2008/9/23 WJhonson@aol.com:
By the way Ayn didn't necessarily believe that a "committe" was nice. A mob can be a committee as well. The underlying point is that only individuals can create true works of beauty. That to her mind, a collective can never create a work of beauty. They can however, evidently, create a "society" *in which* artists are free to express their works. But it's not the specific works that she would like created collectively, only the environment in which those works could be created by invidivuals. That's my viewpoint of her viewpoint.
I think you'd be hard pressed to call any Wikipedia article a true work of beauty (and I include FAs and GAs in that).
However, the pile of articles forms a work of great *utility* to the casual reader, as demonstrated by getting an #8 Alexa rating while never having tried to (and our ridiculous popularity costs us a small fortune to serve). We're clearly doing something right, even if working out what brings to mind parables about blind men and elephants.
- d.