I thought my car had been stolen yesterday. Turns out the University had decided it and 3 other cars needed towing to another parking lot farther away. Why? So a temporary chain link fence could be put up. The reason for the fence is not obvious, it merely partitions part of the lot from the rest. It appears that the fence is one of those things that exists only to make things slightly more grating for people. So I searched the lot for about a half hour wondering if I had parked it somewhere else and had forgotten. As my anxiety leveled increased I realized that my 1993 Oldsmobile EightyEight wasn’t there. Shit. So I go back to call security and here we go:
Security: “Notre Dame Security this is Sandra.”
Adam: “I’m calling to report a stolen vehic…”
S: “Oh! Were you parked in D2? We towed 4 cars out of there to the North lot today.”
A: “Yeah I was in D2, did you tow a…”
S: “We’ve got a grey Ford Pickup, license plate num…”
A: (cursing internally) “No, that is not my car. I have a…”
S: “…and we have a grey Oldsmobile that belongs to…”
A: (irately) “I have an Oldsmobile but its navy not grey, the name is Adam Harvey.”
S: “I’ve got an Oldsmobile with Indiana plates registered to a Harvey A. Barnard.”
A: (more internal cursing) “Yeah, that’s me.”
S: “There is no cost to you, sir. Have good day.” (click)
A: “Fuck.”
Absurd. Especially in the existentialist meaning of the word.
Its gonna take awhile to read Atlas Shrugged since the book itself is large enough to be borne by Atlas. So to amuse myself while I read it I’m going to rip on Ayn Rand’s philosophy: Objectivism.
Day 1: The last few pages of the book (after the novel itself) are devoted to a synopsis of her philosophy.
Major Objection: A philosophy that depends on a pulp printing of a book to get a word in edgewise rather defeats the credibility of said philosophy.
Metaphysics: “Objectivism rejects any belief in the supernatural-and any claim that individuals or groups create their own reality.”
Major Objection: This in effect states that societies should not exist. For what is society, but a mass consumed created reality? Lunatics are ostracized for the very reason that their created reality exists in conflict to the status quo. Objectivism also therefore opposes the existentialist idea that meaning is created and exerted by the individual. For Objectivism, meaning must exist as fact only, the ultimate pragmatism.