目迷五色，心空四象
一生負氣成今日，四海無人對夕陽
這期的<<紐約客>>有一篇關於安蘭德(Ayn Rand)活動小組的文章"Ayn Crowd", 很有意思, 作者Lizzie Widdicombe. 說到了安蘭德的<<阿特拉斯聳聳肩>>在眼下經濟不景氣時期的熱賣, 也講到格林斯潘這個Ayn Rand的前信徒現叛徒在國會宣稱"found a flaw" in his trust in free-market capitalism後, 這些粉絲們的反應.
我也是Ayn Rand的粉絲, 十分欣慰地承認, 她多多少少改變了我的人生觀. 今年一月份, 我還特意趕到紐約上州Ayn Rand的墓地, 向這位不可多得的偉大女士致敬, 並且希望哪天自己死了也能葬在那個墓區:)
ABSTRACT: Talk story about a meeting of Ayn Rand enthusiasts. Every month, a group of Ayn Rand enthusiasts get together at the Midtown Restaurant, on Fifty-fifth Street, for a discussion of Objectivism—the philosophy, expressed in Rand’s novels, that celebrates the selfish individual over the collective, and argues that laissez-faire capitalism is the only just social system. There was a special buzz at the most recent meeting: for months, Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged”—which describes a kind of American economic apocalypse, spurred by socialist-style government intervention—has been on the bestseller lists. “This economic crisis has sparked so much interest!” Robert Flanzer, a dentist, said. About twenty participants gathered around a long table at the front of the restaurant. They included a former “spiritual care manager” who now works in wealth management, an exercise coach, a shamanic healer, a flight attendant, a musician, and the designer of the covers for two books about Rand. Paul Bell, another discipline of Rand’s, rose and started a discussion about Alan Greenspan, Rand’s best-known disciple, who offended Objectivists last fall by announcing, in testimony before Congress, that he’d “found a flaw” in his faith in free-market capitalism. Bell suggested that Greenspan, who had been an Objectivist since the sixties, changed after he went to Washington—that he got “Potomac fever.” The discussion moved on to other signs of social decline: the M.T.A., gangs on the Lower East Side. Benny Pollak, a computer programmer, asked, “If Ayn Rand were alive today, what do you think would be her attitude toward the current meltdown?” “ ‘I told you so’?” another group member suggested.
