Ayn Rand, Featuring John Rodgers, and The Third Party Facepalm.

I don't remember who or what caused me to buy the book, but I bought it, and then it sat on my bookshelf for nearly twenty years untouched. I think it was on a recommended reading list for my senior honors English class at Kaufman High School, really, I'm not sure.

One Christmas, during the family get together, my uncle Thomas was in my bedroom, and we were talking about guitars. I had the book on my desk, as I'd gotten it off the bookshelf above, and thought I'd look into it further. Uncle Thomas saw the book, and facepalmed. himself.

The third picture down is a tribute to everything that Mrs. Rosenbaum, aka, Ayn "Rand" would hate.

Well, you know, Todd-the problem with the third party facepalm is that eventually you run out of other people's palms to facepalm with. . . .

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

~The AMAZING John Rodgers~

"They didn't have any rights to the land, and there was no reason for anyone to grant them rights which they had not conceived and were not using... What was it that they were fighting for, when they opposed white men on this continent? For their wish to continue a primitive existence, their 'right' to keep part of the earth untouched, unused, and not even as property, but just keep everybody out so that you will live practically like an animal, or a few caves above it. Any white person who brings the element of civilization has the right to take over this continent." Ayn Rand, addressing the West Point Cadets, when asked about the United States dispossession and genocide of Indians, March 6, 1974

In all honesty I consider Atlas Shrugged to be a great American work of art, a classic bit of literature mixed with philosophy-and on top of that, Ayn Rosenbaum was an amazing storyteller on the same level as F. Scoot Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and, most appropriately, Upton Sinclair.

Perhaps the best recommendations that I could make to anyone who's read Rand/Rosenbaum is that you should also then, read Sinclair's The Jungle. It you think that the Bible, and The Satanic Bible are diametrically opposed on a philosophical level, then you've not been made aware of the half of it. It's my belief that the proper, sane view of either of those extreme examples is always somewhere in the middle, and that much is lost in the translation due to the fact that words will always have slightly different, to wildly different meanings to different people based upon their individual memories-where else did you think that words get their meanings from?

So finally, as we near the holiday season-and in the spirit of capitalism and the almighty face palm, I'm going to ask for another Ayn Rand classic for Christmas. I'll, however, keep in mind the fact that should everyone use their own palm for face palm necessities . . . .someone will still need to loan a palm to those who've lost their hands.

~WTS~

http://www.capitalcentury.com/1906.html

If you can stand anymore laughter at ridiculous ideas and ridiculous people. . . .click the following link:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/221335/march-11-2009/the-word---rand-illusion