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seiberwing ([info]seiberwing) wrote in [info]otf_wank,
@ 2009-01-27 21:12:00


Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
American weeaboos. What.
(Part fandom, part otf, part political...heck, I'll just put it here)

[info]rihatsu62 is starting her own comic and she wants [info]brits_americans to know all about it.

Name's Rihatsu, from the UK, and I've just started work on a vigilante-type webcomic, working title Foothold. My main influences are Watchmen, Atlas Shrugged, Bosch Fawstin and those retro 1960s Marvel comics of the Captain America/Iron Man ilk.

In the not-so-distant future, the Union of European Socialist Republics has renounced its history and denounced its culture, semi-Islamising according to popular demand, its economy failing and its people starving. Japan, a closed nation, withdraws from the global stage, its government sending agents across the world to monitor the international situation. The world as we know it is falling apart.

Amidst the chaos, only one nation—the United States of America—retains its former identity and prosperity. But slowly, the social and political institutions of the USA show signs of collapse. Donations of taxpayer's money are sent more and more frequently to the UESR, with no return and no signs of improvement in the recipient nations. The media attacks with increasing frequency and viciousness the industrialists and businessmen of America. The government is distrusted and the Universities preach altruism, relativism and, above all, pessimism.

Coinciding with a series of terrorist attacks that rock Philadelphia to the core, the paths of four unlikely individuals cross, and it soon becomes clear that optimism, individualism and integrity must prevail before America—and the world—can be saved...


[info]brits_americans is less than enthralled, most notably [info]ladykathryn.

That's interesting. It sounds like "V for Vendetta", only without the social insight and cutting criticism of unthinking patriotism, xenophobia, and herd behavior.

The ensuing commotion features a complete and painful lack of understanding of socialism, collectivism, class structure, human nature, and the entirety of American society. I think this particular gem illustrates it well:

What relationship between class and race? Traditionally here, the working class was white English and Irish. This hasn't changed. There are lots of white working classes and lots of black working classes. And while in this country, where class is based more on tradition, there are few black upper-classes, there are a LOT of black middle classes. I'm unsure of the situation in america, but i bet it's less tradition-based and more money based.

Also somehow transhumanism gets into it, I'm not sure what happened there.

Bowing to communist collectivist pressure, she later removes references to Rand from her list of influences for the comic. Sadly, it's still very obvious.


(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]keri
2009-01-28 06:55 am UTC (link)
This wankpost makes me kind of want to read something of Ayn Rand's so that I understand the reference, but I suspect that if I've managed to avoid knowing anything about her other than her followers are kind of dumb, I should keep it that way.

Or possibly look to see if there's a Simple English Wikipedia page on the matter. (I tried the regular Wikipedia page once, and I think I lost some brain cells trying to understand it.)

(Reply to this)(Thread)

LOL simple English wikipedia <3
[info]keri
2009-01-28 07:04 am UTC (link)
Because I have learned something new today, and it made me lol mightily:

Objectivism is a political idea that was started by Ayn Rand. It says that the best thing for people to do is try to make themselves as happy as possible and they should always do the thing that they think will help them to do that.
-Simple English Wikipedia



No wonder she's so popular amongst a certain subset of Internet users.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: LOL simple English wikipedia <3
[info]weaselistic
2009-01-28 01:03 pm UTC (link)
So why is it called "objectivism" and not "egoism"?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: LOL simple English wikipedia <3
[info]serai
2009-01-28 02:14 pm UTC (link)


But that's what sane people call it.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: LOL simple English wikipedia <3
[info]cmdr_zoom
2009-01-29 02:20 am UTC (link)
But if what makes you happy is cheating on Ayn Rand, that shit is right out.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: LOL simple English wikipedia <3
[info]damien
2009-01-29 08:22 pm UTC (link)
And the difference between that and straight out hedonism is... ?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: LOL simple English wikipedia <3
[info]littleshebear
2009-01-29 09:42 pm UTC (link)
Egoism, oh sorry, objectivism, is a form of sophisticated hedonism. Sophistocated hedonists usually accept that straight forward pleasure seeking will lead to pleasure in the short-term but unhappiness in the long term.

Ayn Rand's theories, as far as I understand them, take elements of Epicurean and Aristotelian ideas about pleasure and excellence, and just take out the parts about how caring about people other than yourself ultimately leads to happiness for you.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

The More You Know!
[info]damien
2009-01-30 09:38 am UTC (link)
Or, in other words, thanks. XD Can't believe that Rand manages to make HEDONISTS look responsible.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]mmanurere
2009-01-28 07:33 am UTC (link)
Read a parody of Terry Goodkind's books. He's a giant Ayn Rand fangirl, and he writes his half-assed hack fantasy books mostly to promote his Internet Tough Guy version of Objectivism.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]nekoneko
2009-01-28 07:57 am UTC (link)
This is where I thank god and remember that my father reads Terry Brooks, not Terry Goodkind</a>.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]yattara
2009-01-28 03:25 pm UTC (link)
For a moment I read Terry Pratchett. That was a scary half minute trying to reconcile hos books with Rand's philosphy.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]seiberwing
2009-01-28 03:28 pm UTC (link)
I really do wonder what he'd do with a Randian character. Besides having them be mocked mercilessly.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]frequentmouse, 2009-01-28 06:06 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]seiberwing, 2009-01-28 06:12 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]mmanurere, 2009-01-29 10:08 pm UTC

[info]lyssa
2009-01-29 09:54 pm UTC (link)
I'm still horribly, horribly saddened that his crap is now a TV series. With decent production values.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]mmanurere
2009-01-29 10:05 pm UTC (link)
I think I was happier not knowing that...

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]panthea
2009-01-30 03:31 am UTC (link)
Legend of the Seeker, right? At least it has horrible, horrible acting!

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]lyssa, 2009-01-30 06:06 am UTC

[info]bobafeis
2009-01-28 08:16 am UTC (link)
Trufax time: When I was about twelve, I was a big fan of Ayn Rand. I didn't know much about her work or her ideals, as I'd never read any of them, but she seemed to be in favor of individuality and all the smart teenagers I knew talked a lot about her.

Now that I've read her books, I've come to the conclusion that there are people who have read her work and there are fans of hers. My mind can't comprehend someone reading her work and actually liking it.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

That's what movies are for!
[info]serai
2009-01-28 02:12 pm UTC (link)
You could always put The Fountainhead, starring Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal, on your Netflix queue. That way, 1) you could take in a quick and fairly painless version of Rand's nutbaggery, and 2) you can giggle at Cooper's acting, which goes beyond wooden into the realms of granite.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: That's what movies are for!
[info]mad_teacup
2009-01-29 06:24 am UTC (link)
You could always put The Fountainhead ...

I tried to make myself read that so I could write a scholarship essay about it. Except reading it made me want to kill myself, so I never finished, and that essay never did get written.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: That's what movies are for!
[info]lunarkettle
2009-01-29 07:42 am UTC (link)
I remember that scholarship! Totally not worth the money. (I got about 250 pages in, which is roughly enough to want to obtain a time machine in order to punch Ayn Rand in the throat.)

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: That's what movies are for!
[info]mireille
2009-01-29 02:45 pm UTC (link)
I *did* make myself read that so I could write a scholarship essay about it. It was a terrible essay (my English teacher actually asked me, "Did you suddenly get stupid?" after she read it), but I won the local scholarship just because I was the only person in the area who turned one in. *g*

(Reply to this)(Parent)


tree
2009-01-28 08:36 pm UTC (link)
There is an issue of Action Philosophers dedicated to Ayn Rand that was a) hilarious, b) posted in its entirety in scans_daily, and I can't find it for the world now because of the truncated community tags. :/

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]cmdr_zoom
2009-01-28 09:22 pm UTC (link)
I believe it got zapped, anyway.
Alas. I was much amused by wide-headed Ayn.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]dragonfangirl
2009-01-29 01:42 am UTC (link)
There was a run of guest comics in Sluggy Freelance where Kiki was channeling the constipated ghost of Ayn Rand. Alas, I doubt I could find it now.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]littleshebear
2009-01-29 04:06 am UTC (link)
Think Epicurean philosophy/Eudaimonism only with added assholery.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]inalasahl
2009-01-30 07:19 am UTC (link)
All I know of Ayn Rand is that it's her book Robbie tries to get Baby to read in Dirty Dancing, which was enough to convince me for life never to read her.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


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