| | It's clear there's a link between these people and Objectivism via, for instance, Glenn Lamont's article on the Stylized Life (http://rebirthofreason.com/Articles/Lamont/Stylized_Life.shtml)
He says that the best way to enjoy and share your philosophy is to do everything, "in Ayn Rand's words, 'for the sheer joy and color of life' – your life." People see you enjoying yourself; people must know you know what you're doing. I think this is definitely a great approach.
But liberals and mystics label me 'rational' in a pejorative sense, and Objectivism is seen as too dry and pedantic. Accordingly, Rand said she was primarily an advocate of capitalism, which meant self-interest, which meant reason, which meant objective reality.......blah blah, I've already fallen asleep (well, I don't mean /me/, but you know, anyone else).
I've had an article brewing within me that addresses why I sort of think this could be wrong. Perhaps it was that Rand had to directly attack the anti-reason zeitgeist, but why couldn't she have been primarily an advocate of art? Art and creativity are possible only under a society based on freedom, hopefully one that tends eventually towards Laissez-Faire capitalism. Romantic Realism, which means capitalism, which means self-interest, which means reason........etc.
I'll write it sometime soon. It will probably address the Winking Circles, and reconciling liking Vladimir Nabokov and Ayn Rand, and art and unity and all that.
Michael Allen Yarbrough
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