tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post8303540247735486313..comments2024-03-19T07:48:54.021-06:00Comments on Gus Van Horn: 11-30-13 HodgepodgeGus Van Hornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-82225909436167905082013-12-02T06:19:28.019-06:002013-12-02T06:19:28.019-06:00Snedcat,
Not frequenting internet discussions, i ...Snedcat,<br /><br />Not frequenting internet discussions, i was unaware of that particular misrepresentation if Rand. Thanks for pointing it out.<br /><br />Also, thanks for the amusing Queenan quote. Many people who would do better by adhering to established fashion conventions {which, as a form of communication, cannot be called arbitrary at every level), do look pretentious when attempting to ape the rule set of those who reject those conventions in the name of non-conformity.Gus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-38676515163405247932013-12-02T05:52:25.488-06:002013-12-02T05:52:25.488-06:00Yo, Gus, you also write, "It is nice to see, ...Yo, Gus, you also write, "It is nice to see, in this era of nihilistic -- and yet snobbish -- pressure to conform to slovenliness, that the players are on board."<br /><br />Indeed. For my part, now that I work professionally, I would feel very uncomfortable without my charcoal suit, crisply ironed shirt, and tie every day, but even when I was in grad school, I was never slovenly. Mind you, it's understandable that the outfits of people who do "real work" as opposed to "the suits" would have a real and valid appeal--both terms are mixed bags, of course, so the appeal is mixed as well--but you'll notice that people who do "real work" in the positive sense typically have outfits suited to the task at hand and attractive into the bargain (and usually kept clean). This gets glommed together with snobbish slobbishness, which for me is summed up by the comment that a necktie is just a noose. It's a cute comment the first couple of times you hear it, but for me it wears thin very quickly. (And often suggests the speaker simply needs to get better-fitting dress shirts!)<br /><br />And while there's a lot of comments come to my mind about the slide into slovenliness of the last few decades, I'll forgo the pleasure...since I don't have anything deep and incisive to say about it, so saying it would really only be <i>my</i> pleasure, not the reader's. I'll just point out that the fact that fashion has a large conventional element to it (and is seasonally changeable as a result, especially for women) is often equated with arbitrariness, which is fallacious...but going into <i>that</i> thicket could eat up a lifetime of discussion. And so I'll just leave off with this amusing and excellent bit of <a href="http://www.forbes.com/forbes/1997/1013/6008046a.html" rel="nofollow">editorializing</a> by Joe Queenan. A choice bit of many:<br /><br /><i>Mellon is to be commended for his regal bearing at a time when so many of his fellow billionaires have opted for the silly look. In that same issue of Forbes Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen is seen leaning against a pier piling, clutching a Fender electric guitar in a manner that does not suggest he is entirely prepared to set the house a-rockin’ on this or any other night.</i>Snedcatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-28239558163606171782013-12-02T04:39:45.241-06:002013-12-02T04:39:45.241-06:00Yo, Gus, you write, "Rand's longtime coll...Yo, Gus, you write, "Rand's longtime collaborator, Leonard Peikoff, defines <i>sanction of the victim</i> as, 'the willingness of the good to suffer at the hands of the evil, to accept the role of sacrificial victim for the "sin" of creating values.'"<br /><br />Sad to say, it's probably a good idea to include what the term means. I have actually read bashings of Rand in which supposedly knowledgeable opponents of hers have said that <i>the sanction of the victim</i> means the idea that anyone who has been victimized has, by that very fact, given their sanction to doing so, and therefore Rand was claiming that might makes right, etc. (When I posted a reply correcting this at one site, the comment was refused!) Even in the online world of lefty lies, that falsehood's egregious.Snedcatnoreply@blogger.com