Two Looks at Ayn Rand

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dcnovice -> Two Looks at Ayn Rand (8/17/2012 5:37:28 PM)
Lately, I've been rediscovering how much I like The New Republic, and their website connected me to two interesting stories on Ayn Rand, the one-time (but now renounced) inspiration for Paul Ryan: I Was a Teenage Objectivist The author discusses how Rand appealed to him as a nerdy kid who didn't fit in, then explains how he outgrew her thinking. Wealthcare This 2009 review of two then new books about Rand doubles as a biographical essay. Way back when, I read The Fountainhead and enjoyed it. Objectivism didn't take for me, though. Never did get around to Atlas Shrugged. What do other readers out there think of Rand? And of her influence on Paul Ryan?

Owner59 -> RE: Two Looks at Ayn Rand (8/17/2012 6:47:30 PM)
I`m more interested in the cult like following and the folks who idolize her. It reminds me of the folks who follow the Turner Diaries and it`s author and their delusional world that revolves around his fiction book. As well,just about every yellow journalists from the late Braitart to Michelle Malkin admires Ms. Rand. Typically tho,cons pick and choose what parts the want and trash what they don`t. I`ve heard it said many times from people who have studied Ms. Rand,that her cult following of republicans would get the back of her hand.........over their very un-libertarian like conduct.

slvemike4u -> RE: Two Looks at Ayn Rand (8/17/2012 7:44:55 PM)
She could never have tolerated their religious views.....the main reason Ryan has publicly disavowed her ,she didn't believe in god.That's a bridge too far those on the far right....lol

GotSteel -> RE: Two Looks at Ayn Rand (8/18/2012 2:23:42 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: slvemike4u she didn't believe in god. That's a massive understatement, her promotion of reason and utter contempt for faith makes following her teachings and following Christs teachings mutually exclusive.

Winterapple -> RE: Two Looks at Ayn Rand (8/18/2012 2:53:44 PM)
I think she was a bad writer. I found Atlas Shrugged to be unreadable. I don't think she had much in the way of intellectual heft which makes her a good philosopher for the shallow. She'd be appalled at a man who says rights are granted by God. She was disdainful of religion and religiosity which was the main reason people like Buckley had problems with her. Anyone who knows anything her personal life knows she wasn't a member of the family values crowd. What about her appeals to her fans? Well, she write very positively about big business and big business are always whining about how they are portrayed in popular culture. She probably appeals mostly to country club Republicans or those that aspire to be. Her ideas about unfettered capitalism, selfishness is good and special snowflake individualism dovetail nicely with certain right wing biases and are probably what gave Ryan his initial hard on. The Libertarians like her but she didn't like them. Though she was supposedly against all forms of totalitarianism I've always got the whiff of fascism off her. Alan Greenspan was one of her acolytes. His release the kraken view of the markets was probably influenced by his wanking off to her.

erieangel -> RE: Two Looks at Ayn Rand (8/18/2012 3:22:29 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: GotSteel quote: ORIGINAL: slvemike4u she didn't believe in god. That's a massive understatement, her promotion of reason and utter contempt for faith makes following her teachings and following Christs teachings mutually exclusive. She was also pro-choice. That is a big thing many of her followers ignore about her. But it makes since, Rand wanted government out of the personal lives of the populace, so the ability to chose to have an abortion, when to have children was a personal choice. That doesn't mesh, however, with Ryan co-authoring a federal-level person-hood law that would wipe out not only abortion rights, even in cases of rape and incest, but most forms of birth control and infertility treatment. Rand, though, proved to be a hypocrite for railing against social programs which she later found the need to avail herself--and did so using her married name in an attempt to hide her hypocrisy from her fans.

CarpeComa -> RE: Two Looks at Ayn Rand (8/18/2012 5:37:16 PM)
My father was a pretty staunch libertarian so he kept a lot of related literature. I read the vast majority of Atlas Shrugged in college. I say the vast majority because I skimmed some of the speeches as they were tiresomely long). While I still ascribe to the general concept and consider myself a libertarian at heart (though not an objectivist), there are some problems with her brand of libertarianism that would make for a pretty miserable world for most people if it were enacted. So I consider objectivism yet another entry in a long line of broken political theories that fail to adequately address human nature and the vagarities of life.

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