I like Ayn Rand. I know that’s like admitting Satanism has
some good points (and it does) in a church, but that’s how I feel. I like the
idea of ultimate freedom in your personal pursuits, and not only that you can
pursue your passions, but that you have a moral obligation to do so. I like the
idea of supreme rationality. I like the self-reliance and self-responsibility
of Objectivism, “affix your oxygen mask before helping others”, to quote the
backs of many airplane seats. I like individualism and empowering individuals.
I don’t like some things about it as well. This is
philosophy here, not a new flavor of potato chips, you can have nuanced
opinions. I don’t like disregarding the suffering of others because it’s not
your problem. I don’t like her rape fantasies. I don’t like the way 50’s
conservatives adopted her ideas to ignore problems of systemic racism and
poverty.
Summing up her philosophy “Objectivism” real quick. Ayn Rand
is basically like “Hey everything that is is, use numbers and shit, being
selfish is good for you, altruisms not real so don’t live for other people, fuck
racism, there’s no God, governments stay
out of people’s way, they know best, laissez faire capitalism rules” Mic drop.
Full disclosure, I only read The Fountainhead and couldn’t finish Atlas
Shrugged, so I might be cutting this with the wrong bread knife.
I think the best way to sum it all up would be to quote
Andrew Ryan from Bioshock “The great should not be constrained by the weak.” If
you haven’t played Bioshock, email me, I’ll give you the ten dollars or
whatever it is to experience one of the most culturally important pieces of art
and storytelling in the last decade. Put it on easy mode and just play through
the story over a weekend. God damn it, we just don’t teach people anymore.
So karaoke. I sing a lot in regular everyday activities. I
sing a lot in the car, washing dishes, and showering and people always ask me
to go to karaoke. I don’t particularly like going to karaoke. Some of that is
because I don’t like bars and I have my own issues there. But a big reason is
that they change the keys of the songs.
As a professional car singer, I sing songs in their original
keys. I know I’m being a snob right now but if I get one thing to be snob about
it’s going to be singing. When you change the key of the song (generally it’s
lowered) two things happen. It messes me up because it’s not what I’ve been
practicing for years, and it deflates all the energy I’ve built up to sing
high. Which leads to a subpar performance from me. I don’t get what I want out
of it and neither does the audience.
The keys are lowered to make the songs more accessible to
everyone. They let more drunk people feel good about themselves because they
think they’re singing well. It’s the participation award ribbon of the 21+
aged.
I’m about to toot my own horn a lot here, but it’s not really
about me it’s about the idea and I needed an example.
If we look at this through an Objectivist lens, we can see
the great (me) are being constrained by the weak (people who lower keys). A
governing body (the karaoke track company) decided that it is better to make
things easier for most people than to let people really test their mettle. And
that’s the problem, there’s no option for me to let loose! And that’s the whole
point of going out!
Yea you could take Judas Priest’s “Painkiller” down five steps
and have more people be able to sing it. But who wants to hear an easy version
of “Painkiller”? And what bar has a karaoke version of “Painkiller”? Because I
wanna go to that bar.
So an Objectivist (and Taylor in this instance) view would
say “Hey no this is wrong, put these songs in the right keys. I don’t care if
it’s harder, that’s still more fun even if people mess up or have to sing it
down the octave”
But there’s also an argument against Objectified Karaoke.
More participation means more people means more fun. If you get your friends up
there to sing too that’s a lot more fun. And it’s intimidating if you just have
actual singers dominating the stage. This is a space to sing loud and proud
regardless of skill.
I mean I get it I just don’t agree with it.
