The Return of Ayn Rand: a Capitalist Hated by Left, an Atheist Hated by Right. Selfishness is Virtue

[jm960]

greed is good, government is bad, make it work and be responsible for yourself. altruism is a sentimental notion of the petty burgers, blah blah blah. libertarians are confused followers of a philosophy that is so at odds with itself it is silly. silly and dangerous, misguided and even evil. you don't have health insurance? get a job and get a life you loser. etc.

[TheXroadr]

FDR shot libertarianism,H. Truman came along and buried it. Being a libertarian in America today makes as much sense as being a Tory or a Whig.

[chrispollock]

@TheXroadr being a libertarian requires 70% ideological irrationality and 30% practical thinking. one who has studied human psychology and all of its complexity knows that type of govt. isn't realistic at all. very similar to anarchy in the whole "who tells who what to do? who makes the laws? if we are all equal and sovereign after all, then how can we enforce things upon each other as a society? yeah that's what i thought

[TheXroadr]

@chrispollock I agree. Interesting that you mention psychology, Ayn Rand claimed to be Aristolian and claimed she was showing how Aristotle's writings worked out morally as he himself wrote nothing about it. Leaves me wondering about the Niomachean Ethics. The Rush Limbaugh of her day.

[NegrodamusX]

Rand ignored the accumulated wisdom of every epistemologist between Aristotle and herself. She didn't hide her intentions, really, if you know what to look for. When introducing the various common epistemological stands she mentions in a numbered list extreme realists, moderate realists, nominalists and conceptualists. Then, as a parenthetical aside, she mentions the "extreme nominalist position," which she calls that modern one.

[NegrodamusX]

Well said.

[NegrodamusX]

CONT ... Odd, isn't it, that the very position she mentions as being the modern one she relegates to obscurity. It is also the Kantian position and the one taken by people from quantum physicists to many people in the field of simulated and artificial intelligence -- not to mention a considerable number of philosophers.

[knowitx]

The British system of Adam Smith, free trade, deregulated, and the American Alexander Hamilton form of capitalism, highly regulated, protectionist. The USA fought both the Revolution and the Civil War against British economic war on USA. Those who shoved deregulation upon us, were (are) traitors). The British form of capitalism gave us the opium trade, the slave trade, and the destruction of capital markets in USA.

The USA was destroyed under the British system

This guy is double talking.

[sheepwshotguns]

if the government "takes over" a niche in the market, and does so well enough that the free market cannot compete, who really suffers? the people or the would be profiteers?

[chrispollock]

@sheepwshotguns if the govt. wins in the free market, the govt. wins and deserves the business since they competed and won. if free market believers believe in kill or be killed economics so much, why not live by it, and let the govt. into the arena if the govt. is so terrible at providing quality goods and services

[burrheadjr]

Good Find,

I hope a Hollywood movie will spread the word about her ideas.

[chrispollock]

ayn rand is dumb. her followers read her bullshit while receiving medicaid and govt. subsidized everything from food safety to national army for defense. just like religious idiots are ayn rand fans

[NegrodamusX]

Good point. Turns out that Alan Greenspan was one of her students.

[chrispollock]

@NegrodamusX another dumbass. these idiots are of course happy because they are ignorant. they ignore the huge benefits govt. plays in supporting their market system and enforcing its rules, protecting citizens and property with police and fire depts, helping us get places with highways, helping us with emergency rooms for emergency medical procedures, while condemning that same govt...if these people lived their principles, they'd be dead long ago from tainted food and water, crime or disease

[NegrodamusX]

@chrispollock. I agree.

Rand's was the daughter of an affluent entrepreneur in Czarist Russia, she grew up privileged and well educated . She later immigrated to the US and stayed with well connected relatives in America . And as luck would have it a chance meeting with Cecil B. DeMille the director who gave her roles in movies. She then spends the rest of her unfortunately long life authoring books instructing people to make it on their own , an accomplishment she herself never had to do .

[chrispollock]

@NegrodamusX hated the soviets so irrationally, she created an irrational style of thinking herself and books sprang from that thinking. the answer to extreme suppression of selfish behavior is the extreme deification of selfish behavior? sounds a bit nuts to me.

[Hairysteve20]

Ayn Rand's mistake was to view Capitalists as the producers rather than the workers. Workers produce, capitalists are parasites. If capitalists withdrew from society then they would starve.

[elsquibbs]

The Capitalists provide the jobs.

[boxant]

As an Atheist Libertarian, Ayn Rand is an inspiration.

It however, doesn't help the current political landscape in the USA. Both the GOP and the Dems are too unethical to consider supporting. Ron Paul is the closest thing we had, but even he's a creationist :\ and the GOP hawks would never support his stance against US empire.

[Brandt761]

yeah, selfishness is a virtue...and my ass smells of roses