Thom Hartmann: Atlas Shrugged...would society work better if we were all selfish?

Amanda Carey of Daily Caller and Thom debate the merits of the new movie Atlas Shrugged.

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• Ayn Rand
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[renaissanceman21c]

Thom you misrepresent Ayn Rand in this video. I do not propose to point out the many ways in which you do so (because I wouldn't derive any benefit from such an exercise). I just want to point out to those who are curious: consider reading the novel. For those who do, I think many will find it eye opening and inspiring, and most will find that Mr. Hartman does not accurately represent Ms. Rand, her ideas, or Atlas Shrugged.

[thechinadesk]

Hartmann unwittingly validates the ideas he purports to refute.

How?

By creating straw men. His need to create straw men shows that he knows he cannot refute the ideas if they are presented accurately, without gross distortion.

[sedd42o]

Thom Hartmann is misinformed and misleading. The Mike Wallace interview clip shown is from 1959, not "a few years before she died" in 1982. Also, Ayn Rand does not call for greed or the pursuit of money as the highest morality. Individual freedom and self-interest without forcing or harming other individuals is the highest morality.

[PurpleHoneyBear]

Ayn Rand was a sociopath.

[dmac333100]

dmac333100 It appears to me by what I've seen and heard that Ayn Rand's whole philosophy is based upon the Aristocratic Monarchy Government of Russia before the Russian Revolution. The word human means one individual, the word humanity means a collective of individual humans. So there is a collective, a human collective. The Russian Aristocratic Monarchy failed, based on this John Gualt's way of government also failed. Ayn Rand's Idea is a Russian Monarchy re-run. It will fail now.

[FleshMob]

I agree with the man. Selfishness brought us her!

[horvay]

This is really misleading. Just spend 5 minutes reading the Wikipedia entry on Objectivism, and you'll see how misleading this guy really is.

[thechinadesk]

@radscorpion8

I invite you to glance over my essay, "The Biggest Obstacle to Freedom"

Google "The China Desk Shawshank Redemption"

We may well be on the same side. I hope so.

[thechinadesk]

@radscorpion8

Of course the brain is part of the human body. Who ever said it wasn't? The brain can choose to listen to the body's "market signals" as it should, or it can ride roughshod over them, the way totalitarian and authoritarian governments always do.

When that happens the body gets sick, or the "body politic" goes into imbalance and suffers the economic consequences.

The analogy holds.

[TheRealDinner]

I thought Ayn Rand was anti-capitalist.

[radscorpion8]

@thechinadesk uhh..what about the brain. Isn't that a major part of the human body? And doesn't it decide what stresses the body will endure, what nourishment it will receive...among other things? As you know, the body can't suddenly revolt from the brain's directives :P