John Galt under open sky (and mosquito bites)
I attended the book release function of Ayn Rand at 100, a collection of essays about Rand’s relevance in todays world. The function was held at Gokhale Shastri Institute, in Karpagambal Nagar. The institute is tucked inside a small road, directly opposite to the ING VYSYA bank in Oliver Road.
Wnen I reached there, there were small clusters of people standing outside the hall and discussing. Totally 25 people attended the function, which sort of indicates the following Rand has in Chennai :-). Ok that statement was made in jest, lot of people read Rand, in any group you can find atleast one ardent follower, probably it wasn’t that widely publicised. Since the crowd was less, and it was pleasant outside, they decided to have the meeting with chairs laid out in a circle, open to the sky.
Raj Cherubal of CCS (Center for Civil Society) Chennai chapter started the meeting with his introductory speech. He said though he has been reading Rand for sometime now, still this book gave different perspective about her philosophy corelating it with the Indian philosophies. He was a fluent speaker, but calling Gandhi’s dis-obedience movement equal to Galt’s call for pulling productive people out of the society was a little far fetched I thought. He made a good point about seeing Galt in everyday businessmen like shopkeepers and rickshaw wallas. For good effect he even read out a few lines from Galt’s defence.
The Chief Guest of the evening was Mr.K. Jaisim of Fountainhead Architects, Bangalore. He reminisced about how he ran into Rand’s books, the time he spent in Chennai during 1970s running an architectural practice, choosing the name Foutainhead to remind himself constantly of objectvism and about how he left the country during Emergency in 1975 as a form of protest.
Finally it was the turn of Barun S. Mitra of Libterty Institute to talk about the book and expand on his reasons for bringing out this book (“To publicly acknowledge my debt to Rand’s philosophy”). He read out a passage from Bibek Debroy’s essay on comparing Rand with Indian philosophies (especially Buddhist strands of thought). He closed his talk with what he thinks as the greatest scene in Literature, Wynand telling Roark at the end of Fountainhead “Build a monument to the spirit that is yours, but could have been mine”.
The crowd consisted of people from CCS and Liberty Institute, a couple of college students and oddballs like me. The only other blogger there was Satya Narayana, who I see in book club meetings, but have never spoken to.
Towards the end of the meeting, the mosquitoes started attacking us in droves, but like true Rand characters we withstood the pain without flinching :-)
There were a few questions to Mr. Jaisim, but mostly as an architect. The question I wanted to ask, but didn’t was “Why do many people read Ayn Rand in early twenties, but seem to grow out of her ideas once they come into the real world?’
Seriously though, do all this sort of think tank discussions result in any appreciable change in society? Does it really matter? I want to say yes, but am afraid the answer is in the negative. May be there were better and larger crowds in other cities. My view is as long as the think tanks keep talking in English, nothing is going to happen. Yesterday’s crowd was hardly reflective of Tamilnadu or Chennai.
Has any one translated Rand’s books into Tamil? I don’t see the necessity of it though. Read Periyar’s writings, they are closer to Ayn Rand than any other Indian thinker.
chenthil, i have tried to read ayn rand several times but could never get into. i found it required a level of intelligence (for want of a better word) that i did not possess :(. so, kudos to all of ayn rand’s devotees of the supremeness of individualism. isn’t that her basic theme? also very curious about the common thread between her and periyar’s writings. would you mind giving some pointers, if it so permissible in this forum? thanks.
“Why do many people read Ayn Rand in early twenties, but seem to grow out of her ideas once they come into the real world?”
You should have put the question to Mr.Jaisim but your question is not a invalid one. It is not that they seem to grow out of the Randian Ideas but it is because these people, by themselves, cannot get the answers to their questions, they need a forum to discuss, they need other people (like Barun and Raj) who have read Rand and more to help them, without which their questions and ideas fade away with time.
And don’t try make too much of yesterday’s discussions, it was just a book launch event.
If you want real libertarianism, first checkout
http://www.self-gov.org/quiz.html then you know where you are, Know Thyself, then you can proceed.
“Has any one translated Rand’s books into Tamil? I don’t see the necessity of it though. Read Periyar’s writings, they are closer to Ayn Rand than any other Indian thinker.”
I can do the translation if anyone can pay me enough. If you don’t see any neccesity you should read Rand more.
Only thing common to Periyar and Ayn Rand was they were both Athiest, that is where the similarity ends. Periyar was a socialist and Rand was the negative of Periyar in economic and moral issues.
I liked your view that…. “as long as the think tanks keep talking in English, nothing is going to happen.”
regards,
Jay
PS: What happened to the other two authors of Chennai metblogs who were supposed to attend the event?
{{My view is as long as the think tanks keep talking in English, nothing is going to happen. Yesterday’s crowd was hardly reflective of Tamilnadu or Chennai.}} – That’s a rather insular generalization though I get what you mean. For no crowd can be “reflective” of Tamil Nadu or any region for that matter. In saying so you’re suggesting that TN has a characteristic and it’s embodied by a certain majority and not shared by those in other states (or other countries for that matter).
No one can represent me but me (which isn’t entirely true either because I represent what I’m socialized to be). The point being, representation is a dubious idea even at an individualistic level. Was the Nazi Germany representative of Germany or even Germany of the 1930s and 40s? If you still say yes, there’s split in our theoretical conception of representation and statehood.
{{Seriously though, do all this sort of think tank discussions result in any appreciable change in society? Does it really matter?}} – If you dissect your question further, you’ll have another question – Does what matters really matter?. When we are still not sure of purpose (if there is any) our existence in this universe–its origins or its end–how would one conceptualize what matters? Humans have socially evolved to build concepts and contexts that are meant to keep them driving, at least as now, in circles (well portrayed in the movie Memento).
Phantom, do take the effort to finish atleas a book of Ayn Rand. Whether you agree with her philosophy or not, it is still worth the effort.
Jay, from your comment I understand that you too were in the meeting. From your comment “it is because these people, by themselves, cannot get the answers to their questions, they need a forum to discuss, they need other people (like Barun and Raj) who have read Rand and more to help them”
Why should people NEED some one to tell them what to do. Isn’t it against what Rand was trying to explain, you are your own master. This is where I see a contradiction, by elevating Rand to God’s status we are falling into the same trap that she asked humans to avoid. This is true not only of Rand but of many other philosopher thinkers too. Jiddu Krishnamoorthy comes to mind.
Periyar did spend some time as a socialist, but rationalism was his ideal. He wanted everyone to live with self respect, Respect humans not Gods are a couple of his thoughts. Check his sayings here. Example – “Man possesses reason. It is given to him for enquiry, not for blind animalism. It is by abusing reason that man has brought himself into a lot of troubles”.
Suresh, if no one can represent you but you, then why have a think tank at all? Can’t we think for ourselves?
“how would one conceptualize what matters? ” – Everybody is searching answers for that question :-)
You’ve quoted just a part a what I had said
“No one can represent me but me (which isn’t entirely true either because I represent what I’m socialized to be).”
So the idea of you trying to be/trying not be are all reflections of circumstances that are self-imposed and otherwise (again, what’s self-imposed isn’t self-imposed in its true sense, for the self is driven by a chain of events out of our control – starting from our inception).
Anyway, what I meant was that “you” is a very fluid notion and no one can represent you because..I’ve told already:p. So it’s not just a question of representation of ‘something’, but a representation of ‘something’ that doesn’t have a form of its own. Never mind, don’t want to get too theoretical here.
{{if no one can represent you but you, then why have a think tank at all? Can’t we think for ourselves?}} – Who are these think tanks anyway? Alien creatures sent here to impart knowledge? Weren’t they ‘us’ at some point? (actually aren’t they us now in many levels?).
Think tanks are the people who at a particular moment have access to the knowledge that is a result of a dialectic process that continues to diffuse itself. This dialectic process began when no so called think tanks were around. Of course the access that I’m talking about isn’t necessarily elitist.
In a post-modernist perspective, a lot of the knowledge that has been the result of this diffusion needs serious deconstruction. So I dismiss the superiority conferred up on these so called think tanks (I’m not saying you are).
It’s interesting that you’ve mentioned JK in the comment above. There’s a video of UG’s in which he dissects JK’s notions. As much as I respect JK’s ideas, UG amid his blatantncy makes a very valid point at 8.20 in the video
http://youtube.com/watch?v=L42ZPJnEqlY
Suresh, will check that video. I have not read much of JK, only a little here and there, but found his ideas attractive. If I gave the impression that I hate Ayn Rand’s ideaas, that means I didn’t convey my thoughts clearly. For me, all her ideals sound ok, but by trying to enshrine her, form clubs and stuff we are bringing her down to the level of Melmaruvathur Bangaru adigal stuff, a cult goddess.
You have quoted a section of my comment and conclude that – one must be told what to do.
I never said that you need somebody to tell how to do things. The keyword in my comment is help.
We cannot elevate Ayn Rand’s status to God because there is no God. Ayn Rand lived and wrote, God does not exist. This makes it clear I think.
Periyar was a Socialist, Athiest. Ayn Rand was a Athiest, strong supporter of Individualism, Capitalism. I think periyar in advocating rationalism limited himself to Religion that was his drawback.
chenthil,
namma mandai, ‘mara mandai saar’. indha vayasula oNNumey yeyRaRuthu illay? :( what to do? :(
ayn rand refused to bust the thick walls that surround my eyes :(
besides that, if you take the paarpaan oriented expletives out of periyar, by and large, i agree with him re the need to reform the society. i cannot but imagine the times in which he matured into a philosopher. but the need must have been immense for him to develop such a level of antagonism against the brahmins! periyar did not quite differentiate between paarpaans and brahminism! i guess to him both were the same :(
having said all this, i would not be too surprised to see a temple built for him somewhere in tamil nadu, and periyar literally turning himself in his grave (the man was buried after all!) :)
such is our adulation and devotion to our heroes! you would know that this is imminent, when you start seeing periyar’s statues with the auspicious chandanam/kungumam/viboodhi!! heavens forbid..hmmm :)