felix qui possit rerum cognoscere causas
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October 12, 2002
Why I am not an Objectivist
They've gone off their rocker again. The Ayn Rand Institute has called Lawrence Lessig a Marxist because of his position on the Eldred vs Ashcroft that is now before the Supreme Court. As he himself points out, that puts him along other well-known Marxists such as Milton Friedman and those red-flag waving insurrectionists at the Cato Institute. Jeeeez folks... try to stay at least a little in touch with reality. Taking a principled position is one thing, but if that principled position is anchored to a semi-planetary object in a highly eccentric orbit around the Sun, you've got a problem. This kind of stuff may play well to the converted, but it is alienating people (like me) who otherwise would be sympathetic. I am afraid Objectivism looks more like a cult than a philosophy to me. Michael Shermer expanded on this theme in Why People Believe Weird Things. Not that I think libertarianism is weird per se, it's just that the Objectivists have taken it to unhealthy extremes. Comments
I agree. I am in general agreement with much of objectivist thought, but it has some very serious errors, caused by a cult-like attitude towards Rand. Posted by: Gunnar on October 15, 2002 09:43 PMHey guys -- ARI is not the sum total of Objectivism. On the contrary, they represent the radical "orthodox" branch and are less representative of the Objectivist movement each year. If you've not already done so, check out The Objectivist Center, whose newsletters, press releases, conferences, and other intellectual output speak much more truly to the benevolent and reasonable side of Objectivism: You may notice that more and more reporters, when writing an essay on Rand or on her followers, interview TOC rather than ARI. It's partly because ARI is justifiably earning a reputation as angry extremists. Bottom line is, there are a lot of people who feel as you do, but who don't allow it to alienate them from the valuable body of ideas -- and the intellectual companionship afforded by Objectivist conferences and study groups around the world. Very best wishes, Joshua Zader Post a comment
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