Atlas Shrugged: The Movie

[Jagos]

I still don't understand the hate for objectivism.

And Fifth, the railroads suck because of government subsidies. I think that's more or less accurate.

[Magic_Marker]

Because it's not grounded in reality. It assumes a pure meritocracy despite the fact that there is no such thing, so it leaves the unfortunate to wallow in poor living conditions because of its assumption that all people deserve their station. Those are only it's problems morally. It's axioms are never fully explained, its epistemology is sloppy at best and it ignores every major finding in psychology, sociology, cognitive and neuro science.

It has the distinction of being a fiction, but a powerful one with lobbies and freshman university students who think they are hot shit because they can articulate that yes, they are better than you in every way.

This is ignoring her atrocious fiction, which was the main vehicle of explaining her philosophy.

[Mr.Bookworm]

Originally Posted by Jagos

I still don't understand the hate for objectivism.

Go play Bioshock. Pretty much a perfect Objectivist society before things went to hell.

But anyway, Objectivism is, well, not good for quite a few reasons. It's an inherently unsound system, it's fundamentally based around people being assholes, the books that developed Objectivism including Atlas Shrugged are rather stupid and annoying, it's extremist, and well, Ayn Rand was kind of an asshole. There's a lot of reasons. Take your pick.

EDIT: And Magic Marker promptly explains everything much more clearly then I ever could.

EDIT2: The most annoying thing about her books is probably that she writes characters who CHANGE THE WORLD. The Galt of the book makes a big, 70-page long speech (I swear to God), and everything changes, because Objectivism is obviously right and correct. Ayn Rand had neither the writing skill nor the oratory skill to actually portray this convincingly. This also becomes slightly hilarious when you learn that, say, Ayn Rand couldn't even convince her own sister to not go back to the Soviet Union.

[Aerozord]

personally I always found bioshock is a better example of pure capitalism. IE a complete lack of control over economy. Which of course falls apart the moment someone invents crack

[Kim]

Originally Posted by Jagos

I still don't understand the hate for objectivism.

A philosophy being evil generally is grounds for some pretty strong hate.

[Archbio]

Originally Posted by Jagos

I still don't understand the hate for objectivism.

Because Ayn Rand:

Originally Posted by Mark Ames

The best way to get to the bottom of Ayn Rand's beliefs is to take a look at how she developed the superhero of her novel, Atlas Shrugged, John Galt. Back in the late 1920s, as Ayn Rand was working out her philosophy, she became enthralled by a real-life American serial killer, William Edward Hickman, whose gruesome, sadistic dismemberment of 12-year-old girl named Marion Parker in 1927 shocked the nation. Rand filled her early notebooks with worshipful praise of Hickman. According to biographer Jennifer Burns, author of Goddess of the Market, Rand was so smitten with Hickman that she modeled her first literary creation -- Danny Renahan, the protagonist of her unfinished first novel, The Little Street -- on him.

What did Rand admire so much about Hickman? His sociopathic qualities: "Other people do not exist for him, and he does not see why they should," she wrote, gushing that Hickman had "no regard whatsoever for all that society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. He has the true, innate psychology of a Superman. He can never realize and feel 'other people.'"

Caution: that article gets pretty graphic.

Also, Ayn Rand (and apparently a lot of her fans) don't know what parasite means.

[Fifthfiend]

Setting aside everything about Ayn Rand, her particular beliefs, the consistency of those beliefs, and her advocacy for them:

Anyone who calls their philosophy "objectivism" is an asshole.

[Archbio]

Oh yes.

Lets nominally claim as unique and ours basic principles held by almost everyone else!

I'm a correctist. And I believe in good.

That makes you evil. And you. And you.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Originally Posted by Jagos

And Fifth, the railroads suck because of government subsidies. I think that's more or less accurate.

Have you ever ridden on a private rail network? Cause I have and holy shit, government fund that bitch.
All the private railn etworks I've been on operate very well on the assumption that large swathes of people are depedent on them and have no real other option so they can charge massive prices for inefficient services and that increased service will only target the small amount of people who are flexible in transport needs and not enough to pay for the increased costs. Efficiency is not and never has been that profitable.

[Sifright]

Yea I'm going to have to disagree with every one who thinks private rail is a 'good' thing. You see during WW2 Uk rail was nationalised and it operated pretty well when it was privatized suddenly it became a huge pile of shit. See the amazing thing about rail in the Uk now is it's cheaper to fly to scotland than it is to go by train from south england which is both stupid and hilarious.