Rand was a philosopher-writer. She wrote two famous books, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, which codify her philosophy, Objectivism. Objectivism has Man as a divinely rational, self-interested, high-achieving capitalist at its center. According to Objectivism, this is what you must strive for, and society must not get in the way (Laissez-faire). She also has a special take on gender relations, for example all her protagonists, both male and female, are single, rich, genius, capitalist workaholics working as solitary inventor-engineers who don't have children since they have no time for such matters.
Although her books (and philosophy) are somewhat simple and two dimensional, it's still interesting to read and ponder, so she became somewhat rich and famous. This led to her ego lifting off and reaching orbit, so eventually a cult around her formed, and apparently she became a bit difficult, casting out members who didn't agree with her, including her lover(s).
The funny part is Rand's hardline rational approach and forcing the discussion to philosophy right off the bat (apparently she was like this in real life). Henson is the 'father' of the Muppets, he's insinuating that Rand's objectivism can only lead to a secluded, depressed life, much like Oscar from the Muppets, who leads a grumpy life in a trash can. So it's Henson's witty reply tying Rand to a grumpy comedic character that makes it funny.
Man I feel like a caricature of Spock for explaining this in these terms...
Rand was a philosopher-writer. She wrote two famous books, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, which codify her philosophy, Objectivism. Objectivism has Man as a divinely rational, self-interested, high-achieving capitalist at its center. According to Objectivism, this is what you must strive for, and society must not get in the way (Laissez-faire). She also has a special take on gender relations, for example all her protagonists, both male and female, are single rich genius capitalist workaholics who don't have children since they have no time for such matters.
Although her books (and philosophy) are somewhat simple and two dimensional, it's still interesting to read and ponder, so she became somewhat rich and famous. This led to her ego going into orbit, so eventually a cult around her formed, and apparently she became a bit difficult, casting out members who didn't agree with her, including her lover(s).
Forum 2000 was hilarious -- virtual replicates of famous people (from Ayn Rand to Socrates) supposedly answered everyday questions poised by visitors (what really happened was that the questions were distributed to and answered by CMU college students). I think its creator shut it down to focus on his PhD in maths.
Ayn Rand sounds like a crap person to be around. Wet blanket maybe? I have better descriptions of such people but they would be inappropriate given my present company.
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[ 151 ms ] story [ 1156 ms ] threadRand was a philosopher-writer. She wrote two famous books, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, which codify her philosophy, Objectivism. Objectivism has Man as a divinely rational, self-interested, high-achieving capitalist at its center. According to Objectivism, this is what you must strive for, and society must not get in the way (Laissez-faire). She also has a special take on gender relations, for example all her protagonists, both male and female, are single, rich, genius, capitalist workaholics working as solitary inventor-engineers who don't have children since they have no time for such matters.
Although her books (and philosophy) are somewhat simple and two dimensional, it's still interesting to read and ponder, so she became somewhat rich and famous. This led to her ego lifting off and reaching orbit, so eventually a cult around her formed, and apparently she became a bit difficult, casting out members who didn't agree with her, including her lover(s).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand
http://www.arpanetdialogues.net/disclaimer/
The wording is intensely verbose but basically boils down to: "We made this all up as an art project".
Henson: Not yet anyway. ]
.... at which point, I was laughing far too loudly for it to be considered appropriate in an office environment.
Man I feel like a caricature of Spock for explaining this in these terms...
Rand was a philosopher-writer. She wrote two famous books, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, which codify her philosophy, Objectivism. Objectivism has Man as a divinely rational, self-interested, high-achieving capitalist at its center. According to Objectivism, this is what you must strive for, and society must not get in the way (Laissez-faire). She also has a special take on gender relations, for example all her protagonists, both male and female, are single rich genius capitalist workaholics who don't have children since they have no time for such matters.
Although her books (and philosophy) are somewhat simple and two dimensional, it's still interesting to read and ponder, so she became somewhat rich and famous. This led to her ego going into orbit, so eventually a cult around her formed, and apparently she became a bit difficult, casting out members who didn't agree with her, including her lover(s).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand
"Rand: The only programming language that follows the principles of Objectivism is Mathematica."