Paul Ryan and Ayn Rand

[Old Rocks]

LOL.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmW19uoyuO8]Paul Ryan on Ayn Rand - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Quantum Windbag]

I wonder if Ryan indicates she is some sort of deity by capitalizing the first letter of a pronoun that refers to her. As I understand it, he no longer requires his staff read her books. Nonetheless, he's a fruitcake for basing so much of his life on a writer of bad fiction.

Bad Fiction? The FountainHead? Atlas Shrugged? Have you even read the Books? Shame on you. What did you think of 1984? Animal Farm? Future Shock? Soylent Green?

Read the books in high school.

But, remember, I believe in and work to achieve the opposite of what rw's are - critical thought. Therefore, none of those titles rule my life.

That was funny. Why don't you tell us about how stupid right wingers are simply because they disagree with your version of reality and call that critical thinking.

Wait, that is exactly what you do every time you debate anyone that can actually think.

 

[flacaltenn]

Personally Ayn Rand offers a view of existence so bleak and heartless one has to wonder at her popularity among many on the right. Whittaker Chambers sums her up in the link in the first URL below.

But the individual as the locus and lord of reality and modern life is a powerful meme in American thought. Only in America could a silly kind of Marxism Libertarianism exist. Americans exist in a sort of fantasy that says all this came about from me, Robinson Crusoe without Friday - without history. So yes, the nonsense Rand wrote serves to continue a myth of magic divorced from responsibility for each other. Odd in a nation that calls itself Christian. 'I got mine, tough for you.'

http://www.usmessageboard.com/clean...on-could-be-a-game-changer-2.html#post5810441
http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/164072-ayn-rand-conservatives-tea-party-republicans.html
http://www.usmessageboard.com/gener...ult-of-selfishness-on-the-american-right.html


"I was raised to be ashamed of my ignorance, and to try to do something about it if at all possible. I carry that burden to this day, and have successfully passed it on to my children. I don’t believe I have the right to an opinion about something I know nothing about—constitutional law, for example, or sailing—a notion that puts me sadly out of step with a growing majority of my countrymen, many of whom may be unable to tell you anything at all about Islam, say, or socialism, or climate change, except that they hate it, are against it, don’t believe in it. Worse still (or more amusing, depending on the day) are those who can tell you, and then offer up a stew of New Age blather, right-wing rant, and bloggers’ speculation that’s so divorced from actual, demonstrable fact, that’s so not true, as the kids would say, that the mind goes numb with wonder. “Way I see it is,” a man in the Tulsa Motel 6 swimming pool told me last summer, “if English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for us.” Mark Slouka 'Harper's'

Another person who hasn't actually read any of Rand's books commenting about her outlook on the world.

You got something out of that screed vaguely on topic? You're a better man Q.W.

 

[Old Rocks]

Romancing the Stone-Cold Killer: Ayn Rand and William Hickman | Michael Prescott

This is the Hickman whose "outside" so intrigued the young Ayn Rand.

Now here are some of Rand's notes on the fictional hero she was developing, with Hickman (or what he "suggested") as a model:

"Other people have no right, no hold, no interest or influence on him. And this is not affected or chosen -- it's inborn, absolute, it can't be changed, he has 'no organ' to be otherwise. In this respect, he has the true, innate psychology of a Superman. He can never realize and feel'other people.' "

"He shows how impossible it is for a genuinely beautiful soul to succeed at present, for in all [aspects of] modern life, one has to be a hypocrite, to bend and tolerate. This boy wanted to command and smash away things and people he didn't approve of."

Apparently what Hickman suggested to Ayn Rand was "a genuinely beautiful soul." The soul of Marian Parker, the murdered girl, evidently did not suggest any comparably romantic notions to her.

As I mentioned in my previous post, there is a term for a person who has "no organ" by which to understand other human beings -- a person who "can never realize and feel 'other people.'" That word is sociopath. I mean this quite literally and not as a rhetorical flourish. A sociopath, by definition, is someone who lacks empathy and cannot conceive of other people as fully real. It is precisely because the sociopath objectifies and depersonalizes other human beings that he is able to inflict pain and death without remorse.

It is also fair to say of any sociopath that he "wanted to command and smash away things and people he didn't approve of." How this relates to having "a beautiful soul" is unclear to me -- and I earnestly hope it will continue to be.

In her notes, Rand complains that poor Hickman has become the target of irrational and ugly mob psychology:

"The first thing that impresses me about the case is the ferocious rage of a whole society against one man. No matter what the man did, there is always something loathsome in the 'virtuous' indignation and mass-hatred of the 'majority.'... It is repulsive to see all these beings with worse sins and crimes in their own lives, virtuously condemning a criminal...

"This is not just the case of a terrible crime. It is not the crime alone that has raised the fury of public hatred. It is the case of a daring challenge to society. It is the fact that a crime has been committed by one man, alone; that this man knew it was against all laws of humanity and intended that way; that he does not want to recognize it as a crime and that he feels superior to all. It is the amazing picture of a man with no regard whatever for all that society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. A man who really stands alone, in action and in soul."

Before we get to the meat of this statement, let us pause to consider Rand's claim that average members of the public are "beings with worse sins and crimes in their own lives." Worse sins and crimes and kidnapping, murdering, and mutilating a helpless little girl? If Rand honestly believed that the average American had worse skeletons than that in his closet, then her opinion of "the average man" is even lower than I had suspected.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

How is a flame thread like this in the clean debate forum?

Racists like the OP should be barred from here on principle.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Geeze, I'm so GLAD I'm voting for......

Paul Ryan and not that Ayn Rand.

She sounds like a truly horrible person

She is Ryan's idol so sorry to say I think you are voting for her and her political views,

If I wanted to vote for someone with her political views I wouldn't be able to vote because no one has them.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Bad Fiction? The FountainHead? Atlas Shrugged? Have you even read the Books? Shame on you. What did you think of 1984? Animal Farm? Future Shock? Soylent Green?

The one and only Rand book I read..was the Fountainhead. And I only got through 3/4 of it because I wanted to tear it to pieces.

But it was on loaner to me from a girl I was dating at the time who thought that I was alot like Howard Rourke.

Yeah, I get that.

To the unformed mind, she was interesting. To anyone able to think for themselves, she was anything but.

Funny how some idolize a pro-abortion, pro-nazi doofus.

But then, they hate a man who worked to make life better for children and women and men who were being worked to death by the 1% of his day. That would be, of course, Saul Alinsky.

I have to admit that I didn't know who Alinsky was until the R's went nuts against him. Turns out he was pretty much everything that America is about - all Americans should be able to vote - like Obama believes but the opposite of what some R's believe and work against. He was dead set against Communism - like Obama and he was anti-racism.

Being against him is truly anti-America. If he were alive today, he would still be fighting against voter suppression, just as did then. He would also be fighting against Newt Gingrich saying children should work.

If Alinsky were still around he would be railing against the government and the way it is beating down the middle class with excessive regulations and rules that prevent people from forming their own businesses.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Its weird that he req'd all his interns to read those works of fiction then threw her under the bus when his religion gave him a phone call during the womens HC services debate.
Is Paul Ryan for or against Ayn Rand? - CNN.com

Ryan's effort to put daylight between himself and Rand also reeks of history-rewriting. Certainly the speech he gave before the Atlas Society in 2005, in which he toed the Randian line, was no "urban legend." Ryan is no atheist, but atheism was at the core of her philosophy, because the teachings of the Bible simply do not jibe with her belief that selfishness is moral, greed is good and altruism is evil. It's not surprising that Ryan's budget plan, which cuts programs for the poor and middle class while imposing no new taxes on the rich, has been criticized by some in the Roman Catholic Church.

It is weird that he liked her books without checking out her political philosophy?

 

[GHook93]

Supposedly the queen of the objectivists, Ayn Rand, was a big influence on Paul Ryan in college. He has since distanced himself from her thinking. Rand championed uber-individualism over collectivism (she was actually Alice Rosenthal or something, a Russian-born Jew, I believe).

Does Ayn Rand have anything to contribute to modern policy? Is "self" the ultimate temporal reality?

She was a libertarian who was strongly against collectivism! What does her being Jewish have to do with anything!

 

[GHook93]

Ryan got his ass kicked regarding Ayn Rand a few months back. Listen to Ayn explain her feelings about abortion.

Ayn Rand on Abortion - YouTube

Douche bag, he agreed with her economic and capitalism views not her social issues views! Nice weak red herring!

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Personally Ayn Rand offers a view of existence so bleak and heartless one has to wonder at her popularity among many on the right. Whittaker Chambers sums her up in the link in the first URL below.

But the individual as the locus and lord of reality and modern life is a powerful meme in American thought. Only in America could a silly kind of Marxism Libertarianism exist. Americans exist in a sort of fantasy that says all this came about from me, Robinson Crusoe without Friday - without history. So yes, the nonsense Rand wrote serves to continue a myth of magic divorced from responsibility for each other. Odd in a nation that calls itself Christian. 'I got mine, tough for you.'

http://www.usmessageboard.com/clean...on-could-be-a-game-changer-2.html#post5810441
http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/164072-ayn-rand-conservatives-tea-party-republicans.html
http://www.usmessageboard.com/gener...ult-of-selfishness-on-the-american-right.html


"I was raised to be ashamed of my ignorance, and to try to do something about it if at all possible. I carry that burden to this day, and have successfully passed it on to my children. I don’t believe I have the right to an opinion about something I know nothing about—constitutional law, for example, or sailing—a notion that puts me sadly out of step with a growing majority of my countrymen, many of whom may be unable to tell you anything at all about Islam, say, or socialism, or climate change, except that they hate it, are against it, don’t believe in it. Worse still (or more amusing, depending on the day) are those who can tell you, and then offer up a stew of New Age blather, right-wing rant, and bloggers’ speculation that’s so divorced from actual, demonstrable fact, that’s so not true, as the kids would say, that the mind goes numb with wonder. “Way I see it is,” a man in the Tulsa Motel 6 swimming pool told me last summer, “if English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for us.” Mark Slouka 'Harper's'

Rands popularity is really quite simple. Her entire philosphy is that of an adolesent. Selfish greed wedded to an overblown sense of worth. When I was a teen, I found Rands philosphy enthralling. I found it to be correct and exactly what this country needed.

And then I grew up and I put away childish things.

Paul Ryan on the other hand lives on the street he grew up on, his brother only a block away. After his father died, Ryan drew on his fathers social security to help put himself through college, where he double majored in Economics and Political Science. From college, he went straight to work in Washington.

Ryan went straight from his sheltered life in Janesville to work in government. He has never had a private sector job as his primary and only source of income ( he worked as a waiter and a fitness trainer to suppliment his income he recieved from the government. ) . In fact, as his double major indicates, his goal has always been government.


When the 2008 meltdown occured, Paul Ryan voted AGAINST the GM loan. That had consequences. GM closed the plant in his hometown of Janesville, WI. 3800 middle class jobs lost and Ryan did nothing. Though to his credit, Ryan did vote against the extention of unemployemnt benefits for those same 3800 workers.

In his 13 years in the House, Ryan has passed just two pieces of legislation. The first, in 2000, changed the name of a post office, the second, in 2008 while the country was in full on economic meltdown, changed the way an excise tax was levied on arrows.

At a salary of $174,000 a year, the American taxpayer has paid Paul Ryan 2.26 million dollars, or 1.13 million dollars per piece of legislation. At his current rate of production, if Paul Ryan stays in the House, we should expect to see his next great piece of legislation sometime in 2016.

Ryan, as a foloower of Rands philosophy, believes that a man should only be entitled to that which is produced by his own hand. What has Paul Ryans hand produced? Ryan has said that he believes that welfare, unemployment, social security, medicare are all things the governemnt should not be doing. All things that he wishes to privatize, because government is the problem, NOT the solution.

Yet, the government gave him his fathers social security money so Ryan could got to school. Ryan chose majors which would lead him directly into government. He has never had to rely on a private sector paycheck as his main source of income. And the sweat from Paul Ryans brow produced only 2 pieces of legistlation in 13 years.

Where and when, exactly, did Paul Ryan say welfare, unemployment, Social Security, and Medicare are all things the government should not be doing? People keep saying he is an Ayn Rand clone yet he voted for TARP, is trying to strengthen Medicare, opposes abortion, and submitted a budget that increases government spending. Do people make absurd claims thinking no one will ever point out their disconnect with reality?

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Personally Ayn Rand offers a view of existence so bleak and heartless one has to wonder at her popularity among many on the right. Whittaker Chambers sums her up in the link in the first URL below.

But the individual as the locus and lord of reality and modern life is a powerful meme in American thought. Only in America could a silly kind of Marxism Libertarianism exist. Americans exist in a sort of fantasy that says all this came about from me, Robinson Crusoe without Friday - without history. So yes, the nonsense Rand wrote serves to continue a myth of magic divorced from responsibility for each other. Odd in a nation that calls itself Christian. 'I got mine, tough for you.'

http://www.usmessageboard.com/clean...on-could-be-a-game-changer-2.html#post5810441
http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/164072-ayn-rand-conservatives-tea-party-republicans.html
http://www.usmessageboard.com/gener...ult-of-selfishness-on-the-american-right.html


"I was raised to be ashamed of my ignorance, and to try to do something about it if at all possible. I carry that burden to this day, and have successfully passed it on to my children. I don’t believe I have the right to an opinion about something I know nothing about—constitutional law, for example, or sailing—a notion that puts me sadly out of step with a growing majority of my countrymen, many of whom may be unable to tell you anything at all about Islam, say, or socialism, or climate change, except that they hate it, are against it, don’t believe in it. Worse still (or more amusing, depending on the day) are those who can tell you, and then offer up a stew of New Age blather, right-wing rant, and bloggers’ speculation that’s so divorced from actual, demonstrable fact, that’s so not true, as the kids would say, that the mind goes numb with wonder. “Way I see it is,” a man in the Tulsa Motel 6 swimming pool told me last summer, “if English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for us.” Mark Slouka 'Harper's'

Another person who hasn't actually read any of Rand's books commenting about her outlook on the world.

You got something out of that screed vaguely on topic? You're a better man Q.W.

This is the CDZ, I gave midcan the response he deserved as constrained by the rules here.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Romancing the Stone-Cold Killer: Ayn Rand and William Hickman | Michael Prescott

This is the Hickman whose "outside" so intrigued the young Ayn Rand.

Now here are some of Rand's notes on the fictional hero she was developing, with Hickman (or what he "suggested") as a model:

"Other people have no right, no hold, no interest or influence on him. And this is not affected or chosen -- it's inborn, absolute, it can't be changed, he has 'no organ' to be otherwise. In this respect, he has the true, innate psychology of a Superman. He can never realize and feel'other people.' "

"He shows how impossible it is for a genuinely beautiful soul to succeed at present, for in all [aspects of] modern life, one has to be a hypocrite, to bend and tolerate. This boy wanted to command and smash away things and people he didn't approve of."

Apparently what Hickman suggested to Ayn Rand was "a genuinely beautiful soul." The soul of Marian Parker, the murdered girl, evidently did not suggest any comparably romantic notions to her.

As I mentioned in my previous post, there is a term for a person who has "no organ" by which to understand other human beings -- a person who "can never realize and feel 'other people.'" That word is sociopath. I mean this quite literally and not as a rhetorical flourish. A sociopath, by definition, is someone who lacks empathy and cannot conceive of other people as fully real. It is precisely because the sociopath objectifies and depersonalizes other human beings that he is able to inflict pain and death without remorse.

It is also fair to say of any sociopath that he "wanted to command and smash away things and people he didn't approve of." How this relates to having "a beautiful soul" is unclear to me -- and I earnestly hope it will continue to be.

In her notes, Rand complains that poor Hickman has become the target of irrational and ugly mob psychology:

"The first thing that impresses me about the case is the ferocious rage of a whole society against one man. No matter what the man did, there is always something loathsome in the 'virtuous' indignation and mass-hatred of the 'majority.'... It is repulsive to see all these beings with worse sins and crimes in their own lives, virtuously condemning a criminal...

"This is not just the case of a terrible crime. It is not the crime alone that has raised the fury of public hatred. It is the case of a daring challenge to society. It is the fact that a crime has been committed by one man, alone; that this man knew it was against all laws of humanity and intended that way; that he does not want to recognize it as a crime and that he feels superior to all. It is the amazing picture of a man with no regard whatever for all that society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. A man who really stands alone, in action and in soul."

Before we get to the meat of this statement, let us pause to consider Rand's claim that average members of the public are "beings with worse sins and crimes in their own lives." Worse sins and crimes and kidnapping, murdering, and mutilating a helpless little girl? If Rand honestly believed that the average American had worse skeletons than that in his closet, then her opinion of "the average man" is even lower than I had suspected.

Do you know anything about character development in writing fiction?

 

[atlasshrugged]

Ive warped nothing. It was Rand who warped everything

She would have us believe that EVERY employee is only a parasite offering nothing of value, thus relinquishing the owner of any and all responsibility to the employee. In Rands world view, its an all or nothing, black and white proposition. Either youre a creator and rich or a parasite and poor. That simply doesnt gel with reality.

Its not justice when you throw the baby out with the bathwater. He was well within his rights to walk away, but Galt took a scorched earth policy, destroying everything that others could have stood up and taken charge of because Rand believed that everyone was beneath her "ideal" man, John Galt. They were unworthy and could not possibly rise to the opportunity that Galt walking away could have provided for them. Her ideal man was ALWAYS rich, never middle managment, and never someone who served another.

So Galt railed against the collective...by forming a union and going on strike!

Im going out of town in the morning. My sister is getting married this weeend. Reread Atlas Shrugged and Ill get back to you on Monday. Because you really need to put it in perspective if you, like Rand, believe its an either or, black and white, all or nothing reality we live in.

What great timing! I love Rand's views on economics and individualism and I just finished rereading Atlas Shrugged. First off, Rand would never say that every employee is a parasite. She celebrates creativity and production of ideas and products. As evidence, how does John Galt prove that the ideology of the looters will fail? He removes the great thinkers and WORKERS such as Owen Kellogg and others. Rand would say that an employee who refuses to work, think, and take responsibility is a parasite. Her main beef with Communism is that people have to beg for what they've earned and the weak think their comfort should come at the expense of others. As one more piece of evidence, reread the chapters where Dagny finds the valley. The great minds of the world are just as happy raising pigs as they are running huge corporations. Being a creator doesn't mean being a CEO.

 

[midcan5]

It is good to see that more rational, mature people are in agreement on the selection of the radical, ideologue Paul Ryan. Check piece below and links.

"Romney Chooses Randroid Paul Ryan as VP Candidate ... the horror, the horror. In some ways, this is even worse than McCain's choice of the narcissistic moron Sarah Palin in 2008. First, Ryan has a clear ideology, and it's a mixture of the vicious and the insane. Second, Ryan does not seem to be as inept and self-destructive as Palin, so he may really be the future even if Romney loses this year. In other words, the Republican Party is now officially the party committed to destroying Medicare and destroying Social Security. Unless they are crushed in the election, this battle is going to continue for a generation or more.

Consider, in perspective, what's happened: an ideology (partly inspired by Rand--remember dopey Alan Greenspan?) of deregulation and unbridled capitalism brought the world to the brink of economic collapse in 2008. Four years later, the Republican Party has now openly embraced a full-throated Randian ideology. This country has learned nothing. If Obama does not rise to this occasion, and launch a full-throttled attack on this ideology, he will go down in history as the most craven coward in American politics." Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog: Romney Chooses Randroid Paul Ryan as VP Candidate...


""From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: “To a gas chamber — go!” It remains true that Ayn Rand seems to revel in the death and destruction that follows by disregarding her philosophy: most famously in the ghoulish scene in Atlas Shrugged where Rand details the suffocation of the passengers on a train as it enters a tunnel. Rand explains how everyone on the train deserved to die because they held incorrect ideas: "It is said that catastrophes are a matter of pure chance, and there were those who would have said that the passengers of the Comet were not guilty or responsible for the thing that happened to them.""

"Rand’s popularity tells us two things about the state of modern conservatism...First, it suggests that Rand’s atheism and permissive social views are no longer deal-breakers among conservative thought leaders....Beck and Limbaugh can use the parts of Rand they want to use and not engage the rest.” Tea Party Embraces Ayn Rand

Whittaker Chambers 1957 Review of Ayn Rand

 

[Intense]

Yes way Jose.

What the hell do you think Atlas Shrugged was about?

It was a story of rebellion. About the individual over the collective right?

Do you remember Francisco d'Anconia? Do you remember what he did? He spent YEARS destroying his fathers copper mine business to keep it out of the hands of the raiders...and hes one of the heroes!!! Rand makes it quite clear that every single employee of of Francisco d'Anconia's inherited business was nothing more than a parasite. Forget the fact that they actually risked their lives digging out the copper, they added nothing of value, and Francisco d'Anconia was a hero for putting them all out of work.

Indivisualism at the expense of others in CENTRAL to Rands works.

I dont need crib notes for this analysis, Ive read the book, several times.

See man -- you have a warped definition of "collective rights"... Don't forget the dude in Colorado that set fire to his refinery --- RATHER THEN HAVE IT POSSESSED BY THE COLLECTIVE. That was the motive.

And it's THEIR call. Do you seek permission to do business to serve others and beg their allowance to allow you to stop?

That's not greed. That's justice. And he decided that "serving the collective" as they saw fit was not worth the sacrifice when the collective demands control and ownership of your pharmacy, your copper mine, your oil field or your bakery...

Ive warped nothing. It was Rand who warped everything

She would have us believe that EVERY employee is only a parasite offering nothing of value, thus relinquishing the owner of any and all responsibility to the employee. In Rands world view, its an all or nothing, black and white proposition. Either youre a creator and rich or a parasite and poor. That simply doesnt gel with reality.

Its not justice when you throw the baby out with the bathwater. He was well within his rights to walk away, but Galt took a scorched earth policy, destroying everything that others could have stood up and taken charge of because Rand believed that everyone was beneath her "ideal" man, John Galt. They were unworthy and could not possibly rise to the opportunity that Galt walking away could have provided for them. Her ideal man was ALWAYS rich, never middle managment, and never someone who served another.

So Galt railed against the collective...by forming a union and going on strike!

Im going out of town in the morning. My sister is getting married this weeend. Reread Atlas Shrugged and Ill get back to you on Monday. Because you really need to put it in perspective if you, like Rand, believe its an either or, black and white, all or nothing reality we live in.

The only thing lacking here are your retention skills and maturity. Enjoy your Sister's Wedding. Don't drink too much. Again I'm asking you.... Did you actually read Atlas Shrugged and/or The FountainHead?

 

[Intense]

It is good to see that more rational, mature people are in agreement on the selection of the radical, ideologue Paul Ryan. Check piece below and links.

"Romney Chooses Randroid Paul Ryan as VP Candidate ... the horror, the horror. In some ways, this is even worse than McCain's choice of the narcissistic moron Sarah Palin in 2008. First, Ryan has a clear ideology, and it's a mixture of the vicious and the insane. Second, Ryan does not seem to be as inept and self-destructive as Palin, so he may really be the future even if Romney loses this year. In other words, the Republican Party is now officially the party committed to destroying Medicare and destroying Social Security. Unless they are crushed in the election, this battle is going to continue for a generation or more.

Consider, in perspective, what's happened: an ideology (partly inspired by Rand--remember dopey Alan Greenspan?) of deregulation and unbridled capitalism brought the world to the brink of economic collapse in 2008. Four years later, the Republican Party has now openly embraced a full-throated Randian ideology. This country has learned nothing. If Obama does not rise to this occasion, and launch a full-throttled attack on this ideology, he will go down in history as the most craven coward in American politics." Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog: Romney Chooses Randroid Paul Ryan as VP Candidate...


""From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: “To a gas chamber — go!” It remains true that Ayn Rand seems to revel in the death and destruction that follows by disregarding her philosophy: most famously in the ghoulish scene in Atlas Shrugged where Rand details the suffocation of the passengers on a train as it enters a tunnel. Rand explains how everyone on the train deserved to die because they held incorrect ideas: "It is said that catastrophes are a matter of pure chance, and there were those who would have said that the passengers of the Comet were not guilty or responsible for the thing that happened to them.""

"Rand’s popularity tells us two things about the state of modern conservatism...First, it suggests that Rand’s atheism and permissive social views are no longer deal-breakers among conservative thought leaders....Beck and Limbaugh can use the parts of Rand they want to use and not engage the rest.” Tea Party Embraces Ayn Rand

Whittaker Chambers 1957 Review of Ayn Rand

I can understand why Rand makes you nervous. The wind is picking up, and the DNC house of cards is right in the path.

 

[thanatos144]

Lets look at things how they are shall we????? We have Ryan who was influenced by Rand a woman who believed in liberty and personal responsibility and on the other side we have the president who was influenced by Marx a man driven by jealousy and hate.........Who seems more stable ?

 

[Katzndogz]

If nothing else, perhaps the controversy over Ayn Rand will encourage people (who can still read) to read her books.

 

[Katzndogz]

It is good to see that more rational, mature people are in agreement on the selection of the radical, ideologue Paul Ryan. Check piece below and links.

"Romney Chooses Randroid Paul Ryan as VP Candidate ... the horror, the horror. In some ways, this is even worse than McCain's choice of the narcissistic moron Sarah Palin in 2008. First, Ryan has a clear ideology, and it's a mixture of the vicious and the insane. Second, Ryan does not seem to be as inept and self-destructive as Palin, so he may really be the future even if Romney loses this year. In other words, the Republican Party is now officially the party committed to destroying Medicare and destroying Social Security. Unless they are crushed in the election, this battle is going to continue for a generation or more.

Consider, in perspective, what's happened: an ideology (partly inspired by Rand--remember dopey Alan Greenspan?) of deregulation and unbridled capitalism brought the world to the brink of economic collapse in 2008. Four years later, the Republican Party has now openly embraced a full-throated Randian ideology. This country has learned nothing. If Obama does not rise to this occasion, and launch a full-throttled attack on this ideology, he will go down in history as the most craven coward in American politics." Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog: Romney Chooses Randroid Paul Ryan as VP Candidate...


""From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: “To a gas chamber — go!” It remains true that Ayn Rand seems to revel in the death and destruction that follows by disregarding her philosophy: most famously in the ghoulish scene in Atlas Shrugged where Rand details the suffocation of the passengers on a train as it enters a tunnel. Rand explains how everyone on the train deserved to die because they held incorrect ideas: "It is said that catastrophes are a matter of pure chance, and there were those who would have said that the passengers of the Comet were not guilty or responsible for the thing that happened to them.""

"Rand’s popularity tells us two things about the state of modern conservatism...First, it suggests that Rand’s atheism and permissive social views are no longer deal-breakers among conservative thought leaders....Beck and Limbaugh can use the parts of Rand they want to use and not engage the rest.” Tea Party Embraces Ayn Rand

Whittaker Chambers 1957 Review of Ayn Rand

I can understand why Rand makes you nervous. The wind is picking up, and the DNC house of cards is right in the path.

That's why democrats rely on what someone interprets what Rand said and what she meant rather than Rand's words.