OL Intro Suggestion For Folks Who Potentially Will Build This Movement Concept...


Selene

Recommended Posts

I just ran a search and was astounded about what is "out there."

I would offer this thread for folks that are interested in our approach to ideas.

Geez, in the '60s we had to protectively slink in the intellectual sewers of Manhattan and the fascist CUNY system...

I got in trouble my first year at CUNY by basically ripping up the "required" Speech requirements which I thought were absurd.

This was during the marxist impregnation of serious thought and behavior control that has metastasized into our current culture.

This thread will recieve input, or, not.

A...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good grief!!!!

http://alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=312123&page=2

Remember, the O'biwan campaign in 2007 [incorporates the primary campaign], was brilliant.

One of the best in the 20th century.

A critical eliment of the "virtual" campaign component of the Chicago operation was a fully staffed internet operation which enhanced and stonewalled different websites.

Folks like us should invest calm time and mark these sites without passion.

Repeat the accurate quotes.

Pursue stupidity on certain sites and enjoy the experience of facing the left.

A...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Adam,

I know you are seeing something, but I can't figure out what it is.

1. You ran a search about what? "Folks who potentially will build this movement concept"? What movement? Do you mean the Objectivist movement?

2. I'm not sure who you are offering the thread to. To OL members and readers? Or are you posting a link to this anywhere else?

3. What do the "required speech requirements" at CUNY during your time there have to do with any of this?

And so on.

I went to the link you provided in the second post, and now I'm even more perplexed. Some kids are imagining alternative history and someone asked what Ayn Rand's administration would have been like had she been elected president of the USA. They bickered about it without really addressing the question.

Okaaaaay...

Then you talked about the Obama 2007 campaign being brilliant.

Honestly, I don't know what to make of all this.

But whatever you're consuming, if you're consuming, send me a barrel.

:)

Michael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But whatever you're consuming, if you're consuming, send me a barrel.

:smile:

Michael

Fair enough.

I ran a search with some key words of a quote at the bottom of page 49-50 [top] of For The New Intellectual which I had not re-read for a decade or so.

Did not come up with any help on the quote and was astonished at the blog/website I stumbled over and from there it was stream of consciousness commentary.

At any rate, here is the reference:

On a recent television panel discussion, an alleged conservative intellectual was asked to define the difference between a 'conservative' and a 'liberal.'' He answered that a 'liberal' is one who does not believe in Original Sin. To which a liberal intellectual replied hastily; 'Oh, yes, we do!" - but proceeded to add that the liberals believe they can impove men's life just a little.

Ayn kept throwing fastballs out of the strike zone and attracted a potential ally while the marxists encysted themselves deeply in to the Democratic Party and the administrative states.

A...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I ran a search with some key words of a quote at the bottom of page 49-50 [top] of For The New Intellectual which I had not re-read for a decade or so.

Did not come up with any help on the quote and was astonished at the blog/website I stumbled over and from there it was stream of consciousness commentary.

Adam,

That helps.

:)

Michael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I ran a search with some key words of a quote at the bottom of page 49-50 [top] of For The New Intellectual which I had not re-read for a decade or so.

Did not come up with any help on the quote and was astonished at the blog/website I stumbled over and from there it was stream of consciousness commentary.

Adam,

That helps.

:smile:

Michael

Michael:

I, thankfully, missed all the internet wars that you folks lived through.

Until I stumbled upon OL, after stumbling onto Glenn Beck, I had no clue as to the battles that were progressing on this medium.

So, I am constantly "surprised" when I visit the venom filled virtual world of big and small Objectivism/objectivism that evolved after the 1968 split.

I am kinda like the Japanese soldier who had been living in the jungle for twenty (20) years and did not know that WW II was over...not a

perfect comparison, however, you get my point.

Therefore, I am still astounded by folks like the New Zealander, the hissing Hseighs and other folks who have carved out their internet niches without substantially advancing Ayn's core concepts.

A...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Adam,

Oddly enough, I was just writing to a friend about Ron Merrill's book, The Ideas of Ayn Rand.

I know that Marsha Enright did an update and rewrite of that book called Ayn Rand Explained: From Tyranny to Tea Party. But her book is so different that I consider it an entirely different one. Good, but different with overlaps. She left out some things Ron talked about, too. Both books actually complement each other.

Cribbing from my email to my friend, I wrote: "Note that Ron Merrill was a solid member of the original Objectivist movement, but he was not a member of the inner circle around Rand. This makes his perspective very interesting because we don't see what is going on from a core perspective. Instead, we see a view from a dedicated supporter and follower who belonged to the gobs of people who surrounded the core."

There are many, many people who come to OL (including folks who are no longer active or just lurkers) who fit that description. Eye-witnesses to the events during the NBI days, but not part of the inner core. Ron described his own mindset back then in Ideas (p. 3):

I was an active participant in the movement in the Sixties, including stints as leader of Objectivist groups at MIT and the University of Oregon. On numerous occasions I visited New York for NBI functions. Never did I encounter a single one of the cape-wearing, cigarette-holder-wielding cultists who were allegedly so omnipresent in the movement. Certainly I did meet a number of self-appointed guardians of ideological purity. But I, and the vast majority of my friends in the movement, regarded these characters with amused tolerance rather than quaking fear.


Here is what he said happened to him and others when the break between Rand and the Brandens happened. Rather than allowing themselves to be bullied into taking sides when they didn't know the facts, or pretending to make sense out of something that didn't make sense, they scattered (p. 5).

Many of us simply abandoned all confidence in our leaders and concentrated silently on living as Objectivists.


This is you.

And this is so many others who come (and came and will come) to OL. I prize these kinds of people highly. In fact, I am one of them, but with a twist.

I went to Brazil where almost nobody knew about Rand. I tried to live according to her ideas there. But without a supporting community, it is nearly impossible to take someone else's framework and impose it on your daily life without screwing up a lot. :smile: I didn't even know there had been a break until I read Barbara's book and that came out after Rand died.

I came back to the States in 2004 and started posting in earnest online in 2005. I actually made a few posts to the old SoloHQ (now RoR and Solo Passion) in 2004 right before I left Brazil. That site was my entry to the online Objectivist world. So I am not such an old-timer to Objectivist-Schism-Land, high level or low.

I managed to beef up a lot of my knowledge about Objectivism with the Socratic method that is inherent to forums. Nothing clarifies an idea more than arguing about it, being wrong and realizing it. :smile: (Or being right.) This practically forced me to reread a lot of the Objectivist literature, which I had already read by some miracle since you couldn't get Rand's works in Brazil.

Back there I bought everything Rand-related I could, but I generally had to order it from the USA. There was no Amazon or even Internet for much of that time. And I was always having to find a way around the currency laws when I ordered by snail-mail.

On a humorous note, one of my biggest disappointments in Brazil involved Atlas Shrugged. I had given my copy to someone to read and he or she (I no longer remember who) did not give it back. I wanted to show it to a musician I was producing at the time.

There was a bookstore in a shopping mall on Avenida Paulista in São Paulo (Livraria Cultura) that catered to foreign books in English. It was big and modern and seemed like it had everything. It reminded me of being back in the USA. But they never had Rand. So I asked them if they would order Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and they informed me they already had it on order. I was elated.

After that, I made a point of going there at least once a week to see if it had arrived. The guy at the store I had talked to would see the hunger in my eyes and tell me to be patient. That it would get there. We even got a little routine going where we would laugh when he said not yet. This went on several months and the book just didn't come and didn't come and didn't come. Finally the big day rolled around. I walked into the store and my friend smiled like a coconspirator saying mission accomplished. My book was waiting on me. Congratulations!

Then he pulled out a copy of the Rand McNally World Atlas.

The look on my face must have been priceless.

:smile:

Man did that piss me off. Actually I went through shock, disappointment, confusion, disbelief, suspecting he was goofing on me, irritated frustration, then being really, really pissed off. I wanted to scream and break things but I held it together somehow and left the store before I lost a friend in one of the only places in São Paulo where I could buy from a large collection of English books.

In the end, I finally got another copy of Atlas Shrugged, but I didn't order it from that bookstore. A guy's gotta have principles. :)

You know, telling you this story just gave me an idea for the future. I am sure the we all have cool stories about how we adapted to trying to live Objectivism as loners or among a very small isolated group of like-minded people. By isolated, I mean isolated from O-Land happenings and schisms.

It might be fun to try and collect these stories.

Actually, when OL finally expands, I might hire some folks to dig through the archives and find these kinds of stories. There are probably a ton of them hidden in the threads.

Michael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You know, telling you this story just gave me an idea for the future. I am sure the we all have cool stories about how we adapted to trying to live Objectivism as loners or among a very small isolated group of like-minded people. By isolated, I mean isolated from O-Land happenings and schisms.

It might be fun to try and collect these stories.

Actually, when OL finally expands, I might hire some folks to dig through the archives and find these kinds of stories. There are probably a ton of them hidden in the threads.

Michael

Precisely.

As you have noted, post split, I went about life with those core principles.

I made mistakes, lots of them, however the core concepts of Ayn's pure rational thoughts were fundamentally sustaining and successful for my survival as an independent thinker.

I kind of fumbled the opening post, however you have captured what I intended to offer.

A...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Geez, in the '60s we had to protectively slink in the intellectual sewers of Manhattan and the fascist CUNY system..."

A...

I hear you, I was there.

Add to that we had the draft (which found me) & LBJ with his "Great Society" BS.

-Joe

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Geez, in the '60s we had to protectively slink in the intellectual sewers of Manhattan and the fascist CUNY system..."

A...

I hear you, I was there.

Add to that we had the draft (which found me) & LBJ with his "Great Society" BS.

-Joe

I was uncertain what I was going to do.

Evading the draft by emigrating to Canada, or, Australia was not an option for me, at that time. The Australia "package" was very tempting.

A...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now