A Quote…
February 21st, 2009 at 9:16 am by MicheleWritten in “The New Intellectual” by Ayn Rand (sometime in the 50’s):
Perhaps the most craven attitude of all is the one expressed by the injunction “don’t be certain.” As stated explicitly by many intellectuals, it is the suggestion that if nobody is certain of anything, if nobody holds any firm convictions, if everybody is willing to give in to everybody else, no dictator will rise among us and we will escape the destruction sweeping the rest of the world… ..Nothing but a psycho-epistemological panic can blind such intellectuals to the fact that a dictator, like any thug, runs from the first sign of confident resistance; that he can rise only in a society of precisely such uncertain, compliant, shaking compromisers as they advocate, a society that invites a thug to take over; and that the task of resisting an Attila can be accomplished only by men of intransigent conviction and moral certainty.
The general consensus among the intellectual types is that morally certain people like those on conservative radio, Rick Santelli on the trading room floor, or middle America for that matter, are brash and arrogant, or have no “layers” and stand in the way of “progress” and “change”. The “intellectual” spends a great deal of time looking for chinks in the conservative armor. While they’re distracted by this exercise, the thug takes over.
Welcome to 2009, Ayn!
February 21st, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Greetings:
As Davy Crockett, in the 1950s TV series, Fess Parker used to say, “Be sure you’re right, then go ahead.”
February 21st, 2009 at 6:32 pm
outstanding article, michele!
very prescient and timely.
February 21st, 2009 at 6:57 pm
“a society of …uncertain, compliant, shaking compromisers.” Hmmm. This sounds alot like the Republican party of the last 10 years. I say to hell with bi-partisanship. I want principles! I want conviction! I want men and women of moral certainty! Ah, crap, we’re so screwed.
February 21st, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Hay Mrs. Holmes! Look at it positively. This is our opportunity to turn it on the moonbats and get really loud and obnoxious. We’ll just make sense while we’re doing it.
And we girls can look pretty, while we hold up signs with freshly shaved armpits.
February 22nd, 2009 at 6:18 am
The legs, on the other hand, were skipped in the interest of time.
February 24th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Sounds like Ayn was talking about Brooks, Frum, Parker(as well as Snowe, Collins, Specter) etc., as the Left KNOWS with a fascist determination and singled-minded focus where they are taking the US, and they have not been deterred by Reagan, or Bush 41 or 43(not that either of those two could be called *deterrent* to the Left), or 9/11, or any other normally rallying force of events like wars, or natural disasters(Katrina and Rita), but actually use those to their advantage. They OWN the MSM, schools, unions, the Executive and Legislative branches (and seriously compromise the Judicial), the arts/cinema/theater, the CIA…pretty much all the levers of power, while we continue to fund the enslavement with our taxes and cooperation.
February 24th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Yes. That conglomeration of entities is the Attila we have to fight. These groups have spun the wars, natural disasters and 9/11 to spread their religion of sanctimonious uncertainty. We have to stand up and call them what they are in plain language and not be afraid to do it.
Forgive my LOTR reference, but when all alone, one can feel a little like a hobbit in the face of it all. I think that’s why conservatives should no longer confuse being solitary with being independent. I think we have come to a place where we need to join together and strongly assert ourselves.
Or we can just check out and let the world fall apart.