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Posted on 10/31/2009 10:28:46 AM PDT by nickcarraway
AYN RAND AND THE WORLD SHE MADE
By Anne C. Heller
Illustrated. 567 pp. Nan A. Talese/Doubleday. $35
A specter is haunting the Republican Party — the specter of John Galt. In Ayn Rand’s libertarian epic “Atlas Shrugged,” Galt, an inventor disgusted by creeping American collectivism, leads the country’s capitalists on a retributive strike. “We have granted you everything you demanded of us, we who had always been the givers, but have only now understood it,” Galt lectures the “looters” and “moochers” who make up the populace. “We have no demands to present you, no terms to bargain about, no compromise to reach. You have nothing to offer us. We do not need you.”
“Atlas Shrugged” was published 52 years ago, but in the Obama era, Rand’s angry message is more resonant than ever before. Sales of the book have reportedly spiked. At “tea parties” and other conservative protests, alongside the Obama-as-Joker signs, you will find placards reading “Atlas Shrugs” and “Ayn Rand Was Right.” Not long after the inauguration, as right-wing pundits like Glenn Beck were invoking Rand and issuing warnings of incipient socialism, Representative John Campbell, Republican of California, told a reporter that the prospect of rising taxes and government regulation meant “people are starting to feel like we’re living through the scenario that happened in ‘Atlas Shrugged.’ ”
Rand’s style of vehement individualism has never been universally popular among conservatives — back in 1957, Whittaker Chambers denounced the “wickedness” of “Atlas Shrugged” in National Review — and Rand still has her critics on the right today.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Rand’s thinking is merely another form of materialism and as such it is largely in conflict with American conservatism.
When the collectivism of leftist ideology comes under fire, leftists would prefer to spotlight a materialist individualism rather than individualism consistent with a Judeo-Christian worldview.
As long as a particular worldview denies divine existence, the leftists are more or less comfortable with it.
“So, in my book, Mother Teresa was “selfish” in that what she chose to do was what made her happiest.”
Don’t make the same mistake about Christians the author makes about Rand.
I got about 4 paragraphs in and quit reading. This article is the prototype for the libs that like to attack fans of Atlas Shrugged.
Specifically, all of us knuckle dragging Neanderthals must fully agree with and support every aspect of Ayn Rand’s life!! And on top of that, we must accept and live life by every word of Atlas Shrugged, or we’re hypocrites.
I hate to break it to the libs, but I am “nuanced” (I HATE that word.....) enough to take the parts of the book that resonate with me, and marginalize or ignore the parts that don’t. That’s one of the reasons I have never been bothered by the claims that the book is anti-Christian. In my world, I can make it work. And as for her personal life, I have never been that much interested in what shaped or bent her philosophy.....
hh
Re: the Supreme Court
As I saw on another thread: holding to precedent only applies to abortion and any other activist decision; challenges to the Second Amendment can always be considered and are never settled.....
hh
managed to mass market elitism — to convince so many people, especially young people, that they could be geniuses without being in any concrete way distinguished.
The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.
The sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group or class.
Control, rule, or domination by such a group or class.
Did this guy even read the book? It was abundantly clear that the main characters despised elitism in all its forms. Reardon hated his wife and family for the elitist attitudes his fortune provided for them.
Parsy wouldn't understand the concept of 'freedom' or 'liberty' if either kicked him square in the balls.
Lurker, who wonders exactly how many books Parsy has sold.
I haven’t sold my Ayn Rand books. I did sell Isis Unveiled or whatever, by Madame Blavatsky. I am thinking I kept the wrong ones, now.
parsy, who grew out of his Ayn Rand phase
If everyone here is so conservative, why worship the writing of a woman who was a pro abortion atheist?
"Demand", hell. Procedures should ENFORCE and ENSURE compliance.
I don't care for the term myself , too many confuse it with "libertine". Since "conservative" has been hijacked and nobody these days would understand "Jeffersonian liberal" I will just have to use it until somebody provides a better label .
And into his 'wage slave for the state' phase, apparently.
No, I just became an adult with somewhat normal human values. You might want to try that “contra human nature” link above. Ayn Rand is one of the worst things to ever happen to this nation.
parsy, who wishes her family has skedaddled to China instead
Just as you say, astonishing. I don't know if I should even finish reading the article, in case the stupidity is contagious.
This is the first time in decades that the NYT has worried about unjustifed self-esteem.
I was ready to post this review until I read the self-esteem comment.
The inmates of prisons have plenty of self esteem. Ditto the NY Times, especially its editorial board.
So, will Atlas shrug as she chronicled? I think not. For one thing, her assumption that a small and vital few super-achievers can bring the whole system down by striking does not seem to be validated in reality. For another, there is no Galt's Gulch to retreat to. We fight it out here and now.
But, will the moochers and the looters drag the country down into disaster by following false precepts that are dear to their hearts and their worldview? And do they believe pretty much what Rand's villains believed? The answer, in my view, is decidedly "yes," and all one has to do to find evidence is to turn the television on. And so the real question is not whether Rand, a flawed human being espousing a flawed philosophy through a flawed novel, is someone to be admired, but what we're going to do about the parts where she was right. One is dismayed by how frequent and in what detail those turn out to be.
I depart from her general conclusions in one fundamental regard: I'm not in a shrugging mood, I'm in a fighting mood. I think that is more likely to be how Americans work this thing out. For better or worse, and taking into account our own flaws, which are legion, that's how I see it going down.
“You have nothing to offer us. We do not need you.”
RINOS, take heed...
Who here worships Ayn Rand? I tend to think that most here worship God.
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