House

[equality72521]

For a long time i have thought that the writers or at least one writer of house was an objectivist. I tend to think that House himself is an objectivist and this last episode has confirmed it for me when Fox.com posts the new episode of house you MUST watch it. the name of the episode is "Selfish". my favorite line from the episode is "If everyone were more selfish the world would be a better place."

[kiaer.ts]

Yes, an emotionally crippled grouch, expert at rationalizing his bad behavior and manipulating people. You might indeed get the impression that he's an Objectionist. Don't get me wrong, I like the show. But Amber was the only real Objectivist, one of my favorite characters ever, and they killed her for no reason.

[equality72521]

Yes, an emotionally crippled grouch, expert at rationalizing his bad behavior and manipulating people. You might indeed get the impression that he's an Objectionist. Don't get me wrong, I like the show. But Amber was the only real Objectivist, one of my favorite characters ever, and they killed her for no reason.

I am not saying that House is a John Galt, I would consider him to be more of a mix between Fransisco and Rearden. I have not seen evidence that he rationalizes his behavior, he is an avid individualist, he does the original thing, he goes his own way, he relies on his mind. The major conflict for house is his ability (or rather inability) to interact and "play well with others". House has a low tolerance for stupidity especially willful stupidity, I find his drug addiction to be a very intriguing art of the plot and this season (after sobering up) is turning out to be the best.

[kiaer.ts]

Yes, an emotionally crippled grouch, expert at rationalizing his bad behavior and manipulating people. You might indeed get the impression that he's an Objectionist. Don't get me wrong, I like the show. But Amber was the only real Objectivist, one of my favorite characters ever, and they killed her for no reason.

I am not saying that House is a John Galt, I would consider him to be more of a mix between Fransisco and Rearden. I have not seen evidence that he rationalizes his behavior, he is an avid individualist, he does the original thing, he goes his own way, he relies on his mind. The major conflict for house is his ability (or rather inability) to interact and "play well with others". House has a low tolerance for stupidity especially willful stupidity, I find his drug addiction to be a very intriguing art of the plot and this season (after sobering up) is turning out to be the best.

He is a lone wolf. He constantly emotionally manipulates his employees and everyone around him to get rises out of them. He occasionally has his good moments, but he is a nasty, bitter manipulator. Of course people think he is a model Objectionist.

I'll quote myself from another thread:

Paraphrasing Barbara Branden from the chapter "Efficient Thinking" in The Vision of Ayn Rand:

Suppose you're watching a movie in which the hero seems to be an individualist, and you have been starved for such a movie. In the first chapter, the hero turns down a very good job, rather than conform to the ideas of others. You feel a strong emotion of admiration and pleasure, and this emotion, quite validly, is important to you. It's the kind of emotion you do want to feel.

Well, at this point, you can do one of two things. You can continue to perceive, to see what the movie is about, to judge what you're viewing — or you can lose yourself in the pleasure you feel, focus only on it, look only for ways to maintain it, ignoring and evading any evidence that might contradict it.

Then, as you continue watching, the hero is shown establishing an socialist [environmentalist] cooperative, which, he says, will once and for all solve the problem of jobs [preserving nature] for everyone. Well, if your mind is functioning rationally, you will perceive that you have made a mistake — that is, that whatever this movie is preaching it isn't individualism. But, if you've focused on maintaining your emotion at any price, then you'll rationalize it by any means possible. You'll tell yourself that the hero really believes in his ideal, and this makes him an individualist; or that he's fighting for his idea, and this makes him an individualist, so that he's still a hero, et cetera, etc., etc. And you can watch the whole movie this way, reading into it what you want to see, explaining away what doesn't fit your desires, blinding yourself, destroying your perception for the sake of your emotion. A year later you might see the same movie in a different mood and ask yourself, in helpless amazement: "Why did I think what I thought?"

Edited September 30, 2010 by Ted Keer

[Robert Campbell]

I was a fan of Hugh Laurie long before House premiered. I like the TV show, and I find Gregory House a fascinating character, but his misanthropy and manipulativeness are so evident that I never thought of him as an exemplar of Objectivism.

He is one of the very few TV characters who openly mocks and rejects all religious belief, questions conventional notions about selfishness and altruism, and often ends up confronting and upsetting his patients' comforting illusions. The first two really push the envelope for American network programmers. If he were happier and less alienated, I don't think they would find these tendencies even marginally acceptable.

Robert Campbell

[Peter]

After watching reruns I think, the early “House” was nearly an Objectivist but the later House is more of a Machiavellian.

A case in point: I was just speculating on a different thread that wouldn’t it be great if Barbara Branden had a journal online? Why I would pay a yearly subscription to get that, in light of all the recent, “what goes around comes around” in the Ayn Rand Institute’s controversy, and how it pertains to the Branden’s own Fall from Grace, (which was a fall, only if you think it to be. Perhaps it was more like an inevitable outcome for all thinking Objectivists who would eventually run afoul of the personality of Ayn Rand but not afoul of her philosophy.)

How would House solve this problem?

BB does not need the money, so House will set in motion a plan to make her destitute, then propose a paying website to BB to resolve that situation.

In one of the last episodes of “House,” he does have a moment where he begins to act in a Machiavellian manner but his love for Cutty (and her acute supervision) stops him, and he does the right thing.

Independent Objectivist

Peter Taylor

[Mike Renzulli]

I love House and it is one of my favorite shows. Hugh Laurie's performance and the episodes and acting on the part of cast members are great!

I don't know if House would be a good example of an Objectivist but I do like the fact that the character is one who doesn't give a rat's tail what anyone thinks about him and ruthlessly uses his knowledge trying to find the cause of said patient's illness in order to save or cure them.

A really good show if one appreciates thinking and that's what House celebrates.

Edited November 6, 2010 by Mike Renzulli

[kiaer.ts]

Yeah, I just watched the premiere of the most recent season, and the show is still perhaps the best drama on TV. I also enjoy and recommend Damages greatly, and like Lie to Me and Justified.

[Philip Coates]

> the character is one who doesn't give a rat's tail what anyone thinks about him [Mike R]

That's a negative trait, not a positive one.

A psychologically healthy person does care what people think about him. (Worthwhile people, not Tooheys.)

[kiaer.ts]

> the character is one who doesn't give a rat's tail what anyone thinks about him [Mike R]

That's a negative trait, not a positive one.

A psychologically healthy person does care what people think about him. (Worthwhile people, not Tooheys.)

So, you don't watch the show, then?

[Peter]

The newest “House” introduced a character, a beautiful female, third year, aspie medical student.

She has the most beguiling eyes. They are beautiful but also sad. House will quickly and effortlessly lie to a patient, to help the patient but she has personal scruples. For instance the House crew will simply break into a patient’s house to look for environmental clues to the patient’s illness. After Forman’s breaks into one residence she refuses to step through the door.

I am also enjoying the taming of Gregory House by his boss and lover, Cutty.

During the first episodes of House I thought he was an Objectivist but lately he seems to be a Machiavellian.

I was curious about this thread's maker Equality. I went to that members OL home page. I thought she was "a colored girl." I may be wrong because a man's name was given. Still, the name could be phony. Maybe she looks like Jeanne Bean )

Note to Michael if he sees "colored girl and wants to complain:" that is in reference to a new movie that uses the term, and to the Lou Reed song, ". . . and the colored girls sing, doop, dedoop, dedoop, dedoop . . ."

Peter

Edited November 9, 2010 by Peter Taylor

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Pete,

Somehow you don't strike me as a wild side type...

Walking that talk can get kinda weird. (I speak from experience.)

Michael

[BaalChatzaf]

The newest “House” introduced a character, a beautiful female, third year, aspie medical student.

She has the most beguiling eyes. They are beautiful but also sad. House will quickly and effortlessly lie to a patient, to help the patient but she has personal scruples. For instance the House crew will simply break into a patient’s house to look for environmental clues to the patient’s illness. After Forman’s breaks into one residence she refuses to step through the door.

Sounds like an aspie dream girl. I have often wondered what my life would be if the woman I came to love were an aspie. That is not the way it happened. I was married in 1959 and very few doctors were even aware of Asperger's syndrome at the time (it was first identified in 1944 by Herr Doktor Asperger). If I had first had met Loony Love* way back then I would have taken her as wife in no time flat.

Ba'al Chatzaf

*a character from the Harry Potter canon. She is a Strange One.

[Peter]

Michael wrote:

Somehow you don't strike me as a wild side type...

End quote

You have me pegged. I never walked on the wild side. I don’t want to walk on the wild side.

When I am old and feeble I may need some fantasies of things I have never done, to load my cannon ) Ba-boom!

Back to the topic. House is formulistic, but up to now I have always been intrigued by the detective work. I noticed that the “Sleuth” network is now carrying “House” reruns which is appropriate.

Ready for another doctor detective series? I am waiting for ABC, CBS, and NBC copycat ripoffs: “Hawaii Five-OH milligrams,” “Big Brother Quaratined,” “Lost Diagnosis,” “Take Two and a Half Aspirins, and Call Me in the Morning,” and HBO’s “Boardwalk Clinic,” could be some potential titles.

Ba'al Chatzaf wrote:

If I had first had met *Loony Love* way back then I would have taken her as wife in no time flat.

End quote

One more from TNT: “The Closer” about a beautiful, pouty lipped intern at a surgical hospital who continually finds something wrong when sewing the patient up. But she keeps her brilliant diagnoses to herself for later publication in medical journals. She has an intense preoccupation with airline schedules, astronomy and UFO sightings

Peter

Edited November 11, 2010 by Peter Taylor

[9thdoctor]

Tonight’s episode was really good. The patient is a religious kook, and “the team” gets to diagnose Jesus.