At no point did I claim or pretend to have read all of Rand's work. My only claim was that what I *have* read of her work, and what I've seen from her followers, is nothing I find worthwhile, or indeed, rational, as a way of life.

Seriously? Are you still on about this?

I think Atheism is often described as a religion by its critics because, while it's not a religion exactly, it's certainly a religious position (positing "no god" is still a theological position) , and it's not merely a "lack of belief" but rather in most cases a strong belief in Newtonian Materialism (i.e. the idea…

Thanks! That's exactly what I was going for.

Kinja seems to have eaten my first reply. Anyway—yes, that's definitely true. People with extremes on any of the personality scales tend to have difficulty. In the case of agreeableness, there's definitely such a thing as being too nice.

Oh yeah—people with high agreeableness often have difficulties in our culture. There's definitely such a thing as being too nice. The research seems to indicate that anyone at the extreme ends of the five personality scales tend to have difficulty.

Your ability to do that, and other's lack of ability, depends on personality—a lot of which is genetic and very difficult to change. It's just the way people are wired. The people you say you hate aren't trying to be annoying—it's quite the opposite: they can't stand the thought of letting someone down, so they…

When you factor out the amount of time spent thinking through complex and unfamiliar concepts—a rarity when people read for pleasure...

Tragic, what happened to the Takeda clan, after Shingen died.

I think Hagbard Celine already got there...

I wager 300,000 quatloos on the newcomer...

Indeed!

Wow. An ad hominem attack in response to comments made almost a year ago. How rational of you! And not only that, your response is really unclear. She did what? She did mean selfishness? She did try to re-define the term? She did spend more time learning English? What are you referring to?

Exactly! An educational system that was originally designed by fascists, in fact, back before fascism was considered tantamount to being a Nazi.

I think I'll stick with the movie, if anything. The problem I have is that I vehemently disagree with Rand's conclusions. I've read enough of her short work and discussed it with enough of her followers to know that much.

Hmm. I might check it out someday if the mood strikes me.

Mind = BLOWN

You can even use it to Hack the Planet!

It's possible for many people to do that, but not everyone is given the choice. Some people are just too different to fit in easily; and if they wind up labelled outcasts, they might even come to resent the thought of fitting in. Especially if the behaviour they're expected to conform to is of no real consequence,…

:D