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WELCOME TO "RANDISM"
Read Objectivism as I learned it using the materials from which I learned it

This is my Ayn Rand website. As stated and for the stated reasons, I do not call myself an "Objectivist". If you wish to, go right ahead

Then how am I called in relation to Miss Rand's philosophical system?

Since my roots are in sci-fi then I will use a term from science fiction: Specificallly from Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. It is the term that he used to desdcribe the "Objectivists" of the twenty second century.

That term is "Randite"

Other terms I use that appear to get some individuals bent out of shape are "Randism", "Randian" and Ayn Randian". This comes from the mid 1970's and is unique to me. At that time there was starting to be an expansion of the term "Objectivism" to include some things not part of Rand's philsophy proper or bastardized, half-breed mixtures of Rand's philosphy with everything under the sun; drug use ("The Disoned Children of Ayn Rand": Reason), utopian socialism, Christianity; even Talmudic Judaism and would you believe hip-hop?! To separate myself from these atrocities, I said once that I advocate "straight up Randism [the Objectivist philsophy originated and propounded by Ayn RAnd]": For more on the matter, go HERE. Ditto "Randian" and "Ayn Radian" refer to Objectivism proper, attitudes that I picked up from Rand and personality traits we have in common that come from or accompany Objectivism and represent the tail in "When you let the cat it, does she leave her tail outsie?". Such attitudes as intolerence of ill will (sometimes to the point of belligerence), moral certitude (which derives from moral absolutism, not suffering fools gladly, etc... and being willing to go 5 miles out of the way to promote understadning if that's what it takes (Believe me, in some instances Rand had the patience of a saint when it came to explaining things).

But what has this to do with Space Patrol? In genereal. SPACE PATROL was a beacon from a bright and interesting future and Miss Rand's philosophical system is, or will be, the means to get there. Specifically; five things:

  1. when I came to understand this philosophical systme enough to pass a proper judgement upon it, I said. "WOW! Space Patrol Come to life! This will power men to the stars."
  2. In The Romantic Manifest, Miss Rand dedicated much of the discussion to what she called a "sense of life", which she defined as "A subconscious, emotionally integrated, pre-conceptual equivalent of philosophy: Specifically metaphysics". Among her writings on the matter was the statement that "A child is guided primarily by his sense of life". That explained my attraction to Space Patrol with a loud "click!". To spell it out. there is an equivalence between the Randite philosophy and the sense of life implied in Space Patrol.
  3. Miss Rand was pro-Reason and therefore pro-science, noting that the good things we have from cars to television to advanced medicine are the result of science rather than getting into philosophical discussions about, for example, Could Mars have been a cube or pyramid, why or why not; the final arbiters of such matters are properly the scientists who deal in such matters (in this case, astrophysicists) since it is they who dig out the knowledge in the first place. An often explicit premise of Space Patrol was that the utopia of the 30th century was a product of science.
  4. Much of Miss Rand's imagery when "doing" philosophy used interplanetary travel to the extent that one almost got the impression that she considered it a fait accompli.
  5. Miss Rand was devoutly pro-American. So much so that she ended one of her late 1970's addresses at the Ford Hall Forum in Boston, MA wiht "If I were a religious person I would say 'God bless America': I am saying it anyway.": and Miss Rand lived and died a thoroughgoing atheist to such a point that she did not vote for Ronald Reagan (I did and do not regret it one bit. Given the actual choice we had, there was nothing else a wise person could have done: Please note, that's wise person, not wise guy).
it is for those reasons that Ayn Rand's philosophy is part and parcel of my persona: It fits me to the last decimal place. Now, there are those who would say that I have the "Agenda" of using Space Patrol to advance the Randite philosophical system. Please note I link to there from here, but not from Retro Rockets to here. While Randism is a good thing on its own merits, and one of my passions, for me it is a means to an end just like my tools (knives, axe, screwdrivers, etc), computer, synthesizers and 12-string guitar; all of which I love dearly. The world embodied by Space Patrol is that end and is the most important thing in this dmain. That's why the non-Space Patrol sites are sub-domained. The agenda is in fact the reverse of what you would expect. Philosophy is a tool. No matter how well created and good a tool is, it is made for another, larger purpose. For me, Space Patrol set the tone of that purpose; the "why" I am a Randite.

Also, I am using Miss Rand's favorite colors: Blue-green and gold for the pages here.

EQUIPMENT and TOOLS: To acquire the level of understaning of Objectivism that I would like you to have in order to make an intelligent, informed and rational judgement and since this is an Originalist website, you must read the following material The Virtue of Selfishenss, Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal, The Romantic Manifesto, The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution and Philosophy: Who Needs It for its brilliant title essay, "Philosophical Detection", "The Metaphysical Versus the Man-Made" and "The Missing LInk" I also recommend, but for the brave, An Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. It is a bit too technical for newbies although you will have to get down to it at some time. I recommend, but do not require as a baseline that you read the other works that were editied by Leonard Peikoff which came from The Ayn Rand Letter and Ayn Rand's notes. The only material that I can recommend are those from The Objectivist, The Objectivist Newlsetter and The Ayn Rand Letter and the pamphlets that her group published in the '60's and '70's. The Intellectual Activist gets mixed reviews around here. Their anti-Reagan attitude, held with full knowledge of thw full nature of the opposition at the time smacked of a vendetta of some sort to which they were willing to sacrifice their principle about having principles (such as limited government, lowering taxes and economic prosperity, Environmentalism having lost its tawdry glamor but wreaking havoc on American Industry and a man with even the wrong principles being better than a man with none, to name a few: It turned out that Reagan was the most principled president of the 20th century). I cannot recommend at this time Peikoff's Objectivism: the Philosphy of Ayn Rand also called by Objectivists "OPAR". I have not read it so I can't speak to it, but Peikoff is damn good. There are also those who say you must read Atlas Shrugged to understand Objectivism. Well..I dunno...maybe. But there are plenty of other good reasons to read it. I will say that if you haven't read it within a year, I question your commitment to Objectivism and you'll miss a lot of what is referenced in the Romantic Manifesto

INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL
  1. WHY DO I NEED THIS CRAP: ANYWAY?
  2. MISSION STATEMENT
  3. PHILOSOPHY
  4. "OUTLAW", "JIHAD" SITE
  5. "PHILOPHY" vs "PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEM"
  6. RECOGNIZED TERMINOLoGY and MY LEXICON
  7. RANDISM IN ONE AFTERNOON
  8. QUOTATIONS OF CHAIRMAN AYN
ARTICLES

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