We Are Living in an Ayn Rand Novel
by Veronique de RugyA year or two ago, only the most radical leftists would have dreamed that we’d be living in a country where the government owns a majority share in GM, bailed out private insurers, took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and handed over billions of dollars to the financial sector.
It continues to bailout homeowners doing more of the same policies that put us in this mess in the first place. The government now plans to bailout seniors and small businesses and it won’t be long before Obama proposes to bailout children. Also, as the debate over health care reform continues, we are left to wonder: how much is this going to cost us? One trillion dollars or two?
But as I am listening to the hearing on executive compensation and TARP special master (how crippy is this title?), I realize we are now officially living in a world that resembles an Ayn Rand novel. One man, one unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate, has the power cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50 percent or 90 percent in the banks the government now “owns.” A single individual is given too much power without accountability. But more importantly, this charade masks the fact that the world we live in has nothing to do with capitalism. It’s nothing more than crony capitalism. The government went around bailing out out automobile companies that were producing cars that people didn’t want to buy, bailing out banks that were careless with their capital and assets, and bailing out homeowners that couldn’t afford the houses they were buying.
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290 Comments
Ayn Rand was a deeply confused individual from the Czarist Russia- one of the most impressive and ruthless regimes in history. She has no fans outside the United States. and it is quite sad that she has a few here.
Please remember to fear G-d.
Emperors and empires pass, but One remains.
Are you ready, America?!?! This is what we've been waiting for!!!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/House-Democrats-pre...
YAAAAHOOOO!!! Bout danm time for some socialized medicine!
There's someone who never read Atlas Shrugged.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by John Leschen, Katherine Sands. Katherine Sands said: RT @johnleschen: We Are Living in an Ayn Rand Novel via@biggovenment http://is.gd/4GaDk #tcot [...]
This is what I have BEEN saying!
They are bailing out children if they are putting $500 into a savings account for them when they are born…
"She has no fans outside the United States."
That statement alone would make me want to read her books. I find your comment to be "quite sad".
I have reread Atlas Shrugged and it looks like the the current Administration is using the book. They think they can write an new end. Read the book and replace the names with real ones. Replace Mr. Thompson with Pres Obama. I could not stop from bustin a gut the only problem is that we are the punch line.
twinespc, Ann Rand may have been confused. Her confusion must have helped in understanding how these people think. She seems like a prophet, it's no wonder you will have to wait 2 months to get one of 17 copies of Atlas Shrugged for or small town library. The only other book that has as many copies is A Harry Potter book (I also loved the Harry Potter books)
John Galt was an atheist. Better re-read the book. One of the main points is that the propoganda used to implement collectivism is derived from religion – the mystics of muscle and the mystics of sprit are two sides of the same coin. Youc an see this played out with Obama when he cites figures the Reinhold Neibuhr or John Rawls as being very influential to him.
On the 45th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's famous "A Time for Choosing" speech, here's a short version with some spliced-in modern day liberals: http://optoons.blogspot.com/2009/10/1964-ronald-r...
Millions of people in India would disagree with that assessment.
http://biggovernment.com/2009/10/28/we-are-living...
Yes, we are living Atlas Shrugged. Apparently Hannah has taken the role of Dagny Taggart…………
i love how the very people who rally so strongly against TARP and the bailouts or what have you never have anything to say on the shape our economy would be in had we done nothing.
large banks are needed to provide money to large corporations. large corporations buy hundreds of products from smaller corporations, who in turn buy materials from thousands of smaller material suppliers.
when that chain shuts down overnight, and is allowed to stagnate, the magnitude and scale of the "ripple effects" are quite pronounced.
but no TARP/bailout critics ever comment on the condition we'd be in without. which i find very curious indeed.
Enjoy waiting 12 months for a root canal and 2 years for an MRI, if you're lucky. And based on your comments I'd bet you're one unlucky inbred swine which is why you need the govt to wipe your sorry ass for you.
We have a mechanism to address such situations: bankruptcy. But that wouldn't allow the govt to consolidate power and quasi nationalize companies. Remember what Rahm Emanuel said, "never let a crisis go to waste."
Obama himself said if we didn't throw billions/trillions of more money into union coffers, lobbyist groups and leftwing initiatives we would have 8% unemployment. Well we're at 10% with real unemployment at 18%.
Obama= F.A.I.L.
Scott,
I'll comment. You are flat wrong.
Large banks took TARP funds, and used them to purchase smaller banks that were solvent with good balance sheets. Once rolled into the larger organizations, what was there? A larger orginization that was further weakened. Evidently you do not savvy that 2+2 must always = 4. Not 7 or 9.
Look what Obama has done; printed and spent in excess of ONE TRILLION DOLLARS. Where was it dispensed? To entities that used UNION workers. It is the trickle down effect that has not trickled down.
Do you understand that business credit is shut off? Small business is dead in its tracks. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan continue to pay billions in bonuses to the very people who created this mess. Speaking of creating this mess, look at the root cause: The Community Reinvestment Act, GSE's: Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, funded by Barney Frank. THAT, is the root cause of Global Financial Collapse. Goldman Sachs bundled that junk paper, sold it overseas, and in the immortal words of the Reverned Jerimiah Wright, "Americas Chickens are coming home to roost………….!"
republicans had 8 years to do something… anything. 6 of which they controlled the senate.
what did we get after 8 years? health insurance premiums up 100%, while salaries stagnated.
oh yeah, also Terry Schaivo's law and unfunded medicare part D, adding $1 Trillion in debt over 10 years.
conservatives couldn't lead, they are not following. time to just get out of the way..
Without the government guiding the banks into bad loans the banks would have been sound and TARP would not have been approved.
If we had no tarp or bailouts we would have broken up many of the mismanaged banks and the two bankrupt auto companies. Our goverment screwed it up so bad they would rather close down Saturn than sell it.
Scott, All TARP has done is posponed some of the results of the previous Government intervention.
The free market will fix these problems if the Government would quit trying to micromanage the economy.
I see Eric Holder's blog-squad is out today.
I read this today by Mark Sanford. http://www.newsweek.com/id/219001 I know he is not popular with many people for cheating on his wife and this article does sound hypocritical, but I know that forgivness is the premise of my Christianity. I didn't realize it was written by him until I read some of the comments, which were scathing. Anyways it spoke of Ayn Rand as I feel about her and how I persieve her through my Christian faith.
A side note, I think Newsweek probably put this in to let their minions feast on him…
"Look what Obama has done"
Don't you mean former president Bush? I think you need to go back and examine the timeline a little better!
"The free market will fix these problems if the Government would quit trying to micromanage the economy. "
Oh yeah. you mean like they did during the Great Depression?
check, point, match.
don't frequent many places where your ideas are challenged much do you? prefer echo chambers do you?
I agree with Veronique in the feeling of living in out the novel 'Atlas Shrugged' and I must add '1984', with all of the disappearing videos and articles on the internet. Thank you Anita!
Nope. Don't sell crazy here. We ain't buying any more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM&fe...
April 2001 Bush Admin. raises red flags. Barney Fag stands his ground……….
The parallel between today's government policies (progressive Democrat or progressive Republican) and the government policies described in Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged, are striking and thus very scary. The redistribution of wealth for the sake of the needy, while appealing to the emotion of compassion that most Americans feel, has never worked in history. The story in Atlas Shrugged clearly describes that the emotional argument that the needy are better served by big government fails because 1) government largess is inefficient, 2) redistribution policies increase bureaucratic corruption, and 3) the human vices of lazyness and greed are encouraged. This dynamic requires ever larger quantities of redistribution until, finally, the most productive people in an economy go on strike. Atlas Shrugged, like 1984 and Animal Farm, is a fictional story. However, these stories are thought experiments that examine the logical conclusions of ideas and government ideology when played out on a fictional stage. Attacking the author in no way diminishes the the thought experiment. I'm still looking for a logical argument that shows how central government planning by fallible bureaucrats will not lead to the loss of individual freedom and prosperity.
The economic policies of the Obama administration and many leaders of the democratic party seem to forget an essential point:
Wealth can be created.
Americans harvest natural resources (food, lumber, oil, coal, etc). In other words, we can dig up wealth. Furthermore, we create wealth in more environmentally friendly ways than anyone else on this planet. We also have an excellent higher education system in business and the sciences that creates intellectual wealth. Everyone benefits when these types of wealth are created. Redistribution of wealth discourages the production of wealth by those capable of creating wealth in the first place.
The whole argument for many progressive policies seems to hing on the need to help those who are less fortunate. However, as the story of John Galt and the Century Motor Company illustrates, there is always someone more needy. The argument to help those less fortunate, without qualifiers, is fatally flawed when taken to its logical conclusion. Only with qualification, help individuals to obtain basic necessities (food clothing, shelter) who are unable to help themselves and no further help, can be applied across society without fatal consequences. Individuals helping needy individuals preserves the compassion and empathy that Americans feel without destroying our individual freedoms.
Scott,
Check, point, match my ass. What are you playing, badmitton?
Time to put your checkers away, we are playing chess.
It wasn't government micromanagement that got us out of the Great Depression. It was World War II.
Checkmate.
Bush released TARP funds
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relie...
as far as 2001. republicans had the white house for 8 years and senate for 6. If Bush Admin "raised Red Flags" Why no action on that?
How odd to state that she has no fans outside the US. Not only is it factually incorrect but the number of fans an individual accumulates says nothing about whether their ideas or statements are correct.
I suspect your intention is to make certain that people are dissuaded from reading her themselves; for their own good, lest her arguments hit their liberty loving mark.
The novel this post references is Atlas Shrugged. It is considered the Second Declaration of Independence.
Here's how she describes her philosophy, Objectivism:
My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.
Aynrand.com or .org will get you where you need to go.
"Barney Fag"??
oh so very clever. I see the crowd I am dealing with here. Despite that, he was in the minority party in 106th congress.
Rand's works are over rated, badly written, read by and extolled by pseudo intellectual children ( no matter what their physical age may be ), whose suggestions are patently ridiculous and unworkable in real life.
but it was gov't inaction that made things worse. also see the japanese economic downturn, the lost decade.
How can you "see", when you have not only blinkers on, but two pounds of gauze, plactic eye covers, and rolls of tape to keep out the sight of reality ?
[...] de Rugy, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, has some disturbing observations. [...] as I am listening to the hearing on executive compensation and TARP special master [...] I [...]
Would that be the same Great Depression where Herbert "not so laissez faire" intervened into the banking system to exacerbate the problem? Would it also be the same Great Depression where FDR among many other things payed farmers taxpayer subsidies to plow over their crops to prop up the prices? How about all of FDR's taxpayer subsidized "public works" projects, i.e. stimulus projects, that failed to turn around the economy. How about the fact that FDR confiscated people's gold? Please educate yourself. We got out of the Great Depression despite the government, and WW2 for that matter, not because of it.
If you want to see what happens when the market is allowed to function you should read about the forgotten depression of 1920-1921 where Warren Harding ignored his interventionist Sec. of Commerce, Herbert "not so laissez faire" Hoover to be exact, and the depression was ended quickly and everyone could go back to work.
The government turned a large recession into THE GREAT DEPRESSION !
It's past time for you to go learn some simple American history, economics, and logic !
The novel this post references is Atlas Shrugged. It is considered the Second Declaration of Independence.
Here's how she describes her philosophy, Objectivism:
My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.
Aynrand.com or .org will get you where you need to go.
I'm sorry, is anything i said in this thread factually incorrect? perhaps you are the blind man.
I agree with you about '1984'. It's hard to believe how surreal it seemed so many years ago in college. Now that it is here, we need someone to break the spell that has blinded people.
We are living in a novel, but it's 1984, with a slight overlay of "BRAVE NEW WORLD".
Randian objectionism is sophomoric and completely unworkable in the real world.
Rand is a highly over rated author, her works are badly written, almost unreadable, and hailed by pseud intellectual children, no matter what their physical age is. And yes, I tried to slog through he books long, long, long ago.
The only "blind" person here is you.
Yes, there are many errors in your posted. I heartily suggest that you educate yourself, now, since obviously, whatever schools you attended failed you, or perhaps you didn't pay attention.
You have no idea how anything, let alone banks and the free market is supposed to work and your abject lack of accurate historical knowledge is appalling.
Ba'rock, is that you posting here, or is it your brother Ba'roke? I'd think you would have something better to do than hang out here. Isn't there a camera or a microphone you could pander to with your teleprompter in tow?
On a serious note, you made this statement: "Look what Obama has done".
I'll answer that. He promised to end the war and bring our troops home.
Monday: 14 died in Afghanistan
Tuesday: 8 died in Afghanistan
Wednesday: 5 died in Afghanistan.
In the interim, since Ba'rock has been in office, 50,000 babies have been aborted and killed
The "lower the qualifications for loans so more low income people can get homes" rul actually started from the Clinton Admin.
In the book, my only problem was it denied G-d.
So did Ayn Rand who ended life in misery after heartbreaking affairs.
It seemed my character Galt is G-d,making perpetual motion machines that violate everything we know of science and the universe.
Indeed, Hannah Giles is better than Dagny Taggert.
Hannah is the daughter of a minister, and humble.
We should remember to fear G-d, for we aren’t in a story written by a long dead atheist. But there is One who does hold the world up.
The
Scott,
I challenge you to read this article.
http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-how-...
It was Geitner, who bailed out Wall Street, not Bush. Geitner was the head of the New York Fed, and in charge of safeguarding his cronies.
well you have me scratching my head as to what ever this has to do about the topic at hand. But I will bite.
Obama never pledged to end the Afghanistan war. He pledged to pay more attention to it, and fund it appropriately.
He did pledge to bring home troops from Iraq, and there are 20k less there today,and our operations are budget in Iraq is $20Bil less.
as far as abortion, that is a supreme court case,Roe vs. Wade, and quite outside Obama's discretionary powers, despite what the past 8 years of constitutional lawlessness may have you believe.
so there.
–scott (scottz_23@hotmail.com)
false.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression#Cau...
The pay czar is just the tip of the iceberge. With Barney Frank saying that competitors will pay for competitors that fail… well that's Rearden Metal taking on the expenses of his loser competitors getting the help of the government. The question is when will the producers realize they are being roped in and when will they withdraw from society? Never in my wildest dreams did I think that would be possible in the US, but we are in the early stages of the slippery slope Rand lays out in Atlas Shrugged. And we've already eclipsed one of her prophesies – government power and influence become the "currency." And that trading people (political favors, bailouts) is where the power lies.
so there?
You dare end a diatribe with so there?
Good Lord boy, the last time I heard "so there", I was about four years old, sitting in a sand box and the boy I'd just whipped said : "so there, na-na-na-na-na", as he took his toys and went home.
If "so there" is the best you Liberal Fascist Militants can come up with, I'm a gonna go sit in a bar and play video poker………….
Did you even read that? LOL
And FWIW, Wiki isn't the ne plus ultra when it comes to being accurate.
You've never heard of/understand Smoot-Hawley……………..right?
Obviously, neither do you know anything at all about FDR's policies.
It was a combination of bad government policies and Joe Kennedy and his pals, that turned a major recession into THE GREAT DEPRESSION ! That is the fact of the matter!
And American didn't pull out of it until after WW II.
BUSH released the TARP funds. he could have just "let them fail" as you say.
so here you are, arguing that geitner working under bush era regulations made bush release tarp funds, after you argued that obama is to blame.
get a grip, man.
They wouldn't be able to understand it, even if they did read it.
The 0bama administration is attempting to implement their own version of Directive 10-289.
"… (Directive 10-289) will give security (safety) to the people. Security – that is what the people want"
– Eugene Larson, Atlas Shrugged
A false sense of security does not equal liberty.
Time to go Galt.
Scott,
Pssst! Look at this:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&a...
It does feel like we are living in a Ayn Rand novel.
The pathetic state official Obama and his minions, weaklings and self proclaimed intellectuals that never earned an honest dollar in their entire miserable existance, proclaiming that the motive force of man and all his achievements and all the earned property of his industry, represent nothing more than booty for extortion by the state in the name of social justice……but, justice for who?
By what moral authority does Obama( or Barney Frank, or Nancy Pelosi, et.al.) justify the theft of resources from those who have earned it? What moral claim do have they on my existance?
Wherever Socialism has been tried it has collapsed under its own weight. Initiative dries up, industriousness gives way to apathy , and inovation dies. Name one great advance in the human condition that resulted from 70 years of Marxism in the USSR?
"Yes, there are many errors in your posted"
in this particular thread? Which ones?
"You have no idea how anything, let alone banks and the free market"
I know it was bush who released the TARP funds. That is what this thread is about, and that is all this particular thread is about. nothing more.
A is A.
which was expanded upon drastically, rather than undone, under 8 years of Bush(6 of which conservatives controlled congress)
so what does that tell us arizona?
I dream of "Atlas Shrugged 2009" where our most attacked industries (energy, healthcare, etc) should go on a "Profit Strike" by lowering prices, Deny the feds tax revenue from profits and cause a market meltdown in turn. Then take out TV ads explaining how much more prices could drop if Govt forgoes the other taxes and fees to "help everyone out in this recession". Govt will refuse and expose itself for what it is.
I've already experienced the destruction wrought by a Govt following the same path as we are today.
Get ready for Blackouts, Gas Lines and Bread shortages!
i addressed every concern of yours, point by point explaining why you were wrong headed (all of which had *nothing* to do with this thread). and all you have to come back at me with is a critique of my closing two words.
between that and your gay slur from earlier, this is all very telling.
very telling indeed.
the reason for posting the wikipedia link was to show you that the causes for, and solutions to the great depression are open to MUCH interpretation and debate.
for you to "tell it like it is" and come up with one universal catch all reason so confidently and arrogantly tells me implicitly that *you* are the one who needs to examine the topic more closely.
"And American didn't pull out of it until after WW II."
Precisely. America didn't pull out of the Depression until 1946 when the private sector was allowed to grow again.
It's a common misconception that WW2 got us out of the Depression, but if you just think about it for a second it makes no sense. During the war it was true that everyone went back to work, but they mostly went back to work for the government and many wage and price controls went into effect. If this is a recipe for economic growth then the Soviet Union would have been a flourishing paradise.
Also, most people were working to produce tools of war which were mostly destroyed. How anyone can think destruction of capital causes economic growth is beyond me. If it were true then we could just endlessly build battleships and sink them in the middle of the Pacific and we would all be rich. It's a fallacy. It's the same underlying fallacy behind Cash for Clunkers. It's a net destruction of wealth.
hm. wasn't it Bush who established the department of homeland security?
Your reading comprehension skills are nonexistent !
Did President Bush take over GM? NOPE ! And that is talked about in the beginning of the very first sentence of this thread;s article. That's just for starters !
You are the one who has a very real problem! Get someone to read and explain the articles and posts here, prior to you ever posting again. All you're doing is making a complete fool of yourself. LOL
Oh yes and go get some help for you BDS problem.
He/she can't do any better………………….all of the KOOL_Aide has rotted out what few working brain cells he began with.
It was Carter who began the push for subprime lo9ans and expanded under Bill Clinton.
Facts………………………………..FACTS……………….learn some !
Security in this context isn't the same thing. Try reading the book.
The Dems pushed for the creation of DHS, and the first thing they wanted to do, is unionize it's members.
They saw it as political security, as opposed to the safety of our country. The later concept being totally foreign to them.
yours is the best post yet!
"never earned an honest dollar"
you mean: professor of constitutional law? you do like the constitution right? civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development? you do like civil rights upheld do you not?
"By what moral authority does Obama( or Barney Frank, or Nancy Pelosi, et.al.) justify the theft of resources from those who have earned it?"
it's called a democracy, and strictly follows the constitution.
"Wherever Socialism has been tried it has collapsed under its own weight"
the US military is socialized. as is their health care, the VA. as is your police and fire departments.
good lord you're flippin' nuts!
I read "Anthem" for the first time the other night – I'm planning on working through some of Rand's major works by publishing date. Scary, scary, scary. What's sad is, one can look at that book and say "That'll never happen here." But the book itself alludes to it having taken over a long period of time – where there is no individualism and a single body dictates every person's action. Just reading it makes me realize that Rand was just SO prophetic.
One of my favorite TV quotes EVER is from a "futuristic" episode of "The Simpsons" in which Marge states to the effect: "Fox became a hard-core porn channel so gradually I hardly even noticed." That's what's going to happen in society – Ayn Rand predicted it; Marge Simpson predicted it – our move towards socialism has begun (thank you FDR) and it's happening so gradually, by the time people realize it, it'll be too late.
Maybe now that you're older you'll be better able to grasp her ideas. Like this one:
America’s founding ideal was the principle of individual rights. Nothing more—and nothing less. The rest—everything that America achieved, everything she became, everything “noble and just,” and heroic, and great, and unprecedented in human history—was the logical consequence of fidelity to that one principle. The first consequence was the principle of political freedom, i.e., an individual’s freedom from physical compulsion, coercion or interference by the government. The next was the economic implementation of political freedom: the system of capitalism.
from “A Preview,” The Ayn Rand Letter, I, 24, 5 and the Ayn Rand Lexicon (http://aynrandlexicon.com/)
Exactly so !
And the only reason that America became the world leader and the economy grew greatly, after WW II, is because almost all of European manufacturing had been destroyed during WW II.
America was basically untouched by that war, as they were during WW I. Our infrastructure and buildings were intact.
Unlike all of Europe, we were not a "debtor nation"; all European nations owed us money……….they owed us, still, for loans made during WW I as well !
i'll take that as a tacit admission that you were wrong and bush indeed did release the tarp monies,refusing to just "let them fail"
"Your reading comprehension skills are nonexistent ! "
look up at the thread. this is only about tarp. got nothing to do with GM, you might be the first one to even mention is.
I'm a whole LOT older, now, than when I first tried to read the unreadable Rand and she's know that she's even worse, than I first suspected, as a teen.
Her crazy views and positions are no more workable than Communism is.
Objectionism is tripe; tripe coached in some high fallutin words, which the gullible fall for.
You guys can argue back and forth all you want about who made the push for the loans, but you forget the most important fact… where did all the money come from? Who created all the excess credit out of thin air thus blowing up the bubble? Who creates all the bubbles in the economy?
There is only one entity in the country that can create money. The Fed. All inflation comes from the Fed because they have exclusive providence over the money supply. The politicians could push for subprime loans until they are blue in the face, but if we actually had a sound monetary policy in this country (i.e. with no Fed) the phoney money wouldn't be there and the bubbles wouldn't form.
Scott, scott, scott.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Who passed the TARP Legislation? Nancy Pelosi. Remember back a year ago, to her famous televised vote, where it was voted down, then she had to scramble for a second vote? Nancy Pelosi and HER CON-gress passed the TARP Legislation.
Go to the top of this thread and get someone to read and exp0alin each word to you! LOL
You just keep proving my points!
The novel we are living is the one I read ten years ago called A Distant Crossing. The storyline was based on an economic meltdown, and what happens to the rest of us after the "smart guys" in government screw up. Well worth checking out.
if conservatives were opposed to the program, they could have shut it down under Bush and a republican controlled congress.
instead, they DRASTICALLY expanded the program.
facts, indeed.
That's not an accurate argument.
I take issue with that aspect of her philosophy as well. She seemed to view religion as another form of collectivism that could impinge in the rights of the individual. She seemed to believed that an individual's rights are granted to them simply by the fact that are an individual; instead of viewing G-d as the transcendent moral authority that grants those rights.
I can't see how rights can be claimed and protected without being granted by that transcendent moral authority.
Oh goody, silly word games, spin, and lies. LOL
Good do some research on the matter, kid; you will then be educated…………maybe.
Clearly, she struck a nerve with you. I suspect from your superior position as an intellectual adult (as is evidenced by your use of name-calling instead of reason) that you perceived yourself to be akin to the second-handers, looters and moochers she writes about. It's never too late to become a first-hander, producer and achiever you know.
To those of you interested in reading her ideas on a wide variety of subjects, may I suggest the Ayn Rand Lexicon on-line? http://aynrandlexicon.com/
"never earned an honest dollar in their entire miserable existance"
civil rights attourney and constitutional law professor seem like noble careers to me.
"By what moral authority does Obama( or Barney Frank, or Nancy Pelosi, et.al.) justify the theft of resources from those who have earned it? What moral claim do have they on my existance?"
democracy, as outlined by the Constitution of the United States of America
"Wherever Socialism has been tried it has collapsed"
the US military is socialised, as is their healthcare- the VA. as is your fire and police depts, and your schools. if you live in America, that is.
I just finished "Anthem" too, but I read all of her books in reverse order. starting with "Atlas Shrugged."
If "Anthem" made you think Rand was prophetic, wait until you finish Atlas.
The idea that rights are inherent isn't limited to Deists. Natural rights exist because on the nature of mankind, no matter how you believe that mankind came to be.
For what its worth, I believe Ayn was wrong on religion. Perhaps it has been a negative force throughout history, but that aside, her logic is based on a flawed premise – that there is no scientific evidence for the existence of a creator. There *is* evidence today that suggests just that. It doesn't prove it, but it is highly suggestive. Stating that there isn't enough proof to believe in God is one thing, flatly denying that a God *could* exist, simply because you don't believe it is faith, which in Ayn's own words, is anti-reason.
Your projection complex and paranoia is palpable; not to mention childish.
Rand was a lousy writer and those who swallow her garbage, as whole cloth, are benighted at best.
Even Rand didn't live her proscribed way of life. LOL
And it IS unworkable, untenable, and patently ridiculous!
We live in reality, NOT in some fictional world, dreamed up by some crackpot.
Those who refuse to see this, should just go back to reading their fictional books, wherein, they can imagine that they are the characters they so admire. LOL
Just get out of the way? Sounds like a divider to me, surely you can't be a liberal because they are all-accepting and loving of everyone's differences. Obviously you liberals will never accept anyone who doesn't agree with you…which is pretty much the whole country. And how come liberal policies are so drastic? Can you please answer that? How come you want government to own your life and control everything you do? Why do you want that?
her non-fiction is great too. May I suggest Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal? The Ayn Rand Lexicon is a fabulous resource as well: http://aynrandlexicon.com/.
0 is leaning a lot on capitalist tax dollars. Is there a serious movement to go John Galt?
The point in Atlas Shrugged that rings true to me today is that so many people are supporting socialist schemes that grant gifties in hopes that someone else will pay for it. The immorality of this hope is immense and invisible to the public.
One would be hard-put to find more ad hominem attacks, unsubstantiated assertions, emotionalism, and factual errors than among those who criticize Ayn Rand.
How can this not end in war? Does anyone here think their anger at what is being done to our country is just going to disappear one day? For now, I don't see any way this can end in anything other than disaster. I scares me just to think about it, but I understand human nature.
It will take amazing people to correct this horrific turn towards socialism without physical conflict. I sure hope such people exist and are ready to move. I don't want to live in a civil war, but I see it peoples eyes. They have had enough.
the executive branch must sign a bill in to law. bush had veto power. he did not veto.
i feel like i am talking to a 3rd grader. but here you go:
http://www.votesmart.org/resource_govt101_02.php
ok i did some research. bush DRASTICALLY expanded the program.
I generally don't attempt to change people's minds about her but I gave in to temptation this time. Didn't you love seeing her full blown stamp on this post!
I've stuck a few hyperlinks in for interested readers as well: http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=i... and http://aynrandlexicon.com
Not only Atlas Shrugged (which is a playbook for the progressives), but also "We the Living". Look at the paralells of post revolution Russia. We are right on track. Scary isn't it.
JWN, nobody will rebut your point in a calm, reasonable manner. You write the truth. Well done!
nope. i've had about enough with all that.
"And how come liberal policies are so drastic?"
as opposed to warrentless wiretaps, erosion of habeaus corpus, war in iraq with no cause, and torture? I don't think there's much on the liberal agenda that is more drastic than any of that…
my one lone voice of dissension constitutes a "blog squad"?
you must really like comfortable echo chambers like this,where your views are never challenged and you can all get together and talk about how horrible the people you disagree with are.
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