Could you live in a city like Rapture?

[mvaliz]

Ah....more Ayn Rand fanbois.

The thing about Ayn Rand was that she was a loon, and had next to no idea about human behavior or social dynamics. Folks who subscribe to her ideology is continue being willfully ignorant in the example of their beloved leader.

Funny thing about both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, the social stagnation the she bitches about is in reality a consequence of crony capitalism (which is usually brought about by deregulation of the relationship between the private sphere and government regulators). Of course this realization completely flew by Ayn Rand and continues flying by her modern fans.

First off, I'm honestly surprised at how little of Ayn Rand fans are in this thread. That's a good thing in my book. ^_^

Secondly, while I commend your disdain for her insane ideology - I must correct you on some points. Her entire philosophy of Objectivism (and indeed Atlas Shrugged) is about the evil of Crony Capitalism through regulation. It was her believe (and a partial truth) that lobbyists can use Regulations (ie. Rules) to twist things in their favor to drive out competition. While this does exist and is partially true, her solution is actually FAR more dangerous than the earlier - and that is complete Deregulation with the hail-mary hopes that pure competition will naturally correct all flaws. This is, of course, complete bunkam because complete Deregluation will basically allow ALL the previous human moral crimes to return (no minimum wage, no health benefits, sweatshop encouragement, ect) - and they would return BECAUSE of her philosophy of self-interest over others. Indeed today we see people literally re-write morality so that it favors their own self-interest ("It's better to have these people work in a sweatshop and learn to work hard, otherwise they would have nothing and fall into crime!" and all that nonsense as if that was the only possible fate). It's also her VERY same concept of self-interest over others that has LED to the Crony Capitalism she espouses against.

The reality is Objectivists and her fans DO believe in Crony Capitalism is the problem, but their solution and why it exists is completely false. The reason it exists actually lies RIGHT inside her own philosophy of Self-interest over others - and by removing said Regulations would actually ENCOURAGE the problem, not reduce it like they think it would.

She believes true competition would happen if all rules were relieved. Imagine a Football game where all the rules and yardage regulations were thrown out - her belief is the Football game would correct itself and players would naturally improve their game better - but we know better, don't we? :P What would really happen is fixing of the ball, the yardage lines, excessive steroid use and ANYTHING that gives individuals playing not only an edge over the competition, but a complete outright unbalanced advantage. And what happens when those unfair advantages appear? People will start getting to extremes - even turning to crime (which involves bending and breaking more rules) to get their way.

[Xargoth6634]

I just started playing Bioshock 2 (I had played the original awhile back) and a thought struck me. What happens in a food shortage down there? I mean, you'd pretty much just be screwed, right? I assume that they have desalination technology so water would never be a problem.

[Pony Soldier]

Are you frickin' kidding? I would love it. Ever since I first started playing the first Bioshock I was like "I wish I could live here and side with Andrew Ryan". If I could live in Rapture and Andrew Ryan was there, I'd be his right hand man.

[Yvaelle]

@OP

I'd live in Rapture in a heartbeat

I heard drowning is actually really peaceful. Like you have a little bit of panic while the water is going into your lungs but apparently after that it's really peaceful!

Apart from the sensation that your lungs are on fire and the knowledge that you are going to die but are helpless to do anything about it. Once your lungs fill completely with water its such a disorienting feeling that your body doesn't know how to proceed - breathing in and out no longer work because our lungs were never designed to push liquid rather than gas.

So, you can roughly approximate it by covering your mouth and nose firmly - and then (no need to wait until you cannot breath) telling yourself you have two minutes to live, but are unable to move your body. If you are very imaginative, you might be able to actually touch that place where you can almost believe yourself.

It's a very potent psychological torture that is so ingrained in us that if you cover somebodies face with cloth and pour a constant stream of water over their mouth - even though very little of it actually goes in, the sensation of darkness and water will make their brain tell them they are helpless, and already doomed. And that's how waterboarding works

The More You Know! .--*