By halrager
[original post] Every time I see this I laugh. Perhaps most because I was, after all, 14 once.
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
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The Thom Hartmann Program - Aug 30th 2018
By louisehartmann
It seems it's all racism, all the time w/the GOP...Neo-Nazi robocall hits Iowa on Molly Tibbett’s murder: “KILL THEM ALL. ” Richard Wolff drops by about the National Debt. Is it a disaster or an OK thing? Also - Trump & The National Enquirer - Is the Economy Here To Serve Us Or Are We Here to Serve the economy?
Ayn Rand was the fulcrum that allowed me to break with the genocidal world view of my harsh Evangelical 'Christian' upbringing and consequently hers as well.
Her work attracts those of us who were not provided an example of humanity in our upbringing.
There is a great similarity in the two world views of my youth I have described above.
Our world desperately needs ways for us to find our humanity and to find love in this world.
Our sociopathic civilization must face the issues pressented to us by those of Ayn Rand's character.
We must both constrain and prevent the genisis of and forgive these monsters if there is to be any hope for our species.
Go Orcs!
Wasn't it Mork and Mindy that was about "Orks?" As I recall, Mork was from "Ork."
I read Lord of the Rings when I was an adolescent, and it was okay, although I didn't go gaga over it. A female friend of mine gave me The Fountainhead to read when I was in high school, and after about 10 pages, I was so disgusted that I stopped reading it and handed it back to her.
Not to brag, but my eldest son read Lord of the Rings in the 5th grade, was big on Dungeons & Dragons activities, and turned out to be an emotionally evolved, socially adept and successful adult who deals with the real world in ways that amaze me. Of course, I am biased, but he has kept his D&D friends, and they all have thrived and evolved into great people. I realize you were being funny, but, hey...
halrager, I am guessing you heard Thom talk about Ayn Rand's admiration for a serial killer named Hickman. It makes me cringe to think about it. Maybe our economy, and our nation in large part, are really being run by Atlas Shrugged loving sociopaths.
H&H, good point about the similarities between evangelical Christians and evangelical Free Marketers (or Marketeers), both of which need a huge dose of Peace, Love, Understanding, and a sense of humor. It's interesting how both types of evengelicals are attracted to authoritarian-style, conservative politics.
Zenzoe, no Dungeons or Dragons for me. Gosh, aren't those scary? Well, maybe not as long as it's on a computer. I think books which use imagination in a productive way are good for cognitive, emotional and moral development though. I used to read lots of science fiction. Not to brag, but that may be what saved me from being a semi-autistic retard,although my family had a lot to do with that too. Actually, I have a student named Michael who was diagnosed as retarded with autistic spectrum disorder. He is the sweetest kid -- okay, he is like 20 years old -- a joy to have in class, and an excellent student (no way he's really retarded). His interactions are a bit mechanical, but he is super nice. I wish more people were like him. That really makes one think, doesn't it?
NL, I wouldn't say D&D was scary at all. That was the bad rap the game received during the 1980's, driven by conservative Christians and the like. Whatever, it gave my son and his fellow gamers endless hours of intense concentration on story and plot development, and vocabulary building. It was all quite wholesome and entertaining for them. One of his D&D pals was a girl too—still a friend to this day.
The Republicons are infatuated with power and greed just as Gollum was rendered insane by his possession of one of the rings of the evil lord. The Lord of the Rings says something about the human struggle for good over evil and together with The Hobbit is a great imaginative work of fiction in the fantasy genre. Just at the great industrialists sort of went on strike and "shrugged" in Atlas Shrugged, I felt like tossing the book in the garbage can after I finished reading it years ago, but I didn't because I don't believe in censorship and although she was not a great author and had a philosophy which I simply term "objectionable," at least she took the time to create works of fiction to express her ideas, and that deserves some respect. My faith in democracy has been shaken, and in a sense, I can envision a society in which educated elites could become disenfranchised from the masses due to their prejudices and inaccurate information.
I used to play RPG's when I was a kid. Today, I would rather play chess with a good friend and a cup of chai tea. Playing with playing pieces based on LOTR wouldn't hurt. Anyways, with the exception of one session, my character would always get killed doing a rear gaurd for my characters buddies who were escaping from something after us, or something like that. Talk about altruism!
Zenzoe, I meant real Dungeons and Dragons. I know hardly anything about the computer game Dungeons and Dragons. I agree that such games can be good for cognitive development, making friends and even social development though. There are lots of ways for a young person to develop, as long as it's doing something challenging, fun, interesting and prosocial or at least not antisocial.
micahjr, I have no idea what RPG's and LOTR's are. I am really lost by that terminology.
Robindell, I agree that the Republicons are power mad, and that is a very dangerous thing. I am puzzled by your last sentence though. Who do you mean by the educated elite, and whose prejudices and inaccurate information are you referring to?
Natural Lefty - An RPG is a game like D&D, but not necessarily D&D "Role Playing Game"
LOTR - Lord Of The Rings
Nowadays I am much more into chess, but I almost always lose. Now that's Altruism!
NL, D&D is not a computer game. At least it wasn't when my kids were playing it.
ZZ, It's not a computer game? That shows how much I know about it. I even saw the website and still had the impression it was a computer game. I guess it came out before computer games, come to think of it, in the 1970s, but there were computers in the 1970s, just not PCs.
micahjr, I guess you lose on purpose, then, sort of like I let my wife outfish me when she comes along with me. I should have realized that LOTR = Lord of the Rings. Role playing games were mentioned in the Wikipedia entry about Dungeons and Dragons.