Friday, September 19, 2003
SONG OF MYSELF: In my rush to brag about reading it so fast, I forgot to tell you what I thought about Anthem. I haven't dug too deeply into Ayn Rand (apart from this, I made it through the first 400 pages of Atlas Shrugged before surrendering), so I only have a few gleanings of the underlying philosophy of her works, Objectivism. The story itself is a dystopia, set in a world where the forces of unchecked collectivism have laid low the idea of the worth of the individual. It's a nightmare snarl of groupthink, with a totally arbitrary caste system and where the word "I" has been eliminated from the language. Into this world is born Equality 7-2521, who secretly goes about rediscovering what has been lost from the times before. Even without speedreading, it's a brisk trip through Rand's philosopy.
As for the philosophy itself, and this short book is heavy with it, there are some basic tenets I can agree with right out of the box. For instance, the idea that on some level ego is a prime motivator for many major achievements is easy for me to accept; even Lenny Bruce will tell you that. However, seeing more and more people out of work because of a variety of conditions, I can't agree 100% with the rejection of mankind being a victim of circumstances beyond their control (and the Ayn Rand Institute includes "economic conditions" as part of that definition). I know my current lot is because of bad choices in my past, but those are my conditions, and don't necessarily apply to everybody. Some of the editorials on current events, presumably influenced by the Objectivist worldview, run contrary to my personal views, too.
However, I try not to vote a straight ticket when it comes to matters of the mind. While I probably won't be going wholeheartedly into Objectivism, I'm willing to see what's there that I can use.
It's also worth mentioning that apparently Anthem has fallen out of copyright in the US, and as a consequence, the full text can be found legally through Project Gutenberg.
TAKING OVER THE WORLD, ONE SOUL AT A TIME: I'd like to welcome Tanvir Raquib to the brotherhood of navel-gazers that IS the blogdom community. You may deny it now, but YOU WILL BE ONE OF US.
As for the philosophy itself, and this short book is heavy with it, there are some basic tenets I can agree with right out of the box. For instance, the idea that on some level ego is a prime motivator for many major achievements is easy for me to accept; even Lenny Bruce will tell you that. However, seeing more and more people out of work because of a variety of conditions, I can't agree 100% with the rejection of mankind being a victim of circumstances beyond their control (and the Ayn Rand Institute includes "economic conditions" as part of that definition). I know my current lot is because of bad choices in my past, but those are my conditions, and don't necessarily apply to everybody. Some of the editorials on current events, presumably influenced by the Objectivist worldview, run contrary to my personal views, too.
However, I try not to vote a straight ticket when it comes to matters of the mind. While I probably won't be going wholeheartedly into Objectivism, I'm willing to see what's there that I can use.
It's also worth mentioning that apparently Anthem has fallen out of copyright in the US, and as a consequence, the full text can be found legally through Project Gutenberg.
TAKING OVER THE WORLD, ONE SOUL AT A TIME: I'd like to welcome Tanvir Raquib to the brotherhood of navel-gazers that IS the blogdom community. You may deny it now, but YOU WILL BE ONE OF US.
|| Eric 1:00 AM#
