Ayn Rand's ideas help kill an American Icon. (interviews, wisdom, revolution)
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I have long asserted that Atlas Shrugged is one of the most tedious pieces of adolescent solipsism ever committed to print. And Ayn Rand's "objectivism" is precisely the sort of poseur intellectualism that most of its pubescent adherents abandon at about the same time they discover real sex is better than masturbation.
And even though we are perennially confronted by the handful of man-boys who neotonically carry Rand's banner into "adulthood," we are usually saved from them by their general tendency to "Peter Principle" out before they can do too much damage.
But not always. Sometimes they get to head large corporations. And then they kill them:
An outspoken advocate of free-market economics and fan of the novelist Ayn Rand, he created the model because he expected the invisible hand of the market to drive better results. If the company’s leaders were told to act selfishly, he argued, they would run their divisions in a rational manner, boosting overall performance.
Instead, the divisions turned against each other—and Sears and Kmart, the overarching brands, suffered. Interviews with more than 40 former executives, many of whom sat at the highest levels of the company, paint a picture of a business that’s ravaged by infighting as its divisions battle over fewer resources. (Many declined to go on the record for a variety of reasons, including fear of angering Lampert.) Shaunak Dave, a former executive who left in 2012 and is now at sports marketing agency Revolution, says the model created a “warring tribes” culture. “If you were in a different business unit, we were in two competing companies,” he says. “Cooperation and collaboration aren’t there.”
....
In January, eight years after Lampert masterminded Kmart’s $12 billion buyout of Sears in 2005, the board appointed him chief executive officer of the 120-year-old retailer. The company had gone through four CEOs since the merger, yet former executives say Lampert has long been running the show. Since the takeover, Sears Holdings’ sales have dropped from $49.1 billion to $39.9 billion, and its stock has sunk 64 percent. Its cash recently fell to a 10-year low. Although it has plenty of assets to unload before bankruptcy looms, the odds of a turnaround grow longer every quarter. “The way it’s being managed, it doesn’t work,” says Mary Ross Gilbert, a managing director at investment bank Imperial Capital. “They’re going to continue to deteriorate.”
When Ayn Rand's objectivism meets the real word... the real world wins.
And Ayn Rand's "objectivism" is precisely the sort of poseur intellectualism that most of its pubescent adherents abandon at about the same time they discover real sex is better than masturbation.
I have long asserted that Atlas Shrugged is one of the most tedious pieces of adolescent solipsism ever committed to print. And Ayn Rand's "objectivism" is precisely the sort of poseur intellectualism that most of its pubescent adherents abandon at about the same time they discover real sex is better than masturbation.
And even though we are perennially confronted by the handful of man-boys who neotonically carry Rand's banner into "adulthood," we are usually saved from them by their general tendency to "Peter Principle" out before they can do too much damage.
But not always. Sometimes they get to head large corporations. And then they kill them:
When Ayn Rand's objectivism meets the real word... the real world wins.
Interesting article. I agree, the real world usually does win over armchair philosophy.
I like your reference to "Peter Principle out". That was a great book (I guess written in the early 1970s).
I suggest the stockholders of Sears sue this fool, and the board that hired/promoted him, for his entire fortune for gross mismanagement. Either that of send him off to Wall-mart.
I have long asserted that Atlas Shrugged is one of the most tedious pieces of adolescent solipsism ever committed to print. And Ayn Rand's "objectivism" is precisely the sort of poseur intellectualism that most of its pubescent adherents abandon at about the same time they discover real sex is better than masturbation.
I have long asserted that Atlas Shrugged is one of the most tedious pieces of adolescent solipsism ever committed to print. And Ayn Rand's "objectivism" is precisely the sort of poseur intellectualism that most of its pubescent adherents abandon at about the same time they discover real sex is better than masturbation.
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged . One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”
― John Rogers
How about instead of stroking your own pseudo-intellectual pole you look up some real ammo instead of clinging to some obtuse philosophy from a novelist that a suit supposedly adhered to??
Since he's been "head"...he put double the amount of earnings into stock buybacks instead of investing into capital improvements...
Now anybody who operates under the principle of the "invisible hand" knows that competition is key and you DON'T "outcompete" by NOT reinvesting or underinvesting into your product.
But yea....don't let the fact he didn't adhere to free market principles take the blood out of your boner
I remember reading Rand's "The Fountainhead" in my late teens and being profoundly impressed by her philosophy. I filtered all my decision making through the prism of "what would Howard Roark do?". All collaboration was anathema to me because I knew for a fact that all great ideas and creativity came from the mind of some one great man (in my mind me).
Fortunately, after a decade or so, I turned out to be not a total fool and dumped Ayn Rand's "wisdom" in the trash bin where it belonged. I don't believe in censorship, but all Rand novels should be preceded with a forward that explains that all that follows is a load of codswallop.
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