"It is repulsive to see all these beings with worse sins and crimes in their own lives, virtuously condemning a criminal..."
I have some experience with a convicted sociopathic murderer. I taught in a protective custody prison. The fellow (who was very charming, by the way) was convinced that what he did was no different than what everyone fantasized some time or another about doing and that it was their fantasies that led to their fascination with and "ferocious rage" at his crime. He may have had a point -- the more "virtuously condemning" people are, the more one wonders about skeletons in their closets. BUT what is this bit about being REPULSED by the hypocritical indignation and their WORSE SINS AND CRIMES? I'm wondering if maybe poor Ayn didn't get snagged in a vortex of ambivalence and contradiction. On Sat, Feb 5, 2011 at 11:26 AM, Michael Gurstein <[email protected]>wrote: > Maybe you folks knew about this but I didn't... Interesting... > > M > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Edward_Hickman > > William Edward Hickman (1908 - October 19, 1928) was an American killer > responsible for the kidnapping, dismembering and murder of Marion Parker, a > 12-year-old girl. The Los Angeles Times referred to Hickman's actions as > "the most horrible crime of the 1920's."[1] > > ... > > In 1928, the writer Ayn Rand began planning a novel called The Little > Street, whose hero was to be based on "what Hickman suggested to [her]." > The > novel was never finished, but Rand wrote notes for it which were published > after her death in the book Journals of Ayn Rand. Rand wanted the hero of > her novel to be "A Hickman with a purpose. And without the degeneracy. It > is > more exact to say that the model is not Hickman, but what Hickman suggested > to me."[3] Rand scholars Chris Matthew Sciabarra and Jennifer Burns both > interpret Rand's interest in Hickman as a sign of her early admiration of > the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche.[4][5] Rand also wrote, "The first thing > that impresses me about the case is the ferocious rage of a whole society > against one man. No matter what the man did, there is always something > loathsome in the 'virtuous' indignation and mass-hatred of the > 'majority.'... It is repulsive to see all these beings with worse sins and > crimes in their own lives, virtuously condemning a criminal..."[6] > > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework > -- Sandwichman
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