Meg's Marginalia 1+ year anniversary

Watching the Superbowl XLIII playoffs (GO STEELERS!) yesterday made me realize it's already been a year and some since I started this blog. How time flies! Soon I'll be as old as Ayn Rand *shudders* If Ayn Rand was around who do you think she would be rooting for?

Granted, I don't update as much as I used to, but I still get a fair number of hits and comments, which confirms to me that I have addressed a niche market in the blogosphere - juicy, fun and smart Ayn Rand gossip.

I also received a few emails which I will be responding to shortly. I haven't been very active because I have been very busy, and also I'm not as into the whole Objectivism debate scene anymore.

As the wise owner of the LiveJournal Objectivish Hedonist Macking Yearly (Oh My!) Report community said:
Howdy.

I wrote this blog a while ago. I'm now out of the loop on Objectivish mackings and I have been out of it for a while. That was way back when I went to IOS/TOC and Enlightenment conferences. I haven't made graphs of the mackings connections between the Objectivish in about five years.

I still make fun of Objectivists every once in a while, but not nearly as much as I used to. It's just too easy.

I will try and update when I have the time and inclination, but try not to be too disappointed if I make myself scarce. Nice to see the Objectivism criticism community is still alive and kicking.

And, so this post has some Objectivist commentary:


From The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission website

Meg's Rack: Reprise

Hi guys,
Another "not particularly Objective" post

Maybe I've given up on blogging about Objectivism, too boring. But we'll see. After all, everything has to do with Objectivism.

So, more boobs...


Buy my shirt, blah blah.

Businesswomen are the backbone of society, and boobs + the almighty dollar = even more awesomeness.

I'm linked on Noble Soul!

I know I haven't updated in a while, I've been busy, blah blah blah.

I want to change the information pages because I suck at snark and I know it.

More Founders College News

Founders College ends spring semester early, Mary Eva Cassada reports.

In other news, I'm watching High School Musical 2 on DVD!

Happy late Easter!

No, for once I did not make this photoshop. It's from the Livejournal community Ayn Rand As Rabbit. Not particularly active, but has a few funny quotes.

"We at Ayn Rand As Rabbit believe firmly in Ayn Rand's likeness to a rabbit.
We further believe that for this reason, the corpse in question ought be dumped headfirst in a fifty-foot tall bucket of broccoli while reading Immanuel Kant and making love to John Zerzan. As you can see, you have just stumbled upon the greatest and most rational of communities!"

I have more thoughts about my haters. I think I wrote in one of my posts that Rand was oversensitive to the fact that she had haters and developed this persecution complex that everyone was out to get her. I concluded that since she put herself out there, you're bound to get haters as well as fans, and it should just be taken as a part of the price of fame. I'll apply this logic to myself as well; I just didn't think my blog got around enough to attract the interest of haters. I set out to be the TMZ or OK magazine of the Randisphere, so I'll take it as a step in the process.

Also as I mentioned before, the main point of the site is humor, snark, and fun. I'm a fan of Obama, but I found the Onion headline "Black guy asks Nation for Change" hella funny anyway. Loosen up people!

Follow your dream! Unless it's the one where you're at work in your underwear during a fire drill

I wrote a comment on the ARCHN blog, and decided I like it so much I'm going expand on it a little and post it here. Yes I know I am lame like that. I guess it's even kind of overkill since most of my readers come from ARCHN anyway. But anyway here ya go:

It's about people (not just Objectivists) who think that it's a great idea to "follow your dreams", at any cost, and regardless of if it matches your natural abilities. Objectivism bears a significant similarity to Communism in their attitudes concerning work. It has been said that one reason why Communism failed is because it put so much emphasis on the importance of work as a enjoyable and virtuous activity, and most people don't enjoy work at all, and would rather slack off and be lazy. Come on, admit it...I do. Objectivism is similar in this respect.

The reason why work is called WORK is because people generally don't enjoy doing it, and therefore must get paid in order to do it. Most people don't particularly enjoy their jobs, and most jobs are not particularly enjoyable. In fact many of the most important jobs to society are extremely unenjoyable, such as garbage collectors, construction workers, line cooks. Contrary to the Randian notion of the noble businessman being the most crucial and productive member of society, a farmer probably contributes more to production and is more indispensable to society than a CEO.

It's easy for Steve Jobs to make his "Stay young, stay foolish" speech, when he has earned millions doing it. But for the vast majority of us, that is awful advice.

When asked how she managed to have such staying power in the fickle entertainment industry, Jennifer Lopez said that she thought of her music as primarily as a job and only second as something she loves. Scott Adams also said that he saw his "Dilbert" cartoons as his work, and that it was "never a joy".

There will always be days when you won't love or feel like going to work, no matter how much you might initially love your art. Success requires diligence and commitment even during the times when you don't enjoy it.

Even in my work (I'm a biology grad student), I've seen countless bitter, disenchanted techs, postdocs and grad students who went into science because they "loved" or were "passionate" about it. 90% of experiments fail, and it can be very frustrating and disappointing. When you realize that 6 months of hard work and experiments has pretty much been for nothing, no amount of love or passion is going to make up for it. So if you go into science thinking that you love it and you're going to make great discoveries, you're setting yourself up for a rude shock, because when that doesn't happen (and most of the time it doesn't) you're going to be bitterly disappointed. The way I see it is that my research is ultimately a job that I do to support myself, so I am committed to doing my best, and I probably enjoy it better than other alternatives, and if I find enjoyment and groundbreaking discoveries on top of that, it's icing. (Of course that is not what I said in my interview, but then again, who would...)

I would even go as far as to say these people are being misleading and disingenuous to say that they are doing what they "love" and encourage people to follow their passions at any cost. Sure, if I could get suckers to give me millions of dollars, I'd love whatever it was I was doing too.

Maybe some people get lucky making lots of money doing what they love, but the vast majority of the time, one would do much better to be realistic about your own abilities and qualifications and choose your line of work thusly. There is perhaps another reason why advice urging people to be realistic doesn't get that much airtime or glory, especially with the high school or college age crowd. (I saw that "Stay young, stay foolish" on so many of my friends' blogs and stuff I want to puke") It doesn't sound as exciting or romantic. And people don't like being reminded of their limitations. But in the long run, I think it would pay off.

~~//~~

Also, I thought about what I said yesterday about people being rude to me on my blog. Maybe by having a blog like this, I am kind of opening myself up to whatever shit people might want to say. I still don't like it though, and would appreciate it if people were not rude to me on my own blog that they are reading on their own volition. That being said, whatever, if you still want to be mean to me, go ahead, take your best shot!

Measure of a Man

My boyfriend asked me today why I love him. I said it was because he is intelligent and good looking. But he didn't seem totally satisfied with that answer, because what if one day I decide he isn't those qualities any more.

This isn't directly to do with Objectivism I guess, but I'm sure you can find a way to relate it to Objectivism (see this post) -- and anyway Rand had plenty to say about relationships and "senses of life", although she didn't always walk the talk in her own life, though that's a story for another day, and she also had a lot to say about how to judge a person's worth.

Qualities like intelligence, good looks and capitalistic, productive ability are relative, as in there'll always be someone better looking, smarter, more productive than him, or than me for that matter. And one day, physical and mental strength and beauty will fade and eventually die. So it got me thinking there's got to be another reason and foundation to build a relationship beyond mutual admiration of each other's assets.

Secondly, a little housekeeping. I have been getting some clearly incendiary and mean-spirited comments. I do not appreciate this (obviously). Maybe I should make the point of this blog a bit more clear. This blog is not meant to be an in-depth philosophical critique or debate of Objectivism. The purpose of this blog is primarily to report on and poke fun at Objectivism and Objectivists, and sometimes to discuss interesting concepts and ideas. But only if they are interesting and to the extent they are interesting - which would be my call.

The way I see it is that I do not actively promote this blog on pro-Objectivist websites, so I am not soliciting your invective. If you want to continue to leave me nasty comments, go ahead, I am not going to block anyone, but I will ignore you. Maybe someday I can compile all the crazy shit people have said and marvel at it. The only effect you will have is to make me feel bad (I'm not above saying that unkind words do affect me). If the existence of websites and blogs that portray Objectivism in a negative light distresses you so greatly, unfortunately they probably won't be going away any time soon. It takes all types to make a world, etc etc, and there will always exist people who disagree with you. You are encouraged to leave my blog immediately if you feel it has nothing to offer you. Also, I'm not interested in becoming Objectivist, or a follower of any other political or philosophical system for that matter, I think I've already experienced enough of that. Which bring me to...

The extent of my Rand-cred, as some were wondering, includes having read Anthem, parts of The Fountainhead, most of Atlas, parts of Best of Ayn Rand's Q&A, her Marginalia, and some of her essays. I used interested Objectivism as well as free market capitalism and libertarianism, and felt like I agreed (and still do) with many of Rand's central tenets. I also crashed a Objectivist meeting once when I was an undergrad. I believe I have a fairly good, although far from exhaustive, understanding of the Objectivist movement and its philosophy.