Introduction!
May. 6th, 2011 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
earthling_rantsYes, this is going up early-- before I even have a buffer! The shock, the horror! It's also going up in both video and text-format - and just as Dreamwidth turns two! The video will be below, and the script thereof (minus minor mistakes) below that. Warning: bit of strong language. I'm using Photobucket right now for the videos-- was going to go with Tinypic for now, but I'd rather just do this to start with, then I don't have to worry about transfers (yet).
...Photobucket won't take my video. I have gone with Youtube instead! Behold:
Hi! My name is Patience, but you may know me as Collier, VM, Pay, Paysh, Vixenmage, Coyote, Sister Coyote, Leah, Thulcandran, or That Kid with the Hair Who's Always Ranting. As per that last, this is a blog inspired by a friend of my sister's who saw me ranting about Ayn Rand across the park and told me I should start a video show! Now, to be honest, I'm not crazy about videoing; I dislike my own image, and vastly prefer words. But, as I told him, I have been looking to start a Serious Blog! ...Er, 'serious' as in effort and committment and public-ability, not as in being solemn all the time. Don't be fooled-- there will be a bit of a wait between now and the first Real Post; this is going up early as an introduction because I want to get it out of the way, and because I have had just about all the Microeconomics homework I can take at the moment and needed a break. Now-- what is my first Real True Blog about? It was a dilemma-- solved once again by a third-party voice!
See, my senior year of high school I was an anarchist - at least in philosophy. I believed in the freedom of human spirit, I believed in the abolition of authority and power structures entirely, and I was REALLY ANGRY that I still had to go to school all the time - fairly, I think. So when I got to school, I used to do things like write "Viva la Revolucion!" on the board, and pick ideological fights with my Physics teacher. Eventually, he recommended the book Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. I said thank you, and he said "Don't thank me yet, you haven't read it." I had, at that point in my life, never heard of Atlas Shrugged or Objectivism, and I didn't know much about Libertarians, besides that this kid I knew, Mike, was one, and he didn't believe animals had feelings - which made him pretty evil, in my book.
Anyway, I picked up a copy of Atlas Shrugged in the bookstore a few weeks later, opened a page at random, and was BORED OUT OF MY MIND within a few paragraphs-- put the accursed thing down, and wandered off to read some Discworld. But it's been two years since then, and Objectivism keeps coming up in my life! My dad's radio-talk-show personas go on and on about it, and people on blogs talk about it as though it was the Holy Grail of ideologies. Now, I've long since become disillusioned with anarchism, and I don't believe there's any one ideology that's perfect for all of human society-- and, quite frankly, even if there is, from what I have heard it is not Ayn Rand's.
But this is not fair of me! I don't know Ayn Rand's philosophy-- I have only heard it second-hand from people who, quite frankly, usually happen to be idiots. So, I decided, for my first Real True Blogging Project, I am going to read Atlas Shrugged this summer, and review it as honestly as I possibly can, a la Mark Oshiro, or Fred Clark. This is my blog! ...Please don't compare it to Slacktivist, or Mark Does Stuff. You'll only hurt my feelings and insult by comparison some of the most awesome people on the internet. I not Fred Clark, nor Mark Oshiro-- I am only a twenty-year-old Journalism student, trying to make sense of this crazy world - not easy when I myself am rather crazy. The disclaimer is thus-- all I know about Atlas Shrugged is that there is someone in it named John Galt, whose main function, from what I understand, is to lecture the world on what they are doing wrong. Also, there is a pirate. What I know about the rest of this world mostly has to do with how to keep squirrels off of a bird feeder, or the lyrics to way too many U2 songs-- business and pleasure, respectively. I don't expect this blog to be perfect, I don't expect that it will be the most brilliant analysis of the book out there, and I'm sure I'll learn more from you--- if you comment, which I truly hope you do, because discourse is the mainstay of good blogs-- than the other way around. Because, if there's anything I've learned about the internet, it's that there are many wonderful, awesome, intelligent people out there, and, quite frankly, they far outweigh the idiots. So: you are invited to comment, discuss, argue with me and everyone, and I hope that there is a community here, that it prospers-- and I hope you enjoy the ride! See you... on the other side.
...Photobucket won't take my video. I have gone with Youtube instead! Behold:
Hi! My name is Patience, but you may know me as Collier, VM, Pay, Paysh, Vixenmage, Coyote, Sister Coyote, Leah, Thulcandran, or That Kid with the Hair Who's Always Ranting. As per that last, this is a blog inspired by a friend of my sister's who saw me ranting about Ayn Rand across the park and told me I should start a video show! Now, to be honest, I'm not crazy about videoing; I dislike my own image, and vastly prefer words. But, as I told him, I have been looking to start a Serious Blog! ...Er, 'serious' as in effort and committment and public-ability, not as in being solemn all the time. Don't be fooled-- there will be a bit of a wait between now and the first Real Post; this is going up early as an introduction because I want to get it out of the way, and because I have had just about all the Microeconomics homework I can take at the moment and needed a break. Now-- what is my first Real True Blog about? It was a dilemma-- solved once again by a third-party voice!
See, my senior year of high school I was an anarchist - at least in philosophy. I believed in the freedom of human spirit, I believed in the abolition of authority and power structures entirely, and I was REALLY ANGRY that I still had to go to school all the time - fairly, I think. So when I got to school, I used to do things like write "Viva la Revolucion!" on the board, and pick ideological fights with my Physics teacher. Eventually, he recommended the book Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. I said thank you, and he said "Don't thank me yet, you haven't read it." I had, at that point in my life, never heard of Atlas Shrugged or Objectivism, and I didn't know much about Libertarians, besides that this kid I knew, Mike, was one, and he didn't believe animals had feelings - which made him pretty evil, in my book.
Anyway, I picked up a copy of Atlas Shrugged in the bookstore a few weeks later, opened a page at random, and was BORED OUT OF MY MIND within a few paragraphs-- put the accursed thing down, and wandered off to read some Discworld. But it's been two years since then, and Objectivism keeps coming up in my life! My dad's radio-talk-show personas go on and on about it, and people on blogs talk about it as though it was the Holy Grail of ideologies. Now, I've long since become disillusioned with anarchism, and I don't believe there's any one ideology that's perfect for all of human society-- and, quite frankly, even if there is, from what I have heard it is not Ayn Rand's.
But this is not fair of me! I don't know Ayn Rand's philosophy-- I have only heard it second-hand from people who, quite frankly, usually happen to be idiots. So, I decided, for my first Real True Blogging Project, I am going to read Atlas Shrugged this summer, and review it as honestly as I possibly can, a la Mark Oshiro, or Fred Clark. This is my blog! ...Please don't compare it to Slacktivist, or Mark Does Stuff. You'll only hurt my feelings and insult by comparison some of the most awesome people on the internet. I not Fred Clark, nor Mark Oshiro-- I am only a twenty-year-old Journalism student, trying to make sense of this crazy world - not easy when I myself am rather crazy. The disclaimer is thus-- all I know about Atlas Shrugged is that there is someone in it named John Galt, whose main function, from what I understand, is to lecture the world on what they are doing wrong. Also, there is a pirate. What I know about the rest of this world mostly has to do with how to keep squirrels off of a bird feeder, or the lyrics to way too many U2 songs-- business and pleasure, respectively. I don't expect this blog to be perfect, I don't expect that it will be the most brilliant analysis of the book out there, and I'm sure I'll learn more from you--- if you comment, which I truly hope you do, because discourse is the mainstay of good blogs-- than the other way around. Because, if there's anything I've learned about the internet, it's that there are many wonderful, awesome, intelligent people out there, and, quite frankly, they far outweigh the idiots. So: you are invited to comment, discuss, argue with me and everyone, and I hope that there is a community here, that it prospers-- and I hope you enjoy the ride! See you... on the other side.
