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Mozart Was a Red by Murray N. Rothbard
"Mozart Was a Red" is, to my knowledge, Murray N. Rothbard's one and only play. It is a form unusual for him, but one well suited to its subject: the cult that grew up around the novelist Ayn Rand and flourished in the 60s and early 70s. For the principal figures of Rand's short-lived "Objectivist" movement were indeed like characters out of some theatrical farce.
Shtetl-Optimized » Blog Archive » The complement of Atlas Shrugged
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Positive portrayal of uncertainty. In Atlas, “rationality” is equated over and over with being certain one is right. The only topic the good guys, like Hank and Dagny, ever change their minds about is whether the collectivists are (a) evil or (b) really, really evil. (Spoiler alert: after 800 pages, they opt for (b).) The idea that rationality might have anything to do with being uncertain—with admitting you’re wrong, changing your mind, withholding judgment—simply does not exist in Rand’s universe. For me, this is the single most troubling aspect of her thought.
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Honest disagreements. Atlas might be the closest thing ever written to a novelization of Aumann’s Agreement Theorem. In RandLand, whenever two rational people meet, they discover to their delight that they agree about everything—not merely the basics like capitalism and individualism, but also the usefulness of Rearden Metal, the beauty of Halley’s Fifth Concerto, and so on. (Again, the one exception is the disagreement between those who’ve already accepted the full evil of the collectivists, and those still willing to give them a chance.) In “Galt’s Gulch” (the book’s utopia), there’s one judge to resolve disputes, but he’s never had to do anything since no disputes have ever arisen.
Overcoming Bias: Guardians of Ayn Rand
Rand wrote about "rationality", yet failed to familiarize herself with the modern research in heuristics and biases. How can anyone claim to be a master rationalist, yet know nothing of such elementary subjects?
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To me the thought of voluntarily embracing a system explicitly tied to the beliefs of one human being, who's dead, falls somewhere between the silly and the suicidal. A computer isn't five years old before it's obsolete.
The vibrance that Rand admired in science, in
commerce, in every railroad that replaced a horse-and-buggy route, in
every skyscraper built with new architecture - it all comes from the principle of surpassing the ancient masters.
How can there be science, if the most knowledgeable scientist there
will ever be, has already lived? Who would raise the New York skyline
that Rand admired so, if the tallest building that would ever exist,
had already been built? -
Ayn Rand fled the Soviet Union, wrote a book about individualism that a lot of people
liked, got plenty of compliments, and formed a coterie of admirers.
Her admirers found nicer and nicer things to say about her (happy death spiral),
and she enjoyed it too much to tell them to shut up. She found herself
with the power to crush those of whom she disapproved, and she didn't
resist the temptation of power.
The Washington Independent » Battling Obama by ‘Going Galt’
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This, for Wilkinson, is another reason he’s still on the fence — although he’s “sympathetic” to the “going Galt” concept and the Rand comeback. “If we’re being honest,” he said, “it’s a right-wing version of ‘I’m moving to Canada if Bush wins.’”
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