Return to Reflecting on the Ayn Rand Centenary, Part II
Re: Any Rand and the Hippie Generation
(#52137)
by Jeanine Ring on February 2, 2005 at 1:06 PM
by Jeanine Ring on February 2, 2005 at 1:06 PM
Msr. Zantanovitch-
Well, I certainly most agree. Those with an Anglo-Byzantine's elitist half-education in history have long underestimated the hippies, whose intellectual parentage they would do well not so easily to mock. There are those who believe one cannot be joyous, light, enthusiastic (or gay), without a loss of artistry and intellectual seriousness. I would suggest they look a little more closely at the literature and lives of their Great Conversationalists; they have a lot to learn.
And as for a spirit of liberty, I agree. The primary political instinct of the hippie movement was "let a man live his own life", and their much harrangued egalitarianism was more a belief that there is a brighter flame of creativity in all people- black, white, and red, woman and man, poor and rich, than a heirarchical society oft allows to flourish or to flower into being. That is a spirit most compatable with libertarianism- and onw which, perhaps, has something to teach it. I myself see no conflict between an admiration for the Howard Roarcks of this world and a suspicion that there is a lot more of a Roark submerged inside the 'common' man. Or in fact, not so submerged- too easily blind and ethnocentric eyes that search for that spirit do not allow us to see it.
my regards,
in Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite,
Jeanine Ring )(*)(
Well, I certainly most agree. Those with an Anglo-Byzantine's elitist half-education in history have long underestimated the hippies, whose intellectual parentage they would do well not so easily to mock. There are those who believe one cannot be joyous, light, enthusiastic (or gay), without a loss of artistry and intellectual seriousness. I would suggest they look a little more closely at the literature and lives of their Great Conversationalists; they have a lot to learn.
And as for a spirit of liberty, I agree. The primary political instinct of the hippie movement was "let a man live his own life", and their much harrangued egalitarianism was more a belief that there is a brighter flame of creativity in all people- black, white, and red, woman and man, poor and rich, than a heirarchical society oft allows to flourish or to flower into being. That is a spirit most compatable with libertarianism- and onw which, perhaps, has something to teach it. I myself see no conflict between an admiration for the Howard Roarcks of this world and a suspicion that there is a lot more of a Roark submerged inside the 'common' man. Or in fact, not so submerged- too easily blind and ethnocentric eyes that search for that spirit do not allow us to see it.
my regards,
in Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite,
Jeanine Ring )(*)(
by Andre Zantonavitch on February 1, 2005 at 2:47 PM