Any Rand

[jbor]

In the polemic in which she argues that racism is "the lowest, most crudely
primitive form of collectivism" she still manages to describe the "Negro
leaders" as racists and the civil rights bill of 1964 as an "absurdly evil
policy". ('Racism', September 1963, in _The Virtue of Selfishness_, pp.
126-134)

Throughout her polemical writings she continually labels non-Western
societies and cultural manifestations as "primitive" and "savage". Sometimes
she is merely condescending: "Today, when the influence of Western
civilization is breaking up the static, tradition-bound culture of Japan,
young Japanese composers are doing talented work in the Western style of
music." But sometimes her "analyses" reveal a deeply-ingrained cultural
suprematism, no matter how much she disguises it behind babble about "man's
psycho-epistemological method of functioning":

      The connection of music to man's cognitive faculty is supported by the
    fact that certain kinds of music have a paralyzing, narcotic effect on
    man's mind. They induce a state of trance-like stupor, a loss of context
    of volition, of self-awareness. Primitive music and most Oriental music
    fall into this category. The enjoyment of such music is the opposite of
    the emotional state a Western man would call enjoyment ....
      The deadly monotony of primitive music - the endless repetition of a
    few notes and of a rhythmic pattern that beats against the brain with
    the regularity of the ancient torture of water drops falling on a man's
    skull - paralyzes cognitive processes, obliterates awareness and
    disintegrates the mind. ... ('Art and Cognition' 1971, _The Romantic
    Manifesto_, pp. 45-79)
    
I've got a hazy recollection that one of the most vilified characters in
_Atlas Shrugged_ is African-American, and one of the most pathetic is
Jewish, though I could be misremembering.

best



> on 21/10/02 10:49 AM, Michael Kenny at mikenny79 at hotmail.com wrote:
> 
> What did she do or say that was racist?
> 
> --Mike
>> From: jbor 
>> To: 
>> Subject: Re: Any Rand
>> Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 08:48:13 +1100
>> 
>> Not to mention her rabid racism, her leading role in the Hollywood
>> anti-Communist witchhunts of the late 50s, and the way that her
>> pseudo-philosophy infiltrated the American Zeitgeist over several
>> generations. 
>> 
>> best 
>> 
>> 
>> on 20/10/02 1:28 PM, Dave Monroe at davidmmonroe at yahoo.com wrote:
>> 
>>> Me, I'm just not into pedantic, badly written, even
>>> more badly, er, philosophized, at any rate overblown
>>> right wing romance/rape fantasy novels, is all ...
>>> 
>>> --- Terrance wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> David Morris wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> --- Terrance wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> What's your problem with Ayan Rand now?