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 Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell
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Mrs Taggart and the Teenage Dagny Submitted by Olivia on Tue, 2007-09-25 06:06.
One of the factors of Ayn Rand’s novel writing that tends to be overlooked is her brilliant use of humour. Her pen scribed such a sharp wit at times it brings to mind the works of Jane Austen. Particularly memorable to me is the fifth chapter in Atlas Shrugged titled “The Climax of the D’Anconias.” It delivers all the childhood backstory not only of Francisco, but also of Dagny. Most amusing is the way in which Ayn draws Dagny from the oft-astonished perspective of her mother, Mrs. Taggart, who seems to suffer a fair amount of parental stress raising such a unique and unusual daughter. On AS, page 99, Ayn writes: Mrs. Taggart watched her daughter in unhappy bewilderment. She could have forgiven all the omissions, but one: Dagny showed no sign of interest in men, no romantic inclination whatever. Mrs. Taggart did not approve of extremes; she had been prepared to contend with an extreme of the opposite kind, if necessary; she found herself thinking that this was worse. She felt embarrassed when she had to admit that her daughter, at seventeen, did not have a single admirer. In the paragraph after next: she writes: Mrs. Taggart heard James say one evening, in the presence of guests, a peculiar tone of satisfaction in his voice, “Dagny, even though you were named after her, you really look more like Nat Taggart than like that first Dagny Taggart, the famous beauty who was his wife.” Mrs. Taggart did not know which had offended her the most: that James said it or that Dagny accepted it happily as a compliment. On page 100, Ayn further illuminates Mrs. Taggart’s worry, she writes: The decision to give her daugther a formal debut cost Mrs. Taggart a great deal of anxious thought. She did not know whether she was introducing to New York society Miss Dagny Taggart of the Social Register or the night operator of Rockdale Station; she was inclined to believe it was more truly this last; and she felt certain that Dagny would reject the idea of such an occasion. She was astonished when Dagny accepted it with inexplicable eagerness, for once like a child. She was astonished again, when she saw Dagny dressed for the party. It was the first feminine dress she had ever worn – a gown of white chiffon with a huge skirt that floated like a cloud. Mrs. Taggart had expected her to look like a preposterous contrast. Dagny looked like a beauty. She seemed both older and more radiantly innocent than usual; standing in front of the mirror, she held her head as Nat Taggart’s wife would have held it. “Dagny,” Mrs. Taggart said gently, reproachfully, “do you see how beautiful you can be when you want to?” During the ball, Ayn tickles us with Mrs. Taggart’s short-lived sense of relief. She writes (page 101): …. Dagny’s bearing seemed almost indecent, because this was the way a woman would have faced a ballroom centuries ago, when the act of displaying one’s half naked body for the admiration of men was an act of daring, when it had meaning, and but one meaning, acknowledged by all as a high adventure. And this – thought Mrs. Taggart – smiling – was the girl she had believed to be devoid of sexual capacity. She felt an immense relief, and a touch of amusement at the thought that a discovery of this kind should make her feel relieved. The relief lasted only for a few hours. At the end of the evening, she saw Dagny in a corner of the ballroom, sitting on a balustrade as if it were a fence rail, her legs dangling under the chiffon skirt as if she were dressed in slacks. She was talking to a couple of helpless young men, her face contemptuously empty. After the ball, upon occasion of Dagny’s disappointment in it, Mrs. Taggart goes to speak with her daughter. Ayn writes: “Mother, do they think it’s exactly in reverse?” she [Dagny] asked. “The things you were talking about. The lights and the flowers. Do they expect those things to make them romantic, not the other way around?” I’m listening to Atlas read out loud to me from a downloaded disk set. It is a wonderful way to hear this power-house of a story. I laughed so often during this chapter I wanted to share it with you all. If anyone else can think of examples of Ayn’s humour expressed in her novels, I’d love it if you posted them.
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Clarification
Luke: “…I meant that I consider my own Self -- my own life -- as my own ultimate value.”
Thanks for the clarification, Luke.
My Self as My Ultimate Value
Brendan, I meant that I consider my own Self -- my own life -- as my own ultimate value. Likewise, each human being ought to do the same with his own Self though many do not. Download the PROPEL(TM) Brochure from
http://aynrand.meetup.com/12/files/
to get a brief on the relationship between this ultimate value and the Objectivist ethics in terms of basic human needs.
Luke Setzer -- Global Organizer -- PROPEL(TM)
http://www.PropelObjectivism.com
Um...
Brendan... we have a body and a mind.
Self as concept
Landon: “"THE SELF" the very concept of a self, in anyone and everyone who discovers this idea.”
The ultimate value is a concept? I thought the ultimate value in Objectivism was one’s actual self.
Brendan
Brenden
"THE SELF" the very concept of a self, in anyone and everyone who discovers this idea.
---Landon
Inking is sexy.
http://www.angelfire.com/comics/wickedlakes
Selves
Luke: “…each offending party to embrace the Self as the ultimate value…”
Which self? My self or your self?
Brendan
Absolutely.
Indeed it does. What is left is sometimes half a human (if that).
Jennifer
-- Food Philosophy. Sensuality. Sass.
Self as the Ultimate Value
Thank you for the prompt response, Jennifer.
It sounds like the common theme here involves a failure of each offending party to embrace the Self as the ultimate value to which all other values must subordinate within the bounds of objective reasoning.
Whether this happens through error or evasion, the end result remains the same: amputation of spirit and the subordination of Self to non-objective values.
Does this accurately summarize your view?
Luke Setzer -- Global Organizer -- PROPEL(TM)
http://www.PropelObjectivism.com
Excellent question.
You bring up an excellent point, Luke.
I speak mostly of the people I've met (both male and female, actually, and too many of both) who are afraid of life, and lack the courage to seize the reins of existence. This is exhibited in various forms, but they all have the same root, i.e. people who let others drive the course of their lives and lack the courage to speak up; people afraid to seize their dreams, who instead muddle through life in miserable fashion; and those who blame the rest of the world for their problems.
I don't wish to be more specific than that as there are details which should remain private, but the cowardice of which I speak deals mostly with a fear of life.
Jennifer
-- Food Philosophy. Sensuality. Sass.
Myriad Cowardly Men
Jennifer wrote:
... myriad cowardly men ...
Perhaps you could offer some concrete illustrative examples -- not necessarily from real life, but observed behaviors that betray a soul ruled by fearing death rather than loving life, for instance.
Suggestions for what these men could do to move from the former state to the latter one would further illuminate.
I seek clarification because "cowardly" implies standards for measuring courage. These standards depend upon both mandatory and optional values. Two people might observe a man avoid a military draft yet one will label him "cowardly" and another label him "courageous" based on their differing standards and underlying philosophies, for instance.
Luke Setzer -- Global Organizer -- PROPEL(TM)
http://www.PropelObjectivism.com
Don't you just hope that you
Don't you just hope that you will meet a very special one though who you can't squash... no matter how hard you try. I'd love to be there to witness the sexual tension when that finally happens! XXX
Yes, I hope I will indeed. I'll call you!
Linz, I agree that the feminists have ruined everything, so don't point your finger this way. They have men so confused they don't know how to act anymore, and I for one am quite pissed about it.
And as for you, Mr. Lineberry, one could make similar assertions about women finding a good dildo instead of the myriad cowardly men out there.
Jennifer
-- Food Philosophy. Sensuality. Sass.
Good conversation men-folk.
For the record, I don't even mind the thread being hijacked.
I
think a lot of these problems stem from the old story...'not enough Capitalism'.
If men were not such wimps and instead got stuck in with their own businesses and made large profits, it would be the answer to their prayers because they could kill several birds with one stone and eliminate the need for a lady Wife...
1. They could afford to hire servants to take care of them...(no need for a Wife)
2. A hooker comes over 3 times per week...(no need for a Wife)
3. Can leave the toilet seat up
4. Can drink as much as they like
5. Can watch sport as much as they like
6. The poor buggers would not need to endure irrational behaviour...(except from female servants but I have a brilliant way of dealing with that)
7. For a fun night out on the town see point 2 above...(absolutely endless supply of willing companions)
8. No need to worry about someone losing their looks or being menopausal.
9. They could afford to buy proper clothes because the Wife has not spent all the money on silly things.
10. etc...etc...
Heterosexual chaps marrying and ruining their lives is the most irrational activity I can think of.
"nothing like the sight of an amputated spirit"
Observing the PC KASSless world in which kids are raised today and comparing it to the world our parents and even most of us knew when we grew up breaks my heart.
The crushing force of collectivism manifest in omnipotent sickly sweet societal pressure is choking the spirit and sexuality of most kids to the point where they can hardly have an independent thought or action without being nagged to a stupor for stepping out of line.
When I was a little boy I was allowed to fire a rifle under supervision from the age of 4, and could go hunting alone at the age of 6. I got to learn how to drive a car by being allowed to sit on my dads lap on open roads from as early as 5.
My brother and I got to ride tractors and motorbikes, plow lands, fight bush fires, slaughter animals, start waterpumps, weld metal, use angle grinders and saws and fix car engines from as early as I could remember.
No kid today would even be allowed to come near any of the things we could do. I am not even allowed to take my boy of 5 into a pistol club, and gun ownership is near impossible.
Every possible human activity is now governed by Nanny... for our own protection . You cant SCUBA without a license, drive a car without a seatbelt, smoke cigarettes, catch a fish out of the ocean without a license, ride a trailbike without a permit etc. Every day the noose is being drawn tighter and tighter.
Thinking of the abandon with which we were allowed to explore our physicality then, compared to now. There is no space left within which kids can even become men or woman today .
Only the tiniest trickle of teens manage to stiffen their resolve and march resolutely past the helpless throngs of the undead in order to claim the lives they never gave up on..It's like watching a march of newly hatched sea turtles trying to reach the ocean before being shredded by gulls.
Robert Heinlein defined our nature in this quote..but does this world allow us to become the men and woman we could be lately?
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, co-operate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. —
Whenever I get the feeling that I am being squashed into submission by the enveloping monster of PC mob rule, I recite my favourite part of Ayn's writing(God how I love her)
" that there is no more despicable coward than the man who deserted the battle for his joy, fearing to assert his right to existence, lacking the courage and the loyalty to life of a bird or a flower reaching for the sun. Discard the protective rags of that vice which you called a virtue: humility—learn to value yourself, which means: to fight for your happiness—and when you learn that pride is the sum of all virtues, you will learn to live like a man".Atlas Shrugged part Three / Chapter VII This Is John Galt Speaking"
PS! This speach from "scent of a woman" also smacks it right on the button.
Hilton
I admit that reason is a small and feeble flame, a flickering torch by stumblers carried in the starless night, -- blown and flared by passion's storm, -- and yet, it is the only light. Extinguish that, and nought remains.- - Robert Green Ingersoll
Newsletter on Masculinity
My interest in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) led me to subscribe to the free "Speed Seduction" newsletter which, interestingly enough, had a perfectly appropriate theme yesterday. I reproduce it in full here in case anyone wishes to subscribe. As for whether the course is worth the cost, I have no idea. But the theme falls in line with what others have said here about genuine masculinity.
----------------------------------------------------------
Dr Yates J Canipe Newsletter
Should You Be More Selfish?
Andrew Scott Speaks:
"By the power of imagination, all men, certainly imaginative men, are forever casting forth enchantments, and all men, especially unimaginative men, are continually passing under their power. If I can unintentionally cast an enchantment over persons, there is no reason to doubt that I am able to cast intentionally a far stronger enchantment." - Neville Goddard
It all starts with a picture, a feeling, an idea of your Ideal Lifestyle.
It's different for everyone and is mostly likely connected with your Purpose. It might be to rise to the ranks of CEO in a certain industry. Or, to be lazy on the beach writing
songs and strumming your guitar by the bonfire. It certainly may include having the hottest woman you can imagine, fulfilling your fantasies and desires constantly.
But, whatever your Ideal Lifestyle you won't ever get it until you envision it and cut away all the bullshit. Fiercely. Unapologetically.
Here's the rub. If you don't have a clear idea of what you want, you'll find everybody else more than glad to decide for you. You'll get results by default, rather than design.
In fact, for 99% of men that's exactly what happens. They live life with their parent's voices in their heads.
They imagine appeasing women for mere scraps and breadcrumbs, or even the meager hope of the possibility of passionate sex. Or, to avoid her nagging (or outright wrath.)
They live how society conditioned them, through the media, through the school system and through government dictates.
They wake up at some point, look around and ask, "What about me?" or "Is this all there is?" It's been called the "Mid-life Crises" and for the most part made fun of. It shows an Accountant getting a Harley and a tattoo.
Or, the sensible father of four running out and getting a two-seater Corvette.
It's been portrayed in other ways, too. Remember Joel Schumacher's movie Falling Down with Michael Douglas?
You can find this masculine outcry in the humor of Maddox's book "The Alphabet of Manliness" and in the crazy adventure of Tucker Max.
And, finally, awesomely portrayed in Chuck Palahniuk's Book and Movie, Fight Club.
These are all examples of the Masculine force poking through Pop Culture's crazy barrier to make a point.
Here's the point: Any time you distort or try to mass control something as basic as Masculinity things are going to get screwy.
We are, by nature, purpose-driven. We are at our best when we focus on something big. We are here to conquer. Not each other, but ourselves.
The Masculine force seeks to conquer the World as a reflection of himself. This is the Warrior role. Find a purpose, Conquer. Then, you are a King.
But, it doesn't end. It's a cycle. Warrior-King over and over again.
If you haven't committed to yourself to do something big with Life, to really go out and create a Life and a Lifestyle worthy of your highest aspirations then the World (the reflection of yourself) will kick your ass.
You'll become a fat, pale, wimpy reflection of the man you could be. Women will scorn you. People will call you "nice" and then take advantage of you in subtle ways.
The whole point of the Martial Mastery and Dynamic Seduction courses is to reconnect you with your inner power so you can dominate again, like you were meant to...
And right now, for just a few more days only, you can get both courses together for an insanely low price.
http://www.speedseduction.net/MonthlySpecial.asp
So go ahead, be a little selfish and get the edge you need to make your life like a dream.
Sincerely,
Andrew Scott
PS The Speed Seduction September Special ends in just 5 days! The Martial Mastery & Dynamic Seduction courses normally retail for a total of $1891.00, but for just 5 more days you get them both together as a package for just $704.00 At this point deciding whether or not to order is really just an IQ test. Call Yates now at 1-903-482-1034.
Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved -- Dr Yates J Canipe,
Straightforward Inc, Andrew Scott and Masters Group Inc. Sign Up ONCE for Monthly Product Lottery
But I'd like to see the
But I'd like to see the pussy-whipped eunuchs step up and answer this.
Well Linz as it happens... hang on hold that thought, wifey is calling.
Well my dear ...
No use asking me!
I've been KASS all my adult life. AND I've managed to please. 
But I'd like to see the pussy-whipped eunuchs step up and answer this.
Of course, part of it redounds on you wimmin. You insisted on their relinquishing their manhood—only you didn't mean it. Typical!!
I agree...
that women have indeed shot themselves in the foot with micro-managing their men as well as their sons. But why do men give in? Why do they relinquish their manhood in order to please?
The paradox is ...
These "men" you rightly observe you could squash ten of are all pussy-whipped. There are many of them here. They might well read this and say, "Well, make up your minds, women—what the fuck do you want?!" They can't so much as go pee without their chick's permission and supervision. But that's what "wimmin" have been seeking all these years. Now these ugly wimmin rule. Your squashees might well say, "Well, it's what you sought."
Personally, leaving matters of romance out of it, I'd just like to find a few more men and women I could respect. Folk who are "on the level." Where the hell have honesty and courage gone?! Wimps, cowards, schemers and skulkers and sycophantic social metaphysicians rule. Including within Objectivism! (See Hsiekovians.) Not OK.
Hehe...
Ah Jennifer... I can see why that line would resonate with a young, American entrepreneuress. Go get 'em! Don't you just hope that you will meet a very special one though who you can't squash... no matter how hard you try.
I'd love to be there to witness the sexual tension when that finally happens! XXX
Luke... yes, Dominique. If she was Ayn in a bad mood, I'll bet Ayn could've been unwittingly amusing when pissed off. Imagine laughing at her when she was in the throes of one of those moods... grounds for ex-communication I'll bet.
Favorite line
Claudia, you've quoted my very favorite line in Atlas:
“What men? There wasn’t a man there I couldn’t squash ten of.”
It's one of those lines that...hits home.
Jennifer
-- Food Philosophy. Sensuality. Sass.
Dominique and Francisco Offer Clever Slams
I loved the part of The Fountainhead in which Dominique lives for several days and nights in the slums, then speaks to the landlords about the horrid conditions of their slums and to the social workers about the horrid characters of their tenants. When her editor begs her to explain why she did not reverse the targeted audiences for that information, she replied nonchalantly that she would not have found that "amusing." Bwahahahahahaha!!!!!
I also loved the comeback Francisco gives to James Taggart in Atlas Shrugged about being careful about offering unsolicited opinions so as to spare himself the embarrassment of learning their exact value to his listeners. Bwahahahahahaha!!!!!
Luke Setzer -- Global Organizer -- PROPEL(TM)
http://www.PropelObjectivism.com
It
is a wonder the Mother did not hire a tart on her child's 16th Birthday like all sensible Parents and thereby...ummmmm....oh..gosh..ummmmm...*blushes*...(nevermind)