Wealthcare: Ayn Rand's Retardation. Damn you Spelling Nazis!

[Grey Fox]

I read half of it.

I have some work to do!

[The Minsky Moment]

Skimmed through . . .

Curious piece which I think elevates Rand into a much more important figure than she really is.  The notion of the moral right to one's efforts goes back to Locke, and the entrepeneur as hero can be traced to Schumpeter and the Austrian School.  None of her core following ever become major players in politics other than sort of Greenspan. 

As a result the piece comes off as overkill.  I am happy to be at the front of the line when it comes to Objectivist-bashing, but you know you are dealing with a straight-up smear piece when the "she smelled" line gets thrown in. 

[Razgovory]

Well she was a Russian, those people smell like cabbage.

[Sheilbh]

Well she was a Russian, those people smell like cabbage.

She was also an absolute nutter, judging by the Helen Mirren biopic.

[Queequeg]

As a result the piece comes off as overkill.  I am happy to be at the front of the line when it comes to Objectivist-bashing, but you know you are dealing with a straight-up smear piece when the "she smelled" line gets thrown in. 

IDK about that.  She seems to have been pretty abusive.  It sounds a lot like a cult. 

[Savonarola]

Skimmed through . . .

Curious piece which I think elevates Rand into a much more important figure than she really is.  The notion of the moral right to one's efforts goes back to Locke, and the entrepeneur as hero can be traced to Schumpeter and the Austrian School.  None of her core following ever become major players in politics other than sort of Greenspan. 

Her idea of enterpeneur as hero (at least as it is presented in Atlas Shrugged) was taken from Victor Hugo.  She even includes the same sort of epilogue about factories collapsing without their great leader that Hugo uses in Les Miserable.

[The Minsky Moment]

IDK about that.  She seems to have been pretty abusive.  It sounds a lot like a cult.

Many philosophical movements based around a single strong leader have some cult-like tendencies.  The weaker the substantive content of the ideas, the more the movement tends to weirdness.  That is why Straussians (whose leader was truly a great thinker) have been able to enter the mainstream and rise to positions of great authority, whereas Randians and Scientologists by and large have not (at least outside of LA-LA land).

[Queequeg]

IDK about that.  She seems to have been pretty abusive.  It sounds a lot like a cult.

Many philosophical movements based around a single strong leader have some cult-like tendencies.  The weaker the substantive content of the ideas, the more the movement tends to weirdness.  That is why Straussians (whose leader was truly a great thinker) have been able to enter the mainstream and rise to positions of great authority, whereas Randians and Scientologists by and large have not (at least outside of LA-LA land).

That seems fair, as I'm reasonably sure that if Strauss was trying to convince his students with quotes from Aristotle to fuck him, I'd have heard about it. 

[Jacob]

I loved The Fountainhead.

This is entirely unsurprising, coming from you

[Caliga]

This is entirely unsurprising, coming from you

What I liked about it was that it was so different, morally-speaking, from anything I'd ever read before (I read it in high school).  I think it's worthwhile for students to be encouraged to read things that make them think, even if the teacher might disagree with what the author is saying--and I'm quite certain my teacher did, given her political views... but it was good of her to keep her mouth shut and let us discuss the book's merits in class on our own.

[Jacob]

Her idea of enterpeneur as hero (at least as it is presented in Atlas Shrugged) was taken from Victor Hugo.  She even includes the same sort of epilogue about factories collapsing without their great leader that Hugo uses in Les Miserable.

I thought Hugo was a fair bit more sympathetic to the workers and his point is that factory bosses owe a duty of care towards their workers, something which seems to be the antithesis of Rand's fuck the workers position.

[Razgovory]

I enjoy a good Rand/Libertarian bashing thread.

[Savonarola]

I thought Hugo was a fair bit more sympathetic to the workers and his point is that factory bosses owe a duty of care towards their workers, something which seems to be the antithesis of Rand's fuck the workers position.

Hugo was indeed much more of a socialist than Rand; but that didn't stop her from ripping him off.

[Caliga]

Rand's fuck the workers position.

That's actually not her position.  In The Fountainhead Howard Roark is shown to be a man who works his ass off to the exclusion of almost all else.  She values hard work a great deal.

[jimmy olsen]

I find Shakespeare's writing impossible to understand. 

Really?