Two Looks at Ayn Rand

Collarspace Discussion Forums

Home Login Search

Two Looks at Ayn Rand

View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest

All Forums >> [Community Discussions] >> Dungeon of Political and Religious Discussion >> Two Looks at Ayn Rand

Page: [1]

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

Two Looks at Ayn Rand - 8/17/2012 5:37:28 PM

dcnovice

Posts: 37282
Joined: 8/2/2006
Status: offline

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?

_____________________________

No matter how cynical you become,
it's never enough to keep up.

JANE WAGNER, THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF
INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE

Profile

Post #: 1

RE: Two Looks at Ayn Rand - 8/17/2012 6:47:30 PM

Owner59

Posts: 17033
Joined: 3/14/2006
From: Dirty Jersey
Status: offline

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.

_____________________________

"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals"

President Obama

(in reply to dcnovice)

Profile

Post #: 2

RE: Two Looks at Ayn Rand - 8/17/2012 7:44:55 PM

slvemike4u

Posts: 17896
Joined: 1/15/2008
From: United States
Status: offline

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

_____________________________

If we want things to stay as they are,things will have to change...Tancredi from "the Leopard"

Forget Guns-----Ban the pools

Funny stuff....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNwFf991d-4

(in reply to Owner59)

Profile

Post #: 3

RE: Two Looks at Ayn Rand - 8/18/2012 2:23:42 PM

GotSteel

Posts: 5871
Joined: 2/19/2008
Status: offline

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.

(in reply to slvemike4u)

Profile

Post #: 4

RE: Two Looks at Ayn Rand - 8/18/2012 2:53:44 PM

Winterapple

Posts: 1343
Joined: 8/19/2011
Status: offline

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.

_____________________________

A thousand dreams within me softly burn.
Rimbaud

(in reply to dcnovice)

Profile

Post #: 5

RE: Two Looks at Ayn Rand - 8/18/2012 3:22:29 PM

erieangel

Posts: 2237
Joined: 6/19/2011
Status: offline

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.

(in reply to GotSteel)

Profile

Post #: 6

RE: Two Looks at Ayn Rand - 8/18/2012 5:37:16 PM

CarpeComa

Posts: 194
Joined: 5/12/2010
Status: offline

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.

(in reply to dcnovice)

Profile

Post #: 7