Prog and Politics

Anyway, back on my soap box - Ayn Rand belongs in the same circle of Hell as white supremacists, MENSA, the British National Party, Jean Marie Le Pen, Pol Pot, UKIP, Uncle Joe Stalin, Eugene Terreblanche, Mao Tse Tung, Oswald Mosely and Idi Amin (to name but a few).

Approach her alleged ideas with extreme caution.

Once again Reed, your mastery of the subtleties of debate and your flawless command of symbolic logic have undermined my most carefully reasoned arguments

smug manc git

Syzygy wrote: John Gargo wrote: I guess 'Anthem' was inspired by Ayn Rands book. Her philosophy on life - Objectivism - was quite selfish on the surface. There seemed little room for charity and benevolence. It seems to centre around self achievment and putting your own happiness at the core of your motivation for living. But I dont believe it to be a 'right wing' idea. There is nothing in her ideas about NOT respecting the happiness or well being of others. www.aynrand.org Reed, this is more a response to John Cargo.. Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' fused a misreading of Nietzsche (similar to that which inspired the 3rd Reich) with some of Adam Smith's less workable notions, all delivered via a prose style which makes 'The Da Vinci Code' read like Joseph Conrad. But apart from that, and making Mussolini look like a bleeding heart liberal, I'd recommend her work to anyone.

Ps...Birmingham

Reed Lover wrote: John Gargo wrote: Gotta love those Neil Peart lyrics!!! Live for yourself -- there's no one else More worth living for Begging hands and bleeding hearts will only cry out for more Well done John,21 yr old and already a cynical bastard. What about Peart's lyrics in Territories: The whole wide world An endless universe Yet we keep looking through The eyeglass in reverse Don't feed the people But we feed the machines Can't really feel What international means Better the pride that resides In a citizen of the world Than the pride that divides When a colourful rag is unfurled libertine or selfish?

I guess 'Anthem' was inspired by Ayn Rands book. Her philosophy on life - Objectivism - was quite selfish on the surface. There seemed little room for charity and benevolence. It seems to centre around self achievment and putting your own happiness at the core of your motivation for living. But I dont believe it to be a 'right wing' idea. There is nothing in her ideas about NOT respecting the happiness or well being of others.

www.aynrand.org

Reed, this is more a response to John Cargo..

I never been left oriented, but not for lack of heart, but because in a country where you see what a left terrorist group as Shinning Path does to 50,000 innocent and most of them extreamely poor people you can't accept that and they create a reaction against the system.

I was once interviewed in the University when I won an election (I was in politics) and a guy from a leftist  panflet told me the first part of the quote, he said

"If you are not a communist in your teens then you have no heart. How old are you? I was 19. A lot of people laughed, but I had already read the quote and answered him the second part, If you're still a communist at your fourty's then you have no brain. I think you're 42 or 43, am I right?

The guy lost the temper, called me facist and wrote I had insulted him. One of thereasons why I don't like the press people.

Iván

Reed Lover wrote: Well done John,21 yr old and already a cynical bastard.

Yeah, well where one sees cynicism, someone else sees realism.  Personally, I find leftist politics a bit too idealistic for my tastes... I just don't find it feasible.  Perhaps if the world was a perfect place, it could work, but I don't see things that way.

I'm for politics of accountability and self-reliance, although I'm sure that makes me a fascist to some... 

Anyway, politics is too divisive a topic...  at least we can find common ground in good music, which is what we should be really focusing on.  Still, this thread so far has been pretty civil and interesting... 

There's actually quite a strong thread of left wing/anarchist thinking in a lot of the original prog acts, although very few were explicit about it. Certainly prog's tory boys kept their odious views very much to themselves in the 70s, although they started to come out in the 80s during the cultural devastation of the Thatcher/Reagan years.

This is slightly odd, given that the majority of prog fans are small 'c' conservatives at heart, as can be seen from many of the posts on this forum. 

"If your not leftish in your twenties, you have no hart;

if you still leftish in your fourties, yo have no brain"

Something like that was wrote by Churchill, what do you thing about that statement?

(OK, Churchill ain't prog, I know, I know...)