I come hailing as a more learned Objectivist than I was before. This article actually caused me to go find an online Objectivist community for the purpose of observing them to see if your assertion was true. I’ve found that it is not. I have not met a single “whiny” Objectivist out of all of the Objectivists I now chat almost-daily with.
Objectivism holds a primacy of existence attitude towards reality, as opposed to a primacy of consciousness attitude. This means that reality comes before our wishes, and if we want our wishes to come true, we have to work for them. We have to affect reality to get what we want, not whine about it.
A real Objectivist would work towards his goals in a rational manner. A whiner is being irrational and is therefore not being Objectivist when they do it.
I find it interesting that all of Objectivism’s attackers are people who don’t even understand the philosophy. You can’t just read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and think you know Objectivism. Atlas Shrugged shows Objectivism in action. Galt’s speech gives you a summary of it. But to really understand it, you must pursue the non-fiction. I haven’t seen a rebuttal of Objectivism yet given by a person who knew the philosophy they were trying to rebuke.
I find it interesting that all of Objectivism’s attackers are people who don’t even understand the philosophy. You can’t just read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and think you know Objectivism. Galt’s speech gives you a summary of it. But to really understand it, you must pursue the non-fiction.
For the purposes of this discussion, I don’t think that’s true. Most criticisms of Rand can be effectively rebutted by showing their inconsistency with her fiction. No real need to get into her essays or The Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology.
I come hailing as a more learned Objectivist than I was before. This article actually caused me to go find an online Objectivist community for the purpose of observing them to see if your assertion was true. I’ve found that it is not. I have not met a single “whiny” Objectivist out of all of the Objectivists I now chat almost-daily with.
Objectivism holds a primacy of existence attitude towards reality, as opposed to a primacy of consciousness attitude. This means that reality comes before our wishes, and if we want our wishes to come true, we have to work for them. We have to affect reality to get what we want, not whine about it.
A real Objectivist would work towards his goals in a rational manner. A whiner is being irrational and is therefore not being Objectivist when they do it.
I find it interesting that all of Objectivism’s attackers are people who don’t even understand the philosophy. You can’t just read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and think you know Objectivism. Atlas Shrugged shows Objectivism in action. Galt’s speech gives you a summary of it. But to really understand it, you must pursue the non-fiction. I haven’t seen a rebuttal of Objectivism yet given by a person who knew the philosophy they were trying to rebuke.
For the purposes of this discussion, I don’t think that’s true. Most criticisms of Rand can be effectively rebutted by showing their inconsistency with her fiction. No real need to get into her essays or The Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology.
You can’t criticise North Korea until you’ve read all of Kim Il Sung in the original Korean.
The more information from all sources you base your criticism on, the more you can rely on it being substantive and accurate.