Ormond Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 I'm afraid that I have to agree with Watcher that if you all want to take this quiz and comment on your results, you should post a separate thread in General Chatter rather than take over this thread in Literature. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Irving Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 [quote name='StarkMyrmidon' post='1653369' date='Jan 18 2009, 17.33']Heh heh, those of us who were hoping Ron Paul would be inaugurated right about now would say that the current economic mess is the work of the political and economic theories of Republicans and Democrats ... after all, they've been in power for, hmmm, how long now? I'd also like to point out the distinction between voting Libertarian and sharing Libertarian values. Unfortunately, most Americans buy into the 2-party fallacy (the idea that a vote for anyone but the Republicrat is a "wasted" vote). Therefore, the majority of Americans tend to vote against their own self-interests, over and over again -- if they even bother to vote. Yet if people are surveyed about their underlying ideals, without party "labels" ... well, I don't need to ramble on and on, go take [url="http://www.theadvocates.org/quizp/index.html"]The World's Smallest Political Quiz[/url] and see for yourselves. And please, post your results! My result: Libertarian. :thumbsup:[/quote] yeah how about not take a political quiz thats a bit longer and a lot less skewed. I am a nationalist in the way Theodore Roosevelt was. I have come to this conclusion not by some dumb and way to shoret quiz but by looking at how I feel myself about politics. I believe in the right to free speech however I believe a strong nation is needed if a society is to suceed and therefore a strong goverment is needed. however that goverment must be watched over or it will fail and society with it. I also believe in the right to own semi autos as long as your not a fellon or mentally deranged (like ayn Rand) and believe that the war on drugs is a waste of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horza Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Why take US political quizzes at all? Why not find out where you sit on the [url="http://www.ozpolitics.info/guide/fun/politics-test/"]Australian [/url]political spectrum? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Chico Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 What if I don't feel like it, Ormond? What if I don't enjoy you imposing your bureaucratic thread-mentality on me and my individual desires? Why should I bend my own will to the wishes of others, when it profits me nothing? I am entitled to the sweat of my typing fingers, am I not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horza Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Who is El Chico? :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Chico Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 [quote name='Horza' post='1653488' date='Jan 18 2009, 19.54']Why take US political quizzes at all? Why not find out where you sit on the [url="http://www.ozpolitics.info/guide/fun/politics-test/"]Australian [/url]political spectrum?[/quote] Let's move this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Chico Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 [quote name='Horza' post='1653492' date='Jan 18 2009, 20.00']Who is El Chico? :P[/quote] What? Do I need to build up a rep before I start mouthing off? :leaving: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horza Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 [quote name='El Chico' post='1653505' date='Jan 19 2009, 13.24']What? Do I need to build up a rep before I start mouthing off? :leaving:[/quote] Heh, no it's an [i]Atlas Shrugged[/i] joke, count yourself fortunate not to get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Chico Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Oh, sorry for being a little slow. "Who is John Galt?" Nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norseman Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 [url="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0452011876/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"]Atlas Shrugged sample[/url] for anyone who is interested in seeing what her style is like. The book is however in dire, [i]dire[/i] need of editing, which Ayn Rand always refused to agree to. Yes that's right, this book was written by an ideological author, prone to a 19th Centuryesque style, who refused to let anyone make any changes to her writing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vrana Posted January 19, 2009 Author Share Posted January 19, 2009 I wasn't expecting this to turn political. :P Iwas planning on to have read The Fountainhead by now, but alas, my local library fails me again. And so far she's way to unappealing for me to actually by anything. One of these days I'll get around to reading it. Thanks for all the replies though. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elrostar Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 I am seriously contemplating reading The Fountainhead, just so I will have read it. I am tempted to listen to it on audiobook, but I'm worried that this would prolong the agony of some of the speeches, which I might otherwise want to... skim, so to speak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shryke Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 [quote name='Elrostar' post='1654161' date='Jan 19 2009, 14.46']I am seriously contemplating reading The Fountainhead, just so I will have read it. I am tempted to listen to it on audiobook, but I'm worried that this would prolong the agony of some of the speeches, which I might otherwise want to... skim, so to speak.[/quote] Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead unabridged: CD1: Part 1 CD2: Part 2 CD3: The Speech CD4: Part 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinsdale! Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Her philosophy has a few good bits here and there, but ultimately it doesn't come together cohesively for me. That was my thought when I was reading Atlas Shrugged anyway, and I was a pacifist-anarcho-libertarian at the time. I have to applaud her ambition of restoring ultimate meaning to philosophy in the absence of a divine order, but that's about it. The book itself is terribly written. There are painful sex scenes. There are characters that hardly develop, yet somehow take 700 pages to do so. There is a tedious love triangle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shryke Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 [url="http://www.angryflower.com/atlass.gif"]Why Ayn Rand shouldn't be taken seriously.[/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myshkin Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 [quote name='Shryke' post='1654757' date='Jan 19 2009, 19.03'][url="http://www.angryflower.com/atlass.gif"]Why Ayn Rand shouldn't be taken seriously.[/url][/quote] Awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimelessChain Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 [url="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AtlasShrugged"]TV Tropes' take on Atlas[/url] [url="http://www.jeffcomp.com/faq/wrong.html"]A nice essay on why Ayn Randian Objectivism is crap[/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imp Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Was given a copy of atlas shrugged to read by my brother a while back. It's probably the first book that I've ever put down after 100 pages and have no intention of finishing. Utter garbage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elrostar Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 [quote name='Shryke' post='1654757' date='Jan 19 2009, 22.03'][url="http://www.angryflower.com/atlass.gif"]Why Ayn Rand shouldn't be taken seriously.[/url][/quote] Bob the angry flower is indeed quite fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nerdanel Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 [quote name='Nous'][quote]The Fountainhead represents a form that has always been extremely successful in novels, on the stage and on the screen, but which has become very rare because it's the most difficult of all forms: Romantic Realism. The method of romantic realism is to make life more beautiful and interesting than it actually is, yet give it all the reality, and even a more convincing reality than that of our everyday existence. Life, not as it is, but as it could be and should be. That is what the public likes, wants and is starved for. But this cannot be achieved without a very clear understanding of what it is, how it's done—and a very conscious policy in doing it. The general school of writing and movies nowadays aims at cheap journalistic realism--—trying to represent life "just like the folks next door." Any touch of that approach would destroy The Fountainhead. The characters of The Fountainhead are not average people. They are unusual people who do unusual things. To make them convincing one must keep them strictly consistent with their own peculiar natures. Then the audience will accept them.[/quote][/quote] Deep down I'm very much a romantic (in the old sense - I have zero interest in category romance). I'm a big fan of Tolkien, and his work is full of larger-than-life heroes. However, Ayn Rand just doesn't work for me. Bad writing aside, I think the main reason is that I am unable to see Ayn Rand's heroes as heroes rather than villains and his villains as villains instead of characters from a bad cartoon. Beyond just common niceness, I've had enough brushes with misfortune to not identify myself with Ms Perfectia Omnicompetent-Sneeringworth or any of her fellows. People are interconnected and plagued by unforeseeable surprises, and no one has the ability to be the sole determiner of their lot in life. Being lower on the rungs of society doesn't equate with moral failure and being rich doesn't mean the same thing as being moral. I think there could be some correlation between liking Ayn Rand and thinking Bakker's Kellhus is a true hero instead of a villain protagonist, but I haven't had enough of a sample size to see if I'm right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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