Objectivists and Jerks

Electronics guy Andy George e-mails word of “Rush Hashanah” starting tomorrow at 7pm — that is, the libertarian band Rush being highlighted this week on VH1 Classic (Channel 136 on TimeWarner in NYC). Call me a poseur, but they speak to the market-loving ex-suburban youth in me even more than punk does, as noted in my February entry on the book Rush, Rock Music, and the Middle Class (a gift from one of my co-panelists at next month’s Georgetown event for the release of Proud to Be Right, but more on that in a few weeks).

The Rand-influenced admonishment “Don’t put him down as arrogant” from the song “Tom Sawyer” might be heard as a rebuke to whining underlings everywhere in the capitalist system, but that’s no reason to be a jerk, as Lilit Marcus will no doubt argue (against Jen Dziura) in our debate tonight at Lolita (8pm, 266 Broome St.) on the pressing question “Are Bosses Usually Jerks?”

And one week from tonight, I’ll have to ask the Ayn Rand Institute crowd what they think of the question.

In sadder prog rock news, the former cellist from ELO has been killed by a giant hay bale that rolled down a hill and struck his van. I do not think it an insult to his memory to say, along with music fans everywhere, that this brings me down.