2008/9/23 <WJhonson(a)aol.com>om>:
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.