Ayn Rand: In Her Own Words - Documentary Trailer

[plbuster]

I keep running into this comment in these pages; that Ayn Rand was a sociopath, was immoral.

Neither is true. Please, unless you were her psychologist, refrain from diagnosing her with a mental illness; your amateurish attempts at psychoanalysis are merely insulting, without merit, and reflect an indoctrination in collective ideology rather than an education in rational and critical thought.

[madderbass]

This is an excellent documentary. I have downloaded it off of Amazon, and it's merely superb, very well put together.

[toverkleet]

@H1INC its okay. Im not sure either, but as far as i understand it, that you should always do things that promote your self interest, children are bloody expensive :p i know, i was one XD so that would be an aspect which is undesirable. But self interest has a tendency to become, indeed, narcissitic. And in my view, though youtube leaves to little charaters open, she is rather immoral. And do we need in this world a philosophy that promotes even more egotism? We are already so selfcentered ;)

[toverkleet]

@H1INC yeah, but once they are here you sacrifice everything to let them having it better than you did. Thats not selfish.

[tomsinclairjr]

Ayn Rand loved America because of Capitalism. She hates everything else, including morality and rules. SHE WAS NOT A CHRISTIAN AND SHE WAS PRO-ABORTION.

[toverkleet]

@tomsinclairjr well christianity isnt moral either so she is in good company.

[ChasingCharles]

@tomsinclairjr Not being a christian is not synonymous to being anti-structure.

[tomsinclairjr]

Nope! you are.

[toverkleet]

Interesting, but I disagree with her on a few fundamental points: free market is a utopia mainly because of "greed is good" and love is selflessness, not selfish. Greed is not good. It distorts us from what is truelly right. Greed even destroyes the free market-utopia she wants. Love is selflessness, would you charge your children for their upbringing?

[telizabeth2002]

Ayn Rand actually considered democracy "collectivism."

[DailionDos]

the jews are satanics, and the cancer of the world.

[tomsinclairjr]

@DailionDos :

So, it does not matter that they are PEOPLE, human, the same as you and I? You have the same mindset of Hitler, if this is all you can say about Jews without 1st-hand knowledge about why you feel that way. This is the reason people like you are placing cancers inside Capitalism. It is also why people like you who want to ENSLAVE man so you can TAKE AND STEAL WHAT HE WORKED SO HARD FOR. I think you are jealous of the Jew because they are the apple of God's eye and you are not.

[whagerbaumer]

Was Ayn Rand a Christian? Did she oppose abortion?

[SpicerWorld]

@whagerbaumer

Ayn Rand did not believe in religion

[tomsinclairjr]

@SpicerWorld :

There should be a separation of government and economics, just like separation of church and state.

Enough said??? She is absolutely correct. TRUE capitalism means NO RESTRICTIONS, especially

by tyranical governments, which ours is fast becoming with all its restrictions, controls, and laws that

do nothing FOR MAN, but do against him.her. Get it yet?

[SpicerWorld]

@tomsinclairjr

That had basically nothing to do with my statement.

[cchashadenough]

Finally, Rand speaks for herself! No more distortions, no more "Ayn rand said..." and proceeding to make claims that bear no relation to ayn rand's ideas. It's about damn time.

[betsyspeicher]

I was wondering whether this was done with the help of the Ayn Rand Archives.

[MJM581993]

omggggg must get!!!

[tripjet999]

Better philosophy than the republicons "take from the middle class and give to the rich" objectives.

[AtlasJamesBond]

The virtue of selfishness....working for ones own money and keeping it. So what's selfish about working for oneself? If anyone would rather have Obama's 'redistribution of the wealth, then why not give me half of what you earn and practice what you preach.

[wistfulwitness]

What exactly is the virtue of selfishness? Too bad she's dead and can't explain the enigma any longer.

Wait, is Nathaniel Branden still around? I wonder whether he remembers her fondly, having been her number 1 protege and then broke away to form his own cult of selfishness. Sorry, I meant Objectivism.

[johngalt2590]

@wistfulwitness

After you have read Atlas Shrugged, my next suggestion is to read The Virtue of Selfishness.

It will help your understanding immensely.

[wistfulwitness]

@johngalt2590

Actually I did look at it, after reading Atlas Shrugged and then We the Living. I did my time imbibing her ideas when I was young. Now I understand why I pay taxes; OK, I don't love everything about the way govt handles money (esp financing wars I never believed in and thereby transferring my wealth to military contractors), but I'm FAR less willing to return to the deregulated Gilded Age and the robber barons. Ayn Rand, I think, preaches sociopathic decision making. Quite crazy.

[dopejoel]

@wistfulwitness Sorry to be nit picky, but could you help me understand your logic.? "Monopolies are bad, so what we are going to do to stop monopolies is create an even bigger more powerful monopoly called the government who have the right to initiate force." I guess this is what happens to a potentially intelligent individuals after they are 'forced' to go to public schools for 12 years.

[wistfulwitness]

@dopejoel I would only believe that government was the biggest monopoly if I really felt that govt was truly, fundamentally unaccountable to the public. I don't think it is. I think you and I both have representation at many levels, and politicians read their polls obsessively.

Blaming govt and leaving the field to "captains of industry" won't make you safer OR wealthier. After all, they didn't GIVE you and me the weekend off; workers had to lobby the govt for laws to gain their rights.

[dopejoel]

@wistfulwitness For the sake of avoiding semantics, I'd like to point at that I was simply using the word monopoly in its basic definition, "the exclusive possession or control of something". By that definition, then government legitimately has a monopoly over the initiation of the use of force i.e. violence. I'm just taking what you accept to its logical conclusion. Also, monopolies, such as the robber barons, only existed because some laws and government offices protected the monopolists.

[wistfulwitness]

@dopejoel Actually the laws re business were quite different during the 1800s. It took the govt's realizing the unintended consequences of laissez faire econ in the 1930s to change those laws. People power - the kind Ayn Rand hated - accomplished that. Read Eric Foner.

And, the govt is REQUIRED according to its own laws to protect ALL its citizens from enemies. Not so the private militias of robber barons: viz., the coal companies' calling in the Pinkertons to repress their own employees.

[dopejoel]

@wistfulwitness i'm sorry, could you help me understand what you mean by unintended consequences of laissez faire economics? Also, if you are concerned with negative consequences of a monopoly, then shouldn't you be even more concern with the unintended consequences of government laws and expansion. For example, the first and second world war could not have been financed without government fiat currency and the great depression was caused by government mismanagement of the money supply.

[wistfulwitness]

@dopejoel So it was govt that caused the Great Depression? I see now. Thanks for enlightening me. And here I'd always thought it was inadequate regulation of the stock market, which Glass-Stigall attempted to rein in.

Look, you're a smart person obviously, but you're wasting your time trying to get me to blame govt for wars and depressions. The answers to historical tragedies are always so much muddier than that. Something Ayn Rand won't ever teach you - reductionism being her stock in trade.

[dopejoel]

@wistfulwitness Well, feel free comment back if you want some links. Take care, man.

[tomsinclairjr]

@dopejoel :

There is NO such thing as UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES. Satan has a purpose to every evil thing he does. It is intended that Satan creep into our American culture with sex, perversions, sins against mankind thru evil and government tyranny to destroy us. You are part of the problem if you think otherwise. People like you try to find excuses for their behavior and ideas so they can justify themselves. Death will get to the truth - your death and face to face with God. It's inevitable.

[dopejoel]

@tomsinclairjr statements aren't arguments

[TeaParty1776]

@tomsinclairjr

>your death and face to face with God.

God is a worm?!

[BirnenClown]

@tomsinclairjr "You are part of the problem if you think otherwise..." Saying things like that actually is the worst part of "the Problem".

[Sam26100]

Awesome.

[betsyspeicher]

Does anyone have more information about this and the people behind it?

[krjwa]

@betsyspeicher

What would you like to know? I can get in contact with them for you.