Rand and Hitchens in Agreement...

by:Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny

An interesting matching...

Comments

  1. Will "take no prisoners" HartThu Aug 22, 01:53:00 AM EDT

    I like my atheists the same way that I like my religionists; humble, out of my face, and lacking in certitude.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. dmarksThu Aug 22, 12:52:00 PM EDT

      Will: Athiests with a lot of certitude do cross the line into religious faith. The ones who avoid matters of religious faith most consistently are the agnostics.

      Delete
  2. Jersey McJonesThu Aug 22, 02:47:00 AM EDT

    I've always agreed with Ayn Rand completely when it comes to religion, from all the rationales.

    JMJ

    ReplyDelete
  3. dmarksThu Aug 22, 12:50:00 PM EDT

    Is it really so easy to split Rand's views like that? To be with her when she opposes religion and theocratic tyranny, but oppose her when for the same reasons she also rails against the illogic and tyranny of those who believe in the divine supremacy of political rulers?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Les CarpenterThu Aug 22, 01:38:00 PM EDT

      It's called selective reasoning. Philosophically inconsistent, but Jersey isn't alone in this. I'm reasonably certain everyone at one time or another on one point or another could plead guilty.

      Delete
  4. Ducky's hereThu Aug 22, 04:25:00 PM EDT

    Selective reasoning? I've always felt Rand's aesthetics is a good example.

    In painting she championed monumental, hard edge realism (I.E. Soviet realism) but she was a great champion of the Romantics in music and went to great lengths and gyrations to integrate them with her rationalism.

    Her aesthetics were so limiting (photography merely records reality? Please). Her aesthetics were so poorly constructed that it has colored my whole ttitude toward her.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Les CarpenterThu Aug 22, 04:56:00 PM EDT

      As you will. There is no explaining taste in the arts.

      Other than that Ducky I've no idea what your point is.

      Delete
    2. Ducky's hereFri Aug 23, 12:14:00 PM EDT

      It's hardly difficult.

      She had this construction of man as a rational being.
      Art often emphasizes man's irrational component.
      She saw that and tried to construct a rational aesthetics and completely failed.

      I'd call that a selective failure in a cult full of failures.

      Delete

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