Reclaiming Rand: The Selfishness of SlutWalk

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Tuesday May 17, 2011 · 4:58 PM PDT

2011/05/17 · 16:58

This diary is cross-posted from my blog, Reclaiming Rand, which attempts to examine the themes and ideas in the writings of Ayn Rand from a liberal point of view. In it, I look at a recent criticism of the individualism and self-interestedness of SlutWalk events and ask whether liberal activism can really be separated from self-interest.

nleseul

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Wednesday May 11, 2011 · 4:31 PM PDT

2011/05/11 · 16:31

This diary is cross-posted from my blog, Reclaiming Rand, which attempts to examine the themes and ideas in the writings of Ayn Rand from a liberal point of view. In it, I examine Eric Sapp's attempt to paint Rand as irredeemably radical by attacking her atheism, and ask whether progressives could adopt more effective tactics for separating Rand from conservatism.

nleseul

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Monday August 02, 2010 · 4:32 PM PDT

2010/08/02 · 16:32

This diary is cross-posted from my blog, Reclaiming Rand, which attempts to examine the themes and ideas in the writings of Ayn Rand from a liberal point of view. This is a new project for me, and this is the first post. In it, I consider the theme of anomie in Rand's novels, and reject Rand's belief that existential confusion can be resolved with a single absolute answer.

nleseul

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Thursday June 25, 2009 · 10:46 AM PDT

2009/06/25 · 10:46

Every time it's the same story.

He failed. He screwed up. He fell. He let down his wife, his children, his constituents, his god. He continues to struggle with it, and he's praying for the strength to move beyond it and return to his life. He apologizes profusely to everyone who has been hurt by his behavior. He's only human, flesh and blood, born to make mistakes.

And she forgives him. It's been hard on her and the kids, and they too have been struggling to deal with this. But she believes in the sanctity of marriage, and she's willing to accept him back and work through this with him, for the sake of the children. She asks the press to give them privacy in this difficult time.

It's one of the worst ways in which one person can hurt another. But it's so common that the culture has evolved a ritual for atoning for it, one which plays out in essentially the same way in the media every single time it happens. There are usually tears in their eyes, pain on their faces. The pain and tears are real, but the scripted artificiality of the ritual makes them seem farcical.

It would be so refreshing if just one of them, for a change, would break from the script and tell the world the full story, the real story, about the pain and passion and confusion that he is really experiencing.

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