Comments on: THE WEEK IN GREED #11: The Ayn Rand Program

By: Bob Pyle

Bob Pyle — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 08:28:59 +0000

When did selfishness become a synonym for greed? It’s been a while since I read Atlas, but what I remember most is a sense that above all one must be true to the self. And that society so often works to subvert that, to destroy the self.

That isn’t exactly a new idea. Wasn’t the original meaning of the word sin to go against oneself? It’s what every psychotherapist has tried to teach me. To live from the inside out. Rand just made it more of a fist: What you believe in — what you truly fucking believe in — matters.

It’s not such an unenlightened philosophy. What’s frightening is how easily it’s dismissed. And just because idiot politicians, which bore the fuck out of me (do they not bore the fuck out of you?), use her words to rationalize their lazy, un-self-actualized lives, doesn’t mean they’re righteous.

By: Reginald Selkirk

Reginald Selkirk — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 16:10:17 +0000

@Rebecca Buck: “It must be nice to have something that makes you feel OK about being an asshole.”

Rebecca Buck has identified the genius of Ayn Rand. She wasn’t going to get rich by selling poor people on the idea that it is morally courageous to be poor.

By: Teresa

Teresa — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 04:29:32 +0000

“Vonnegut understood that capitalism was a moral system in the exact way that cannibalism is a dietary system.” Steve, thank you for that line.

By: MizzGivens

MizzGivens — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 02:17:27 +0000

Now I’m thinking about Mitt Romney masturbating. BRB…

By: ApatheticFuturist

ApatheticFuturist — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 17:39:39 +0000

Delightful article! You hit on two essential truths:
1. Ayn Rand while not entirely talentless, is very very close and much worse, a hate filled reactionary propagandist.
2. Paul Ryan is almost exactly the same, just less talented, intelligent and significantly better looking.

Some other hilarious Rand facts:
- Her ideal man was based on a serial killer who mutilated children.
- She is the perfect example of why crystal meth should be eradicated from the world. Her massive speed habit encouraged her to write some of the most terrible imitations of philosophy, literature, and cogent ideas ever seen on this planet. While some may protest here “Think of Jack Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson, punk rock, Jean Paul Sartre, and Phillip K. Dick” this too me is not enough. Those shining examples of the limitless energy and eventual psychosis granted by the humble amphetamine salt, count as only a skimpy eight ball against the noxious pounds Rand has poisoned our culture with.
- Rand loves to talk about how the truly brilliant and talented are ignored at first and down trodden. Rand was received with immediate acclaim and enthusiasm. By her own standards she is a talentless hack. There is here an ironic and unique convergence here between her ideas and reality.

Some hilarious tidbits about Rand’s philosophies in action:
- The massive success and increased liberties that were granted to Rand’s native Russia after the implementation of Neo-Liberal economics. Oh wait, no I guess…wait, hmmm let’s check in with Milton Friedman. . .
-Alan Greenspan’s sniveling apology after the 2008 housing crash.
-As Mr. Almond rightly pointed out, Paul Ryan’s inability to accomplish the most basic demands of his job. Again the best and the brightest aiming for the stars. . .

By: Jorj X McKie

Jorj X McKie — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 16:15:27 +0000

Henry, I didn’t read this a somehow pro-Obama in any way. The Dems of our age are surely the lesser-of-two evils and consequently still ‘evil’ — that goes without saying. An equal volume of verbiage could be directed towards Obama’s core agenda and true constituents, but that wasn’t the point of *this* piece. Maybe next week’s piece will be.

By: Janet

Janet — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 10:50:33 +0000

Young and high school-y, I felt a rush reading of Dagny’s fight and of the smokestacks sans consequence, thinking that the book was exactly what those Italian Futurists had in mind, and weren’t they si aesthetic? I mean, essentially, I liked the book because it painted quiet a picture. I never took the philosophy seriously since, well, it’s success depends upon a generation of Svedka robots rather than humans, who with their being-human, would render all objectivism laughable. Yet I discovered in college that those who liked Rand liked her because they liked objectivism, and thus typically someone I disliked talking too. Here I was, thinking that no one could take such a nihilistic philosophy seriously, and now we’ve a potential VP who has, very much so, supported this bizarre money = morality mentality.

I think I’ll go read Cat’s Cradle.

By: Wooly Bully

Wooly Bully — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 09:45:17 +0000

Yup, another $10 Trillion in Oblabber debt is what we need, right Steve?

Not.

By: Henry

Henry — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 22:37:46 +0000

@Ryan: What the author actually said implies that while Romney/Ryan have some purely moral balderdash at the center of their political movement (agreed, by the way), Obama/Biden do not. The author then uses a Mencken quote to show how wrong the former is while ignoring how utterly applicable it is to the latter.

Obama’s ideas are simply “demonstrably true,” whereas Ryan deserves a few thousand words of criticism. That’s one-sidedness at it’s worst, in my mind.

I don’t disagree with what he says about Romney and Ryan, just the implication that Obama and Biden are above it all.

By: John Athayde

John Athayde — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 11:07:52 +0000

Interesting argument, and one point of clarification. In Atlas Shrugged, the siblings Taggart (Dagny and Jim) are born into a transcontinental railroad empire. Francisco d’Anconia is born into a multi-generational copper empire and is, by most accounts, the richest man in the book at the beginning. It’s more about what those people do with that. Jim takes his wealth and uses it to gain political power and influence, which eventually is his downfall. His sister moves in the opposite direction of Rand’s ideal businessman/capitalist. Many others do gain their wealth from nothing (Rearden being the most prominent example), but it’s certainly not all from that point that the characters begin.