The Randians’ own naked body scan and grope regime

In an e-mail to me, Randian Bob A. quoted at length from Objectivist sites which, he triumphantly informed me, had totally destroyed my position and revealed me for the complete ignoramus that I am. While I haven’t gotten around to reading the whole thing yet (Randians tend to write emails that are very long, very densely written, and personally abusive, not a winning combination), I noticed this comment by Bob:

This Randian penetrated Kristor’s essence just by reading two paragraphs of his.

I forwarded that to Kristor with a note:

How does it feel having your essence penetrated?

And so effortlessly?

These Randians are the metaphysical version of the TSA.

Kristor replies:

LOL!

Oh, Good Lord, if they heard you say that about them they would absolutely have a stroke.

- end of initial entry -

LA writes:

The business about penetrating people’s essences reminds me of a Woody Allen line from his standup comic days:

I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me.

Bob A. writes:

To “penetrate a person’s essence” simply means to use philosophical detection and get at their fundamental philosophical premises. Is that so hard to understand Larry? Look at what you are criticizing Randians for. Pathetic.

You are proving something that Objectivists always say to themselves; Conservatives live in fear of Rand and her philosophy. That is why they mock and belittle her. At some level they know, if Rand’s epistemology is right, epistemological Realism, Conservatism and religion are dead. It’s not Nietzsche that killed god, it’s Rand.

By the way, I told you that you had extensive knowledge of sorts and that your knowledge was as wide as the ocean but that you are as intellectually deep as a puddle. You can tell Kristor that that description applies doubly to him. Well-read man who actually knows nothing about reality (although he can go on for pages about the “reality” of the Triune God)—a man as deep as a shallow puddle.

Dean Ericson writes:

Well, men, we’ll just have to admit Bob has us licked. That Rand woman has exposed our evasions and blank-outs, it’s as plain as A is A. There’s nothing for it but to become man-worshipping superheroes and take up smoking again. I’m not so happy about that, since it took a bit of doing to quit. On the plus side, I’ve got a killer cape in my closet ready to go. And the icing on the cake—now we can carry on adulterous affairs as befits superheroes such as we. A is us!

N. writes:

How in the world do you suppose Randians got a reputation for utter humorlessness? Gosh, it just doesn’t make any sense to me.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 30, 2010 02:25 PM | Send