The Good Dr. and Ayn Rand.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was just reviewing the good Dr. Burgess-Jackson's site and found this particularly interesting.

It is particularly interesting because it touches on one of the points your Maximum Leader was trying to get at in his recent ranting about blogging and such. The good Dr. Burgess-Jackson points out that Ayn Rand is not well liked in the philosophical community for a number reasons. Your Maximum Leader will direct your attention to numbers two and five on the Doctor's list. She wrote for a mass audience and is read by a mass audience. "Serious intellectuals" can't be popular; and popular intellectuals can't be serious. It is the most grevious mindset that holds the American academic.

And as a small postscript, a loyal minion wrote me and asked why your Maximum Leader disliked Dr. Vallicella so much. Truth is, your Maximum Leader doesn't dislike Dr. Vallicella at all. Indeed, he often finds himself reading the exchange between the Poet Laureate and Dr. V. He is obviously an intelligent man who is deserving of consideration. What set off your Maximum Leader was the manifestation of this academic mindset that upsets him so.

Carry on.