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Diabolical Metacritic reviews


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Apologies if this is a bit OT but I just happened to have completed Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and was struck at how the situation she describes re the virtues of unfettered free enterprise is almost exactly the opposite of what we're living thru today. In AR's world the heroes of industry were men of iron who invented and built things, made railways run etc.

What would she or her characters have thought of Wall Street bail outs, failed executives of failed companies being rewarded with huge bonuses, outsourcing to other countries, the biggest rewards to gamblers/financial manipulators who produce nothing...? I think she and they would have been appalled - hence the lack of any AR material being used by right wing politicos today.

I think Ayn would probably say this is a non-political website. ;)

As for the reviewer with name we shall not mention. I once said something blasphemous like "Geez - its only a game." His wrath fell upon me...as it probably will again from the other of the fanatics lurking about. :D

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John, while I'm beating on people, a little less redundant footnoting of other people's posts on your part might be helpful. I mean, erudition is all very nice, but footnote your own views.

ISTR the Philosopher in question once called it "spamming with links".

OK, that's it. Never shall see Herald more (on this thread).

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Oh, I'm not playing. I get so much of where Michael is coming from -- I use CM almost purely as a tool to better understand military history, and like others here frequently beat my head against design issues that occasionally seem to fly in the face of that even if they don't affect the gaming experience for most. But I neither expect most BFC customers to share that degree of interest, nor do I expect BFC to cater to me.

In any complex occupation you can find exceptionally intelligent people whose sense of self gets so wrapped up in their own inimitable expertise that they'd rather be Right than successful. They actually become resistant to change, because if they aren't in charge of it it threatens their core belief that Nobody Can Truly Understand This But Someone Who Has Walked My Path. And once they frustrate enough supervisors their careers top out and they find themselves surpassed by "amateurs" and dilettantes, so they become even more bitter and resentful and convinced they are surrounded by idiots. But those wounds are self-inflicted. I know that amounts to cheap shot psychoanalysis of a person I have never met, but I have encountered it many a time in professional life and have myself stared into the abyss of self-marginalization.

Many a brilliant religious reformer who wound up burnt at the stake was in this mold, initially admired for singular clarity of vision but unable to compromise and eventually put down like a mad dog. Savonarola for example won private audiences to preach to the Medici; even the Pope made excuses for his vitriolic abuse for a surprisingly long time. But the genius didn't know how to stop.

The stuff of Ayn Rand novels.... but of course she only painted half the picture.

Well stated.

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