Posted on 07/21/2011 3:45:14 AM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
Love for Ayn Rand goes unrequited. Libertarians love her, but she rejected them as "emotional hippies of the right." Conservatives love her, but she opposed Ronald Reagan, saying, "His likeliest motive for entering the Presidential race is power lust." Right-leaning Christians love her, but she was an atheist, an abortion supporter and a champion of the anti-Christian ideal that selfishness is a virtue. She also called religion a "sign of a psychological weakness." Her fans -- including Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, talk radio's Rush Limbaugh and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas -- would be crushed to learn she might never love them back, either. Ms. Rand has been dead since 1982, but today she's as loved as ever. Her 1957 novel "Atlas Shrugged" champions laissez-faire capitalism and individual achievement. She vilifies communism, socialism and unionism. She dubs government redistribution of wealth immoral. Some of her ideas are central to the American Dream. But Ms. Rand did much of her writing while hopped up on amphetamines and nicotine. And like most people who abuse this combination, she went too far. She crafted philosophical arguments and wrote bizarre works of fiction to prove their premises. Then, in the delusional grandiosity that only chemicals can inspire, she declared herself, "the most creative thinker alive."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Agree 110% with her on these points!
‘If you can’t attack the message, then attack the messenger’ ping.
Ayn Rand promulgated some great truths about government snd the virtues of self reliance. I accept her philosophy for it's truth and allow her the failing all humans have. I can't see a better way.
Oh no, not....nicotine!
Im so conservative John Galt asks “Who is Dainbramage?”
LOL
The difference between Conservatives and Libertals is that Conservatives do not demand complete ideological orthidoxy in all things. Liberals are always looking for a way to destroy those opposed to them, so any deviations are a reason to hate somebody. But Conservatives are allowed to listen to, to be friends with, and learn from people from anyplace on the political spectrum. We might not agree, but we don’t have to hate.
The irony of philosophical atheism is that, whether you go left with it, or right, you will meet on the backside of the world — as a libertarian.
But her real philosophical work goes unread. Rand's "Objectivist Epistemology" is brilliant. She lays out a cogent and concise theory of concepts and explains how humans acquire knowledge. It should be must-reading for everyone who plans on teaching.
Of course, bashing her admittedly quixotic lifestyle is tons more fun -- and so easy, too!
Well. It didn’t take long for this to rear its ugly head! Now we know Ann was a pil popper. I feel so much better now. Course, she can never defend herself to the author of this piece of crap.
If Newton had beaten his wife, would apples still fall from the tree?
Rand new what evil looked like, she just couldn’t/wouldn’t recognize its source.
Not right there, dangling at the end of her fingers or tipped at an angle from her pursed lips! ;-)
Newton was an odd duck who never even had a wife and was extremely and oddly religious therefore I reject the notion of gravity and adhere to the time-tested notion of crystal spheres.
Daily I find more wisdom and common sense here at FR than in the commercial media - sheesh!
Anyone who agrees with anyone 100% of the time is an idiot.
Extrapolating from molehill to mountain is always a bad course of action.
Mountainizing will always lead you astray
Did the author even bother to read a summary of Atlas Shrugged? Corporations were happily using government to crush competition all the way through the book. The beggars on the street played a very small part in the novel compared to the ones in the board rooms.
Thomas Sowell, Ph.d claimed that criticizing capitalism as immoral would be like blasting calculus because it doesn't have vitamins. It is an economic system not a political system and describes human activity necessary for production.
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