The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Ayn Rand supported using the government, the law and anything else to better yourself at the expense of others. This is selfish individualism.
She also supported incorporating yourself for "more equal than others", treatment under the law.
She claimed to support absolute free trade and a free market, while advocating government protectionism by way of patents and copyright. The protectionism adds false value to otherwise ordinary goods or ideas.
Ayn Rand was a total contradiction. Her ideas are based on the me first idea, thereby using any means necessary to gain an advantage on others.
Individualism using the power of laws and government is hardly individualism.
A proper Libertarian view would be free markets and free trade with all parties being treated as equals.
She failed to recognize that government protectionism is, in fact, the use of force on others.
The force of government laws and favoritism/denial.
Objectively, Ayn Rand Was a Nut By Peter Wehner November 13, 2009 7:00 AM
According to Politico.com, Ayn Rand — the subject of two new biographies, one of which is titled Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right — is “having a mainstream moment,” including among conservatives. (Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina wrote a piece in Newsweek on Rand, saying, “This is a very good time for a Rand resurgence. She’s more relevant than ever.”).
I hope the moment passes. Ms. Rand may have been a popular novelist, but her philosophy is deeply problematic and morally indefensible.
Ayn Rand was, of course, the founder of Objectivism – whose ethic, she said in a 1964 interview, holds that “man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself to others, nor sacrifice others to himself.” She has argued that “friendship, family life and human relationships are not primary in a man’s life. A man who places others first, above his own creative work, is an emotional parasite; whereas, if he places his work first, there is no conflict between his work and his enjoyment of human relationships.” And about Jesus she said:
I do regard the cross as the symbol of the sacrifice of the ideal to the nonideal. Isn’t that what it does mean? Christ, in terms of the Christian philosophy, is the human ideal. He personifies that which men should strive to emulate. Yet, according to the Christian mythology, he died on the cross not for his own sins but for the sins of the nonideal people. In other words, a man of perfect virtue was sacrificed for men who are vicious and who are expected or supposed to accept that sacrifice. If I were a Christian, nothing could make me more indignant than that: the notion of sacrificing the ideal to the nonideal, or virtue to vice. And it is in the name of that symbol that men are asked to sacrifice themselves for their inferiors. That is precisely how the symbolism is used. That is torture.
Many conservatives aren’t aware that it was Whittaker Chambers who, in 1957, reviewed Atlas Shrugged in National Review and read her out of the conservative movement. The most striking feature of the book, Chambers said, was its “dictatorial tone . . . Its shrillness is without reprieve. Its dogmatism is without appeal . . . From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: ‘To a gas chamber – go!’”
William F. Buckley Jr. himself wrote about her “desiccated philosophy’s conclusive incompatibility with the conservative’s emphasis on transcendence, intellectual and moral; but also there is the incongruity of tone, that hard, schematic, implacable, unyielding dogmatism that is in itself intrinsically objectionable.”
Yet there are some strands within conservatism that still veer toward Rand and her views of government (“The government should be concerned only with those issues which involve the use of force,” she argued. “This means: the police, the armed services, and the law courts to settle disputes among men. Nothing else.”), and many conservatives identify with her novelistic hero John Galt, who declared, “I swear — by my life and my love of it — that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”
But this attitude has very little to do with authentic conservatism, at least the kind embodied by Edmund Burke, Adam Smith (chair of moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow), and James Madison, to name just a few. What Rand was peddling is a brittle, arid, mean, and ultimately hollow philosophy. No society could thrive if its tenets were taken seriously and widely accepted. Ayn Rand may have been an interesting figure and a good (if extremely long-winded) novelist; but her views were pernicious, the antithesis of a humane and proper worldview. And conservatives should say so.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
Again, taking the beliefs one individual from a group does not condemn the group.
That would be like condemning a church for the actions of one individual.
Smear tactics by association are weak arguments.
Unless the entire group swears an oath to support each other and their collective actions like the military.
^5
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Again, taking the beliefs one individual from a group does not condemn the group.
That would be like condemning a church for the actions of one individual.
Smear tactics by association are weak arguments.
Unless the entire group swears an oath to support each other and their collective actions like the military.
Some time in the late 80 s I found a nice used copy of the Fountainhead at a garage sale. It was a hard copy- I think printed in 1943. It ws among many other books about architecture.
I loved the book and recommended its it to mANy friends. All f us completely oblivious to any political or religious philosophies. I liked it so much I found a copy of the black and white move the Fountainhead starring Gary Cooper as Howard Roark.
Until I started reading this forum I had no idea of Ayn Rands philosophies. Silly me I thought the Fountainhead was about architecture
Frank Lloyd Write actually produced renderings for some residences for her. But he didn't want anything to do with the movie
"Again, taking the beliefs one individual from a group does not condemn the group.
That would be like condemning a church for the actions of one individual.
Smear tactics by association are weak arguments.
Unless the entire group swears an oath to support each other and their collective actions like the military."
Actually, I have never been impressed with ANY Libertarian that I have either met personally or read/learned about. Also, I am NOT impressed with extremist conservative nor extremist liberals. I would NEVER vote for a Libertarian nor an extremist conservative nor an extremist liberal.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
Actually, I have never been impressed with ANY Libertarian that I have either met personally or read/learned about. Also, I am NOT impressed with extremist conservative nor extremist liberals. I would NEVER vote for a Libertarian nor an extremist conservative nor an extremist liberal.
What is moderate? How do YOU define extremist?
I wonder what moderates think about the US incarceration rate? It's the highest in the WORLD. Is the policies that have led to that extremely high incarceration rate "extremist" or moderate? It seems pretty extreme to me. But me thinking the highest prison population in the world as extreme makes me an anti-government extremist.
I wonder what moderates think about the US incarceration rate? It's the highest in the WORLD. Is the policies that have led to that extremely high incarceration rate "extremist" or moderate? It seems pretty extreme to me. But me thinking the highest prison population in the world as extreme makes me an anti-government extremist.
Pro-life, pro-war, pro-government, pro-tax and spend, Obama hater, taxpayer hater, and not an extremist.
I wonder what moderates think about the US incarceration rate? It's the highest in the WORLD. Is the policies that have led to that extremely high incarceration rate "extremist" or moderate? It seems pretty extreme to me. But me thinking the highest prison population in the world as extreme makes me an anti-government extremist.
If people obeyed the laws, they wouldn't be in prison.
Also, if you are anti-government than you must hate yourself. YOU are the government.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
If people obeyed the laws, they wouldn't be in prison.
Also, if you are anti-government than you must hate yourself. YOU are the government.
Yup, because all laws are just. You would have obeyed the fugitive slave act too and returned black salves to their slave masters because it's LAW.
If you identify yourself with the actions of your government, that is pretty sad. That means in the 1940's then ALL Germans were Fascist Nazis and ALL Pols were communists.
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