing to wear.
Through all those years, that which you most wished to win was waiting for
you."
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