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I get a few hits from objectivists now and then, I figure I’d throw another post up detailing how silly Atlas Shrugged actually is when looked at err…objectively. :)
Shamelessly ripped from the Randzapper blog.
Greed builds a stronger society. Uh-oh...
“But let’s take a closer look. Here are a few political, economic, cultural, and other developments that Atlas failed to foresee:
A period of prosperity commencing in the late ’50s and continuing, with only minor downturns, until the present day. (Atlas foresaw a Great Depression.)
The information revolution – personal computers, the Internet, and loathsome little blogs like this one. (In Atlas, people are still banging away on typewriters and getting their news from newsreels.)
The outsourcing of basic manufacturing industries to Third World countries, and the rise of a service- and information-based economy. (Sayonara, Rearden Steel.)
The eclipse of rail travel by the airline industry, and the eclipse of cargo trains by the trucking industry. (Happy trails, Taggart Transcontinental.)
The ubiquity of television. (Galt’s speech is broadcast mainly on the radio. There is a passing reference to television, but TV does not play any role in the story. This is especially odd since TV was already well established by 1957.)
Americans’ mass immigration to the Sunbelt and the West. (In Atlas, all the financial and commercial action is in New York City and its surrounds. The West is a lot of open desert, suitable for running train tracks through. Colorado is so empty that a whole valley can be hidden there, unknown to the outside world. The South does not appear to exist at all.)
New directions in science. (Gene-splicing, quantum theory, string theory or any equivalents are absent from Atlas, which presents a scientific community still mired in Newtonian assumptions.)
The demise of hats. (Nobody wears hats anymore. In Atlas, everybody does.)
Now, suppose someone had told Ayn Rand fifty years ago, on the day of her book’s triumphant debut, that over the next five decades there would be a significant growth of government spending, taxes, regulations, and controls … and that in the same period of time, there would be unprecedented prosperity, an unrivalled explosion of scientific and technological knowledge, and a blossoming of freedom around the world.
Would she have believed it? No way. In high dudgeon she would have insisted that such an outcome was logically untenable, entailing fatal contradictions.
Yet that’s exactly what has happened.
So … Happy Birthday, Atlas. Enjoy your cake and punch. But don’t party too hearty.
Frankly, dear … you’re showing your age.”
LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – “A skateboarder using an electronic device didn’t get to the other side of the road.
Witnesses and the driver told police that a male on the skateboard was looking down at an electronic device when he was crossing the street outside the crosswalk.
Bobby-Joe Takes choice two from the saying "Skate or Die".
They say the driver tried to stop his vehicle, but couldn’t avoid colliding with the skateboarder.
Austin John Lawrence, 18, is charged under the Traffic Safety Act with crossing a roadway at a point other than a crosswalk and failing to yield to a motor vehicle on the roadway.
The fine for the traffic violation is $57.”
This story warms my heart. I am bombard with stories about the digital age and being wired and social networking. How about this being a cautionary tale for those who think they can text and drive? Multi-tasking is just another word for doing multiple things poorly.
Stop it.
Via the CBC.
“LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Environmental Protection Agency has a new weapon in the fight against radioactive contamination at a Los Angeles-area lab: Mules.
The EPA will use four mules to carry high-tech scanning equipment to detect radiation on steep and rocky terrain at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.”
Who would have thought the humble Mule would be helping us clean up the environment.
Radiation Detecting? What an odd idea;I guess we'll just have the mule that over for awhile. :)
“The EPA is conducting a survey of soil and water contamination at the lab near Simi Valley, where rocket engines were tested for years and a partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor took place in 1959.
About 500 acres (200 hectares) of the lab will be scanned for gamma radiation.
Results will be turned over to the state, which is overseeing a cleanup.”
I’m not sure whether to be happy or sad for the nice lady who finally got her drivers license after her 960th try. :)
Not quite the right idea behind parallel parking...
SEOUL, South Korea – A South Korean woman who earned a driver’s license after 960 tries is ready to buy a car and get behind the wheel.
Yonhap news agency reported Thursday that 69-year-old Cha Sa-soon passed the driving part of the test last month on her 10th try. South Korea requires a written test first, and Cha took it nearly daily since April 2005 before passing last year.
No one, and I mean NO ONE, expects a snake to the Face!
Care of the CBC:
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Police in South Carolina say an argument between two motel guests ended when one of the men was hit in the head with a snake.
Police say the victim told officers that he argued Tuesday night with 29-year-old Tony Smith over loud music coming from Smith’s room.
The dispute appeared to be over, but the man told police Smith walked up to him several hours later with a 1.2 metre python and hit him in the face with the snake’s head.
I would not know what to with that. You cannot be prepared for something as off the wall as this. Humanity amuses me.
A few of my favourites from the Christian Science Monitor Post titled Copy Editing Tea Party Protest signs.
PROBLEM: 'Competnce.' SOLUTION: If English is not your strong suit, try using smaller words and less grammatically complex sentences. For instance, this sign would have imparted the very same message if it had simply read, 'Obama is bad.'
PROBLEM: Homophone confusion, extraneous hyphen. SOLUTION: To communicate first-person plural possession, use the pronoun 'our' instead of the verb 'are.'
The crowning moment of awesome incoming!
PROBLEM: 'Infromed.' SOLUTION: Whatever the merits of Fox News may be, it is no substitute for a dictionary.
Thank you CSM for the pictures and the snark. :)
I figured I needed a video today, I just did not expect it to come via the Canadian Cynic, who is quite resplendent in dispensing snark, but as of late propagating important cultural work as well :)
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
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