tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post9097666861014448356..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: What Weiner SaidDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-62999262207180755882009-01-14T05:05:00.000-08:002009-01-14T05:05:00.000-08:00> Ellis Weiner, whose name alone would spotligh...> Ellis Weiner, whose name alone would spotlight him as<BR/>> a malodorous moocher. . .<BR/><BR/>Well, ptooey to you too, Ellsworth!jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-78952662530159024532009-01-13T11:08:00.000-08:002009-01-13T11:08:00.000-08:00> Yet, obviously, people do. Individuals capabl...> Yet, obviously, people do. Individuals capable of dressing<BR/>> themselves apparently love this, one of the most turgid,<BR/>> contrived, pompous, and comically over-written books ever<BR/>> published in English. Why? <BR/>><BR/>> Because they **believe**. For Randroids, "glibertarians,"<BR/>> "conservatives" (whatever that means at this point) and<BR/>> Republicans in general, politics has become a matter of faith.<BR/><BR/>( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellis-weiner/<BR/>on-atlas-shrugged-as-a-gu_b_157295.html )<BR/><BR/>I have another explanation for this.<BR/><BR/>In my experience, folks attracted to Rand's fiction (or<BR/>to transhumanism, for that matter) have a touch of (or perhaps<BR/>even full-blown) Narcissistic Personality Disorder.<BR/><BR/>They can **identify** with characters like Dagny Taggart and<BR/>John Galt, with a perfectly straight face. This is not<BR/>a matter of rational debate -- it's a matter of feeling<BR/>**in your bones** that you're one of the superior beings<BR/>in this world full of mediocrities, just as the author<BR/>of Atlas believed herself to be.<BR/><BR/>"Grandiosity Deconstructed"<BR/>"I believe that I will live forever... It is a cellular<BR/>certainty, almost biological, it flows with my blood<BR/>and permeates every niche of my being. I can do<BR/>anything I choose to do and excel in it. What I<BR/>do, what I excel at, what I achieve depends only<BR/>on my volition. There is no other determinant."<BR/>http://samvak.tripod.com/journal9.html<BR/><BR/>"A Great Admiration"<BR/>"I always wanted to be a genius... Ever since my fifth<BR/>year I pretended to be thoroughly acquainted with issues<BR/>I had no clue about. This streak of con-artistry reached<BR/>a crescendo in my puberty, when I convinced a whole<BR/>township (and later, my country, by co-opting the media)<BR/>that I was a new Einstein. While unable to solve even the<BR/>most basic mathematical equations, I was regarded by many -<BR/>including world class physicists - as somewhat of an<BR/>epiphanous miracle."<BR/>http://samvak.tripod.com/journal14.html<BR/><BR/>G. K. Chesterton once described the type:<BR/><BR/>---------------------------<BR/>"[My] publisher said of somebody, 'That man will get on; he believes<BR/>in himself.' And I remember that as I lifted my head to listen, my<BR/>eye caught an omnibus on which was written 'Hanwell.' I said<BR/>to him, 'Shall I tell you where the men are who believe most in<BR/>themselves? For I can tell you. I know of men who believe in<BR/>themselves more colossally than Napoleon or Caesar. I know<BR/>where flames the fixed star of certainty and success. I can guide<BR/>you to the thrones of the Super-men. The men who really<BR/>believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums.' He said mildly<BR/>that there were a good many men after all who believed in<BR/>themselves and who were not in lunatic asylums. 'Yes, there are,'<BR/>I retorted, 'and you of all men ought to know them. That<BR/>drunken poet from whom you would not take a dreary tragedy,<BR/>he believed in himself. That elderly minister with an epic from<BR/>whom you were hiding in a back room, he believed in himself.<BR/>If you consulted your business experience instead of your<BR/>ugly individualistic philosophy, you would know that believing<BR/>in himself is one of the commonest signs of a rotter. Actors<BR/>who can't act believe in themselves; and debtors who won't<BR/>pay. It would be much truer to say that a man will certainly fail,<BR/>because he believes in himself. Complete self-confidence is not<BR/>merely a sin; complete self-confidence is a weakness.<BR/>Believing utterly in one's self is a hysterical and superstitious belief<BR/>like believing in Joanna Southcote: the man who has it has<BR/>`Hanwell' written on his face as plain as it is written on that omnibus."<BR/>---------------------------<BR/>-- G. K. Chesterton, _Orthodoxy_,<BR/>Chapter 2, "The Maniac"jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-8649381304631718822009-01-13T10:47:00.000-08:002009-01-13T10:47:00.000-08:00> [I] must say I got a kick out of this HuffPo...> [I] must say I got a kick out of this HuffPost by Ellis Weiner. . .<BR/>><BR/>> > The story concerns railroad heiress Dagny Taggart (beautiful, slim, etc.),<BR/>> > and her efforts to keep Taggart Transcontinental in business. . .<BR/><BR/>But who tragically gets run over by one of her own trains<BR/>while taking a quick leak on the tracks.<BR/><BR/>http://mthollywood.blogspot.com/2006/06/i-have-used-batman-last-week-i-said-my_19.htmljimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-8611470087016718792009-01-13T09:49:00.000-08:002009-01-13T09:49:00.000-08:00Loved it! I wish something like this piece has bee...Loved it! I wish something like this piece has been published years ago when I could have used it in a debate with a Randroid. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-26028579110075892702009-01-12T19:50:00.000-08:002009-01-12T19:50:00.000-08:00Excellent piece. Thanks for the heads up.Excellent piece. Thanks for the heads up.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-470011813398230002009-01-12T18:13:00.000-08:002009-01-12T18:13:00.000-08:00Hey, n8o, nice to see you! Happy new year.Hey, n8o, nice to see you! Happy new year.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-38145644011376702122009-01-12T18:05:00.000-08:002009-01-12T18:05:00.000-08:00That's funny. I just finished that, and was about ...That's funny. I just finished that, and was about to point you at it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com