As noted previously, Objectivists often use cliched and oddly stilted pet Objectivist terms and turns of phrase, such as “moral subjectivism”. I’ve long found these and other Objectivist tendencies to be amusing, or silly, including: psycho-epistemology (she sure has a nice set of psycho-epistemology!); over-use of “altruism”; overkill on the “Kant is the ultimate evil” thing; over-use of–em-dashes–and italics; “second-handers”; over-use of “qua”; boorish, in-your-face insistence on using “man” as much as possible to represent both genders; saying, “Observe: ” at the beginning of a sentence; the classic “whim-worshipper”; Frank is my “top value”; “stolen-concept fallacy”; and, one of my favorites, “blank-out”. This whole dour, humorless, serioso, robotic cult of personality has arisen around her.
The more I read Objectivists trot out their ridiculous stock phrases, the more I realize this aspect of the philosophy is really inapplicable to the real world. Who talks like that? Who even thinks like that? Who goes around talking about “psycho-epistemology” or saying their husband is their “top value”? What the hell is a “top value”? Jeez. In my view, this cliched, robotic reasoning is useless and off-putting.
Last but not least, is the Objectivists’ habit of O-So-Officially “Breaking” with people. In my experience, people tend to drift apart if they no longer like each other or find other interests more compelling. There is no official moment of “breaking”. But not for Objectivist. They act as if there is some official record book of relationships (which squares with the Objectivists’ obsession over having an Official Final Authority to settle disputes–can’t have the messy unpredictability of a private market solution); and the act of “breaking” implies that the status of your personal relationships are so important to others you have to Officially Notify them of it. Give me a break.
Lo and behold, it turns out that this Objectivist chick Diana Hsieh recently felt the need to do the same thing: she “officially” recants her previous criticisms of the orthodox Ayn Rand Institute, and “breaks” with David Kelley’s The Objectivist Center. Jeez H. In a post entitled, appropriately enough, A Public Statement, she writes:
Some of you may wonder why I am disassociating myself from TOC in such a public fashion, rather than merely drifting away in private discontent like so many others over the years.
No, I don’t wonder–it’s b/c it’s common among Objectivists to “announce” their “decision” to “break” with someone in such a serioso fashion.
For these and other reasons, I am pained by the end of my ten year relationship with IOS/TOC.
Okay, hereby noted; will the Official Secretary of Rational Relationships please record in the Official Record Book of Official Relationships that Ms. Hsieh has Officially Broken with IOS/TOC.
Egads. This chick used to be anti-ARI; now she has switched, and Officially Denounces her pre-ARI work as “pseudoscholarship.”
Objectivists are not even worth taking seriously if they continue to trot out these weird, robotic phrases and engage in these bizarre habits.
BTW, lest people think I am just bashing Objectivists indiscriminately, let me say I believe I am actually an Objectivist if you go by the short summary of her views, on politics, metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. I just don’t go for the dour, humorless, robotic cult of personality that has arisen around her. And you know what, I don’t even feel guilty about it–the face without pain or fear or guilt, and all that, ha ha.
2:52 pm on December 20, 2005
