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

[The Brain]

You've never actualy read any Rand, have you?

The idea that she has a "fuck the workers" position is simply...ignorant.

Yeah, I have actually... I even went through a 15 minute phase where I thought she had a point.  Though it was a long time ago.

However, I am willing to defer to your more recent and probably more careful reading if you'd like.  What would you say are the salient points of Rand's thoughts?

Why ask me? I am sure you can find any number of decent summations of her philosophy out there that will be vastly superior to anything I can give you.

Translation: I got no fucking clue.

[Berkut]

In these disparate comments we can see the outlines of a coherent view of society. It expresses its opposition to redistribution not in practical terms--that taking from the rich harms the economy--but in moral absolutes, that taking from the rich is wrong

I pretty much stopped reading right there.

It is pretty clear the author isn't really trying to make a rational and reasonable argument when he is going to set up Rand in this manner.

[Berkut]

You've never actualy read any Rand, have you?

The idea that she has a "fuck the workers" position is simply...ignorant.

Yeah, I have actually... I even went through a 15 minute phase where I thought she had a point.  Though it was a long time ago.

However, I am willing to defer to your more recent and probably more careful reading if you'd like.  What would you say are the salient points of Rand's thoughts?

Why ask me? I am sure you can find any number of decent summations of her philosophy out there that will be vastly superior to anything I can give you.

Translation: I got no fucking clue.

No, the translation is: Asking me for what the salient points of Rands philosohy are in defense fo your claim that he wants to "fuck the workers" is a rather sad evasion of the point.

[The Brain]

You've never actualy read any Rand, have you?

The idea that she has a "fuck the workers" position is simply...ignorant.

Yeah, I have actually... I even went through a 15 minute phase where I thought she had a point.  Though it was a long time ago.

However, I am willing to defer to your more recent and probably more careful reading if you'd like.  What would you say are the salient points of Rand's thoughts?

Why ask me? I am sure you can find any number of decent summations of her philosophy out there that will be vastly superior to anything I can give you.

Translation: I got no fucking clue.

No, the translation is: Asking me for what the salient points of Rands philosohy are in defense fo your claim that he wants to "fuck the workers" is a rather sad evasion of the point.

Rage... building...!

[Jacob]

Why ask me? I am sure you can find any number of decent summations of her philosophy out there that will be vastly superior to anything I can give you.

Because you are the one claiming my, admittedly rather old, interpretation of her work is inaccurate.  I assumed you'd have an interpretation that you consider more accurate.

Also, I'm more interested in what you think Rand is on about (and why) than I am in what some random summation is.  After all, I'm having this conversation with you.

[Jacob]

No, the translation is: Asking me for what the salient points of Rands philosohy are in defense fo your claim that he wants to "fuck the workers" is a rather sad evasion of the point.

[MadImmortalMan]

Objectivism holds that reality exists independent of consciousness; that individual persons are in contact with this reality through sensory perception; that human beings can gain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation and inductive and deductive logic; that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or rational self-interest; that the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect for individual rights, embodied in pure laissez faire capitalism; and that the role of art in human life is to transform man's widest metaphysical ideas, by selective reproduction of reality, into a physical form—a work of art—that he can comprehend and to which he can respond emotionally.

She's a goofy broad, but it's not really the opposite of communism at all.

[The Brain]

Objectivism holds that reality exists independent of consciousness; that individual persons are in contact with this reality through sensory perception; that human beings can gain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation and inductive and deductive logic; that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or rational self-interest; that the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect for individual rights, embodied in pure laissez faire capitalism; and that the role of art in human life is to transform man's widest metaphysical ideas, by selective reproduction of reality, into a physical form—a work of art—that he can comprehend and to which he can respond emotionally.

Juvenile crap.

[The Minsky Moment]

What would you say are the salient points of Rand's thoughts?

Immanuel Kant is the most evil man who ever lived; literally worse than Hitler.
Aristotle was mostly right, but lacked the full insight of the genius of Ayn rand.
The fundamental nature of the universe can be derived from the Law of Identity and the axiom that "existence exists."
Perception - if "objective - is error-proof and a reliable (indeed the only reliable) soruce of knowlege.

[Eddie Teach]

Objectivism holds that reality exists independent of consciousness; that individual persons are in contact with this reality through sensory perception; that human beings can gain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation and inductive and deductive logic;

So far, so good.

that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or rational self-interest; that the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect for individual rights, embodied in pure laissez faire capitalism; and that the role of art in human life is to transform man's widest metaphysical ideas, by selective reproduction of reality, into a physical form—a work of art—that he can comprehend and to which he can respond emotionally.

[MadImmortalMan]

What is all that nonsense about art, anyway? She's the only philosopher I can think of who tried to define art inside a set of boundaries like that.

[Queequeg]

What is all that nonsense about art, anyway? She's the only philosopher I can think of who tried to define art inside a set of boundaries like that.

How do you mean?  The Greeks talked about the definition of art.  There is a chunk of the Republic dedicated to it. 

[Alatriste]

Objectivism holds that reality exists independent of consciousness; that individual persons are in contact with this reality through sensory perception; that human beings can gain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation and inductive and deductive logic; that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or rational self-interest; that the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect for individual rights, embodied in pure laissez faire capitalism; and that the role of art in human life is to transform man's widest metaphysical ideas, by selective reproduction of reality, into a physical form—a work of art—that he can comprehend and to which he can respond emotionally.

Well, such a moral solipsism ("one's own happiness or rational self-interest") even after taking into account the reference to laissez-faire capitalism can't be fairly defined as a mere 'Fuck the workers'; actually is far closer to 'Fuck everyone'.

[MadImmortalMan]

Not to mention that what a person perceives will make him happy is often in contradiction to his rational self-interest. 

[Queequeg]

Well, such a moral solipsism ("one's own happiness or rational self-interest") even after taking into account the reference to laissez-faire capitalism can't be fairly defined as a mere 'Fuck the workers'; actually is far closer to 'Fuck everyone'.

Pretty much.  She would have us erase 50 million years of simian evolution in addition to every notion of charity and compassion.  So, basically, I don't think it is so much the opposite of Marxism, as while I find the basic value system behind Marxism (utilitarianism, Christian-style charity) valuable and share some of it, Ayn Rand ditches all of that for insanity.