Rape by an Objectivist


fotocat

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Mark wrote:

About the apartment cleaning: Why did Ridpath vacate leaving a mess when apparently he knew he had done so? Had the owner returned his deposit before he belatedly showed up to clean?

end quote

We were paid up with John Ridpath for the sublet. John was to vacate on a certain day and he did. We returned the next day. To my eye, the apartment was very close to the way we left it in September. We were two messy guys, (Bills room was spotless) but the place was really not that bad considering. I did not blame John for any additions to the mess, but my brother did, and our roommate Bill stayed out of any condemnation of John. So, it was my brother and grandmother who were critical of Mr. Ridpath. And when I say it was messy I mean papers left stacked, food stains on the frig and stove, etc., which we had left. Our apartment was not a pig sty.

I am glad to hear he is still alive. I hope he stopped smoking that Sherlock Holmsian pipe. He started using the pipe for a prop after he vacated our apartment. Trivia. His girlfriend at the time was a nurse who made a heck of a lot working long hours and she was very pretty. I think I remember her talking about investing her dough in some fashion.

Mark wrote:

About the apartment cleaning: Why did Ridpath vacate leaving a mess when apparently he knew he had done so? Had the owner returned his deposit before he belatedly showed up to clean?

end quote

So, the following are your words Peter?

We were paid up with John Ridpath for the sublet. John was to vacate on a certain day and he did. We returned the next day. To my eye, the apartment was very close to the way we left it in September. We were two messy guys, (Bills room was spotless) but the place was really not that bad considering. I did not blame John for any additions to the mess, but my brother did, and our roommate Bill stayed out of any condemnation of John. So, it was my brother and grandmother who were critical of Mr. Ridpath. And when I say it was messy I mean papers left stacked, food stains on the frig and stove, etc., which we had left. Our apartment was not a pig sty.

I am glad to hear he is still alive. I hope he stopped smoking that Sherlock Holmsian pipe. He started using the pipe for a prop after he vacated our apartment. Trivia. His girlfriend at the time was a nurse who made a heck of a lot working long hours and she was very pretty. I think I remember her talking about investing her dough in some fashion.

A...

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Fotocat is my ex sister in law. I put this in the '93 time frame.

I understand from my brother that the Marcs helped unravel CF's (for short) story with whats called a hostile interrogation, Marcs was a former leo investigator. By that time it was 5 yrs or so after the "event". The question I got at the time was given the same circumstances would I reveal the name of a former Objectivist leader by whom rape occurred - if I were them and how do I deal with the aftermath.

I think the time has passed in doing what was needed. I wasnt privy to her reporting to the police or not. But I am sympathetic to similar feelings aroused in long past abuses. I personally dealt with my own trouble by writing to the person and squaring the reality in my own words. Words I coudnt have spoken as a child. Another example is I found his friends on FB and told them of the vile individual they were dealing with. A West Pointer replied that a cadet in his unit had kept a relationship secret from two ladies, one on the west coast the other on the east. That hit a chord with me and I found solace in accepting there are evasive and evil people in the world. It wasnt a surprise except to say that a complete stranger seemed connected to me better than my own family. Another asked me to find forgiveness.

There is no satisfaction in going back in time unless you prefer to live there. I would say confront the person if you can for what you can do and use lifes experience to put it in perspective. Dont let it haunt you. And one better. I have family members who witnessed what I went through and also know the torment first hand. One says they love him, the other has rekindled the relationship. And that has pushed me farther away from them. So I get it. The cost to them is what my relationship could have been with them and of course the rationalizations that get in their way at living.

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I haven’t got time to check this, but from OTIPOJ it looks like Catherine left Ridpath late 1988 or early 1989. The alleged rape occurred after she approached him for help in an emergency, which was (per her email to me) 6 or 8 months after she’d last seen him. It looks like Marc interrogated Catherine soon after the event.

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Ayn, when asked about whether that is a rape scene in The Fountainhead, replied that it was not an actual "rape," and referred to is somewhat humorously as, "Well, if that was rape, then it was 'rape by engraved invitation'!"

An unfortunate locution.

An energetic encounter between two consenting adults is not rape. If mutual consent is not there it is rape.

Rape is too serious a matter to wrap up in a witty phrase.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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Rape is too serious a matter to wrap up in a witty phrase.

Oh please. We tell jokes about serious matters all the time.

I was wondering what your signature phrase means, so I popped the phrase

אויב מיין באָבע האט בייצים זי וואָלט זיין מיין זיידע

into Google Translate and it produced

If my grandmother had testicles she would be my grandfather.

Is that accurate?

Sounds pretty serious to me. :laugh:

Darrell

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  • 3 years later...

It's been three yrs... I wanted to thank everyone who replied to my question. I wanted to update you. I contacted ARI last week and asked to talk to them about what happened to me (raped by Ridpath) 30+ yrs ago. They have agreed and Valerie will be getting back to me to set up a conference call. I am happy that more women are able to speak publicly, and be listened to, about past sexual assaults. An fyi I did try to speak to Edith Packard privately about what was happening to me regarding Ridpath but she declined to talk to me. Ridpath went on to explain what happened as "passionate love making" and when he was not believed then publicly declared that I was deranged, immoral and dishonest. Without talking to me about his claims, or asking my side of the story, I was banned from Objectivist Conference and black listed. Anyways, glad ARI is at least giving me the opportunity to tell my story. I have let them know that I have no restrictions on the conference call - it can be recorded, anyone can ask me questions and challenge me on my story.

Additionally, I found many errors about my situation on this website and would like to reach the author of this site (who posted the document) to speak about correcting some information and adding context, e.g. the day Ridpath claims the sex that happened was "passionate love making" I had no seen or spoken to him in six months and he was dating a blonde from Santa Barbara, in fact she was at his house the morning I arrived. 

http://dupin.byethost18.com/OTIPOJ/.         (document/website On The Independent Pursuit of Justice)

Cat Farrar

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Cat,

I am glad you are starting to make progress on this.

I think the conference call with ARI will do you a world of good. And I imagine that ARI, which will be worried about it's public reputation given the recent sex abuse scandals all over the culture (and especially in California among the "ruling class"), will be amenable to working things through with you, but I bet they will want to be as quick and simple as possible. If I were you, I would examine whether "quick and simple" will be as good for you as it will for them.

In this window of opportunity in our culture, you have the leverage. I don't expect this window to be open for a long time. Why? That's a long discussion involving history, trends, cultural markers, etc., and some folks may not agree with me, but let's just say that I see it this way. 

So, given that I believe in the temporariness of the opportunity, in my humble opinion, I think you should use your leverage without mercy.

:)

They certainly did when they had the leverage. They showed you the rules they play by.

I can't tell you what you should want, but I can advise you to get it all--all of it--while the wind is at your back.

Michael

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

At the time of the November 2017 posts above both B. Martin (co-author of “On the Pursuit of Justice” with her then husband J. Marc) and Catherine Farrar contacted me and we exchanged several emails.

Recently B. Martin emailed me about a second allegation.

B. Martin told me that “Anonymous” had planned to put his name to his statement then changed his mind.

So now there are two accusations, and one helps give credence to the other.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

You can legally investigate anything, but you can't climb over the barbed wire at a secret facility. I have no doubt some enquiries could lead to a visit from "the authorities" too, so stay away from the X-Files if you don't want Sculley and Mulder on your case. Keep yourself in the sun, avoid dark shadows, and definitely do not cross the street into "The Twilight Zone." Remember, "tomorrow is only a day away," but that means one more sunset and one more sunrise, so don't fall asleep tonight unless you have a body guard to wake you up in case the bogey man comes for you. And don't you hate it when someone imitates the theme from The Twilight Zone by singing, "Do, do, do, do, Do, do, do do?"       

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The webpage linked to above no longer works.  Ms. Martin emailed me saying the man will allow himself to be identified after the July OCON (which he is attending) then the webpage will be put up again, with a bit more detail that he has remembered.  The “On the Independent Pursuit of Justice” webpage containing the first allegation remains up.

Ms. Martin also said that Catherine eventually talked to an ARI representative on the phone for two hours.  During a second call they said Ridpath was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease so they weren’t going to pursue the matter further.

I suspect – she didn’t say this – that she felt emboldened to approach ARI because of the publicity surrounding Weinstein.

Wolf,
Justice delayed is justice denied.

 

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5 hours ago, Mark said:

Wolf,

Justice delayed is justice denied.

Careful, mate. "Justice delayed" refers to slow due process, unnecessary hurdles after a complaint is filed. It pertains specifically to legal proceedings, specifically criminal prosecution for alleged sexual assault, with timely complaint and relevant evidence, sufficient probable cause to charge someone -- not a fucking kangaroo court at ARI, or a campaign of defamation and libel, 30 years later. Jeez.

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OTIPOJ was published in 1990 and a few years ago placed online with added commentary.

Catherine’s claim that Ridpath raped her, made recently on OL, would be libelous if she were not telling the truth.  (The commentary part of the OTPOJ webpage reports what Catherine said on OL, but a true report of what somebody else said in public is a fact and never libelous.)  

Now, Wolf, you don’t know that Catherine is lying.  We cannot know she is telling the truth either but after extensive email correspondence with her and Ms. Martin in my opinion she is.

In my last post I mentioned the Weinstein media noise as a possible explanation for why Catherine approached ARI just now.  I don’t know for sure.  She’s a difficult email correspondent, eager to talk then loathe to talk.

Time doesn’t erase a crime.  If this latest “indirect witness” to another alleged rape who is supposed to come forward after the July OCON is a substantial “pillar of society” type then I think what he says would be worth paying attention to – even after 30 years.

 

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21 hours ago, Mark said:

Catherine’s claim that Ridpath raped her, made recently on OL, would be libelous if she were not telling the truth.

This is all wrong. The only proper venue is a court of law, complaint filed with the police, or a lawsuit for money damages. In California, statute of limitations for rape is 10 years. Spewing allegations on the internet is a campaign of defamation, whether "true" or not. You say you've made a conclusion, based on claims you have no way of authenticating. I don't know anything about Catherine or Ridpath, except that this is a matter for due process of law, not tabloid gossip.

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I met Ridpath only once and fairly briefly. His voice, choice of words, body language and affect as whole struck me as fake posturing. I thought, this is someone there’s no telling who they really are, because all of “this” is obviously an act.

He, Binswanger, myself and several fellow students were seated about a large oval table. One of us asked about Peikoff’s book - would it ever really come out? (OPAR) Ridpath assured us it really was about to be printed and released. He got really worked up about it (this is me talking, so I trust you can imagine he really got worked up.) He said, “With this book, you will have something you can present to professors, and say...” [now he slammed his open hand onto the table, which startled all, we jumped in our seats,] and yelled “tell me what’s wrong with THIS!”

Binswanger said, “Actually, please do not slam the book onto any professor’s desk and say that...”

The look on Binswanger’s face said “damn, this guy is so not an asset.”

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4 hours ago, Wolf DeVoon said:

This is all wrong. The only proper venue is a court of law, complaint filed with the police, or a lawsuit for money damages. In California, statute of limitations for rape is 10 years. Spewing allegations on the internet is a campaign of defamation, whether "true" or not. You say you've made a conclusion, based on claims you have no way of authenticating. I don't know anything about Catherine or Ridpath, except that this is a matter for due process of law, not tabloid gossip.

Defamation is false, by definition. Therefore, someone who was raped cannot commit defamation, and it’s not spewing allegations, but simply telling about their victimization. If she is lying, then she commits defamation, but you don’t know that she is lying.

If you walk out of your home tomorrow morning and MSK jumps you and beats the shit outta ya, then the only venue open to you is a court of law? You won’t be saying a thing about it here or anywhere else? You will feel bound by a requirement to not “defame” him? You will wait until a court says it is true, and only then will you tell us what was done to you?

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Wolf DeVoon,

There are good reasons not to go the police.  In the case of Catherine she might not have wanted to subject herself to the police about a personal matter because some of them are stupid louts. It’s risky approaching the police.

In the case of the second allegation (relayed by “anonymous” who’s supposed to reveal himself in July) that was online for a few days under the now dead link above, the young woman went to the police and they told her they weren’t going to do anything.

As Jon points out there are cases where the victim of a crime would naturally speak out.

I don’t think OTIPOJ is tabloid gossip.

Jon Letendre,

Thanks for telling about your experience with Ridpath.  Reminds me of the end of his Patrick Henry talk where he strikes a tragic pose – emphasis on pose.  A video used to be on YouTube but it’s been removed.  

ADDED:  I discovered a note to myself about the video that I made after watching it a few years ago:

He has a lecture on Patrick Henry.  The first presentation – years ago – was sound recorded, I haven’t heard it.  A fairly recent presentation was video-taped and ARI has it online.  He’s off key from the beginning.  I skipped to the end.  The *attitude* he strikes at the end – extrovert look-at-me suffering, the tragic tone – is beyond description.  He practically cries, and – this is the point – it’s so damn phony.  His emotion is tilted and perverse, it’s all wrong.

aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reg_ls_patrickhenry

 

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18 hours ago, Jon Letendre said:

Defamation is false, by definition....

If you walk out of your home tomorrow morning and MSK jumps you...

Agreed, defamation is malicious, "facts" spun in such a way as to harm reputation. Shrug. People do it all the time.

It would be ill-advised for anyone to assault me tomorrow morning or any other time. I don't fight fair.

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1 hour ago, Wolf DeVoon said:

Agreed, defamation is malicious, "facts" spun in such a way as to harm reputation. Shrug. People do it all the time.

It would be ill-advised for anyone to assault me tomorrow morning or any other time. I don't fight fair.

Ok. Now I think I understand you.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 years later...
On 4/2/2018 at 4:57 PM, Mark said:

...

Recently B. Martin emailed me about a second allegation.

B. Martin told me that “Anonymous” had planned to put his name to his statement then changed his mind.

So now there are two accusations, and one helps give credence to the other.

Quite a while ago "Anonymous" decided to put his name to the statement and the webpage was updated.

I put up that website.  I kept it separate from ARI Watch so as not to be accused of libel.  Even though reporting what is true is not libelous that doesn't protect one from being accused of libel.

 

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