Before Ayn Rand, philosophy was crap
Published by Kyso Kisaen December 15th, 2007Generally I think that it is a bad thing that our current economy shoves our over-supply of articulate, overeducated people into wage slave customer service jobs that are expressly designed to squander the talents the articulate, overeducated people. On the other hand, thanks to the internet, we can all benefit from the combination of an aware mind and soul-gnawing tedium and or absurdity.
After I took you to the philosophy section to show you her absense in person, you began to explain your personal theories to me.
You explained to me that Ayn Rand is the first person to radically change philosophy in history. You explained to me, in a soft, intimate voice, that capitalism should in fact be called “liberalism,” due to the fact that it comes from the French word for “free,” and that capitalism makes us free.
I would like to apologize at this point for the fact that my employer prevents me from engaging in political or philosophical discussions with customers, because instead of nodding quietly, at this point, what I really should have done was point out that liber actually comes from Latin, from which both the French and English words are derived. I also apologize for not explaining that capitalism actually falls under the subject of economics.
And after Ayn Rand, philosophy was crappier.
I am more sympathetic towards some of her arguments than I ought to be, simply because public schools are a morass of anti-intellectualism. But god, her anti-feminism and her writing are unbearable. I am reading The Fountainhead now, and it is almost comical to read the paragraphs—and there are many of them—that go something like, “She nodded, and in that moment he knew that she knew that he knew that [blank], and she knew that he knew that she knew that he knew that [blank].” And I say to no one in particular, “People don’t communicate like that! Nobody thinks and acts like that! Go meet some actual people!”
So Rand likes capitalism and selfishness and hates women; none of this is new or revolutionary, except perhaps the blatantness with which she advocates the same old oppressive paradigms.
I love what happens when you Google ‘right-wing bullshit monger’…
Soda, meet keyboard! I just spat everywhere. Hilarious.
Wait a minute, this was posted by a young woman working in a bookstore about a male customer who trapped her in a stupid conversation on a flimsy pretext…
Who else thinks this guy was trying to impress the OP with his knowledge of philosophy, French, and misogynistic capitalism-worshipping bullshit-mongers?