Korean Job Discussion Forums

seoulunitarian · Joined: 06 Jul 2004

Hi All,

I was wondering if there are any Ayn Rand fans on this board. I recently finished reading The Fountainhead and am almost finished with Atlas Shrugged. I just bought The Philosophy of Ayn Rand by Leonard Peikoff, the foremost authority on Rand's philosophy, Objectivism. If any of you are fans, and would like to start a reading/discussion group, that would be awesome. I am in Suwon.

Peace

Rteacher · Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA

Our real self-interest is spiritual development beyond the bodily, mental and intellectual platforms. "Objectivism" may facilitate material progress, but that won't ultimately benefit or satisfy our real self...( Idea

Hey, I should start a bhakti-yoga club...)

seoulunitarian · Joined: 06 Jul 2004

Rteacher · Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA

My understanding is that the meaning of our life here is that whatever we have done throughout our life will shape our mentality at the time of death - which will determine our next birth. The spiritual technique of regularly chanting transcendental names of God every day (preferably in early morning hours before sunrise...) practically guarantees a much better situation in the next life, and one can experience transcendental pleasure even in this life... You - or anyone - can chant whenever convenient. In Korea, even Buddhist beads can be used (as long as there are 108) or you can get a cheap meditation kit from the following link:
http://krishna.tv/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MMK&Category_Code=CB2&Product_Count=0
Here's also a pretty good discussion link: http://www.chakra.org/

coolsage · Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 7:58 am Post subject:

It seems that some members of every generation find it necessary to read this series of badly-written exhortations of 'egoism'. Her work is essentially claptrap, but useful as a journey through quasi-fascist thinking. Her contribution to literature, if one can call it that, was during the thirties and forties when political extremism was rather similar to what it is these days. For a more complete picture of those times I would recommend any work by Simone de Beauvoir, and 'The Mandarins' in particular. And that woman could Write.

seoulunitarian · Joined: 06 Jul 2004

Bulsajo · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

I read Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead way back in the day (high school and Uni), but never read any analysis of the philosophy/politics of her books.
I started reading (I can't remember which one) because I had heard it described as a Science Fiction novel.

Anyway, I came away thinking that her books were kind of heavy-handed for fictional novels.
And I came away thinking that her ideas sounded great on paper, just like Marx.
But just like the flaws in Marx's works- people don't actually behave the way you'd like or expect them to, even though you might have a fantastic economic system for everyone to follow.

I'd recommend John Brunner's "Sheep Look Up" and Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Lathe of Heaven" for further reading, not so much for political/economic philosophy as on the foibles of mankind in general.

Leslie Cheswyck · Joined: 31 May 2003 Location: University of Western Chile

vox · Joined: 13 Feb 2005 Location: Jeollabukdo

I loved The Fountainhead and We The Living. The Fountainhead was a stronger, more commanding, impressive work I felt.

The Fountainhead constituted a posthumous lesson I learned on my own about living and working as an artist for 15 years. I remember wondering if it would have done me more harm than good to have read it at the beginning of my career as opposed to the end.

We The Living was a long hard slog right up to about the first third then I started to get into it.

I think the lessons are really important for young people especially in their idealist phase, and especially since it appears that substance and competence are increasingly out of fashion in several sectors of the western workplace. Actually I believe Working Wounded, the column on workopolis.com has an article on this very thing this week. I wrote to the columnist about a letter from last week and he wrote me back saying he was going to devote his column to the issue I raised, which I also feel is embodied in the antagonist character in The Fountainhead.

We need more Ayn Rands around.

VanIslander · Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 6:38 pm Post subject:

I read every word she ever published, even rolled my research and readlings into a university Independent Studies course in 1993 I called "The Philosophic Thought of Ayn Rand". Got an A-minus because my professor didn't think I was critical enough toward her ideas and positions.

A year or two later, after immersing myself in social and political philosophy, even heading off to grad school for a year of study, my understanding of history and philosophy expanded so much that I was scared at how ignorant and narrow minded Rand's thinking takes.

No offense intended, but I'm horrified at how I used to think... it's a kind of tunnel vision,... better: a virus! It's better to be infected as long as you recover and have a stronger political immune system as a result of it.

vox · Joined: 13 Feb 2005 Location: Jeollabukdo

VanIslander · Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 6:58 pm Post subject:

jaganath69 · Joined: 17 Jul 2003

Although I am an unashamed capitalist, individualist and liberal (in the classical sense) I am scarcely able to stomach her bilge. Worse still is the cult-like church of objectivism she built and which is carried on today by her acolyte, Peikoff. I strongly recommend Popper if you want a more sound defense of liberal capitalism.

vox · Joined: 13 Feb 2005 Location: Jeollabukdo

Bulsajo · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

I'd recommend reading Eduardo Galeano well before (if ever) recommending Rand to anyone.