Sunday, April 17, 2011

ATLAS DATES












Ayn Rand fans have a dating site. I guess they need it after the Atlas Shrugged movie turned out to be a bigger debacle than Battlefield Earth. Claire Suddath of Time reports…

“There are about 12,700 dating profiles on the Atlasphere, which Joshua Zader, 37, founded in 2003 after attending a few Rand-related conferences. "I realized that all the single people were using the conferences to search for another Ayn Rand fan they could fall in love with," says Zader, who modeled the site after Match.com’s pay-to-view profile system. But the Atlasphere also functions as a social network (with some 22,000 nondating profiles) in which members can contribute essays and articles. I asked Zader how someone who espouses a me-first philosophy can also maintain a loving relationship. "Ayn Rand has a great quote in The Fountainhead," he told me. "She writes that a person cannot say ‘I love you’ without first being able to say the I.”

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5 comments:

Aleleeinn said...

Last things first. You cannot say "I am an idiot and and a**hole" without first being able to say I.

I had to mention Ayn Rand. Ok, my favorite book is Anthem. Why, because she refutes her own argument. At the climax when the protagonist first speaks the "holy I", he is in a house he did not build reading a book he did not write eating food he did not grow.
And the Utopian premise of the novella was simply dismal scifi.
Since I'm on the subject, How did the logical positivist neo-cons get hooked up with the christian fundamentalists? It's obviously a philosophical contradiction on both sides. Politics may make strange bedfellows, but that union is bestiality.
I'm not going to comment on the dating site. Some things are simply too twisted for words. I may have to go to therapy after reading your post Mick.

Diamond Jim said...

It's a long time neo-con strategy to use the Biblebelters as puppets. The Rapture Gang are always a few sandwiches short and complete suckers for any generated fear and loathing.

Aleleeinn said...

That's true enough, Jim. Sheep is a really good metaphor the the BBers. They do no individual thinking. They spook easily. And they can keep getting fleeced. The perfect prey for a philosophical belief structure without and meanngful ethics.

hcb said...

Where the fun part comes in is when the Tea Baggers drop ideological tags identifying themselves as Libertarians, but who, like Rufus T. Firefly, are against it, whatever it is. The knee slapper is hearing them talk non invasive governmnt dogma while they stand fast against abortion rights and other BB moral touch points.

As for Ayn Rand Dating, sign me up if it means meeting Patricia Neal. The secret of Ayn Rand is laid out when Dagny Taggert bonks John Galt in a railroad tunnel.

I'd love to see a rom com where the guy has to talk the Objectivist talk to some militant female Randian. The sex would be very hot--it's a new slant on Guys & Dolls, maybe a side of Ninotchka.

Aleleeinn said...

I MISSED IT!!!! What are the words you will never here from the people using the site. "Was it good for YOU too?" It is impossible to pass up a true cheap shot. Especially one that fits so well.