You could have knocked me over with a leather cheese stick. I have been reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged for months on end. Savouring and rationing it like fine wine. And wouldn't you know it? These days, Rand's Atlas Shrugged has become the book de jour for those distressed by the regime of President Oprah. Ever strong sales of the book have tripled. Says Seablogger, Reading that book is the ideological equivalent of training with a gun. It is armament for the ordeal ahead.
Now, I got the book. All I need is to get me a gun. Although, being China, the people I need to fight are few and far between. I really am disinterested in what happens here. It is only for me to observe and comment on. I have no illusions of changing things.
Speaking of Morrissey, I did pull out a DVD of videos from his solo career that I happen to have. I watched and listened to it with Tony for about four songs. Tony was interested enough that he sat in my arms and didn't budge an inch. I hope he doesn't think that the man in the videos was his father in his younger days and that his father was somehow poncey. I watched enough videos to see his silly leftism shine through. "We won't vote Conservative because we never have!" A rhetorical victory in song there......not!
This link spoke to me about my life. The culture of political niceness has made British classrooms into disorderly torture chambers where no one learns anything, especially how to behave. But trying to be nice, authority has vanished and anarchy reigns. It seems you can't get some people to do even the smallest, you would think, reasonable civilized act except by pounding them over the head with a baseball bat or kicking them in the ass. It a lesson that life keeps slapping me in the face with whether it has been with roommates or co-workers or any other acquaintances. Most people don't play nice. And it is usually the worst of people who will insist most on niceness. Niceness is a sham. One lesson I hope I can impart to Tony is never ever be a position where people think you are a nice guy. Better to be called all the names in the book because you are like General Patton or an old-school Sergeant-Major.
Check out this link.
The never ending adventures of a Canadian who lives in Wuxi and Jiangyin, China with his Chinese wife Jenny and their son Anthony aka Tony
I recently found your blog, and while I'm a student of Japanese and Japan myself, I try to keep abreast of what's going on in China, too. I'm very intrigued to find a Randian or at least an admirer of Rand in China; I had always hoped that such was the case. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteThank you, for the compliment.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I am conflicted about being a Randian. It is not that I don't agree with her economically. I do. She is right to say that socialism destroys the spirit. What she depicts in Atlas Shrugged eerily resembles the Obama administration. However, she was an atheist and a strong one at that. Her rejection of the transcendent to me is a short-coming.
I see lots of proof that the market works in China. If you want something badly enough, you can buy it here. I do see also a desire for the trascendent. However, I also see corruption and a do-anything-unethical attitude to making money.