I too read Ayn Rand many years ago as an undergrad. Even as a young, inexperienced boy It did not take me very long to conclude that her characters were not believable. ATLAS SHRUGGED and THE FOUNTAINHEAD were so repulsive, it was difficult to finish them. I had no idea all these years that her characters were based upon actual, real hum…
I too read Ayn Rand many years ago as an undergrad. Even as a young, inexperienced boy It did not take me very long to conclude that her characters were not believable. ATLAS SHRUGGED and THE FOUNTAINHEAD were so repulsive, it was difficult to finish them. I had no idea all these years that her characters were based upon actual, real human beings.
Many years after reading her I began to study serial killers as part of my research into Criminology. Now, It appears that her characters are based on an actual criminal in Los Angeles who exhibits the behavioral characteristics of a serial killer. It was not necessary for Hickman to kill the girl in order for him to carry out his scheme of extortion. The brutal strangulation and dismemberment are the kinds of things serial killers do. He committed those apparently gratuitous, brutal acts because he derived pleasure from them. The terror, horror, and brutality were ends in themselves; as is the case with serial killers throughout history.; going all the way back to Gille de Rais in France and Vlad Tepes in Transylvania during the fifteenth century.
Thank you Mr. Hartman for enlightening us. This is all new to me. Furthermore it does make sense in a macabre sort of way. The foundations of Libertarianism are truly: cruelty, hatred, and a fetish about power expressed through bloodletting; minor themes found in the history of western and Asian cultures. As I think about the Contract theorists Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau I am reminded of Hobbes's claim that the life of Man is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." I am not a follower of Hobbes. But I do not ignore him either.
Good for your youthfull instincts of revulsion! A little expansion of the Hobbes quote: "Life in the state of Nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." One infers he was calling humanity to rise above those conditions. Oh, well....
Vlad Tempe. I read the Sultan of Turkey, had been sending forces into Transylvania, Vlad the impaler, captured them, then shoved a stake up the anus, as a warning to the Sultan,it worked, but I later learned he did the same to his enemies, other than the Turks, I can't believe that he impaled his subjects, because doing so, would disenchant the populace, and a tyrant still needs the support of his people, even with the support of the GESTAPO, and the NKVD,KGB, FSB, tyrants need support of the people. Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Putin maintain control by use of mass media, which was not available until the Guttenberg press, and more effectively via over the air broadcasting.
Off the cuff, I wander what the folks of Tempe, AR would think of their towns name, fi they knew.
For centuries the Moslems had been trying to invade Europe and they failed. The reason for that failure was the unfortunate geographic fact that the Valley Vienna is in must be successfully traversed. The Moslem commanders had to funnel their troops through that valley. It became a valley of death them as the European armies were always at an advantage there and defeated the Moslems.
By the fifteenth century the decadent Christian Aristocrats who lived in the valleys which the Invaders must pass through had developed such a great fear of the brutal Moslem armies that they would leave their villages in the low country and hide out in their mountain fortresses when a Moslem army approached. Thus leaving the poor peasants alone to face the Moslems.
Then along came Vlad Tepes who was just as courageous and brutal as the invaders, plus he was a superior military man. He stayed put and took on the Moslems, defeating them thereby preventing a catastrophic invasion of Europe. Thus he was, in the hearts of the peasants a savior, hero. He remained their hero even though he subsequently, in his maniacal bloodlust, impaled thousands of his fellow citizens for his own entertainment. It is recored that he impaled 15,000 in one of his paroxysms of fury. As his victims screamed in terror and pain he strolled among them eating his lunch and cavorting with whores.
This altogether repulsive and horrifying person was, when just a boy, given by his own father to the Sultan of Turkey as a hostage to guarantee his father's adherence to a pact he had formed with the Sultan. Vlad was reared in the court of the Sultan among his eunuchs at Topkapi. It is not historically certain as to whether or not Vlad was castrated there. Probably not because the Sultan did not want to insult Vlad's powerful father with whom he had an agreement. But it is certain that Vlad learned a great deal about Moslem culture and military affairs while he was a boy-hostage. Possibly this had much to do with his subsequent brutality and military prowess later as a man.
Incidentally, there were several different kinds of religious male castration among both Christians and Moslems in Medieval times. Women often had their clitoris removed, a practice still found in some countries. A practice the UN has spoken against. Ain't religion wonderful?
Finally, the name of Vlad's father was Dracul. In his native tongue his son is called Dracula.
The story of Gille de Rais is equally bloodcurdling.
Gerald, I don't know anything about Vlad the Impaler but my guess is that he was repeatedly homosexually abused, ridiculed and humiliated, rather than castrated. The way he tortured and killed thousands in narcissistic fits of rage and revenge seems like an enactment of homosexual rape, only this time, HE had the power to do the hurting and it was the other person who screamed in pain and was utterly powerless. It was extremely common for children to be used and abused this way for thousands of years, especially in the courts of monarchs. Children so abused often grow up to unconsciously re-enact some form of their abuse.
I would also wonder what had happened to Hickman in HIS childhood to make him such a grotesque murderer...what kind of abuse did he suffer in infancy and toddlerhood that lay dormant in his unconscious mind until something terrible re-awakened his blind fury to annihilate.
The price we pay for abusing and shaming little boys is that they often become psychopathic killers when they grow physically capable of avenging the abused child they once were. Here, I'm also thinking of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, and Putin... :(
I too read Ayn Rand many years ago as an undergrad. Even as a young, inexperienced boy It did not take me very long to conclude that her characters were not believable. ATLAS SHRUGGED and THE FOUNTAINHEAD were so repulsive, it was difficult to finish them. I had no idea all these years that her characters were based upon actual, real human beings.
Many years after reading her I began to study serial killers as part of my research into Criminology. Now, It appears that her characters are based on an actual criminal in Los Angeles who exhibits the behavioral characteristics of a serial killer. It was not necessary for Hickman to kill the girl in order for him to carry out his scheme of extortion. The brutal strangulation and dismemberment are the kinds of things serial killers do. He committed those apparently gratuitous, brutal acts because he derived pleasure from them. The terror, horror, and brutality were ends in themselves; as is the case with serial killers throughout history.; going all the way back to Gille de Rais in France and Vlad Tepes in Transylvania during the fifteenth century.
Thank you Mr. Hartman for enlightening us. This is all new to me. Furthermore it does make sense in a macabre sort of way. The foundations of Libertarianism are truly: cruelty, hatred, and a fetish about power expressed through bloodletting; minor themes found in the history of western and Asian cultures. As I think about the Contract theorists Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau I am reminded of Hobbes's claim that the life of Man is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." I am not a follower of Hobbes. But I do not ignore him either.
Good for your youthfull instincts of revulsion! A little expansion of the Hobbes quote: "Life in the state of Nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." One infers he was calling humanity to rise above those conditions. Oh, well....
Vlad Tempe. I read the Sultan of Turkey, had been sending forces into Transylvania, Vlad the impaler, captured them, then shoved a stake up the anus, as a warning to the Sultan,it worked, but I later learned he did the same to his enemies, other than the Turks, I can't believe that he impaled his subjects, because doing so, would disenchant the populace, and a tyrant still needs the support of his people, even with the support of the GESTAPO, and the NKVD,KGB, FSB, tyrants need support of the people. Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Putin maintain control by use of mass media, which was not available until the Guttenberg press, and more effectively via over the air broadcasting.
Off the cuff, I wander what the folks of Tempe, AR would think of their towns name, fi they knew.
For centuries the Moslems had been trying to invade Europe and they failed. The reason for that failure was the unfortunate geographic fact that the Valley Vienna is in must be successfully traversed. The Moslem commanders had to funnel their troops through that valley. It became a valley of death them as the European armies were always at an advantage there and defeated the Moslems.
By the fifteenth century the decadent Christian Aristocrats who lived in the valleys which the Invaders must pass through had developed such a great fear of the brutal Moslem armies that they would leave their villages in the low country and hide out in their mountain fortresses when a Moslem army approached. Thus leaving the poor peasants alone to face the Moslems.
Then along came Vlad Tepes who was just as courageous and brutal as the invaders, plus he was a superior military man. He stayed put and took on the Moslems, defeating them thereby preventing a catastrophic invasion of Europe. Thus he was, in the hearts of the peasants a savior, hero. He remained their hero even though he subsequently, in his maniacal bloodlust, impaled thousands of his fellow citizens for his own entertainment. It is recored that he impaled 15,000 in one of his paroxysms of fury. As his victims screamed in terror and pain he strolled among them eating his lunch and cavorting with whores.
This altogether repulsive and horrifying person was, when just a boy, given by his own father to the Sultan of Turkey as a hostage to guarantee his father's adherence to a pact he had formed with the Sultan. Vlad was reared in the court of the Sultan among his eunuchs at Topkapi. It is not historically certain as to whether or not Vlad was castrated there. Probably not because the Sultan did not want to insult Vlad's powerful father with whom he had an agreement. But it is certain that Vlad learned a great deal about Moslem culture and military affairs while he was a boy-hostage. Possibly this had much to do with his subsequent brutality and military prowess later as a man.
Incidentally, there were several different kinds of religious male castration among both Christians and Moslems in Medieval times. Women often had their clitoris removed, a practice still found in some countries. A practice the UN has spoken against. Ain't religion wonderful?
Finally, the name of Vlad's father was Dracul. In his native tongue his son is called Dracula.
The story of Gille de Rais is equally bloodcurdling.
Gerald, I don't know anything about Vlad the Impaler but my guess is that he was repeatedly homosexually abused, ridiculed and humiliated, rather than castrated. The way he tortured and killed thousands in narcissistic fits of rage and revenge seems like an enactment of homosexual rape, only this time, HE had the power to do the hurting and it was the other person who screamed in pain and was utterly powerless. It was extremely common for children to be used and abused this way for thousands of years, especially in the courts of monarchs. Children so abused often grow up to unconsciously re-enact some form of their abuse.
I would also wonder what had happened to Hickman in HIS childhood to make him such a grotesque murderer...what kind of abuse did he suffer in infancy and toddlerhood that lay dormant in his unconscious mind until something terrible re-awakened his blind fury to annihilate.
The price we pay for abusing and shaming little boys is that they often become psychopathic killers when they grow physically capable of avenging the abused child they once were. Here, I'm also thinking of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, and Putin... :(
Egads!