<p>The deadline was about a week or two ago. Did anyone enter?</p>
<p>I did. Topic #1.</p>
<p>I was going to, because it was around the same time we were reading it in school, but then I got lazy.. heh. :)</p>
<p>I entered 2 years ago. Although there is some decent prize money if you win, I am still being bombed with junk mail from the Ayn Rand Foundation or w/e, trying to get me to become an Objectivist. I swear all they do is try to recruit people...</p>
<p>I did topic #1 as well. It's always incredibly hard to write for that competition because my own views are polar to Rand's. <em>sucks it up</em></p>
<p>sounds like scientology. ar-har.</p>
<p>i was going to a couple years ago, but i think "Anthem" is the worst of her books. There's no pretty, colourful characters in it like the rest. Atleast We the Living has hot russians. </p>
<p>I should've just sent them a long rant on why the philosophy is tripe.</p>
<p>haha.</p>
<p>good luck too all you contestants, I suppose.</p>
<p>I didn't bother entering this year -- too many other things going on.</p>
<p>I can tell the above poster has read Atlas Shrugged though!</p>
<p>I agree with Rand politically, which is why I think my essay for the Anthem contest was good, but I think Objectivism in general is a philosophical trainwreck.</p>
<p>Her ethics--rational self-interest as the only good--contradict her view on politics. Sometimes my sefl-interest is the destruction of others' rights.</p>
<p>The ultimate good of her ethics--preservation of life--leaves out so much virtue in the world. According to Objectivism, Beethoven was evil, for he chose the life of an artist, which was definitely <em>not</em> conducive maintaining his life.</p>
<p>Rand denounces those who labor for posterity and beauty, in the arts and in the sciences, as altruists: the height of evil.</p>
<p>Anyway, I enjoyed writing my essay. I think I sounded sufficiently Objectivisty.</p>
<p>Wait, hold up, what?</p>
<p>"I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." is pretty much all one needs to sum up the philosophy.</p>
<p>Rational self-interest is the only good as long as it does not infringe upon the right of another to live. That is what Rand says. She views self-interest in the manner of, say, opportunists and Machiavellian politicians as evil.</p>
<p>Those who labor for ONLY posterity -- all right, I can see perhaps the evil in that, but there are also those who labor for their own happiness and what could be in the world. Hank Reardan, Dagny Taggart, and the rest of the industrialists were just as much scientists as anyone else. Dr. Robert Stadler was only viewed as evil by Rand because he sold himself to the institute which "furthered science" only as much as government would allow. In essence, he sold out the integrity of science for easy funding.</p>
<p>Those who labor for beauty -- Rand has said nothing about them being inherently evil (well, not in her novels at least, as far as I recall). Richard Halley was a composer and an inhabitant of Galt's Gulch.</p>
<p>I think I may regret not partaking in the contest.</p>
<p>I've read Rand's non-fiction works, where she attempts to lay out Objectivism in logical fashion. She falls far short.</p>
<p>For her system of value, on which she founds her ethics, she claims that the highest end is simply the preservation of life. That is it. The only proper ethics, she thus theorizes are rational self-interest. She makes no constraints about whether or not self-interest harms anyone else's life; the highest end is the preservation of your <em>own</em> life. Thus her politics--a system based on the rights of men--conflict with her ethics.</p>
<p>I always said objectivism works wonderfully in a world where only <em>you</em> exist. Unfortunately, damnation, there are other people in the world, too!</p>
<p>hehe...hemingway, i actually said that in my lit class too, but since a lot of people liked anthem in there, they thought i was crazy. oh well.</p>
<p>I entered the Anthem essay contest this year, and was wondering when they announced the winners. Has anyone who entered this year heard from them yet?</p>
<p>bummppp... anyone?</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
I did topic #1 as well. It's always incredibly hard to write for that competition because my own views are polar to Rand's. <em>sucks it up</em>
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>Same here. See username.</p>
<p>I thought of entering with a piece about what a f.ucking nut Ayn Rand was, but I decided against it. I was kinda afraid the Objectivists would hunt me down.</p>
<p>i won third place last year and was notified in early august</p>