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Ayn Rand is one of America's great mysteries. She was an amphetamine-addicted author of sub-Dan Brown potboilers, who in her spare time wrote lavish torrents of praise for serial killers and the Bernie Madoff-style embezzlers of her day. She opposed democracy on the grounds that "the masses"—her readers—were "lice" and "parasites" who scarcely deserved to live. Yet she remains one of the most popular writers in the United States, still selling 800,000 books a year from beyond the grave. She regularly tops any list of books that Americans say have most influenced them. Since the great crash of 2008, her writing has had another Benzedrine rush, as Rush Limbaugh hails her as a prophetess. With her assertions that government is "evil" and selfishness is "the only virtue," she is the patron saint of the tea-partiers and the death panel doomsters. So how did this little Russian bomb of pure immorality in a black wig become an American icon?

...Rand was broken by the Bolsheviks as a girl, and she never left their bootprint behind. She believed her philosophy was Bolshevism's opposite, when in reality it was its twin. Both she and the Soviets insisted a small revolutionary elite in possession of absolute rationality must seize power and impose its vision on a malleable, imbecilic mass. The only difference was that Lenin thought the parasites to be stomped on were the rich, while Rand thought they were the poor.

Rand expresses, with a certain pithy crudeness, an instinct that courses through us all sometimes: I'm the only one who matters! I'm not going to care about any of you any more! She then absolutizes it in an amphetamine Benzedrine-charged reductio ad absurdum by insisting it is the only feeling worth entertaining, ever.

This urge exists everywhere, but why is it supercharged on the American right, where Rand is regarded as something more than a bad, bizarre joke? In a country where almost everyone believes—wrongly, on the whole—that they are self-made, perhaps it is easier to have contempt for people who didn't make much of themselves. And Rand taps into something deeper still. The founding myth of America is that the nation was built out of nothing, using only reason and willpower. Rand applies this myth to the individual American: You made yourself. You need nobody and nothing except your reason to rise and dominate. You can be America, in one body, in one mind.

Ivytalk wrote:I've never read a word of Rand, and I'm a better conk for it. Right now, I'm in the middle of Witness by Whittaker Chambers of Alger Hiss fame. I'm totally mesmerized by this book. Not at all an anti-Communist screed, although he does go after Communism pretty forcefully, but a very moving and spiritual autobiography. More conks who have really counted -- Bill Buckley, for one -- found it a life-changing experience.

kalm wrote:Allen Greenspan was a part of her inner circle, Scott Walker makes "Atlas Shrugged" required reading for all of his staffers. Her notions of the parasitic masses and superhero producers are alive in strong. A great article by Yohann Hari on Ayn Rand and how her belief system is still driving the debate.

There may not have been a more influential conk over the past century.

Ayn Rand is one of America's great mysteries. She was an amphetamine-addicted author of sub-Dan Brown potboilers, who in her spare time wrote lavish torrents of praise for serial killers and the Bernie Madoff-style embezzlers of her day. She opposed democracy on the grounds that "the masses"—her readers—were "lice" and "parasites" who scarcely deserved to live. Yet she remains one of the most popular writers in the United States, still selling 800,000 books a year from beyond the grave. She regularly tops any list of books that Americans say have most influenced them. Since the great crash of 2008, her writing has had another Benzedrine rush, as Rush Limbaugh hails her as a prophetess. With her assertions that government is "evil" and selfishness is "the only virtue," she is the patron saint of the tea-partiers and the death panel doomsters. So how did this little Russian bomb of pure immorality in a black wig become an American icon?

...Rand was broken by the Bolsheviks as a girl, and she never left their bootprint behind. She believed her philosophy was Bolshevism's opposite, when in reality it was its twin. Both she and the Soviets insisted a small revolutionary elite in possession of absolute rationality must seize power and impose its vision on a malleable, imbecilic mass. The only difference was that Lenin thought the parasites to be stomped on were the rich, while Rand thought they were the poor.

Rand expresses, with a certain pithy crudeness, an instinct that courses through us all sometimes: I'm the only one who matters! I'm not going to care about any of you any more! She then absolutizes it in an amphetamine Benzedrine-charged reductio ad absurdum by insisting it is the only feeling worth entertaining, ever.

This urge exists everywhere, but why is it supercharged on the American right, where Rand is regarded as something more than a bad, bizarre joke? In a country where almost everyone believes—wrongly, on the whole—that they are self-made, perhaps it is easier to have contempt for people who didn't make much of themselves. And Rand taps into something deeper still. The founding myth of America is that the nation was built out of nothing, using only reason and willpower. Rand applies this myth to the individual American: You made yourself. You need nobody and nothing except your reason to rise and dominate. You can be America, in one body, in one mind.

http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkfra ... kid=130609" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ivytalk wrote:I've never read a word of Rand, and I'm a better conk for it. Right now, I'm in the middle of Witness by Whittaker Chambers of Alger Hiss fame. I'm totally mesmerized by this book. Not at all an anti-Communist screed, although he does go after Communism pretty forcefully, but a very moving and spiritual autobiography. More conks who have really counted -- Bill Buckley, for one -- found it a life-changing experience.

Baldy wrote:

kalm wrote:Allen Greenspan was a part of her inner circle, Scott Walker makes "Atlas Shrugged" required reading for all of his staffers. Her notions of the parasitic masses and superhero producers are alive in strong. A great article by Yohann Hari on Ayn Rand and how her belief system is still driving the debate.

There may not have been a more influential conk over the past century.



http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkfra ... kid=130609" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just another anti-individualist screed by a mouth breathing "progressive".

I wonder if Hari or "David Rose" or whatever name he's using right now plagiarized that ridiculous "op-ed" piece. I'm mostly indifferent on Rand, but if anything, Ayn Rand would be classified as a HARDCORE libertarian more than anything else.

Baldy wrote:

kalm wrote:Allen Greenspan was a part of her inner circle, Scott Walker makes "Atlas Shrugged" required reading for all of his staffers. Her notions of the parasitic masses and superhero producers are alive in strong. A great article by Yohann Hari on Ayn Rand and how her belief system is still driving the debate.

There may not have been a more influential conk over the past century.



http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkfra ... kid=130609" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just another anti-individualist screed by a mouth breathing "progressive".

I wonder if Hari or "David Rose" or whatever name he's using right now plagiarized that ridiculous "op-ed" piece. I'm mostly indifferent on Rand, but if anything, Ayn Rand would be classified as a HARDCORE libertarian more than anything else.

kalm wrote:

Baldy wrote: Just another anti-individualist screed by a mouth breathing "progressive".

I wonder if Hari or "David Rose" or whatever name he's using right now plagiarized that ridiculous "op-ed" piece. I'm mostly indifferent on Rand, but if anything, Ayn Rand would be classified as a HARDCORE libertarian more than anything else.

Ya think?

I'm quite certain that nobody has read Ayn Rand. Yet amazingly, she's everywhere.

D1B wrote:

kalm wrote:
Ya think?

I'm quite certain that nobody has read Ayn Rand. Yet amazingly, she's everywhere.

Atlas Shrugged was outstanding.

kalm wrote:I'm quite certain that nobody has read Ayn Rand. Yet amazingly, she's everywhere.

kalm wrote:I enjoyed the Fountainhead and the notion of man as heroic being. For some reason I never took it to mean I should become a greedy ******* filled with despite.

Libertarians are Republicans who like to smoke pot and get laid.

youngterrier wrote:

Ivytalk wrote:

youngterrier wrote:

Ah, that Wofford education...

D1B wrote:

Ivytalk wrote: Ah, that Wofford education...

Left: Joltin Joe, Right: Ivytalk

Ivytalk wrote:

D1B wrote:




Left: Joltin Joe, Right: Ivytalk

Left: D1B. Right: Cap'n Cat. Last seen in a three-way with Madeline Albright.

D1B wrote:

Ivytalk wrote: Left: D1B. Right: Cap'n Cat. Last seen in a three-way with Madeline Albright.

Ivytalk wrote:

D1B wrote:

Is that you fantasizing about Madeline and Ayn in leather, fishnets and heels?