Ayn Rand's Adventures in Wonderland

[DiscoUkulele]

Ayn Rand's Adventures in Wonderland is a weekly serial webcomic by the fine people at Wonkette. It's been running for the past six weeks.

In 1955, Ayn Rand gets teleported (through "a vortex of rational self-interest") to the 21st century, where the world has been turned upside down. Ayn discovers that she's a hillbilly deity, a black man is the president, and the US is marching dangerously close to socialism.

And she meets Sarah Palin.

Ayn Rand's Adventures in Wonderland is a fun little satire of Objectivism, Neoconservatism, and the modern political atmosphere.

You should check it out.

#1- That's Objectivist! Ayn Rand in the 21st Century

#2- Future Perfect: Ayn Meets the Teabaggers

#3- The Headfountain

#4- A New Hope

#5- The Ivory Tower

#6- Thrills, Baby, Thrills!

[Cramulus]

cute premise

I feel like its barbs aren't that sharp though. a lot of its humor is in the ugly caricatures of the people the author doesn't like, yes?

And basically the premise is that Ayn Rand would hate her current followers? I have to confess-I haven't read Rand's books - what is the disconnect between her work and the tea party movement?

[DiscoUkulele]

what is the disconnect between her work and the tea party movement?

A lot of it is classism. Ayn wasn't very fond of the working poor. And she also detested incompetence. So I guess she was a bit of a "Big City Elitist" :P

I don't really care for the art style. The artist definitely makes people he doesn't like look ugly. But I really like A New Hope, where Ayn confronts how her brand of libertarianism has contributed to the post-Reagan homelessness crisis. That makes me hope that this thing's going to be good.

[The Johnny]

what is the disconnect between her work and the tea party movement?

A lot of it is classism. Ayn wasn't very fond of the working poor. And she also detested incompetence. So I guess she was a bit of a "Big City Elitist" :P

x2

In other words, she identified and wrote for the capitalist aristocracy - and she would be disgusted to see that her ideology was picked up by the "proletariat", the opposite people towards which she was writing for.

Tea-partiers as far as i've seen, are basicly low-hierarchy cogs of the Machine with a masochistic drive to be exploited even more than they actually currently are. Or a deep narcicissm to think that they are teh BIG CAPITALIZTSZ.

Edit: fucking englishez, how do they work?

[Doktor Howl]

"Pre-rich."

[Cain]

There is an irony in Rand's dislike for incompetent, unthinking idiots though - since her entire Objectivist cult was full of them.  And make no mistake, the original Objectivists were a political cult, on a par with the most insane, factional ultra-left political parties in Europe, especially when it came to denouncing and expelling former comrades rational thinkers.

[Doktor Howl]

There is an irony in Rand's dislike for incompetent, unthinking idiots though - since her entire Objectivist cult was full of them.  And make no mistake, the original Objectivists were a political cult, on a par with the most insane, factional ultra-left political parties in Europe, especially when it came to denouncing and expelling former comrades rational thinkers.

Michael Shermer was denied an interview with their foundation's current CEO, because of his "defamation" of their organization.  When he asked which portions of his work had defamed them, he was told "all of it".  He had written a biography of Ayn Rand, it seems, much of which was taken from her own notes.

One of the defining hallmarks of a cult is that no disparaging information about the founder/leader can be tolerated, no matter what the source is (even the founder herself).

[Cain]

Yep.  And that's a pretty minor offence against intelligence and common sense from the Objectivist cult.

Although I hate to link to Lew Rockwell's cesspit, this essay by anarcho-capitalist Murray Rothbard takes Rand and her followers down a few pegs http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard23.html

[Iason Ouabache]

The comic is interesting in concept but fails miserably in execution.

[Cain]

The rest of Wonkette is generally much funnier.

[LMNO]

"Pre-rich."

Oh ho HO!

[Placid Dingo]

When I was a kid I watched captain planet, and saw all the EVIL CORPORATE OVERLORDS inclduing one called 'Hoggish Greedly', who resembled a pig.

When I was older I wondered if there were similarly extreme charactatures of non-capitalists from the other end.

Enter Rand. Reading Atlas Shrugged now and it's horrofying. Basically EVIL VILLANOUS peopel trying to do TERRIBLE THINGS like HELPING SAVE MEXICO, and neraly bankrupting their company in the process.

And then the POOR INNOCENT protagonists who mope around sulking because not everyone is a rich selfish jackass like them.

I'll look throguh this when I'm finished reading and a bit safer from spoilers.