The Truth About GOP Hero Ayn Rand

A film adaptation of the 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, opened this past Friday. The release of the film has coincided with a resurgence of popularity for Rand on the American Right. The trailer for Atlas Shrugged had its world premier at this year's CPAC conference, the Tea Party group FreedomWorks has rolled out a massive campaign to promote the film, and the story's opening line — "Who is John Galt" — has appeared on numerous signs at Tea Party rallies.

At the same time, some of the right's leading political and media lights have heaped praise upon Rand. The author of the Republicans' new budget plan to gut Medicare and Medicaid, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), has said Rand is the reason he entered politics. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) have both declared themselves devotees of her writing. Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has his law clerks watch the film adaptation of Rand's book The Fountainhead. She's also received accolades from right-wing pundits Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, John Stossel, and Andrew Napolitano.

During her lifetime, Rand advocated "the virtue of selfishness," declared altruism to be "evil," opposed Medicare and all forms of government support for the middle-class and the poor, and condemned Christianity for advocating love and compassion for the less fortunate:

Rand also dismissed the feminist movement as a "false" and "phony" issue, said a female commander in chief would be "unspeakable," characterized Arabs as "almost totally primitive savages," and called government efforts to aid the handicapped and educate "subnormal children" an attempt to "bring everybody to the level of the handicapped."

As for the new Atlas Shrugged film, it made $1.7 million in its first three days in theaters, reasonable but unspectacular numbers for a limited release on 299 screens. But box-office watchers looking to see if the Tea Party represents a discrete market would have been disappointed. The movie grossed just $5,608 per theater over that time period, hardly a sign that groups were buying out theaters or that the movie was a pop culture phenomenon. By contrast, An Inconvenient Truth took in $70,333 per theater during its first five days on screens. That number fell to $17,615 per theater in its second week, but that number is still higher than Atlas Shrugged's more widely-available debut. And Atlas Shrugged's numbers look positively puny next to another culture-war adaptation of a popular book, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which raked in $125,185,971 over its first five days in theaters.

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/18/t...

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[steve davies]

Objectivism isn't really about left or right. While the left tends to like social programs for the benefit of all, the right tends to go along with it for the most part. Government has no business in Business. At this point, though, there aren't enough of the right people objecting to being victims. So far, business as usual hasn't got bad enough. When it does get bad enough it will be too late and probably already is.

[QuartuvLarry]

Oho! So you're THAT short-sighted, then! Not thinking past your emotions to realize the very empirical FACT that this economy will collapse very soon. Yes, I said "fact" because it is a mathematical inevitability, thanks to the paucity of foresight (and approval) from the non-thinking social spending free-loaders. A castrated culture of whining wastrels created this tyranny-cooker. Just look at this pusillanimous politically correct society!

Yes, I think you WON'T be wasting anymore of my time!

[munggipossu]

Social security, Medicare...

[gha23ify]

Empirical data exist only in the field of math.Psycology,economics,archi­tecture,etc all have to deal with the subjective/personal taste.Now I tried to give you one simple example of this,but you still can't rap your head around it.Dont worry,I won't be wasting anymore time on you,you can go back to blaming it all on the parasites.Next time you see some old person bagging groceries you can stop and express how outraged you are that you have to pay taxes so they can go on living,ass hat.

[WalterSobchakBowler]

explain that!

[QuartuvLarry]

What planet do you come from? They don't teach words like "solipsism" to seventh graders. At least, not in the public schools! Or did you ALSO get private schooling?

Even if you didn't say subjectivity was paramount, you certainly spoke as if it was the sole incumbent factor to her credibility. And even name-dropping the Greeks & claiming the field of whom you know (who're probably indignant over having their precepts so intellectually slighted) STILL provides no basis for your argument

[gha23ify]

Solipsism? Are you eight years old? I merely stated subjectivity is a real thing-in no way,shape,or form did I state it was paramount. Its truly rich to see your condescending tone given that you have at best a seventh graders understanding of the issue , and a flawed one at that. Son? Look asshole I read though the Greeks on up to what was then the present-(1985)- at the age of 23 , probably before you were born. Now one in the field took her seriously, then or now.

[squatch1958]

"The ideas of some of these young guns come from icons of the past"

Well that's true of the Obama administration as well; Saul Alinsky, Frank Marshall Davis, Karl Marx...

[QuartuvLarry]

You have actually made no case for your argument. It's incoherent and illegible. You've established no foundation. If subjectivity is so grand, how do you figure YOUR premises are paramount when you are the only one who agrees with you?

Psh! I think I'll take empirical reasoning over your egregiously flawed solipsism any day of the week, son! Hehe!

[munggipossu]

Funniest thing is that she herself was a parasite, according to her own terms.