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kathi in va's avatar

Like… I really loved the Fountainhead when I read it for the first time when I was 16. Feel like it would be similar to watching one of my favorite 80s movies now as to the level of cringe. But somehow all these important rich people still think it’s awesome??

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Jamie Neilson's avatar

...which tells you that what they've spent most of their lives doing (politics, money-making mostly) has required very little reflection or fuel for reflection. "Animal spirits," as the expression goes. So that when asked what ideas drive their beliefs, they must reach waaaay back to the last time they did anything that felt like thinking. Curled up in the family rec room, reading that Very Long Book that was just chock-full of Very Big Ideas. Reading Ayn Rand. (NB: There's an excellent chapter in Tobias Wolff's memoir/novel Old School that takes off the whole Ayn Rand cult brilliantly. The whole book is very good.)

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