Paul Ryan loves Ayn Rand

[there4eyeM]

"Who's Ayn Rand?"

Ayn Rand was a novelist who wrote books promoting social Darwinism.

 

[editec]

Credit to the man for stating clearly his POV.

He certainly makes it easy to know what he stand for.

He is an idealist, a utopian of the uber capitalist persuasion.

 

[Mac1958]

Credit to the man for stating clearly his POV.

He certainly makes it easy to know what he stand for.

He is an idealist, a utopian of the uber capitalist persuasion.

The utopian absolutists on both ends are fine as conversation pieces, but they suffer from such tunnel vision that they make themselves essentially irrelevant.

.

 

[Old Rocks]

Who's Ayn Rand?

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

Part One: Ayn Rand's "real man"

Recently I was rereading Scott Ryan's fascinating, albeit highly technical, critique of Ayn Rand's philosophy, Objectivism and the Corruption of Rationality, and getting a lot more out of it the second time, when I came across a fact culled from a posthumous collection of Rand's journal entries.

In her journal circa 1928 Rand quoted the statement, "What is good for me is right," a credo attributed to a prominent figure of the day, William Edward Hickman. Her response was enthusiastic. "The best and strongest expression of a real man's psychology I have heard," she exulted. (Quoted in Ryan, citing Journals of Ayn Rand, pp. 21-22.)

At the time, she was planning a novel that was to be titled The Little Street, the projected hero of which was named Danny Renahan.According to Rand scholar Chris Matthew Sciabarra, she deliberately modeled Renahan - intended to be her first sketch of her ideal man - after this same William Edward Hickman. Renahan, she enthuses in another journal entry, "is born with a wonderful, free, light consciousness -- [resulting from] the absolute lack of social instinct or herd feeling. He does not understand, because he has no organ for understanding, the necessity, meaning, or importance of other people ... Other people do not exist for him and he does not understand why they should." (Journals, pp. 27, 21-22; emphasis hers.)

"A wonderful, free, light consciousness" born of the utter absence of any understanding of "the necessity, meaning, or importance of other people." Obviously, Ayn Rand was most favorably impressed with Mr. Hickman. He was, at least at that stage of Rand's life, her kind of man.

So the question is, who exactly was he?

William Edward Hickman was one of the most famous men in America in 1928. But he came by his fame in a way that perhaps should have given pause to Ayn Rand before she decided that he was a "real man" worthy of enshrinement in her pantheon of fictional heroes.

You see, Hickman was a forger, an armed robber, a child kidnapper, and a multiple murderer.

Other than that, he was probably a swell guy.

 

[AquaAthena]

Ryan is a total Ayn Rand fanboy:

"I just want to speak to you a little bit about Ayn Rand and what she meant to me in my life and [in] the fight we’re engaged here in Congress. I grew up on Ayn Rand, that’s what I tell people."
"I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are, and what my beliefs are."
"It’s inspired me so much that it’s required reading in my office for all my interns and my staff. We start with Atlas Shrugged. People tell me I need to start with The Fountainhead then go to Atlas Shrugged [laughter]. There’s a big debate about that. We go to Fountainhead, but then we move on, and we require Mises and Hayek as well."
"But the reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand."
"And when you look at the twentieth-century experiment with collectivism—that Ayn Rand, more than anybody else, did such a good job of articulating the pitfalls of statism and collectivism—you can’t find another thinker or writer who did a better job of describing and laying out the moral case for capitalism than Ayn Rand."
"It’s so important that we go back to our roots to look at Ayn Rand’s vision, her writings, to see what our girding, under-grounding [sic] principles are."
"Because there is no better place to find the moral case for capitalism and individualism than through Ayn Rand’s writings and works."

Audio Surfaces of Paul Ryan's Effusive Love of Ayn Rand - Politics - The Atlantic Wire

"Paul Ryan loves Ayn Rand"

As I long have.....

 

[Inthemiddle]

"I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are, and what my beliefs are."

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

 

[mudwhistle]

Ryan is a total Ayn Rand fanboy:

"I just want to speak to you a little bit about Ayn Rand and what she meant to me in my life and [in] the fight we’re engaged here in Congress. I grew up on Ayn Rand, that’s what I tell people."
"I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are, and what my beliefs are."
"It’s inspired me so much that it’s required reading in my office for all my interns and my staff. We start with Atlas Shrugged. People tell me I need to start with The Fountainhead then go to Atlas Shrugged [laughter]. There’s a big debate about that. We go to Fountainhead, but then we move on, and we require Mises and Hayek as well."
"But the reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand."
"And when you look at the twentieth-century experiment with collectivism—that Ayn Rand, more than anybody else, did such a good job of articulating the pitfalls of statism and collectivism—you can’t find another thinker or writer who did a better job of describing and laying out the moral case for capitalism than Ayn Rand."
"It’s so important that we go back to our roots to look at Ayn Rand’s vision, her writings, to see what our girding, under-grounding [sic] principles are."
"Because there is no better place to find the moral case for capitalism and individualism than through Ayn Rand’s writings and works."

Audio Surfaces of Paul Ryan's Effusive Love of Ayn Rand - Politics - The Atlantic Wire

I didn't know Ryan and Rand were getting married.

 

[Old Rocks]

Ryan's philosophy is married to Ayn Rand's. And that will take front and center in the coming weeks. Along with some hidden tax returns.

 

[Inthemiddle]

Thanks for showing the 'depth' on the left. No surprise here, but the 'independents' see you for what you are.

Yes. We see the left just as shallow as the right.

 

[Contumacious]

Ryan is a total Ayn Rand fanboy:

Obama - voted for TARP
Biden - voted for TARP
Romney - supported TARP
Ryan - voted for TARP

I'm glad we'll have a choice this election.

.

 

[bripat9643]

There isn't a single fact in your entire article. It's nothing but a collection of inferences based on absolutely nothing. It's the ultimate sleazy lie - a typical libturd hit piece.

Who's Ayn Rand?

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

Part One: Ayn Rand's "real man"

Recently I was rereading Scott Ryan's fascinating, albeit highly technical, critique of Ayn Rand's philosophy, Objectivism and the Corruption of Rationality, and getting a lot more out of it the second time, when I came across a fact culled from a posthumous collection of Rand's journal entries.

In her journal circa 1928 Rand quoted the statement, "What is good for me is right," a credo attributed to a prominent figure of the day, William Edward Hickman. Her response was enthusiastic. "The best and strongest expression of a real man's psychology I have heard," she exulted. (Quoted in Ryan, citing Journals of Ayn Rand, pp. 21-22.)

At the time, she was planning a novel that was to be titled The Little Street, the projected hero of which was named Danny Renahan.According to Rand scholar Chris Matthew Sciabarra, she deliberately modeled Renahan - intended to be her first sketch of her ideal man - after this same William Edward Hickman. Renahan, she enthuses in another journal entry, "is born with a wonderful, free, light consciousness -- [resulting from] the absolute lack of social instinct or herd feeling. He does not understand, because he has no organ for understanding, the necessity, meaning, or importance of other people ... Other people do not exist for him and he does not understand why they should." (Journals, pp. 27, 21-22; emphasis hers.)

"A wonderful, free, light consciousness" born of the utter absence of any understanding of "the necessity, meaning, or importance of other people." Obviously, Ayn Rand was most favorably impressed with Mr. Hickman. He was, at least at that stage of Rand's life, her kind of man.

So the question is, who exactly was he?

William Edward Hickman was one of the most famous men in America in 1928. But he came by his fame in a way that perhaps should have given pause to Ayn Rand before she decided that he was a "real man" worthy of enshrinement in her pantheon of fictional heroes.

You see, Hickman was a forger, an armed robber, a child kidnapper, and a multiple murderer.

Other than that, he was probably a swell guy.

 

[mudwhistle]

Ryan's philosophy is married to Ayn Rand's. And that will take front and center in the coming weeks. Along with some hidden tax returns.

Yup, a choice between Capitalism and a warped form of Communism.

 

[mudwhistle]

Thanks for showing the 'depth' on the left. No surprise here, but the 'independents' see you for what you are.

Yes. We see the left just as shallow as the right.

Yes, the left's best argument is "They suck just as much as we do".

 

[AquaAthena]

Ryan's philosophy is married to Ayn Rand's. And that will take front and center in the coming weeks. Along with some hidden tax returns.

He is married to her idea of fiscal conservatism, only. And he is a Catholic.

 

[jillian]

Ryan's philosophy is married to Ayn Rand's. And that will take front and center in the coming weeks. Along with some hidden tax returns.

He is married to her idea of fiscal conservatism, only. And he is a Catholic.

even ayn rand didn't believe in her 'brand' of 'fiscal conservatism'. lol..

 

[mudwhistle]

 

[Old Rocks]

Po' Mud. Got his ass whipped again and has to resort to silly pictures.

 

[JWBooth]

He may pay some superficial lip service, depending on the audience. His voting record shows the front to be a lie.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
Jonathan Chait

 

[Dick Tuck]

The President and Veep react to the announcement.