1. The Ayn Rand Fan Club interviewed David Harriman. As long-time readers may recall, Harriman “edited” The Journals of Ayn Rand to such an extent that her journals (as printed) reflect Randian-Objectivism circa 1960 more than what Rand wrote at the time of her entries. Unfortunately, that topic didn’t come up during the interview. (Harriman said a while ago that it was Peikoff who directed the editing.) Speaking of editing, Harriman confirms that Rand’s editing of Peikoff’s The Ominous Parallels was rather substantial. Rand would return entire chapters to Peikoff, telling him in effect that he had to start over again.
Harriman discusses contemporary physics and cosmology. Granted, I’m no expert on these things, but his approach seems a bit one-sided. He attacks the Big Bang Theory as a “creation myth,” duly noting that it was developed by a Catholic priest who was also a physicist. It’s been a while since I looked into the topic, but my recollection was that the BBT is supported by multiple lines of evidence. One might think that the “objective” approach to the question would be, in effect, “if it has theistic implications, then so be it.” Even Harriman concedes that most cosmologists support the BBT and I doubt most would describe themselves as religious, much less creationists.
Harriman also discusses his book The Logical Leap: Induction in Physics which he collaborated on with Peikoff (although Harriman is listed as sole author). Strangely, he says that the Ayn Rand Institute attacked the book (which he says was otherwise well received). In fact, two physicists associated with the ARI (John McCaskey and Travis Norsen) criticized the book. Upon learning of this, the ARI (at Peikoff’s urging) booted McCaskey out (I think Norsen might still be associated with it).
2. A new collection of essays on the relationship between Rand and Aristotle was just published, Two Philosophers: Ayn Rand and Aristotle. It’s edited by Greg Salmieri and James Lennox and is part of the ARI-dominated Ayn Rand Society’s publications.
3. The ARI has gone full TDS with the recent actions by ICE in Minneapolis. Ben Bayer compared ICE to the Gestapo. Yaron Brook called Renee Good’s death a “murder” before the facts were in. But these remarks are moderate considering that Harry Binswanger just wrote that ICE is “Trump’s Gestapo and SS.”* And Trump may be preparing a coup:
The actions of an entity follow from its nature. The tragic death of Renee Good is a logical consequence of letting loose on the country a horde of unaccountable masked gunmen, loyal to their bosses’ boss: Donald Trump. More deaths are sure to come. I worry that ICE is the nucleus of an elite presidential guard.
Putting aside how ICE carries out its functions, this raises a couple of questions for me: (1) why is the ARI obsessed with immigration when Ayn Rand wrote nothing (or next to nothing) on the topic; and (2) why does the ARI (which likes to claim it is above conventional left/right classification) insist on using the language of the left. The ARI has had something of a drift toward the cultural left in recent years (for example Brook says race and gender are social constructs) so the ARI may have concluded that to the extent that it costs donations, the damage has already been done.
______________
* For those whose history is rusty, Heinrich Himmler headed the SS and was Hitler’s second in command in carrying out the Final Solution.
--Neil Parille
No comments:
Post a Comment