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[–] buggermeharder ago 

I have not read her fiction, but have read some of her commentaries, talks, and interviews. I did watch the movie of The Fountainhead, which was pretty impressive. Rand's idea of building romantic tension was unlike anything I've seen in standard Hollywood trash. Very cool!

I've been aware of her for a long time, but was put off due to her insistence on "selfishness" and strong condemnnations of "altruism". What I've come to understand is that Rand has a narrow definition of "selfishness", which I think would better be called "rational self interest" as others put it, not including destructive self indulgence. As for "altruism", there's no way around it: she hates altruism, a fundamental feature of Christianity, because it incentivizes self destructive behaviors (like "martyrs" and forced "charity"). Now that Socialism and other collectivist garbage is all the rage, I've been re-thinking my own mindless altruism and how it has led myself and others in my life to catastrophically stupid decisions.

As for the Objectivist movements, since I understand there are multiple, they all seem to agree that everyone would benefit from Rand's philosophy, but are not tolerant of each other, much less seemingly related movements such as Libertarianism. Just reading the Wikipedia article on O-ism leaves the impression of a strongly "dogmatic" adherence to singular interpretations of her "gospel". I don't mean to be insulting, but I'm not the first to get the vibe of a "cult-like" atmosphere among O-ist groups. The split between Rand and Branden is one obvious example, but I can also point to Charles Tew as a current "exclusionist".

All in all, it doesn't give me much hope for feeling welcomed by any of the O-ist groups. Maybe I'm better off picking the ideas I like. For example, I don't see much use in applying Rand's ideas about asthetics to whether or not I appreciate any particular work of art.

Thanks for the reply.

[–] [deleted] ago 

[Deleted]

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[–] buggermeharder ago 

I have skimmed The Virtue of Selfishness. The introduction is compelling. I'll return to it later this week.

This is a huge problem with her PR

I agree, but I suspect she knew that when she chose the word "selfish". She wanted to shock the American psyche to force us to question our cultural assumptions, and was correct to do so in my estimation. Had she chosen less emotionally charged words, she probably would not have reached as many people as she did. The trade off is that many thoughtless ignorami, such as myself, find it easer to discar her than to think.

Modern gender relations are so messed up (thanks to feminism)

Agreed. Current wave Feminism is one of the most cultually destructive forces I've ever seen. I've been trying to work out how to fight back effectively.

The important point is that the cause of "socialism and other collectivist garbage" is psychological, i.e., subconscious premises that operate in your mind without your conscious awareness.

Yes. As I see it, altruism is like a back door into the psyche. Marxists use our fuzzy notions of altruism to manipulate us. Just look at what the Democrats (and less often Republicans) talk about in every campaign to see examples of this manipulation. They can't come out and say they want Fascism, but they can get votes via altruistic virtue claims.

So it makes sense that you see this split in Objectivist organizations, i.e. subjectivists who believe anything goes with respect to interpretations and application of Objectivism and intrinsicists who are more dogmatic and try to stick to exactly what Rand said.

Any examples?

regardless of what others think, you will find plenty of real friends committed to the truth.

I'm so unlikable that friendship is more than I could hope for, but I am interested in finding others more interested in truth than blind adherence.

Does ARI hosting Peterson diminish their O-ism credibility in your opinion? If so, why?

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[–] buggermeharder ago 

I read The Virtue of Selfishness this morning. Thanks for recommending it.