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luka's blog was updated.
4 months ago
> Randian sex - My immediate thought was just, "does it really have to stand for something past its obvious utilities" which made me realize that's what a neurotypical would say about ideological "integrity" in general. And they have a point there, honestly.
I was going to read atlas shrugged but a mutual said that fountainhead was the more coherent of the two.. I didn't nearly enjoy fountainhead enough to read the other so I'll take your word for it, although it sounds like the two of you had a similar conclusion.
>Rand By the way, I find that Rand's sexual morality is very questioning, but that's not a main point I guess.
>Rand I still quite agree with the individualism (or could I call it individual solidarity?) and think Roark's bombing is not wrong at all. What I point out is that I don't think "Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" are really compatible. She argued that laissez-faire capitalism is the only system that assures the individual solidarity so that it is the only moral system countless times. I highly suspect that.
>Rand I'm not against free exchange itself though. But too much of it makes everyone a machinary part of the system. So I think that her ideology is contradictory.
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lukasblog
4 months ago
The Fountainhead engages mostly on an interpersonal level aside from a few remarks ("Isn't Europe swallowed already [by collectivism] and we're stumbling on to follow?") so my agreement with her is contained to the points made on that axis rather than economic ideas. I know for her the two were quite intertwined, which is also implied in the brief moments where she connects her diatribes to governance explicitly, but
lukasblog
4 months ago
What I got out of it was the idea that there is an undesirable emphasis on actions chosen because of how they will make others view us rather than deriving from some individualistic satisfaction. There is variation in the distribution of the two between individuals but I do think the person that is composed mostly of consideration towards a 'status' is robbing themselves of some sort of human dignity.
lukasblog
4 months ago
Agency, I suppose. If someone is the composite of others more than themselves then can they be called an individual? Ofc there's a lot of implicit assumptions about definitions being made in that line of reasoning but it comes from a place of feeling before thought.
lukasblog
4 months ago
>extreme division of labor so that everyone does one specialized work to make money and buy everything else with that money. That's totally totalitarian. Is the idea here that people are coerced into a 'slot' through economic pressures? I will say that extrapolating from what she says in the book to societal policy led to ambiguity at best, something that seems to be echoed in the general reception of her philosophy
>Rand Rand has a point and I agreed with her in the past, but now I don't think that market economy is truly compatible with individualism. I mean, free market always prefers exchange because of the economic efficiency. So in free market in its extreme form, there is extreme division of labor so that everyone does one specialized work to make money and buy everything else with that money. That's totally totalitarian.
also I agree, I don't see how the economic argument follows the interpersonal idea. Fountainhead does not present a clear picture on what she wants--everyone can't be a Roark, that's just reality. And the state wasn't an antagonist at all in the plot - nobody in the 'free market' wants what he's offering. Did she want some change effected or just to bemoan the state of things? I don't get it.
I suppose I could read her actual theory stuff but I don't feel like humoring her further