Sunday Philosophy
Posted on November 16, 2008
I really hope this little flashback will spark a conversation in the comments. Ayn Rand, folks!
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12 Responses to “Sunday Philosophy”
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Wow, where on earth did you dig these up? A couple of thoughts, my first is that Ayn Rand’s philosophy is far too complex to be understood by anyone with the shallowness of a talk show host such as Phil Donnahue. He made a career out of being contrarian regardless of the guest, unless the guest was a far left whacko like he is. Secondly, Rand seemed ill at ease during most of this; physically ill?
She had just lost her husband and this was her first public appearance afterward.
The interview did one thing for sure, it showed Phil Donnahue for the mentally challenged fool he is while attempting to be cute and witty with someone out of his league.
In her self proclaimed tolerance, she was very quick and incisive to shoot down the first descentor who brought up a realized maturity and personal responsibility. And I am not a Phil fan, but he exposed some gaping holes in her twisted idea of society, pointing specifically to the tendency of a philosophy akin to a dictatorship.
I have heard of her, but this was the first time I actually watched and listened. Here in darkened California, we see the same ideas being expressed from the protestors of prop 8 demanding tolerance in the most intolerant ways, resorting to civil disobedience and even physical violence. Oh yeah, plenty of room for that idea. It’s like a weed: give it an inch, and it will take a yard, destroying the healthy foliage.
If the ideas Ayn Rand expressed in this Donahue show interest you, even in the least bit, you should check out aynrand.org. There you can find more videos and lectures given by her that explain her philosophy at a deeper level than you’ll get in a one-hour show. You can also go to aynrandlexicon.com and search through her thoughts on a large number of subjects.
And of course, read Atlas Shrugged. Yes, it’s a large book, but the ideas expressed in it are like no other.
On 1/20/09, the really competent Looters arrive with a vengeance.
I was increasingly more uncomfortable throughout these clips. I never watched Donohue, because I am not a moron, but dang, he is all about close talking and getting up in your grill. Dude, have some respect of personal space. And Phil, now that you know what a mop feels like will you please just lead your idiot fan base over the cliff?
Darren pointed out the link to the Ayn Rand website, there are plenty more links to some of her debates with intelligent folks of differing opinions.
Dang, I feel dirty after seeing that. But, the dissenter that spoke up so harshly needed a beatdown and Phil kept that from happening. At least we know now what gave rise to the Jerry Springer circuit.
Gotta go take a shower.
I haven’t been able to watch the videos because I’m at a location where I wouldn’t be able to hear them. Though I liked reading “Atlas Shrugged,” I find Ayn Rand’s thinking too dependent on absolutes. No doubt, there are places for absolutes, and many of them involve the big questions that philosophy deals with. But when you apply absolutes in relation to human interactions, the philosophical infrastructure starts to fall apart — as society’s infrastructure did in A.S. Rand’s an exception to my particular belief about people who readily embrace absolutes from a sociological standpoint: that it’s a lazy choice to think in terms or black-and-white, rather than shades of gray, which is where most of the thought regarding human interaction should be engaged. So why did Rand embrace such a belief? I think it gave her a currency in the climate of the prevailing philosophical arena.
Guess I should have written “practical” — or even “pedestrian” — before the words “human interactions.”
Their just so happens to be a 3 hour radio special on the G. Gordon Liddy show tomorrow about Ayn Rand and her philosophy of Objectivism. “RadioAmerica’s G. Gordon Liddy is devoting a special broadcast of his nationally syndicated three-hour talk radio show to Ayn Rand, her philosophy, and understanding the current state of events through the lens of Objectivism. The broadcast will air live on Monday, November 17, 2008, beginning at 10 AM, Eastern Standard Time.
“The Ayn Rand Center’s Yaron Brook, Onkar Ghate, Elan Journo, Thomas Bowden and Eric Daniels will be the exclusive guests for this extended broadcast. They will discuss the financial crisis, Bush’s claimed defense of capitalism, today’s challenges to free speech, and the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other topics. The broadcast will air on 200 radio stations across the country as well as on XM satellite radio (on a delayed basis). Live streaming audio will be available at the RadioAmerica Web site. G. Gordon Liddy encourages call-in questions from listeners across the country.”
Ayn Rand was wonderful.And it took me about two milliseconds to remember just how much I loathed Phil Donahue.
What an idiot he is/was. God, you can see the beginning of the end of our society every time he opens his maw.
You can see Barack Obama in his snotty little questions of a true genius….and she was too much of a class act to point out that he was one of the mentally inferior she was talking about.In fact I’m pretty sure he was the poster child for that thought.
Seems it really didn’t get too much into her philosophy before Donahue, as usual, muddied everything with his stupidity.
That being said, I gather she’s pretty much like the libertarian/economic conservative crowd we see today. Their mistake is starting from the wrong foundation.
Jim Eliot said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” Ayn Rand wouldn’t understand Jim Eliot, because her philosophy is too limited. She excludes the single most important factor–God.