My rant on Rand

See my latest BlackTable posting here in Wednesday's BlackList:

http://www.blacktable.com/blacklist051012.htm

Or, you can read it here. Take that, objectivists!

AYN RAND FANS: I have a lot of random strangers write me via Friendster. In the rare occasion that they say something compelling enough to make me click through to their profile, I am frequently let down when I discover that they list "The Fountainhead" or "Atlas Shrugged" as one of their favorite books. Gee, who knew that so many single men in New York considered themselves practicing objectivists? Didn't this go out of style in college? Do you have an inkling what objectivists believe? Do you even know that her name is NOT pronounced "Ann"? Are you just trying to prove that you are smart enough to read really, really long books? I'm not sure what you're trying to say in your profile by touting your love for Ayn Rand, because here's what loving Ayn Rand says to me: that you are a preachy, dour, merciless, humorless, compassionless, pedantic, overbearing gloat. Yes, I've read "The Fountainhead." If you consider Howard Roarke to be your perfect man, I don't consider you to be mine. So quit writing me.

I got an email from a BlackTable fan. Excerpted here:

-- "What's the problem? You don't like mindnumbingly didactic books with astoundingly cliched characters, overly-simplified themes, and a protagonist who demonstrates how unique, brilliant and just he is by raping a woman? (On another note, from Rand's description of them, it's my understanding that Roark's buildings are f**king hideous, but I guess that view is merely a byproduct of my playa-hatin' liberalism.) I really enjoyed your little diatribe. I actually wrote something that was on last week's Black List -- I expressed my displeasure with the two previous Black Lists. But this week's entries -- yours in particular -- made me laugh."

Thanks, JB!

-- Another response: " I feel compelled to cheer your rant on the Black Table today regarding Ayn Rand fans. In my horribly dull line of work (lawyer, of course) I run across these folks more than I'd like to admit. And, alas, legal ethics preclude me from hitting them over the head with a tire iron (although I guess that I would be allowed to, were I an objectivist)."

EXCELLENT point about the tire iron!

-- And a third, with an ulterior motive: "I pretty much agree with what you said about Ayn Rand fans but I think you lost the upper hand a bit when you pointed out the correct pronunciation of her name....kind of pedantic on your part and it
brought you down to their level. You're better than that. Also, I would have pointed out that all too often objectivism is used as an ideological cover for college students becoming republicans when in fact theyre just moving to the right cause theyre
white people who want lower taxes. Id argue that you could even take your rant much broader, beyond just ayn rand fans. As a general rule I think people with agendas (regardless of the agenda) are pretty annoying. Unless, of course, its a guy with a hidden agenda, whos only real motivation for writing this message was to ask you out for a beer."

Bold!