cmaukonen's picture

    Ayn Rand - The Sociopathic Hero of the Republican Party

    Much has been written about the current republican budget put forth by the likes of Paul Ryan and his committee. Straight from the texts of Ayn Rand. A self involved, self centered sociopathic personality that bears a strange resemblance to such historical figures as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Most people today probably do not remember very well her unapologetic diatribes against anyone who she deemed less that her self. Her personal philosophy - if you can call it that - was one of extreme megalomania.

    The philosophy, such as it was, which Rand laid out in her novels and essays was a frightful concoction of hyper-egotism, power-worship and anarcho-capitalism. She opposed all forms of welfare, unemployment insurance, support for the poor and middle-class, regulation of industry and government provision for roads or other infrastructure. She also insisted that law enforcement, defense and the courts were the only appropriate arenas for government, and that all taxation should be purely voluntary. Her view of economics starkly divided the world into a contest between "moochers" and "producers," with the small group making up the latter generally composed of the spectacularly wealthy, the successful, and the titans of industry. The "moochers" were more or less everyone else, leading TNR's Jonathan Chait to describe Rand's thinking as a kind of inverted Marxism. Marx considered wealth creation to result solely from the labor of the masses, and viewed the owners of capital and the economic elite to be parasites feeding off that labor. Rand simply reversed that value judgment, applying the role of "parasite" to everyday working people instead. On the level of personal behavior, the heroes in Rand's novels commit borderline rape, blow up buildings, and dynamite oil fields -- actions which Rand portrays as admirable and virtuous fulfillments of the characters' personal will and desires. Her early diaries gush with admiration for William Hickman, a serial killer who raped and murdered a young girl. Hickman showed no understanding of "the necessity, meaning or importance of other people," a trait Rand apparently found quite admirable. For good measure, Rand dismissed the feminist movement as "false" and "phony," denigrated both Arabs and Native Americans as "savages" (going so far as to say the latter had no rights and that Europeans were right to take North American lands by force) and expressed horror that taxpayer money was being spent on government programs aimed at educating "subnormal children" and helping the handicapped. Needless to say, when Rand told Mike Wallace in 1953 that altruism was evil, that selfishness is a virtue, and that anyone who succumbs to weakness or frailty is unworthy of love, she meant it.

    Is it any wonder that the Ryan budget sounds remarkably like a passage from one of Rand's novels ?

    Ryan was a speaker at the Ayn Rand Centenary Conference in 2005, where he described Social Security as a "collectivist system" and cited Rand as his primary inspiration for entering public service. He has at least two videos on his Facebook page in which he heaps praise on the author. "Ayn Rand, more than anyone else, did a fantastic job of explaining the morality of capitalism, the morality of individualism," he says.

    Unfortunately Ryan's and the republican idea of individualism sounds more like that ravings of a spoiled, badly parented two year old child. With all the moral maturity there of. How any one can use Rand as an ideal or inspiration is mind boggling. Rather like the inspiration that the Aryan Nation gets from Mein Kampf. Both of which deserve to be hurled on to the trash bin of history, never to be spoke of again. And to take anything that these people propose as anything but an attempt to create the same kind of sick, psychotic government that the world rejected in the past - is a major mistake at best.

    Comments

    This is a coinidence. hahaha

    I just reviewed Atlas Shrugged. hahaha

    She was a sociopath who died alone after spitting on every relationship she ever had.

    You got her down right!


    My take on Ayn Rand is similar to yours; she was a loathsome individual and a lousy writer ,,,  And yet, this asshat believes Liberals should LOVE Ayn Rand: 

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-shermer/why-liberals-should-see-a_b_854697.html


    I usually like Shermer.  But I don't click on Huffpo links.  What was his argument?


    I watched part of the Mike Wallace interview and looking closely at her eyes and expression, what I saw was someone who was terribly insecure and quite honestly at the very beginning, she looked almost terrified.

    This is not surprising though. People with Ayn’s attitude quite often have an extremely poor self image and weak ego. The only way that can feel good about themselves is to denigrate others.


    No, no. I'm certain you must be wrong. The nice man over at Huffington Post already warned me about this! And I quote:

    Okay, well hear it here: go see Atlas Shrugged Part 1, read the novel, and judge for yourself because, in fact, liberals will find much to respect and admire in Ayn Rand, who was a champion of individual rights, was outspoken against racism and bigotry and discrimination against minorities, and most notably was way ahead of her time in championing women's rights and demonstrating through her novels (and now the film) that women are as smart as men, as clever as men, as hard working as men, as ambitious as men, as moral as men (well, okay, more moral than men), and can accomplish any task, achieve any goal, and even run an industrial enterprise as good as if not better than men. What's not to like about that?

    Seeeeeeee?


    Ahh...geeze..........


     

    That was exactly my reaction too ... 


    Oh good. I am so glad this is all settled.

    Now I am free to shoot myself.

    Where the fuck did I put my 45?


    If you can't find your gun, I've got a leprous armadillo I can lend you Dick.


    Unfortunately, she didn't stop with the above but had strong views about economics as well.


    On the level of personal behavior, the heroes in Rand's novels...blow up buildings, and dynamite oil fields -- actions which Rand portrays as admirable and virtuous fulfillments of the characters' personal will and desires.

    So the inspiration for the Republicans' top budget guy--put there by his GOP peers in Congress and photographed as one of the GOP's 3 "Young Guns" for the cover of Time magazine--going into politics was someone who was not just soft on, but glorified, terrorism; would have abolished Social Security or anything serving its purpose of retirement security; and looked down on Americans of ordinary means who work hard and play by the rules? 


    No doubt Rand was genuine in her beliefs, informed as they were by some unpleasantness from her youth in Russia but I also suspect a great deal of hucksterism, what with her cadre of hangers on and her institutes and all that.  She was, ultimately, the court philosopher for wealthy conservatives and in choosing to be that she actually subjugated much of her vaunted individuality.  She danced for her masters just like everyone else.


    Well said, a good take, I think.  I spotted the following in a bookstore the other day, just out and probably quite thoughtfully timed:

    Why Businessmen Need Philosophy: The Capitalist's Guide to the Ideas Beyind Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, more info at: http://www.amazon.com/Why-Businessmen-Need-Philosophy-Capitalists/dp/0451232690/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304109402&sr=1-1-fkmr0

    In the past year, as this White House and many congressional Democrats have joined with the Republicans in making manifest their tone deafness to the Wall Street abuses and fallout stemming therefrom, I have come across 3 or 4 individuals who have written book reviews at amazon using unmistakeably Randian language. (when I have suggested as much, they have sometimes responded by quoting or citing Rand.)

    It was almost as if the latest round of outrages has so publicly confirmed for them their manifest belief that government can do nothing right as to give them courage to come out of the woodworks and seek converts openly. 

    I've tried having exchanges with them.  They are every bit as dogmatic and doctrinaire as any Marxist you could find.  Again, the word that comes to mind is "irony", that the ostensibly free-thought promoting Rand would have spawned such a following of Limbaugh-esque dittohead, apparently robotic devotees.

    At least the publishers of the book above didn't have the chutzpah to subtitle it: "The Thinking Businessperson's Guide to the Ideas Behind Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged".


    What's funny to me, of course, is that in real life, a Randian superhero bank executive would have told the Treasury where to stuff their TARP.  And then gone out of business.  But no such Randian figures emerged, did they?

    Which is why I believe that a modern day John Galt speech would have to start with, "This is John Galt speaking.  We, uh... overinvested in mortgages and they went down.  Please send money."


    Oh, yeah, businessmen really need another affirmaton of their ubermenschen and master/slave philosophies.  What harm could possibly come from that?  

     


    HAHA...Good one Emma !!!


    Ayn Rand is one of my favorite hobby horses... a totally evil woman in my opinion and, in any one of the three Abrahamic traditions, literally satanic. For me there is a select list of people: Ayn Rand, Edward Bernays and Milton Friedman, signally among them, who have led the USA to ruin as a society.


    We thought we had ridden ourselves of the Aristocracy in the 1700s when in fact all we really did was move it and slap a fresh coat of paint on it and called it Wall Street.


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