How Ayn Rand Became an American Icon

[Stosh]

I thought to give CC something to think about by posting this here. [[Hi CC!)

Anyway, Slate magazine had a nice article on Ayn Rand I just stumbled upon, and thought it was time to dig up the old battle-axe for another go around here on the board. Slate Magazine, November 2 2009.

http://www.slate.com/id/2233966/
A couple of pertinent quotes:

First, a delicious irony :

She never really recovered. We all become weak at some point in our lives, so a thinker who despises weakness will end up despising herself. In her 70s Rand found herself dying of lung cancer, after insisting that her followers smoke because it symbolized "man's victory over fire" and the studies showing it caused lung cancer were Communist propaganda. By then she had driven almost everyone away. In 1982, she died alone in her apartment with only a hired nurse at her side. If her philosophy is right—if the only human relationships worth having are based on the exchange of dollars—this was a happy and victorious death. Did even she believe it in the end?

No wonder Rush likes her...

Rand had become addicted to amphetamines while writing The Fountainhead, and her natural paranoia and aggression were becoming more extreme as they pumped though her veins. Anybody in her circle who disagreed with her was subjected to a show trial in front of the whole group in which they would be required to repent or face expulsion. Her secretary, Barbara Weiss, said: "I came to look on her as a killer of people." The workings of her cult exposed the hollowness of Rand's claims to venerate free thinking and individualism. Her message was, think freely, as long as it leads you into total agreement with me.

And in the end...

The figure Ayn Rand most resembles in American life is L. Ron Hubbard, another crazed, pitiable charlatan who used trashy potboilers to whip up a cult. Unfortunately, Rand's cult isn't confined to Tom Cruise and a rash of Hollywood dimwits. No, its ideas and its impulses have, by drilling into the basest human instincts, captured one of America's major political parties.

And also, if that fails to give you a giggle or two, this quote:

I thought that this passage in the Rand book review was the most accurate of all:

"Rand's particular intellectual contribution, the thing that makes her so popular and so American, is the way she managed to mass market elitism -- to convince so many people, especially young people, that they could be geniuses without being in any concrete way distinguished." [[Fourth full para. at page 8.)

In short, she is the Lumpen-"philosopher" par excellence. My better half was asking me, just as I began to read this review aloud, what could possibly account for the popularity of this ridiculous woman. I hypothesized that it was the way in which she afforded a sort of vicarious self-flattery to narcissistic imbeciles. Then I began reading, and upon finding the just-quoted sentence, smiled with Randian self-satisfaction!

[Lorax]

I thought I dug her up as well, but this is what I found:

http://momgadget.com/wp-content/uplo...eton-bones.jpg

But it hasn't effected her act any, she's still looking a little thin [[all pun intended) in the relevancy category.

Some ideologies really need to stay dead an buried.

[Detroitej72]

Humm... Could Bat's love for her been inspired by the fact that she smoked?

[Stosh]

I thought I dug her up as well, but this is what I found:

http://momgadget.com/wp-content/uplo...eton-bones.jpg

But it hasn't effected her act any, she's still looking a little thin [[all pun intended) in the relevancy category.

Some ideologies really need to stay dead an buried.

Those bones are too pretty to be hers.

[Lorax]

Sorry, had to clean it up a bit for the kids, here's the real photo:

http://www.abc.net.au/quantum/storie...ton_m94417.jpg


Sorry I left the trowel in the photo.

[Diehard]

I'll go ahead and throw this out there to chew on: I'm convinced a good percentage of her newest "followers" haven't read "Atlas Shrugged" at all. It's long and tedious. Tea Party types are already inclined to just quote Limbaugh/Beck/Palin without question; why would they put in the effort to slog through a thick book?

[Stosh]

Sorry, had to clean it up a bit for the kids, here's the real photo:

http://www.abc.net.au/quantum/storie...ton_m94417.jpg


Sorry I left the trowel in the photo.

Ah, now that's the real deal. Buried face down for good effect as well.
It's been said that a face down burial is a sign of disrespect, or a measure of prevention from rising from the dead.

All the more reason to do it in this case.

[Lorax]

LOL!!!

I couldn't have said it better myself!

I think Rand has resurfaced as "Randy" and a little gender unspecific as well:

A great spokesmodel for the Rethuglican Party, don't ya think? Or is he/she a classmate of Batts', aka Dr. Frank N. Furter?



http://www.bohemian.com/bohemian/08....e.cc.rocky.jpg

[Detroitej72]

Teabaggers are nothing more than terrified, bitter racist folks who long for the days when a white man could control the populous and make them work in sweat shops for pennies a day.

[Lorax]

I'll go ahead and throw this out there to chew on: I'm convinced a good percentage of her newest "followers" haven't read "Atlas Shrugged" at all. It's long and tedious. Tea Party types are already inclined to just quote Limbaugh/Beck/Palin without question; why would they put in the effort to slog through a thick book?

It's the death of conservative intellectualism, specifically, there are no more William F. Buckley's around to try and keep it focused and in check. As much as I disagreed with Buckley's entire philpsophy, I can respect the intellect without buying the message.

Teaggers are intellectually lazy, paid for astroturfers, nothing more. People don't read any more, the most vocal are the most likely to rely on quotations and cheerleading from the likes of fascist right talking heads like Limbaugh.

I found "Atlas Shrugged" a tedious read, and fairly disjointed.

The fact that Rand had shredded the tent in her final years only proves the bankruptcy of her ideology.

[Sstashmoo]

Adolescent.

[rb336]

What is adolescent, stash?

[bailey]

I'll go ahead and throw this out there to chew on: I'm convinced a good percentage of her newest "followers" haven't read "Atlas Shrugged" at all. It's long and tedious. Tea Party types are already inclined to just quote Limbaugh/Beck/Palin without question; why would they put in the effort to slog through a thick book?

Setting aside that reading and thinking is tedious and hard, which is a sure sign your average teabagger hasnt read it, the most glaring give away that they havent read it is the number of signs in the crowd and statements by these people about how they are going to "go Galt". The whole point of the book is that HE LEFT. He didnt talk about it, he didn't organize teaparties about it. He quitely left and got a lot of other captains of industry to "shrug"... to leave with him so the whole system crashed.

Sometimes, when I see these mobs of imbiciles and read some of the dreck from the Becks of the world regurgitated here, I wonder if the smart ones already "went Galt" and left us do deal with the mouth breathers.

But, what would be wonderful is all those that bitch about "going Galt" would actually go. Of course that would never actually happen because it's hard and doing hard things in not what modern day teabagging conservatism is about.

[d.mcc]

LOL!!!

I couldn't have said it better myself!

I think Rand has resurfaced as "Randy" and a little gender unspecific as well:

A great spokesmodel for the Rethuglican Party, don't ya think? Or is he/she a classmate of Batts', aka Dr. Frank N. Furter?



http://www.bohemian.com/bohemian/08....e.cc.rocky.jpg

She's just a sweet transvestite...

[Lorax]

She's just a sweet transvestite...

She sure looked like one- what with that square jaw, and that moral outrage followed up by a dose of political acrimony.

[d.mcc]

She sure looked like one- what with that square jaw, and that moral outrage followed up by a dose of political acrimony.

As played by Tim Curry:

[ccbatson]

It does seem to me that on a personal level she was not the greatest person with whom I would have been friendly.

However, apart from the historic interest of these clearly hateful and biased commentary, none of this does thing one to impune the legitimacy of Objectivism. If George Washington was personally a horse's ass, does that diminish his accomplishments or invalidate his dedication to values like liberty? Look at Bill Clinton [[or JFK) for an example nearer and dearer to liberal's hearts.

Nice try libs...I can't blame you for taking this approach...personal attacks on the messenger are all that you've got to work with.

[d.mcc]

It does seem to me that on a personal level she was not the greatest person with whom I would have been friendly.

However, apart from the historic interest of these clearly hateful and biased commentary, none of this does thing one to impune the legitimacy of Objectivism. If George Washington was personally a horse's ass, does that diminish his accomplishments or invalidate his dedication to values like liberty? Look at Bill Clinton [[or JFK) for an example nearer and dearer to liberal's hearts.

Nice try libs...I can't blame you for taking this approach...personal attacks on the messenger are all that you've got to work with.

I've attacked her cracked out message too

[ccbatson]

Oh yeah, you did sneak in a cut and paste referring to the appeal she has to an individual's ego as a free citizen....in other words, your plagiarized indirect criticism is weak and wrong.

She has said and written many times that not every individual is a CEO/inventor etc, but that all free individuals have the opportunity to do whatever they choose to do to their best ability. Witness, the characters working in the foundries in Atlas Shrugged who aren't the big industrialists, but who nonetheless are satisfied free citizens ascribing to the values allowing them to be so....LIKE OUR FOUNDERS.

[d.mcc]

Why do I need to say anything about the hypocrite when it has already been said?

As Bell-Villada, a professor of Romance languages at Williams College, explains, objectivism “is the idea that selfishness is good, greed is admirable, and altruism is evil. Unfettered capitalism is the only true moral system in history. The successful businessman is the ideal hero of our time.” Reason—really a kind of hyper-rationality—is the highest value; emotion, kindness, and compassion get nothing but scorn in the Randian scheme of things. She reviled the kind of social welfare system embodied by the New Deal. Her protagonists—brilliant, principled Howard Roark, the unyielding architect in The Fountainhead, and John Galt, the übermensch inventor in Atlas Shrugged—are portrayed as godlike heroes dragged down by the unthinking masses.

Today, her books sell in the hundreds of thousands, especially among the young, and her ideas are influential in some conservative circles. ... Yet the novels “failed to garner the intellectual prestige and respect Rand hungered for.” ... Atlas Shrugged in particular suffers from “relentless speechifying.” Its climax is a 70-page speech by her hero Galt.

Rand’s steely, self-reliant individualism and contempt for the “weak”—such as the “emotional parasites” who give up work for family life—seems hollow in light of her own experience. She was, after all, helped by many people, including her devoted followers.

[ccbatson]

First clip is accurate but incomplete. The second is opinion and based on nothing.

[d.mcc]

First clip is accurate but incomplete. The second is opinion and based on nothing.

Brought to you by the letter "O". For Objectivism.

There’s good reason why I don’t list Ayn Rand as an American philosopher: I don’t consider her a philosopher. Neither do other philosophers — you won’t find her works taught in most [[any?) philosophy departments. You also won’t find her discussed in any standard works on the history of philosophy — either in general or specifically American philosophy.

At least, I haven’t seen her mentioned in any of the works I’ve read and used. She doesn’t appear to be in Grayling’s two volume introduction to philosophy, the Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, or Kuklick’s history of American philosophy — just to name a couple of sources at hand. I suppose there must be some philosophy reference works out there which at least mention Rand and Objectivism, but it doesn’t appear to be common — and for good reason, I think.

[East Detroit]

"Selfishness is good, greed is admirable and altruism is evil."

The mantra of the socially disenfranchised.

[9mile&seneca]

Mao Tse Tung and Marx, as well as Fidel Castro are much, much better role models for the young thinkers of America.. Rand was a piker, a wannnabe. She killed only herself.These Gods among men killed hundreds of thousands who disagreed with them.

[d.mcc]

Mao Tse Tung and Marx, as well as Fidel Castro are much, much better role models for the young thinkers of America.. Rand was a piker, a wannnabe. She killed only herself.These Gods among men killed hundreds of thousands who disagreed with them.

Who is to say young thinkers agree with them? Hell, if anything... Young thinker in America is most likely an oxymoron. We are becoming a nation of Idiots, brought to you by Olbermann and Beck. When Americans start thinking for themselves, we can truly progress and address social issues that plague our country.

Until that day comes, the powerful will continue to exploit the weak and poor and grow rich on policies and business practices that are only sustainable economically and environmentally for their own lifetime, leaving the young both in america and around the globe to foot the bill.

Don't leave me with your monetary or environmental debt. I don't fucking want it...