My brother "tagged" me to answer some questions about books. I usually don't do these types of things but its about books and i haven't posted anything recently so...
1. One book that changed your life?
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. Have you seen my left arm?
2. One book you have read more than once?
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. This was probably the first book I read in High School which really got me interested in literature.
3. One book you would want on a desert island?
Besides the Bible? The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. the next best thing ;-)
4. One book that made you cry?
Go tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin.... i don't want to talk about it...Excuse me i think i've got something in my eye....
5. One book that made you laugh?
The Sot-weed Factor by John Barth. A wonderful book and not only funny... its a historical satire.
6. One book you wish had been written?
Ok the first scene starts with a boy with a shaved head starting an old Triumph motorcycle... alone in at a bar.... cemetery.... tap dancing.... church..... i'm not sure about the ending....
7. One book you wish had never had been written?
oh, something (anything) by Ayn Rand
8. One book you are currently reading?
John Brown: Abolitionist; The man who killed slavery, sparked the civil war, and seeded civil rights. By David S. Reynolds. (i was interested in reading about this Calvinist Terrorist. People now would surely call him a "Fundamentalist".... he just had convictions.)
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
7 comments:
Thanks for doing this!
Good responses.
The only one that really surprised me was #7. I am surprised because that is the same answer Gideon Strauss gave. But Gideon answered Rand because (against all reason) he hates libertarianism more than collectivism.
I'm assuming you put Rand for literary reasons? Either way, you should add a brief comment on #7 as to "why Rand".
Rand had no "literary style." Her books lacked all Art whatsoever. She was too dogmatic and besides that dead wrong... for instance her treatise on "Virtue of Selfishness." She is ultimately a perfect Capitalist. Describing her philosophy Objectivism she said "[it] is the concept of man as heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."
While at Covenant we read "God and Politics" this book and the teachers at Covenant hated Communism and Socialism and a common aphorism was that Communists forget the man is a sinner, and therefore it doesn't work. The reason Capitalism works is because it is based on man's sin; that is his greed, selfishness, and willingness to exploit the worker for their own gain.... However I'm not saying this is always the case...
Rand's work and philosophy celebrates man's sin and calls it heroic (very Nietzschesque). She is right to suggest that this is "how it is" but it is not how it should be. In brief, i think she's a fascist.
I see. Good points.
One thing about capitalism.
I wonder what prof. told you capitalism was based on greed and therefore "worked". That's ridiculous. Capitalism is based on difference (created diversity vs. the sameness "equality" of socialism), ownership (normed responsibility and stewardship vs. the irresponsibility of State controll) and other such creational principles.
There would still be "capitalism" if there was no sin. Sin is what makes capitalism not work so great all the time, and why a laissez faire market (according to Rand's ideas or anyone else's) will not work any better than communism.
Technically, fascists are collectivists too. But I know what you're getting at. Actually, her philosophy is VERY close (if not identical except for the rituals) to Satanism.
i just knew you'd start harping in defense of Capitalism ;-) No prof told me it is based on greed... that's me.
I'll try and choose my words more carefully....
cheers,
j
ps. if you want a good scare listen to the Friday night play on the BBC4.
Greg if you haven't already so should check out the bunk Rand bases her "Philosophy" on here
I have indeed read her philosophy (you didn't suppose I hadn't, did you?).
Anyway, since I already poo-poo'd laissez-faire, let me make a few comments about her other tenents.
1. Reality exists as an objective absolute—facts are facts, independent of man's feelings, wishes, hopes or fears.
-Well, no doubt reality objectively exits, but its "absoluteness" is certainly not a given. And the independence of facts from feelings, wishes, hopes, and fears is certainly doubious! If feelings, wishes, hopes and fears exits, they too are facts and can hardly be independent of themselves.
2. Reason (the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses) is man's only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival.
-Now this is just ridiculous. If reason is man's only means of percieving reality, and only source of knowledge, then what the heck are senses? And as a matter of (objective) fact, man may be guided to action based on authority, and use instinct or intuition as a basic means of survival.
3. Man—every man—is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
-This is surely the pinnacle of self-deception... or did Ayn Rand not have a mother? (Need I say more?) Consider for a moment that if, after all, I relate to the other (other persons) as ends in themselves (which is in fact to treat them as persons), then I myself in my treatment of others am acting as a means, and properly so. And what if I discover that, after all, my own happiness is in living (yea even sacrificing) to and for others who I love? But I am afraid this logic is far too subtle for the likes of Rand!
(And, nevertheless, the collectivists are worse).
uh... tenets and dubious that is... perhaps I made other spelling errors. You know what I mean.
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