The Glade 4.0

In Before the Elmo Rage

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Pressing F5 furiously.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

Who's John Galt?

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

I dunno...I'd take whatever's said here with a grain of galt.

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I can't even tell who's kidding in this thread now.

WHAT HAVE I DONE?!

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

++

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

A long winded, monologuing bastard created by hack novelist Ayn Rand.

You can give that story's entire moral message in a far more entertaining manner.

For instance...

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I read the book only on the personal request of a friend because I don't read fiction anymore.

Not going to get any rage out of me Khross, dunno why you think you would have.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Dear God... Why in the world would you quit reading fiction?

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

I like information now more than flights of fancy.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Booooring.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Indeed. Imagination > ...uh, not-imagination.

Nobody's imagination can compare to real science. That ****'s better than drugs.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

There is lots of information in fiction. And lots of value. Satire, parables, historical fiction (reenactments, etc), the Constitution - all have value and are important. Not to mention the lack of understanding you will develop by closing yourself off to one huge segment of culture. Also, do you realize how boring you'll be in a conversation if you close yourself off to flights of fancy?

Yeah because that is what I am known to be - boring.

???

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

This from a man who's primary image we mostly picture you with has you dressed in Jedi robes and holding a lightsaber?

Hmm I see him as the bastard child of Ted nugent and Bert gummer from tremors.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

You don't have to read a lot of fiction to have an active imagination...

Isn't that was porn is for?

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I'm glad someone got it.

So, why is John Galt not heroic, and what would be heroic?

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

Oh, i think most (some?) of us got it. I just freakin' hate that book...and it's not the message that I hate. Ayn Rand's message was appealling. Her writing was crap.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Don't fall into a trap, making yourself one dimensional. All the information in the world in useless without depth of character and a way to communicate and ultimatly sell that information to others.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Why on earth wouldn't I get it?

That said, one should probably dismiss any notions one has of Rand being an Objectivist and proto-libertarian thinker. Avoiding all criticisms or praises for her writing, there are some fundamental phenomenological concerns that undermine the value of her writing in those contexts. In particular, I specifically picked Rand because she's a) not Western by birth and b) not initially a child of the specific Anglo-Saxon diaspora that dominates current academic and political thought. Sadly, what I discovered when I actually took her texts to task was a curious and peculiarly post-Marxist notion of the hero.

But, I'll simply contend that altruistic suicide is not an act of heroism; it is, in point of fact, supremely selfish. However, that John Galt or Winston Smith or Professor Solanka or the Magistrate or Piggy or Bernard or even Darth Vader or Obi Wan or Qui Gonn or ...

Well, everyone that isn't a comic book super hero ... except for that fact that self-obliteration has become such a fundamental component of our society that the destruction of the self has become the ultimate heroic act.

And, that's actually just **** depressing.

I'd rather live in a world where aphanisis isn't a requirement to greatness.

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