Thank you for your support. But as you can tell from the post above, I could've been the heretofore hidden, biological son of Ayn Rand herself (bestowed with all of her mental powers and all of her morality), and he would've still rejected my application to be in his society. He would've rejected a disguised Ayn Rand herself (assuming for the moment that she faked her death), if she had been known to consort with certain others. The standard he utilized was not one that is centered on an evaluation of someone's built character, but on the social or interpersonal interactions to which one has been imputed to have been exposed.
Ed
p.s. This post cross-posted with Steve's above. Steve, that's funny you said you'd pay not to join (pay to remain separate). I almost told Brian to keep my $20 application fee, as if I would be buying my freedom from him. I didn't though and, for the record, he did promptly issue me a refund. I thought that that was fair of him to do.
Ed, you've been spared the unpleasant, and sad experience of seeing otherwise intelligent people.... people that tend to agree with Ayn Rand's basic principles, expend their time and energy with divisive, unnecessary, and even idiotic factionalism that involves setting themselves apart from other Objectivists.
Think about that. They could be setting themselves apart from Neo-cons, social conservatives, socialists, communists, fascists, progressives, anarchists... but no, they want to spend time setting themselves apart from good Objectivists.
It makes me smile to think of how any application of mine would be treated, having worked closely with Nathaniel Branden :-)
Interestingly, Mr. Phillips and I have 50 friends in common on Facebook, and I don't make any secret about my association with this site there. A few of them are anything but Objectivists, in my opinion, and don't come anywhere near your grasp of the discipline, Ed.
I hate to see the stereotype that Objectivists are a bunch of cultish nutters promoted like this. What a waste.
Let me know if I can help promote your own group in some way. Onward and upward!
Luke Setzer Club Coordinator, RoR Florida Coordinator
If it offers any comfort, as far as I can tell, OCON gladly accepts all applicants (except David Kelley and The Brandens) provided their money is green.
I still await the fallout of the recent appointment of ARI notable John Allison as interim leader of Cato.
Thanks again for the support. This "Atlas" is going to shrug off those suspected ne'er-do-well's.
:-)
Luke,
Instead of forming an Objectivist club in southeast Houston (where I now hail from), I think maybe I'm going to start an Objectivist rock band. You know, like Rush, but more small-time and local. And your last post made me think of a good name for such a thing (think of the rock band names of the 1950's), we'd be known throughout local music venues as:
"David Kelley and The Brandens"
[badump, bum, cheee]
:-)
I mean, it rolls off the tongue much better than "David Kelley and the Kelleyites". Of course there's the small matter of petitioning David Kelley and the Brandens as to using their names for my personal financial gain -- but I'm sure that something could be worked out. I mean, we're all Objectivists here, aren't we?
Okay, so the name-thing is checked-off. Let's see, what else is there? The Lindsay Perigo and the Anthem thing? Well, this band is not going to be one of those head-banging cauterwauler (how do you spell cauterwauler?) ... anyway, it's not going to be a hard-rock band, more of a soft-rock, pop, blues-sey kind of a thing:
Think of the more mellow songs by hair-bands such as Guns-n-Roses, then mix in a little Jack Johnson, some Avett Brothers, and [ahem, clears throat] John Mayer, and ... voila!
