I am always happy to assist readers in distress. Recently I received this letter.
Dear Dr Troppo,
Despite a protective screen of refractor rays, my gulch has been invaded by a small army of talking tin cans with sink plungers for hands. The leader of these metallic looters says that unless I give them the plans to my motor they will exterminate me and everyone else in the gulch. I assured them that I would rather have it crumble and vanish forever than allow it to be seized by force.
Since they seemed to be highly technologically advanced I assumed that they would respond to reason. I explained to them that to force a man to drop his own mind and to accept your will as a substitute, with a gun in place of a syllogism, with terror in place of proof, and death as the final argument — is to attempt to exist in defiance of reality. Their leader then fired a death ray at my house and vaporised it.
The looters have now been here a week and I have had a chance to observe them more closely. They are completely immune to emotions like pity, guilt, compassion or fear. They exhibit no understanding of altruism (which suggests that they are not entirely without virtue).
My problem is this — in many ways these creatures appear to more rational than I am. They propelled themselves across the galaxy in a flying saucer, effortlessly disabled my refractor rays and are clothed in metal alloys that are lighter and stronger than Rearden Metal. Given their obviously superior mental and technological abilities, is it possible that their system of values is more rational than my own?
Yours sincerely
John Galt
Mr Galt, to help you with your problem I need to know a little bit more about your visitors. Do they look anything like this?
Do readers have any suggestions for Mr Galt?
Get in an accident in front of Tom Cruise. He’s the only one who can help.
They are clearly the children of a couple of objectivists who somehow bred and reared the kids according the Randian first principles.
The best advice I can give is:
On the other hand a spray with WD40 might just loosen up their minds.
Don
I know Dr Troppo is your alter ego and since you have an interest in the various libertarian cults and this thread is vaguely about Objectivism I thought I’d draw your attention to this –
The Ayn Randians are apparently passionately anti-Republican because they now see it as the Christian party and are advocating a vote for the Dems
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4816
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4817
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4811
Are you sure, Jason.? I’m pretty sure it’s the other way around.
Jason – I’ve come across Capitalism Magazine before but I hadn’t noticed the articles urging readers to vote Democrat. Thanks for that.
I see Rand’s followers are still still grumbling about Whittaker Chambers‘ review of Atlas Shrugged.
I’ve read that Angelina Jolie is going to star in film version of Atlas Shrugged. Do you think they’ll be a revival of interest in her philosophy of objectivism?
Mr Soon – Although Dr Troppo refuses to admit it, he finds it very upsetting when people speculate about who created him.
You see he likes to think of himself as sui generis. Talking to Dr Troppo about his creator is a bit like talking to one of Ayn Rand’s heroes about their parents or — better still — about the idea of a creator God that have they dedicated their life to refuting.
Personally I suspect that the relationship between Dr Troppo and ‘the author’ (oh dear, I promised Dr Troppo I’d never refer to that person!) is more fraught than you imagine.
Dr Troppo once said that he sympathised with Thomas Gradgrind. Even though Mr Gradgrind was wrong about many things, Dr Troppo said that he was an infinitely more sympathetic character than Charles Dickens (Dr Troppo loathes Mr Dickens).
So, I suspect, that Dr Troppo’s relationship to ‘the author’ is more like Mr Gradgrind’s relationship with Mr Dickens than it is to Mr Galt’s relationship to Ms Rand.
It is certainly a confusion to think — as you do Mr Soon — that Dr Troppo’s relationship to ‘the author’ is the same as Batman’s relationship to Bruce Wayne.
Que?
Mr Cook, you must be new here.
What part did you not understand?
everything from ‘Dear Dr Troppo’ onwards. You people have waaay too much time on your hands.