Ayn Rand

[fpb]

There is one person in HP fandom who detested me instinctively, and whom I detested with equal intensity, almost as soon as we became aware of each other. Now I have found out why. She is an Ayn Rand fan. I am, to begin with, too old to put up with Rand's infantile attempts at philosophy - she is one of those people who managed to remain mentally fifteen all their lives - but I also have my roots in European Socialism and Christian Democracy, of all political views in the world the most offensive to an Objectivist (as her cultists arrogantly call themselves). Rand was a disaster and a hypocrite in real life, and her doctrines are only rescued from having to be called revolting by their sheer, self-parodying stupidity. One would think that anyone over the age of sixteen would be able to see through such obiter dicta as "altruism is the root of all evil" or her praise of the dollar sign; alas, America is still full of people without enough culture or self-understanding to see through this sort of thing. One of the things that make Europe still superior to America is that there is no way that a Rand phenomenon could ever take place among us. We do have our follies, but ultra-individualism is not one of them.

Comments

[privatemaladict.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to add - it's possible this Ayn Rand person never penetrated to this corner of the Earth. Australia seems quite selective about with parts of American culture we pick up - some things penetrate completely, others not at all. The best example is language - I have an American beta-reader, and we are constantly finding how selective the language is. Some words, for which he expects we'd use the British version, have been completely Americanised, whereas others have stayed strictly British. Others, of course, are uniquely Australian, and still others are interchangeable.

Now I'm going to look up Ayn Rand, just out of curiousity.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting remark about the selectivity of Australian word-choices. You could write an essay on that. As for Rand, I view her as a pathological phenomenon, and one that is only really relevant to America, so I have little trouble in believing that her views never crossed the Pacific. She is, however, important in understanding the non-religious areas of the American Right, which I personally find more threatening than the religious ones.

[privatemaladict.livejournal.com]

Well, we came across one just today - "Merry Christmas" vs "Happy Christmas". Am I right in thinking that in England, people mostly say "Happy Christmas"? My beta thought that'd be the norm for Australians as well, but it's not. We say "Merry Christmas". But there are heaps of things. We've had a few clashes over punctuation - punctuation! All these little rules that differ just slightly.

[chthonya]

(Hope neither of you mind me answering this... in my experience it's usually 'Merry Christmas' and 'Happy New Year'. 'Happy Christmas' isn't unheard of, but sounds a little unnatural to my ears.

Anyhow, I hope yours was Happy, Merry, and whatever else you might wish for!)

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I thought so too, but, not being native-born English, that sudden question had just sent me into a tizzy. After all, I might have been getting it wrong all these years....
Glad to hear from you, C, and the same to you, along with many decades of rude health!