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News & ArtsMonday, November 14, 2011
Health / Books / Retail Would Ayn Rand Do Yoga?
Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 11:36 AM
Slog tipper Ziggity sent this along: At the beginning of November, yoga sidelines manufacturer Lululemon has started printing "Who is John Galt?" on their shopping bags. Yes, because there wasn't enough Atlas Shrugged in your yoga life, Lululemon is bringing the virtue of selfishness to your mat. A Lululemon blog post explains that " lululemon’s founder, Chip Wilson, first read [Atlas Shrugged] when he was eighteen years old working away from home. Only later, looking back, did he realize the impact the book’s ideology had on his quest to elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness (it is not coincidental that this is lululemon’s company vision)." In his defense, I think guys named Chip are forcibly issued Ayn Rand's collected works when they turn 18. It goes on:
Many of us choose mediocrity without even realizing it. We think we “have” to do things or “aren’t able” to do what we want. We create rules and experience fear when we dream of a life we love. Why do we do this? Because our society encourages mediocrity. It is easier to be mediocre than to be great.
...
Our bags are visual reminders for ourselves to live a life we love and conquer the epidemic of mediocrity. We all have a John Galt inside of us, cheering us on. How are we going to live lives we love?
The comment section is feisty, with claims that liberals "drool over Marx books." But Ziggity puts it best: "Yes, Bellevue moms, the sweat of your brow belongs to you alone! (Unless you're a 12-year-old Chinese girl with good stitching skills.)"
1
The concepts central in any yoga practice are completely opposite Rand's Objectivism. "Namaste" means "the light in me acknowledges and honors the light in you" (or something like that), which is completely the opposite of the mantra of Objectivists "greed is good".
3
Considering the growing number of conservatives who distrust the medical establishment, eschew vaccinations, who take the homeopathic remedies advertised on their talk radio stations, this doesn't surprise me. There's enough overlap on the crazy left and the crazy right for this to get enough sales.
4
Our society encourages mediocrity? Since when? Every time you open a paper or magazine or turn on the tv, all you hear about is how Fucking Amazing the U.S. of A. is and how everyone can be a superstar if they just work hard and get bootstrappy.
Maybe if our society actually DID encourage a little mediocrity, instead of telling everyone to gamble everything away on the lottery in the hopes of being the Next Big Thing, we'd actually be better off.
Maybe if our society actually DID encourage a little mediocrity, instead of telling everyone to gamble everything away on the lottery in the hopes of being the Next Big Thing, we'd actually be better off.
5
@4 Thank you! I hate it when somebody makes a wild assertion to make an invalid point and we're expected to nod in agreement .
6
@4 We encourage mediocrity by encouraging the poor and the weak to survive, when we could make them into delicious and nutritious Soylent Green instead.
7
I don't practice Yoga, but I certainly wouldn't put it into the Randian area on the political spectrum. Actually, Ayn Rand's world seems more akin to sociopathy than any political persuasion, and Yoga seems closer to the whole "we're all one" mentality.
8
....Meanwhile, as the anxty Sloggers ponder the political import of libertarian slogans on shopping bags... (sigh)... the rest of America goes about its daily routine of productivity, nurturing and normalcy...
....Meanwhile, as the anxty Sloggers ponder the political import of libertarian slogans on shopping bags... (sigh)... the rest of America goes about its daily routine of productivity, nurturing and normalcy...
9
LOL. So we are only mediocre because society encourages mediocrity. Damn society and it's minions, it's mediocre minions.
10
@4: "Our society encourages mediocrity? Since when? Every time you open a paper or magazine or turn on the tv, all you hear about is how Fucking Amazing the U.S. of A. is and how everyone can be a superstar if they just work hard and get bootstrappy"
American exceptionalism encourages mediocrity because we're supposed to BE the best, not become the best. And if we're not the best in a particular field, that's because we're unAmerican, not because our educational institutions have failed us due to lack of funding and focus.
Saying "bootstraps" does not make us any less of a cargo cult towards actual productivity and innovation.
@8: And relying on the very social services Ayn Ran hated and signed up for. What's your fucking point?
American exceptionalism encourages mediocrity because we're supposed to BE the best, not become the best. And if we're not the best in a particular field, that's because we're unAmerican, not because our educational institutions have failed us due to lack of funding and focus.
Saying "bootstraps" does not make us any less of a cargo cult towards actual productivity and innovation.
@8: And relying on the very social services Ayn Ran hated and signed up for. What's your fucking point?
11
As a blog commenter elsewhere remarked after this morning's uncritical Andrea Seabrook muff-munch Ayn Rand story on NPR:
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
The other, of course, involves orcs.
13
@10,
So you're saying that we, as a nation, are resting on laurels we never even earned? I'd agree with that.
So you're saying that we, as a nation, are resting on laurels we never even earned? I'd agree with that.
14
Can you chain smoke while doing yoga? If the answer is no, she wouldn't have anything to do with it.
Plus, in every picture I've ever seen of her, she doesn't look like the limber type.
Plus, in every picture I've ever seen of her, she doesn't look like the limber type.
15
@13: I feel that bothering with the laurels and how they have been "earned" is a justification for all continued mediocrity and destroying the few things that could possibly enable us to be exceptional, sure. We should be the best because of what we DO, not who we ARE.
17
When did the libertarian types get to be such weirdly non rational scaredy cats? They used to be kind of cold Spock-ish non-sentimentalists all about profit. For fuck sake Ayn Rand was a veritable harpy about the weakness of religion and superstition. Jeebus. Now these lunatics wear magnetic bracelets and see black helicopters everywhere.
18
Rand's elevation of egoism to the highest state of human perfection would seem incompatible with yoga's religious elements, which call for the suppression if not total elimination of ego. But obviously it's possible for people to practice yoga and still be selfish.
Expecting that everybody who can get themselves into a downward dog position must also embrace a higher state of consciousness that transcends the individual is a bit like expecting everybody who strings lights on a Christmas tree to embrace non-violence and renunciation of material wealth.
Expecting that everybody who can get themselves into a downward dog position must also embrace a higher state of consciousness that transcends the individual is a bit like expecting everybody who strings lights on a Christmas tree to embrace non-violence and renunciation of material wealth.
19
Seems like a natural fit to me.
In order to buy Lululemon products you have an innate belief in your own superiority (based on your wealth) and a desire to display it.
Giffen goods are for Galts.
In order to buy Lululemon products you have an innate belief in your own superiority (based on your wealth) and a desire to display it.
Giffen goods are for Galts.
20
Wow. Thanks Lululemon for helping me get over my "gosh your stuff is kinda cute, but way too expensive" pang. Now I can just focus on "I wouldn't wear stuff from those douchebags."
21
rob! @11, that line's become such a classic it's worth remembering it's the 2009 creation of John Rogers at Kung Fu Monkey:
http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/eph…
http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/eph…
22
95% of the creative freaks in our society are more libertarian leaning than anything else. And no, movie stars are models that have hypnotized you into believing they posses unique, artistic intellects.
23
Encouraging the "poor and weak to survive" is indispensable from a personal or village perspective but it's blind, institutionalized expansion leads to people farming/slavery. Note the vanishing middle class and the convenient abundance of vulnerable day laborers.
25
Thanks for that, gus. It was an unattributed quote as I found it this morning so I didn't want to link and had no time to google, but it had the gloss of noble birth.
26
@12
More than a word, it's becoming a way of life for the Occupied mind.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.ph…
http://www.all-acronyms.com/ANXTY
http://anxty.com/
http://onedayidealist.blogspot.com/2011/…
@12
More than a word, it's becoming a way of life for the Occupied mind.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.ph…
http://www.all-acronyms.com/ANXTY
http://anxty.com/
http://onedayidealist.blogspot.com/2011/…
27
@26, I am sorry to hear about your illiteracy. The word is "angsty". From "angst". Jesus. It's not a very good word but it is a word, which "anxty" will never be.
29
Ayn Rand smoked cigarettes and never did any exercise. You will have to admire her and value her philosophy without her endorsement of healthy living.
30
@22: "95% of the creative freaks in our society are more libertarian leaning than anything else"
More proof that Objectivists are bloviating and mildly-retarded philosophers, not statisticians.
More proof that Objectivists are bloviating and mildly-retarded philosophers, not statisticians.
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