From: bryce@digicash.com
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 09:15:41 +0800
To: Alan Horowitz <alanh@infi.net>
Subject: NOISE NOISE NOISE: Ayn Rand's sexual pecadillos and the value of her ideas
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SV4.3.91.960723122028.8943E-100000@larry.infi.net>
Message-ID: <199607232156.XAA06781@digicash.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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 An entity calling itself something like Alan Horowitz <alanh@infi.net>
 might have been overheard muttering something along the lines of:
>
> Did Ayn Rand have any good sexual peccedillos?


Some of her female characters like to have rape fantasies 
enacted on the very border of consent.  She had an affair with 
her chief student with the knowledge and presumably consent of 
both of their respective spouses.  She thought that a woman who
wanted to be President of the U.S. and rule over men would 
become a sexless, embittered spinster because she couldn't 
enjoy being dominated.  :-)


I would call those "good ones", but YMMV.  :-)


This is making me feel kind of sleazy.  For what it is worth 
I think that Rand has some of the best ideas in philosophy, and
furthermore presented them in a (more or less) integrated system
which has profoundly useful applications to both theoretical
philosophy and everyday life, not to mention dramatically 
publicizing and popularizing philosophical ideas in a social and
political context.


Rand's ideas are wildly under-rated by most serious thinkers and
wildly over-rated by most of her followers.  It is a shame that 
her acid polemics, kooky tangents, and personality cult have
distracted most people from her valuable insights.


Which brings us back to the original subject of this thread,
although nowhere close to the original topic of this forum.


Regards,

Bryce

#include <stddisclaimer.h> /* speaking for myself, not for
Digicash at this time. */




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