For you, FOC, Ayn Rand Playboy Interview.

[Rman]

http://www.ellensplace.net/ar_pboy.html

Not a fan myself.

[FlameOfCallandor]

PLAYBOY: Miss Rand, your novels and essays, especially your controversial best seller, Atlas Shrugged, present a carefully engineered, internally consistent world view. They are, in effect, the expression of an all-encompassing philosophical system. What do you seek to accomplish with this new philosophy?

RAND: I seek to provide men -- or those who care to think -- with an integrated, consistent and rational view of life.

PLAYBOY: What are the basic premises of Objectivism? Where does it begin?

RAND: It begins with the axiom that existence exists, which means that an objective reality exists independent of any perceiver or of the perceiver's emotions, feelings, wishes, hopes or fears. Objectivism holds that reason is man's only means of perceiving reality and his only guide to action. By reason, I mean the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses.

PLAYBOY: In Atlas Shrugged your hero, John Galt, declares, "I swear -- by my life and my love of it -- that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." How is this related to your basic principles?

RAND: Galt's statement is a dramatized summation of the Objectivist ethics.

That was a great interview. Who knew that playboy used to actually have intellectual interviews.

[FlameOfCallandor]

LAYBOY: What, in your view, is the proper function of a government?

RAND: Basically, there is really only one proper function: the protection of individual rights. Since rights can be violated only by physical force, and by certain derivatives of physical force, the proper function of government is to protect men from those who initiate the use of physical force: from those who are criminals. Force, in a free society, may be used only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use. This is the proper task of government: to serve as a policeman who protects men from the use of force.

there is really only one proper function: the protection of individual rights
the protection of individual rights
individual rights

[Crushed]

except for the negroes and jews

[FlameOfCallandor]

except for the negroes and jews

Get the fuck out, This is an adult conversation.

[Crushed]

Get the fuck out, This is an adult conversation.

Ayn Rand

lol

[Rman]

Playboy magazine circa 60-70s was known for its thoughtful and provocative interviews.  Now, not so much.

[Van Cruncheon]

I seek to provide men -- or those who care to think -- with an integrated, consistent and rational view of life.

because those who think need dogma!

[FlameOfCallandor]

PLAYBOY: Can't Objectivism, then, be called a dogma?

RAND: No. A dogma is a set of beliefs accepted on faith; that is, without rational justification or against rational evidence. A dogma is a matter of blind faith. Objectivism is the exact opposite. Objectivism tells you that you must not accept any idea or conviction unless you can demonstrate its truth by means of reason.

PLAYBOY: If widely accepted, couldn't Objectivism harden into a dogma?

RAND: No. I have found that Objectivism is its own protection against people who might attempt to use it as a dogma. Since Objectivism requires the use of one's mind, those who attempt to take broad principles and apply them unthinkingly and indiscriminately to the concretes of their own existence find that it cannot be done. They are then compelled either to reject Objectivism or to apply it. When I say apply, I mean that they have to use their own mind, their own thinking, in order to know how to apply Objectivist principles to the specific problems of their own lives.

Ayn Rand: 1

Pathetic internet troll: 0

[Van Cruncheon]

"if you think about it, it's all correct! it can't be dogma, becaise i say it can't despite all evidence to the contrary!"

those who attempt to take broad principles and apply them unthinkingly and indiscriminately to the concretes of their own existence find that it cannot be done.

see, foc? even ayn rand believes you shouldn't exist in a rational world.

[Phoenix Dark]

RAND: I seek to provide men -- or those who care to think -- with an integrated, consistent and rational view of life.

[Human Snorenado]

Guys, I think maybe that if we stop talking to it then maybe it would just go away.

[FlameOfCallandor]

Guys, I think maybe that if we stop talking to it then maybe it would just go away.

*Yawn... How long have you been saying this? Not to mention that by posting that you are contradicting yourself.

[laesperanzapaz]

 

there is really only one proper function: the protection of individual rights
the protection of individual rights
individual rights

Individual rights.  I like.

Such as permitting gay marriage, not banning abortion, eliminating govt wiretap/unwarranted surveillance, unnecessary military spending on wacko-jacko military activities [Iraq war....Reagan's STAR WARS EPISODE INFINITY], and not being anti-big govt yet pro-big business

you know.  The kinds of things the average US con. seem to be against.

[FlameOfCallandor]

eliminating govt wiretap/unwarranted surveillance, unnecessary military spending on wacko-jacko military activities [Iraq war....Reagan's STAR WARS EPISODE INFINITY], and not being anti-big govt yet pro-big business

you know.  The kinds of things the average US con. seem to be against.

Wait what did Obama vote on the recent telcom immunity bill?
What did Hillary and almost all the dems vote on the Iraq war?

It's funny you think being pro-big government is a good thing yet they directly lead to domestic spying, foreign wars etc...


It's also laughable that you mention Reagon foerighn debacle but fail to mention the biggest democrat president shitfest ever. The Vietnam war.


Plus nothing what you mentioned even remotely relates to Ayn Rand

[Eric P]

except for the negroes and jews

*cough*

i'd like to point out that Ayn Rand was jewish.

[Flannel Boy]

Ayn Rand: 1

Pathetic internet troll: 0

Rand believed that her philosophy was a logically consistent whole, from which individual elements could not be removed. Therefore, if you pointed out her logical fallacies, her factual errors, or her self-serving definitions, you would be rejecting her entire philosophy. This line of reasoning obviously leads to dogmatism among Randroids: If you criticize a part of the dogma, you are criticizing the whole--so you must be "irrational and mystical." 

Speaking of self-serving definitions:

PLAYBOY: And how would you define altruism?

RAND: It is a moral system which holds that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the sole justification of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, value and virtue. This is the moral base of collectivism, of all dictatorships. In order to seek freedom and capitalism, men need a nonmystical, nonaltruistic, rational code of ethics -- a morality which holds that man is not a sacrificial animal, that he has the right to exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others, nor others to himself. In other words, what is desperately needed today is the ethics of Objectivism.

Humans can have selfless concern for the welfare of others without sacrificing themselves. And not every action must be done out of altruistic concern. She's trying to create a false dilemma between a strawman and her own unjustified ethical system.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

The Giver was the better utopia book than anything this hack wrote.

[laesperanzapaz]

eliminating govt wiretap/unwarranted surveillance, unnecessary military spending on wacko-jacko military activities [Iraq war....Reagan's STAR WARS EPISODE INFINITY], and not being anti-big govt yet pro-big business

you know.  The kinds of things the average US con. seem to be against.

Wait what did Obama vote on the recent telcom immunity bill?
What did Hillary and almost all the dems vote on the Iraq war?

It's funny you think being pro-big government is a good thing yet they directly lead to domestic spying, foreign wars etc...


It's also laughable that you mention Reagon foerighn debacle but fail to mention the biggest democrat president shitfest ever. The Vietnam war.


Plus nothing what you mentioned even remotely relates to Ayn Rand

um...what?

1. where did i say i am a dumbass obamatard, or a hillary supporter?

2.  where did i say LBJ is not a fucking douchebag for starting [continuing and enlargin, really] the 'nam war?

3.  where did i say i support big government?

I was merely commenting on the hypocrisy of 'pro-individual, pro-small govt' conservatives.  Which you deliberately failed to mention.

[i assume you deliberately failed to mention it, because i refuse to believe anyone is that dense]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Van Cruncheon]

strawmen are the way of the randroid

the world simply refuses to be awful enough for their eschatological views, so they have to fictionalize the opposition instead

[tiesto]

 

there is really only one proper function: the protection of individual rights
the protection of individual rights
individual rights

Individual rights.  I like.

Such as permitting gay marriage, not banning abortion, eliminating govt wiretap/unwarranted surveillance, unnecessary military spending on wacko-jacko military activities [Iraq war....Reagan's STAR WARS EPISODE INFINITY], and not being anti-big govt yet pro-big business

you know.  The kinds of things the average US con. seem to be against.

I agree with most of these but I love lots of spending on crazy ass pie-in-the-sky military technologies... it's what keeps me employed!

[FlameOfCallandor]

I was merely commenting on the hypocrisy of 'pro-individual, pro-small govt' conservatives.  Which you deliberately failed to mention

Most republicans today (99%) of them are not small government types so your criticism of Modern Republicans doesn't even apply to Ayn Rand or this thread.

[Phoenix Dark]

the giver was a great book

[FlameOfCallandor]

the giver was a great book

Read Anthem.

[Eric P]

the giver was a great book

Read Anthem.

read the Fountainhead

[FlameOfCallandor]

the giver was a great book

Read Anthem.

read the Fountainhead

Still reading that at the moment. I cant wait to tackle Atlas shrugged.

[FlameOfCallandor]

On second thought PeeDee dont read anthem just watch Wall-E

[Eric P]

the giver was a great book

Read Anthem.

read the Fountainhead

Still reading that at the moment. I cant wait to tackle Atlas shrugged.

in all honesty i can tell you that even without any political bias atlas shrugged is still a bad book, and really not worth your time.

i agree with this statement

it's a good thing i read Fountainhead first.

[Phoenix Dark]

so do you guys like the giver? i read it when i was 13, at which point i didn't know what loletarians were

[FlameOfCallandor]

so do you guys like the giver? i read it when i was 13, at which point i didn't know what loletarians were

The giver is ok I guess. It's not anything to write home about.

[Human Snorenado]

the giver was a great book

Read Anthem.

read the Fountainhead

READ DAS KAPITAL