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From: laura@l5.uucp (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Ayn Rand and others' feelings
Message-ID: <301@l5.uucp>
Date: Sun, 1-Dec-85 21:55:52 EST
Article-I.D.: l5.301
Posted: Sun Dec  1 21:55:52 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Dec-85 04:51:52 EST
References: <225@unirot.UUCP>
Reply-To: laura@l5.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Organization: Nebula Consultants in San Francisco
Lines: 37
Keywords: evolution in action

In article <225@unirot.UUCP> pooh@unirot.UUCP (Pooh) writes:
>It's hard not to notice that all those characters in
>Ayn Rand's books are incredibly rich, smart and/or active
>and are not undereducated or mentally/physically handicapped.
>It's really easy to kiss off the rest of the world when you're
>not hurting yourself.

Damned if I know how Rand got in this, but that statement is patently
false.  Of course, a good many of Rand's characters make themselves
rich, but they all sure didn't start out that way.  John Galt and
Howard Roark spring to mind, but I thought of four others as I type
this.  Many are self-educated, and many drop out of school.  If you
read Rand on aethetics, you will find that she believes that a physical
handicap is only incidental to a person whereas a serious mental
handicap is a tragedy.  And Rand's books are full of people who are
irrational to some degree, which for Rand counts as a mental handicap
of sorts, albeit one that can be overcome.

>
>Besides, try teaching your child that he doesn't have to
>worry about hurting someone's feelings, and you're going to
>raise a social outcast.

You don't need to teach a kid that people get hurt feelings.  They
will find that out if you happen to forget this.  If you happen to
teach your kid that not hurting other people's feelings is fantastically
important then you can raise a kid who can has no mind of his own (because
if he ever had a free thought that might hurt somebody's feelings).  Most
people do not end up as either social outcasts or as totally mindless
sheep, of course.  I suspect that it is impossible to raise a kid to
be one or the other -- you can work one direction, but your kid can
overcome your efforts as well.  No surety in the parenting business.

-- 
Laura Creighton		
sun!l5!laura		(that is ell-five, not fifteen)
l5!laura@lll-crg.arpa