I often wonder if put in a position to do so, would Rand have sacrificed her life to defend and sustain her beliefs and world view? If she would have, then she would have betrayed the very beliefs she was defending, and if she declined to do so, then she would have allowed others to run slipshod over them.
I just don't see her pledging her life, her fortune and her sacred honor (if she even believed in such a thing) with the same eagerness or zeal that our founders did.
Oh Thank you. How big of you. How - how, um - condescending. ("to behave as if one is conscious of descending from a superior position, rank, or dignity. ")
I have been reading Rand for over 60 years. I find her personal life abhorrent. I find her writing brilliant. I find her postulations solid.
And I am puzzled why a 'Christian' would "HATE" Rand, the person. Maybe hate her work, hate her ideas, etc - but HATE HER?
Here's something from Ayn Rand's 1936 "Autobiographical Sketch."
"If a life can have a theme song, and I believe every worthwhile one has, mine is a religion, an obsession, or a mania or all of these expressed in one word: individualism. I was born with that obsession and have never seen and I do not know now a cause more worthy, more misunderstood, more seemingly hopeless and more tragically needed. Call it fate or irony, but I was born, of all countries on earth, in the one less suitable for a fanatic of individualism, Russia."
But Hank Reardon had plenty of Christian charity. He gave selflessly and expected nothing in return save maybe an occasional thank you. He did not expect the guilt trip and hatred he received from the gibsmedat crowd. Dagny had compassion for Jim’s bride once the scales fell from Cheryl’s eyes. But her suicide cut short how that might have played out; she could not bear the horror revealed by James.
What bothered me at the end is that none of them came for Eddie Willers. I found that unforgivable.
Oops, I pinged too soon. :)