Attila and the Witch Doctor: A new education system needed ‘For The New Intellectual’

Posted by overmanwarrior 10 years, 10 months ago to Philosophy
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Attila and the Witch Doctor: A new education system needed ‘For The New Intellectual’
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We know better—America was formed as a philosophy not just another country and it was a direct response to many years of human failure. It was a flash in the pan relatively speaking and is now threatening to fade away back into history because of two primary forces always present in the nations of mankind—Attila and the Witch Doctor. Way back in 1961 Ayn Rand put her finger on these two types of characters in her book, For The New Intellectual. It was and continues to be a revolutionary mode of thinking that is the only path forward—which she identified as the forces of the brute Attila in perpetual conflict with the Witch Doctor—the man of spirit always with a gaze to the ever-after. America was a rejection of the Witch Doctor and a protection against the Attila types which allowed for a new kind of person—the “thinker”–to invent and create a new nation.

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  • Posted by Maphesdus 10 years, 10 months ago
    Technically, it was Nathanial Brandon who first thought of the two different character archetypes. Ayn Rand just liked them and incorporated them into her ideology. Another way to label them would be "religion" and "government." I disagree with your assertion that America rejected either one. Religion (i.e. the Witch Doctor) has been a fundamental part of American society since the very beginning, and still is today. As for government (i.e. Attila the Hun), although Americans have always distrusted government, and generally try to make it as small as possible, they have not rejected it in totality (except for the anarchists, but they're a small minority).
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