"The uncontested absurdities of today
are the accepted slogans of tomorrow."
by:
Ayn Rand
[Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum] (1905-1982) Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter
Source:
Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution
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Reader comments about this quote:
Wonderfully said. The basic science of propaganda.
 -- warren, olathe     
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     -- Dyanna, NY      
    (-: ahh yes, history repeating itself
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    Yes We Can - Yes We Can - Yes We Can (Zeig Heil Zeig Heil)
     -- J Carlton, Calgary     
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    The "Cash for Clunkers" program was a huge sucess in one respect as it got 95% of the pro Obama bumper stickers off the road.
     -- jim k, Austin     
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    JimK...That is just too (F'n) funny! LOL
     -- J Carlton, Calgary     
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    She is wrong and she proved it herself. Her absurd philosophy and the worship of sky scraper builders has been debunked ad infinitem. Her absurdities held sway for a very very short period of time. Only young teenagers and Warren above continue to accept her slogans!
     -- Waffler, Smith     
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    PS she is correct in some quarters however. For example when a wealthy California couple and their lawyer filed suits and called the Estate Tax the death tax the absurdity went uncontested and the right wing of the Republican Party and Rush picked it up and made it the slogan of the day. A new unontested absurdity oft repeated on this site by Logan (which fortunately I have contested tirelessly and I think may have put a stop to it) is 'America is a Republic not a Democracy". These slogans are picked up and touted by the non-thinking (maybe Hitler was right) such as Mike's "statist theocracy" etc. Yes slogans are the favorite tool of the undeducated and unthinking. So I will relent and give Ayn a couple of stars for she is correcting if the quote is only applied to the non-thinking.
     -- Waffler, Smith     
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    Waffler it is too bad you can never come up with a rational point. You want to bring up the debate of republic and democracy again? Why would anyone want to debate that when there is simply no way to argue what is plainly established in the constitution. Of course that would need some one to have read, understood, and/or respect it.
     -- warren, olathe     
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    warren, waffler probably wants the founding fathers and their wisdom forgotten too as it opposes his "ant like"statist philosophy.
     -- J Carlton, Calgary     
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    Waffler, I like it when those of your beliefs attack a person or their ideology as rabidly as you do. ..."worship of sky scrapers."... and ,,,"absurdities"... are just the kind of words people hear that open the eyes and say what's going on and so they look into Ayn Rand because in public she is blasted apart ("debunked") and by her own self. Sounds like a philosophy worth looking into. So, Waffler, carry on with your rabid debunkings as they will continue to wake people up when they decide to check out things for themselves after having their curiosity piqued by those rabid debunkings.
     -- Anon     
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     -- h.s., monaco      
    Yes, the lies and force flag ops are the worst example - the stupid leading the stupid.
     -- RBESRQ     
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    Last I heard, "Atlas Shrugged" was #236 on the Amazon best seller list. That would be a sixty year old novel. Sounds like Rand's philosophy is not as absurd as Waffler wishes it were. Remember the "Equalization of Opportunities Act?" Sounds like a bill that could be introduced next week.
     -- Ken, Allyn, WA     
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    Funny is it not. Yesterday someone blasted Obama's 75,000 acceptance speech crowd, that is his popularity, as some how equating to Hitlerism and Nazism. Now Ken says that Ayn Rands book popularity equates to some kind of brillance. Ken get a grip their is a difference between pop culture and sloganeering and thoughtful discourse. I never said Ayn did not write some pop novels, I only said that her followers are mostly like Star Trek Trekkies. The truth is that Ms. Rand was an immigrant from 1930's or 1920's Russia. The imaginative US economy impressed her as compared to her staid Russian experience. Hitler was also fascinated by architecture, great culture etcetera and dreamed from childhood about destroying ghettos and building beautiful bldgs and halls of culture in their place (killing the current inhabitants did not bother him either). Not saying that Ayn worshipped Nazism but her philosophy based on her admiration for the New York skyline and its creators is just a little bit shallow many if not most observers think. As far as America being a place of great ideas, no doubt about it, but Ayn fails to keep a respectable balance. Hitler did not keep a respectable balance either.
     -- Waffler, Smith     
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    Waffler. It's my observation that the point of the Fountainhead was lost on you. Her admiration of architecture was not for the physical item but for the ability of the individual to shape and conform their environment to fit their own needs as they saw fit. The interference with that internal drive, that burns inside all humans, is what she opposes and warns us about. "Life, Liberty and The pursuit of happiness" should be sacred. The US GOV task was to protect those rights from force or fraud. We lost that long before Mrs. Rand came along. She was trying to warn us about the consequences.
     -- Antonio, Atlanta, GA.     
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    Antonio, I seriously doubt Waffler read the Fountainhead -- why would he subject himself to that? Ellsworth Toohey is the quintessential Waffler. ;-) The only thing debunked around here is Waffler's parroting of the party line.
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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    Ayn Rand's philosophy was "objectivity." Waffler personally seems to have nothing about himself that we could call objective so he despises Ayn Rand.
     -- cal, Lewisville, TX     
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    Let us contest the gross absurdities and accept the reasonable sensibilities of the human essence and character.
     -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown     
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    She escaped Wafflers world because it was frightening.  We are not ants.  To force us to live like it would destroy lives spiritually and probably physically also.
     -- warren, cook ne     
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