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If You Could Ask Ayn Rand One Question....

Posted by awebb 8 years, 4 months ago to The Gulch: General
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If you had the opportunity to ask Ayn Rand any one question, what would it be?


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  • Posted by dbhalling 8 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yes and as much good as he did it was all non-structural and complete eroded by the early 2000s
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 8 years, 4 months ago
    Hello awebb,
    I would ask: May I have an interview? :) In this case the questions are like Lay's potato chips...
    Respectfully,
    O.A.
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  • Posted by $ jdg 8 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    She wanted us to Shrug at the time she wrote it.

    Today, it's a longer road back. JG might well die and hope his children are better at persuading producers to shrug.
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  • Posted by $ jdg 8 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Reagan proved that gradualism and compromise accomplish nothing except to help the enemy. I will not help any politician who won't cut the budget -- and that doesn't mean just "slow the rate of increase" or "temporarily sequester".
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  • Posted by LibertyBelle 8 years, 4 months ago
    dbhalling: I understand that, In Atlas Shrugged,
    he thought (incorrectly) "She would never want to
    leave him and he would never have the right to leave..." which was wrong, because of course he
    had the right to leave. But I think, as long has he thought like that, it would have been better
    if he had just abstained until he realized that he
    really did have the right to leave.-Of course,
    once Lillian discovered who it was and had the
    option of divorce and turned it down, she was
    at fault for betraying him and Dagny to the gov-
    ernment.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 8 years, 4 months ago
    To clarify, are we asking assuming she had continued to live to this day, or could we ask her a question if she still exists even though she has passed on? That would be incredibly illustrative to me - and I suspect to many others.
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  • Posted by khalling 8 years, 4 months ago
    My question would be: "Can you please clarify self ownership and its origins in Man?
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  • Posted by illucio 8 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    So Sad, yet True. I liked Dagny Taggart's character, yet I was saddenned to read from Rand's own notes that she criticized her on being to gullible in her pride. Basically shoes that the female world seems so mucho more competitive than the male one, especially nowadays. Women are proving to be quite superior in many aspects, I won't deny this. Hello Mike, just realized it was you answering. Got another like from me
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Has to do with action figures in characterization. Other than Joan of Arc and Molly Pitcher it wasn't context of the times. If written today...who would be the role model? Even today using candidates as a source women are either marginalized or marginalize themselves. Fiorini y Waddle. Helped along by their strong supporters Couric and Perry and Wasserman Schultz and Whoopie and Rosie. short of I've got a billion to prove it Oprah who? horse riding sword wielders are still confined to comic strips when it comes to women. It's cultural and guided by what sells books and movie tickets.
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  • Posted by 8 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It's really strange how incredible women can have a poor view of their own sex.

    Atlas Distribution is working on a movie (Queen of the Desert) about Gertrude Bell who was this really "ahead of her times" woman. She helped define the Middle East... yet she thought women shouldn't be allowed to vote.
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  • Posted by illucio 8 years, 4 months ago
    I have a question that's more psychological than filosofical, though it can later be translated to that. How come all her male heroes are rather masoquistic (Howard Roark, Hank Rearden, Francisco D'Alconia, John Galt)? Is it that she can acount for a man's greatness according to how much they can endure? Of course Galt would be the utopia of this, and I can understand the that this may have something to do with the Bolchevique Revolution she witnessed as a child but; yet in general it seems that they all set themselves up for sacrifice. Mind you I'm not saying she is a sadist, but it is rather peculiar that these male figures are strong based on endurance mostly, rather than more virtuous reasons. Something of the "one man against the world" ordeal I suppose. Anyway, that's what I'd ask her.
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  • Posted by Steven-Wells 8 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I'm a hardcore atheist, but I would be hard pressed to argue against the proposition that the Founding Fathers were demigods.
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  • Posted by freedomforall 8 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    For Galt's sake, check your premises.
    Having read hundreds of Jan's posts, I can't say if Jan is a man or a woman from the reasoning of the arguments made. Jan is a well reasoned Gulcher and has earned my respect.
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  • Posted by Flootus5 8 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I think I would be frightened if she had no fallibilities.

    And then consider also how many men look up to her for having significantly influenced their lives. She, by example was changing many previous perceptions and mores.

    "Looking up" is probably not the best characterization. It implies the pedestal thing. I prefer "gaining respect" for intellectual achievements.
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