Ayn Rand: Prophet or Scapegoat?

[hagbard72]

this is hilarious on so many levels. Just take a look at her.

[AnubisEye009]

If someone is going to read Atlas Shrugged, I highly recommend reading "The Romantic Manifesto" as well, to understand her and yourself in a clearer sense.

[MrAdvancedAtheist]

I find it interesting that Ayn Rand won't go away. Do some of us have Rand-shaped holes in our hearts?

[bobbygnosis]

A. Prophet

B. Scapegoat

C. Retard

[bweazel]

A retard? By all means, enlighten us with your philosophy then if you know so much more.

[bobbygnosis]

@bweazel "Knowing more"

^I don't think that's very impressive.

[bweazel]

@bobbygnosis Couldn't care less what you find impressive or not. Just answer the question, if she is a retard, you must have some better theories, so enlighten us.

[bobbygnosis]

@bweazel If you couldn't care less -

then why would you want me to answer the question?

[StudentOfObjectivism]

@bobbygnosis D. Philosophical Genius

[ilovedlife]

what would you do if not the sick twisted mind of poor jewish girl, victim of the bloody soviet regime?

stick to old good racism and fundamentalism?

anyway, please don't forget that objectivism is not a working philosophical system, just an illogical imitation of hateful bolshevik ideology turned inside out

you cant justify anything with that

because the reality looks more and more like 1984, you know, the wrong book

[hsfbunny]

“Get out of this Objectivist ghetto.“ Clearly his historian hates Rand's ideas, while pretending neutrality.

[mikewtp]

@hsfbunny Semantics..

[clemonsx90]

Read the Fountainhead

[NecessaryTruths]

The word "profit" is misspelled in the title.

[synchronium24]

@NecessaryTruths hahaha

[bweazel]

@NecessaryTruths You're not serious are you?

[NecessaryTruths]

@bweazel No, it was a small pun... very small.

[worldstage6]

Incredible Channel. A true reflection of your love as it pours out onto your tube cavas like a lucid dreamer.

Fantastic and mesmerizing. I can't wait to see more from your soul! :)

[sonnybrown]

great presentation and q and a

[bestwrmd]

Ayn is for real useful products, not for those paper derivative and non-backing paper money which will only create short term benefit to very small amount of insiders, but will destroy many, like what we are having now.

[f252863]

It was the "concern" that religion taught that impoverished millions and condemned many to their death. Thanks to rational thought we had the Renaissance and broke the stranglehold of religion on the people.

[Svperstarr]

The reason Ayn Rand hated Christianity is its concern with you fellow man that REAL Christianity teaches much to the chagrin of Right Wing leaders in this country.

If Rand had here way people would starve to death in the streets and she and her people would say this is there punishment for being enemies of rational self interest or something.

[basscataz]

@Svperstarr wow........deep. you're a chasm of stupid...

[bweazel]

@Svperstarr You really don't understand her stance. It's not that she wanted people to starve in the streets, she just didn't want their laziness or mistakes to be a drain on her, which is completely understandable. If a person has alienated themselves from their family, or from any local charities, for whatever reason, how do you justify taking someone else's money from a completely different state to sustain that person? She didn't think so and I tend to agree with her. Make your own way.

[ValueForValue1965]

@Svperstarr If Ayn and "her people" had their way there would be no social programs entitling weakness as a higher value than productivity, effectively leaching the public money endlessly. Educate yourself before making a moronic comment. Yes, letting people starve of their own design is far less evil than turning everyone into a sacrificial lamb at the whim of the next political leader. Your lack of understanding of this fact is a prime example of why the USA is staring to fail.

[mowgly3000]

@whoo689 there are 12 billion "fellow men" out there which billion you personally are going to feed? Randian ideas were more concentrated in alturism as a system of government and what alturism inevitably leads to: Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Obama

[bweazel]

@mowgly3000 Rand was a fan of altruism? Clearly you haven't read or listened to her works. She is the polar opposite of altruism.

[jajajlol]

I have, go to solopassion website, look for burns and among all those comments is mine ... I will not waste time on writing about her twice. 

[jajajlol]

Jennifer Burns is a disgrace to Ayn Rand.

[HighPriestofLemuria]

@jajajlol Care to elaborate?

[notbestfriends]

Ayn Rand was a genius. Read "Atlas Shrugged"

[whoo689]

Chasing the almighty dollar should not be the be-all end-all of American life. Now, I'm not against profits per se or capitalism, but people like Rand take things to the EXTREME. They seem to assume that business can do no wrong, and gov't can do no good. This is exactly why I'm becoming less of a libertarian as the days go by. That kind of selfish, narrow-minded, whiny ideology will NOT bring America back to prosperity or greatness. Libertarianism is for children.

[notbestfriends]

@whoo689

It is the pursuit of profit that creates innovation & prosperity for all.

Google "Money, the root of all good" for a great read.

[emanonami]

@whoo689: This is not what Ayn Rand was talking about, at all. I don't know how people always pull the wrong generalisation from her work. Everything she was about comes from a simple premise: That every man has a right to pursue his own happiness so long as he does not use force against another man to achieve his ends. The assumed corollary is that no man has the right to use physical force against you either. Putting a gun to someone's head in order to force a morality is not going to work...

[heliam]

@StayingSain

The reality and the present crisis contradict everything that Rand professes. The market will never regulate itself, because it is based on greed, which is totally irrational, not objective at all. Her system is based on exploitation. It is utopian, and ultimately only meant to justify greed.

We have seen the School of Chicago with Friedman ruining whole continents, and they did coerce the workers. In Chili with Pinochet torture and murder were rampant, as elsewhere.

[heliam]

The ideas of Rand are tantamount to fascism, the right to impose your will and greed on others. Globalism is the practice of this form of Randian imperialism.

There is one huge flaw in her philosophy: if anyone has the right to be selfish and nurture greed, why shouldn't the worker have the right to do the same and destroy all those who prevent him from making a living, just like the denizens of Rand's Atlantis wanted to completely destroy the world outside their area?

[StayingSain]

@heliam

Who is preventing the worker from making a living?

The people of Galt's Gultch didn't want to destroy the outside world. They just withheld their abilities, not allowing the system to continue. They allowed the system to collapse upon its own.

[exenrontexas]

@heliam Precisely. When ENRON built a plant in India and the Indian objected to their economic model, Enron sent thugs into the community to beat up the leaders of the opposition. Reminds me of Germany in 1932.

When the ENRON employees wanted to SELL their shares, Ken Lay, the ENRON CEO, sold his first and then FROZE the ESOP preventing the employees from selling theirs.

[asas2jh]

This woman is very interesting. Thanks for the upload!

[pSychOAtDawn]

Damn man, Ayn has so many haters.

[redsrfreaks]

@pSychOAtDawn These haters need to look further to Home, it is hate for them selves, not Ayn Rand .

The ScapeGoat !

[freezzertime]

her again....JESUS!?

[Twiggy269]

Listening to the man introducing Jennifer, I thought this was going to be a rather nasty lecture given by Jennifer. Rand was certainly critical of UC Berkley quite loudly. I'd be willing to bet if you had asked her while she was alive what was the worst university in America, she would have said UC Berkley. I was quite amazed at how little personal bias she allowed to come out during the lecture. Much better video than I expected.

[bzerk2]

@Twiggy269 She hated Harverd most of all. As she stated in an interview with Mike Wallace - I think

[timothymn2]

That smug Ray Horton is both a pillock and a complete waste of time. What a tedious start to this video. It would be a kindness to all to cut his dull inanities.

Students must enter his lectures trembling with boredom and exit desiring a forgiving lobotomy.

And what's it with that red scarf? An unfashion statement? A shallow mask for his shallow mind? Or was it to indicate he had the intellectual prowess of a mouldy carrot?

[luridplanet]

The problem today is that the "parasites" are the corporations that already possess multi-billions of dollars, not the lazy poor.

[sewagedweller]

yes lets listen to a bitch who knows nothing about economics ,she will definitely know better .

[conradjulian]

Eventually it will sink in that Rand was not only nuts, but also dishonest and boring. Not to mention physically nasty, because she seldom bathed, smoked incessantly and had bad teeth. Imagine Nathanial Branden having to tap that!

[Stanford228]

horrible audio on this.

[jlwade3]

Ayn Rand friend and hero of Alan Greenspan: the man that did the most to cause the latest financial catastrophe. Amazing the destruction that Rand's legacy has wrought. Too bad she wasn't eliminated by the Soviets....I shall always despise the Soviets for missing the opportunity.

[dannidandannikins]

@jlwade3 Idiot. Alan Greenspan completely abandoned Objectivism a long, long time ago.

[ValueForValue1965]

@jlwade3 Where Greenspan rejected Objectivism is where he failed us all

[RolandStGermain]

It's nice to see an intellectual woman who tries to stay objective when discussing ideas.  It's an attractive trait.

[wesvillager]

Yuck. Talk about sleaze! And I mean both Columbia and this creepy speaker. Can she be more desperate to smear Ayn Rand? LMAO! Gross! LOL

[john42t]

@wesvillager What specifically do you mean? I read the biography and it even increased my appreciation for Rand, which was already high. I understand that Burn's isn't a fan, but how's she unfair to Rand?

[wesvillager]

One more book to trash Ayn Rand. I read a number of pages in the bookstore and I LAUGHED at the BS. Tell me why her critics are incapable of addressing things she actually said, rather than acting as character assassins or erecting straw men which they slam down in some creepy hateful manner. It's pathetic, yet very funny. LOL

[djyankee251]

but i like Burns' summary on the ideas of taxation and the connection between big business and government

[djyankee251]

economics is the study of human action, not just in markets, so rand's applying self-interest to areas outside of markets is not unique

[djyankee251]

indeed a great first paragraph!

[fomastephanovitch]

I guess I can call you a modern day HL Mencken ;-)

[sexlessparents]

@fomastephanovitch HL Mencken was commie scum / anti Semitic d bag, wtf,

no !! i follow a jewish female from russia , ayn is my hero, and i will become a form of her

[fomastephanovitch]

That's great, we need more people like her.

I'm not being facetious either: the fascinating thing about politics in my country is the number of people who will not vote for their interests. For example voucher schools: most people would benefit from voucher schools but they don't support them because poor and stupid people will send their kids to shitty schools.

I disagree with their reasoning as the tide floats all boats, my point here is that its in most peoples' interest to say yes to them.

[newmind1]

It's great to see Rand's views discussed without pushing her ideologies.

[Sam26100]

@ Newmind1

By "pushing" do you mean agreeing?

Must we never take a firm stance on anything?

[newmind1]

@Sam26100

Yes. I agree with you . I love philosophy but I cant stand the over romanticism of certain ideologies or philosophers. I love open discussion on philosophies but I cant stand idol worship. That is why I enjoyed this video. Thank you for the response.

cheers

[Sam26100]

As an Objectivist I often find myself explaining to people that Objectivism doesn't necessarily mean "Idol Worship"

Yes I know that it was Ayn Rand's favorite method of communicating her ideas, and it did have certain strengths of it's own, but perhaps also lacked the strength of a more reality-based aproach.

The strength was I think to create a vision of what to strive for, which is important because only thinking about reality can lead to the fallacy that nothing better is possible to us

[Sam26100]

... or as George Carlin once put it:

"Just be grateful with what you've got.. this (crappy society) is the best we can do"

I have to disagree with that kind of cynicism. I think having a vision of a better world and better society is very important.

I also find Rand's over-romanticism as you put it, somewhat tiresome at once. It just so happens that I am re-reading Atlas right now so I think I know what you're talking about.

I just keep my mind focused on the principles themselves

[DukeAlba]

Its good to see Rand being discussed in universities. I think her ideas deserve to talked and debated more in our universities.

[internNumber9]

wow...his mandarin collar jacket, red cashmere scarf is too much. this american capitalist is love by chinese.

the greatness of ayn rand is

"every man for himself, to fend for himself."

lets watch this country turn into third world country soon ;)xD

[hyperseauton]

Interesting answer there about Rand's sexuality, to the questioner asking about Rand's views on love.

A psychoanalytic interpretation of Rand would hold that sexuality and gender identity of a person has a great influence on the person and the ideas of a person.

[hyperseauton]

since time is money:

Jennifer Burns starts at 07:20

[DukeAlba]

LOL thanks man.

[bodybuilder444444]

@hyperseauton Thank you!

[MarmaladeINFP]

Rand is correct that there can't be a monopoly without a government supporting it. The part she misunderstood is there can't be a government supporting a monopoly without big business funding and special interest groups controlling the government.  Big government and big business are mutually supporting and breed dysfunction. Government and business can only function morally on the small scale of communities and direct democracy (i.e., anarchistic libertarianism).

[MarmaladeINFP]

I read Rand in college.  For me, I realized it was a gateway drug to the worst of conservatism and I was appalled. Rand inspired me to become a liberal.

[fomastephanovitch]

I was a liberal long before I'd ever read Adam Smith, Kant and Nietzsche. I read Rand in my first year of university and found her views cathartic in the sense that I could purge myself of the group-think and emotively-driven base-less assumptions that most students make.

Rand is like Mencken - someone I heartily disagree with, but I accept that markets actually work well; it's just that we need a private sphere in a public-private dichotomy preserved and people need to be encouraged to give.

[dannidandannikins]

@MarmaladeINFP You realize that Ayn Rand despised conservatives, right? She condemned it for being irrational and for attempting to promote free markets while denying the right of individuals to live freely in the moral sphere.

[MarmaladeINFP]

@dannidandannikins I realized she despised certain conservatives, but I'm not familiar that she categorically despised all conservatives. That would be strange considering that many conservatives worship her. I know she believed in individual rights. I still think here views of a free market is a bit naive. Her ideals are worthy, but the tricky part is what methods and systems actually increase individual rights.

[synchretist]

now I get it, Rand is a martyr for the religion of private profit (to regain the exalted position of her father)

[fede2]

hardly. there's nothing evil about private profit.

[MadPutz]

Less regulation is very different from no regulation as there is still some regulation and government distortion of markets - once government distorts the economy with some form of economic mandate or taxation, then the effects are massive, so further regulations and taxes and tax benefits are needed to "balance" everything and create a sense of stability (1880 - 1970).

[MadPutz]

In the end, the economy and individual opportunity is shrunk by the layers of government intervention. Greenspan's problem was reducing some balancing regulations while the economy was still being distorted by other regulations and taxes and this unbalanced the structure and led to the current crisis. We are better off with no restrictions, which may be painful to switch to, but in the long-run an economy with only contract and anti-fraud law and a truly free market will be far more prosperous.

[GaltsGulchPortal]

@ 0:36:55sec. MissBurns states;

'When it's the government that picks the winners and losers, you might as well head for Galt's Gulch.'

As you see the events & principles of Atlas Shrugged play-out in your daily lives - those that understand it's inevitable end, can attend Galt's Gulch in June.

Moral Code : Motive Power : Motor Unit

Its has all come to pass - just as Ayn Rand predicted.

Suffer no more, the slings & arrows of the looter|moocher's code.

And I mean it.

$ GGP $

[exenrontexas]

@GaltsGulchPortal Rand's ideas ONLY work in fiction. An unregulated economy is chaos and will always be artificially manipulated. When Rand criticizes government regulation she is criticizing POOR government regulation or CORRUPT government regulation. Wise government selects intelligent regulators dedicated to their jobs and integrity.

[xkeltoix]

@exenrontexas look no further than the father of capitalism adam smith to justify regulated markets

[exenrontexas]

@xkeltoix Regulated markets need no justification anymore than armored cars or stop lights do. The fact is that left to their own devices, humans do evil or are self destructive. The concept that markets regulate themselves is like putting all the banks money on the sidewalk and expecting it to be there in the morning. Even Alan Greenspan, Rands most fervent and powerful supporter admitted before Congress that following her was a...MISTAKE.

[StudentOfObjectivism]

@exenrontexas You've missed the point. Regulations - non-Onjective laws - are a corrupting influence. It doesn't really matter whom you choose to be a regulator, though some might be more intentionally corrupt, even the most scrupulously honest regulator will be forced -by the nature of regulatory power- to exercise arbitrary power.

[exenrontexas]

@StudentOfObjectivism Well, I think you missed the point from the other view. ANY regulation which has gone through Congress is simply the will of the PEOPLE through their representatives. Now you CAN make a case for legislative reform but NEVER for the unrighteous standing of a regulation. America does NOT need deregulation as that would lead to rampant crime and abuseI (think Dickensian England or lawless China right after WWII). Free markets are chaos of the worst sort.