Boy, if you just skip over RR’s posts and absorb all the sound advice, logical reasoning, professional stratagems, philosophical assessments and book reviews a bunch of apparently knowledgeable dopers are giving, this makes for a pretty darn entertaining read.
You know, Rand Rover has convinced me too that the flat tax is a better option.
You say this stupid shit in the same thread where someone lost their job. Your fucking jokey posts are inappropriate.
Example - Some may find “dead baby” jokes funny. Telling one at someone’s childs funeral is inappropriate.
Can you see this?
You’ve said “you are a liar” about 10 times to various people.
You’ve called a few of us “dumbass”.
I’m starting to think you’re a teen, wearing Daddy’s shoes and pretending to be a big boy. Perhaps you’re in business school - a Dougie Hauser with no social skills.
Whatever.
“you f***ing rand rover” has become more of a curse to me that the “c” word.
Congratulations, kid.
It’s important to remember the time it was written, and that Ayn Rand had personally witnessed the early days of the USSR.
Yeah. So, you do realize, that had your parents ascribed to that belief, you would have died as an infant from starvation, right?
Randists seem to operate in denial of how their philosophy would work in the real world.
Since this is clearly not working out as you intended, perhaps you should revise your approach, or stop altogether.
In all seriousness, I would suggest some interpersonal communications skills classes, preferably ones taught by psychology professionals of some sort. You seem to have no understanding of how your words and attitudes impact others, so you end up surprised when people react with what is actually an entirely predictible response. DBT skills training is one I can think of off the top of my head, the interpersonal effectiveness module in particular.
Therapy geared toward understanding the hows and whys of the way your behavior impacts others and earns you the reactions you get wouldn’t be out of line, either.
Oh, is this thread but long overdue.
Rand Rover, it’s all well and fine to take responsibility for yourself… admirable, really. As someone who came from a family full of fuck-ups, I can definitely see how taking responsibility for your own decisions is essential to success. Absolutely. I even completely understand what you mean when you say how someone else feels about you is their own issue to deal with. So much of people’s personal reality is composed of the kind of thoughts they think, and which of those thoughts they choose to believe are true.
But under no circumstances, ever, is there justification to be so consistently lacking in empathy and compassion for other human beings. Fucking up is a part of life. When you make a mistake or a poor decision, the pain is no less real or worthy of consideration. You know what else is a part of life? Having bad shit happen to you that is in no way your fault or your responsibility. Believe it or not, people suffer arbitrarily, for no good reason at all, through no fault of their own. To deny this simple, depressing reality is just as nonsensical as those who claim everything happens because ‘‘God wills it.’’ What it reflects is a basic immaturity, an inability to accept that bad things happen to good people.
I don’t know if people generally lacking in empathy are naturally attracted to Rand, or if Rand makes people turn into complete heartless bastards, but either way there’s a definite correlation. It’s understandable that Rand, being a victim of the worst about communism, would develop this ideology to establish her own boundaries after being told so consistently by her government she didn’t have any. Maybe you are motivated by the same thing… maybe you just got tired of trying to parse out the boundary between yourself and others… maybe someone else stepped all over you and you reached your breaking point. Or maybe you were just born with a fucked up frontal lobe and have never given two shits about anything outside your own little universe.
Regardless of why you behave this way, it’s sad. My personal conception of failure has to do with choosing not to love. I find few people as disturbing as I find you, for exactly that reason. All you do is hide your unwillingness to care about others behind your rigid philosophy. What a waste.
Rand was valuable to this world precisely because she was willing to shake up the system. Her society told her the Collective was all that mattered, she retorted the Ego will prevail. Holding onto the precious concept of the ego in a society as narcissistic and individualistic as ours is not creative, it’s not revolutionary, it’s not even interesting. You have the same disease most other people do, you just don’t seem to understand it’s a disease. You have such a brilliant mind, and obviously a lot of strengths (like boundless self-confidence) that have enabled you to succeed. I wonder what would happen if you broke out of your stale ideology and really started to get creative about your life philosophy. I wonder what would happen if you left room for compassion. You might find an altogether different kind of success.
…and that she had an erotic attachment to “powerful” men (read: arrogant assholes) and that her “philosophy” was a self-serving, post-facto rationalization for why she had this erotic attachment.
And, boy, did she ever hate Communists! The way I hate licorice, liver, and puppies, times ten, to the hundreth power plus one. Hooo, doggies! Trouble is, when you set about creating a perfect antithesis to nonsense, you’re pretty sure gonna end up with nonsense.
Ayn Rand became famous for the same reasons that so many Central American fascist assholes became heads of state, got to wear the cool aviator sunglasses, the silly hats and have people killed. She marked the complete extreme for pure anti-Communism, even though a Phil. 101 student could dismantle her premises while lighting a fart.
Even very bright people, while young, can be misled. I stand witness.
*Brave Rand Rover ran away!
Bravely ran away, away, Oh brave Rand Rover!
When jali started this ugly thread, he bravely turned his tail and fled
Bravely, bravely, BRAVE Rand Rover*
In case you missed it: RAND.
A very old and trite, but still biting, adage:
“If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am for myself only, what kind of monster am I?”
You have a very poor conception of what is in one’s self-interest.
What is your evidence for the proposition that I am completely lacking in empathy for other human beings?
This thread has gone on for so long but no one has yet posted an example of me getting on someone’s ass just for them being unemployed. Because I’ve never done that. Not a single time. And I’ve never said that someone’s choices determine absolutely everything in their life. Not a single time. But the forces of darkness here are perfectly happy with half-truths and misconceptions and mistinterpretations, and they found an opportunity to jump on someone with different political beliefs than they have, so they drank the kool-aid, took the bait, and jumped in with both feet.
I don’t think Jesus would agree with that first part.
Your behavior. All you have to offer is judgmental, self-righteous commentary.
Yeah, that’s an easier explanation than the possibility that your behavior pisses people off. I could give a shit less about how different your political beliefs are. Some of my best doper buds have quite dramatic political beliefs from my own (Ivylass, holla!) I read Anthem when I was fourteen. It’s fine for what it is – an empowering philosophy borne out of an oppressive environment. People may attack you for being Objectivist but that’s missing the point.
How you treat people matters. Maybe you’re a stellar human being in real life, but your comportment on these boards is therefore not representative of your best self.
I’ll say-don’t we kind of NEED our assholes? (Well, unless you’re like my Uncle Craig-he’s got a colostomy bag)
And it probably smells a HELL of a lot better than half of the stuff than our dear friend Rand Rover is spewing here.
olivesmarch4th-major applause. You said it far, far better than I ever could. It’s just a shame he won’t get it. There are none so blind and all that jazz.
For example? Do you think the thread quoted in the OP is an example of me lacking empathy? If so, have you read the entire thread where I posted that?
I contend that people see it like this:
Step 1: someone posts about losing their job, etc.
Step 2: Rand steps in and shows his ass.
but I see it like this:
Step 1: someone posts about losing their job, etc.
Step 2: said someone complains that they have to “pound the pavement,” which is so beneath them
Step 3: Rand steps in and shows his ass.
I think the extra bit everyone keeps forgetting about is important.
<snerk>
…
…
Considering that you act like we’re ALL beneath you, you’re hardly one to talk. And from what I can recall, said individual didn’t say it was beneath him so much as frustrating. And damned if it isn’t.
I’d wish the same on you, but I don’t feel like stooping to your level, you fucking assgoblin.