5. The Ayn Rand Centre Teaches Objectivism To Tots (A Streetcar Named Marge)
With Marge otherwise occupied with her rehearsals for O! Streetcar, a musical based on A Streetcar Named Desire, Maggie needs to go into daycare. Fortunately, the Ayn Rand School for Tots is there to help out (Mrs Simpson, do you know what a baby is saying when she reaches for a bottle? Shes saying: I AM A LEECH. Our aim here is to develop the bottle within). There are a lot of very, very sophisticated jokes packed in there, but the best of the lot is probably the cheery poster which reads A is A, a tweaking of your bog-standard educational tidbits to reflect one of Rands most profound aphorisms. Her phrase A is A refers to her contention that perceiving reality is enough evidence of realitys physical existence, and that in our perception of it there are concrete, absolute truths. As Rand wrote: "A leaf ... cannot be all red and green at the same time, it cannot freeze and burn at the same time... A is A. Rand saw consciousness as the faculty of perceiving that which exists, rather than a generator of a subjective reality which is perceived differently by all who can perceive it. Thats a bit heavy to be laying down to preschoolers, but Maggies crusade to return the babies pacifiers to their rightful owners, and the danger she puts herself in for her fellow inmates sakes, suggests a rejection of the self-interested ethics that Rand endorsed.