From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Wed Sep 25 2002 - 17:18:10 MDT
On Wednesday, September 25, 2002 2:09 AM Samantha Atkins
samantha@objectent.com wrote:
>>
http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2002-09-23-ayn-rand_x
>> .htm
>
>
> <GAG> Some of these goons are far closer to Orren Boyle and
> James Taggart than to a Hank Rearden, Dagny Taggart and so on.
I assume you some of the businessmen and women in general and not the
specific people mentioned in the article. If so, true, though I don't
recall anyone in the article claiming everyone in business was some sort
of moral knight in shining armor.
> The way business, economics and politics have co-evolved in this
> country in the the half-centruy since AS, it is nearly
> impossible to be a Randian hero at the head of a corporation.
> Bill Gates? Don't make me laugh, or cry in bitter frustration.
Here you and I disagree. The way "business, [the] econom[y] and
politics co-evolved in this country" before _Atlas Shrugged_ was that
way too. Rand didn't make up people like James Taggart out of pure
fancy. She was working from real life models. This was no big insight
into human nature on her part. Corrupt people in business or people in
business working the system were cliches long before she happened on the
scene.
But what is this an indictment of? Or, more importantly, what is to be
done? As you already know, I advocate ditching government -- or, at
least, government regulation of the economy. This way crooked people in
business will be limited to the micro-scale if they want to defraud
people. (I also advocate a polycentric/anarchic legal system or even
just a minarchic one that treats fraud as common law would. I believe
all of this is compatible with Objectivist philosophy -- at least, the
core beliefs of it. Obviously, Rand was no anarchist, but her deeper
views don't contradict anarchism.)
Cheers!
Dan
See "For a Free Frontier: The Case for Space Colonization" at:
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/SpaceCol.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:17:17 MST