Comments on: Sacrifice and reward

By: Finally « WH00PS

Finally « WH00PS — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:11:36 +0000

[...] After being urged a number of months ago by several bloggers to read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged I am finally, having the week off, getting around to [...]

By: Stubstaw

Stubstaw — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:32:23 +0000

hmm. strange :)

By: Rap, not Rand. « The Bleeding Heart Show

Rap, not Rand. « The Bleeding Heart Show — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:42:34 +0000

[...] the explosion of interest in the Ayn Rand novel, Atlas Shrugged, which is staunchly defended in a piece by Bella Gerens which has been doing the rounds . Being one of those damned collectivists, [...]

By: The Guardian has not read Atlas Shrugged, no none of them have…. « The Libertarian Alliance: BLOG

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:48:47 +0000

[...] Do go and read the whole of this, please, from Bella Gerens. Topical and insightful. [...]

By: bellagerens

bellagerens — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:26:39 +0000

@ Dennis – actually, I was thinking all of that while I wrote the post, but I couldn’t be arsed at the time to divert my train of thought. Agriculture and sedentary communities are also cited by feminists as a cause of patriarchy, but I shan’t go into that either. Thanks for adding this, written with your customary erudition and graceful turns of phrase!

and who can say it’s a bad thing to pop off before you get Alzheimer’s?

I believe the great poets R. Daltrey and P. Townsend addressed that very question…

By: Dennis

Dennis — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:16:34 +0000

I have nothing but contempt for statists, agree with much of what you say, and admire your clarity of thought and expression, but I must take issue with you about us having been born into “filth and misery”. Our biggest blunder was to become dependent on agriculture. Farming leads inexorably to division of labour, rigid classification of society, the invention of money; and farming alone enables rapid population growth, which in turn locks people into dependence on that ghastly way of life.

Before money, the only currency was respect. Human beings lived in groups of thirty or forty, and their lives were not uniformly nasty or brutish, though they did tend to be short. The average time spent on work, in the Paleolithic, has been guesstimated by various people (based on calorific requirements) at no more than four hours a day. The rest of the time was free: to play, think, tell stories, make music, dance, whatever they wanted to do. Fossil and archaeological records suggest that their health was superb.

It is very difficult, these days, to imagine the extreme joys and terrors of life in the grandeur of a pristine environment swarming with game, the rivers potable, the air pure, or to imagine the social cocoon in which these people were compelled, by their environment, to live. The Stone Age tribes who remain today are pathetic vestiges of what once was: one mustn’t judge the past by the present. As for the shortness of ancient life, that was made up for by its intensity, and who can say it’s a bad thing to pop off before you get Alzheimer’s?

Perhaps the most terrible curse in the Bible is this: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground” (Gen. 3.19). I’m not saying that everything was perfect before agriculture, but do I suggest it was a hell of a sight worse after it, and its effects and consequences should not be overlooked.

Otherwise, though, great stuff!

By: wrinkled weasel

wrinkled weasel — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:05:36 +0000

Bella, you crease me up.

By: sconzey

sconzey — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:08:25 +0000

Atlas Shrugged, still Waterstones-fresh, is burning a hole in my bag. I’ll start tonight.

By: Calfy

Calfy — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:37:17 +0000

I found Howard Roark so annoying that I didn’t read any more of Rand.
Reading about books I haven’t read is more annoying though. So on our weekly trip to the library next week I shall reserve it. I won’t be teaching it though.

By: Peter Nioble

Peter Nioble — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:31:42 +0000

Another great post – your posts are becoming addictive.
I bought all the Rand books I could find in the 60′s when I was first introduced to her writing. Objectivism sounds good to me.