Quote: Ayn Rand on Intimidation

Keep the Ein Rand to yourself, will ya.

hmmm...and to think that this quote is coming from one of the most intellectually dishonest authors and "philosophers" of the 20th century...

Alex an objectivist? Who'd've thunk it?

Isn't that sort of an argument from intimidation itself? Simply using the word "impotent" would intimidate anybody who would dare to disagree, calling into question their virility, intellectual and physical.
I prefer quotes that sound less wordy. She could have worded that more simply, but I suppose it wouldn't have sounded as edumacated.

Hahaha! Me an objectivist? Just wait till I whipped out some Karl Marx quote or something. Or maybe some Immanuel Kant.

Ah - the usual knee-jerk anti-libertarians came out of the woodwork right on cue.

Knee-jerk reaction or not, I can vouch to the fact that not a single major philosophy department in Europe or North America studies the 'work' of Ayn Rand, which tends to attract socially maladjusted, narcissistic type-A personalities stuck in perpetual adolescence.

Which, of course, says nothing at all about the relative merits of libertarianism as a political philosophy, to which one can be sympathetic to (as I am) while still dismissing Rand as histrionic nonsense.

I said nothing about Rand. I agree with the sentiment above criticizing the quote. I think she was a terrible writer with brilliant ideas. The fact that there are no quotable Ayn Rand quotes in common usage only goes to show that.
There's a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Atlas Shrugged currently being shown on CSPAN2 - BookTV. I tuned in for a while but couldn't listen to it for very long as everyone talks in that hideous philosophy-speak - even the audience members asking questions of the panelists.

I have no personal opinion on Rand (yet) because I'm just diving into her book "Atlas Shrugged".

Ali, hopefully you won't drown in it.

Carruthers, so you agree that she could have said it a little more simply, which is what I said.

I almost thought you were calling me a knee-jerk anti-libertarian, whatever that is.

Yes - good luck with that Ali. You'll need it.

By knee-jerk anti-libertarian I mean the sort of guy I unfortunately ran into one time. This guy reads the LA Times and swallows it whole - hook line and sinker. Describing myself as - if anything - libertarian - if pressed to put a name to it - he knee-jerked back something along the lines of "libertarian is just another name for fascist republiscum". And this was a guy I was out enjoying a hike with amongst a group of friends. I think this is not an atypical reaction from anyone left of center who thinks he's a thinker.

I love this "reads the LA Times and swallows it whole" right, as if you know that you think for yourself and someone whose opinion agrees with the mainstream in general must not think for themselves.

While you don't say you're a Randroid, you don't go far enough to discredit libertarianism to be believed.

"Which, of course, says nothing at all about the relative merits of libertarianism"

I'm not a big fan of Libertarianism, but it beats "stupid Conservatism" of the type we've seen post Reagan, and particularly, these past 6 years. Libertarians, at least, believe the Govt shouldn't mess with people's lives. They wouldn't be running into Terry Schiavo's room to stick the plug back in or shipping random people with Islamic names off to secret prisons in "Very-Bad-istan" without a trial.

Oh, so sorry Alex. I didn't see your other quotes yet.
Consider me schooled.

While there is intersection on many points, libertarianism and objectivism are quite a bit different and Rand herself (and her followers) would violently object to any implication of congruence.

I've read a couple of Rand's major works. "Atlas Shrugged" is a tough read for at least a hundred pages and then it picks up well into a pretty decent "near-future" story. A couple of overly long monologues (aimed at espousing her philosophy from the mouth of the speaker) needed some editing, but it's still a good book.

I did find the characters more one-sided than in her earlier work, "The Fountainhead", though. In there, many of the characters are a "little more grey" (and the philosophy is less in-your-face), which I think results in a better story. Atlas aims more at preaching her philosophy by wrapping a story around it. The Fountainhead is a little less obvious.

Both books are quite good and should be read by anyone who wants to refute her. I read Rousseau, Marx, and Upton Sinclair, but that doesn't make me a socialist...

A very good quote out of many from my favorite author.