Posted on 10/31/2009 10:28:46 AM PDT by nickcarraway
AYN RAND AND THE WORLD SHE MADE
By Anne C. Heller
Illustrated. 567 pp. Nan A. Talese/Doubleday. $35
A specter is haunting the Republican Party — the specter of John Galt. In Ayn Rand’s libertarian epic “Atlas Shrugged,” Galt, an inventor disgusted by creeping American collectivism, leads the country’s capitalists on a retributive strike. “We have granted you everything you demanded of us, we who had always been the givers, but have only now understood it,” Galt lectures the “looters” and “moochers” who make up the populace. “We have no demands to present you, no terms to bargain about, no compromise to reach. You have nothing to offer us. We do not need you.”
“Atlas Shrugged” was published 52 years ago, but in the Obama era, Rand’s angry message is more resonant than ever before. Sales of the book have reportedly spiked. At “tea parties” and other conservative protests, alongside the Obama-as-Joker signs, you will find placards reading “Atlas Shrugs” and “Ayn Rand Was Right.” Not long after the inauguration, as right-wing pundits like Glenn Beck were invoking Rand and issuing warnings of incipient socialism, Representative John Campbell, Republican of California, told a reporter that the prospect of rising taxes and government regulation meant “people are starting to feel like we’re living through the scenario that happened in ‘Atlas Shrugged.’ ”
Rand’s style of vehement individualism has never been universally popular among conservatives — back in 1957, Whittaker Chambers denounced the “wickedness” of “Atlas Shrugged” in National Review — and Rand still has her critics on the right today.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
That one sentence made me laugh out loud!
Ping!
Fascinating article! Thanks for posting.
“...young people, that they could be geniuses without being in any concrete way distinguished.”
Nobel prize anyone?
People who, for whatever reason, can’t read the whole thing, should read just the chapter where the tramp recalls the Twentieth Century Motor Co. and the Starnes heirs.
Rand was NOT a libertarian....in fact, she despised the term........
Rand did not make this world, I can assure you. It would be completely different if she had.
True. I keep trying to get my daughter to read “Atlas Shrugged”, but she is more worried about Jon & Kate.........
put me on the Atlas Ping list, please.........
bookmark
I hate liberals. They equate banksters and wall-street children with businessmen.
I think this writer misunderstands John Galt. It is not accurate to call John Galt the leader of a capitalist strike. Quite to the contrary, Galt’s strategy was simply to give the socialists what they wanted, and then watch them flail about helplessly when they had it.
“Rand was NOT a libertarian....in fact, she despised the term........”
That may be true, but Atlas Shrugged is an unabashedly libertartian novel.
Republicans often still don’t really grasp “liberty” as a concept.
or personal freedom............
“It is becoming apparent that the teachings of Ayn Rand is much stronger than the antics used by these followers of Saul Alinsky. I truely belive taht the Alinsky collectivist stooges can not handle a million individuals nor could they ever understand them. The libs used those tactics to get in power but cannot govern for their lives. It will be the Conservatives who will have to clean up after their mess...again.”
These 60’s Radicals were living off the family wealth and coddled by the media and subsidized by the government. They have never dealt with the real world. Their efforts are doomed. We need to be careful to reinstate the Republic when it’s time to rebuild and pick up the pieces.
Anti-Ayn Rand ping:
http://aynrandcontrahumannature.blogspot.com/
parsy, who thinks Atlas Shrugged is for teeny-boppers
No, republicans don’t grasp “humanity” as a concept. I blame this on the libertarians and Ayn Rand. LICE, I call them. (Libertarians Infiltrating Conservative Entities)
parsy, who makes razzing noises at Ayn Rand
This is an incredibly ignorant and condescending article about Rand. For example, they accuse Rand of not being a true capitalist because she gave up a portion of her royalties on Atlas Shrugged in order to keep the John Galt speech 400 pages long (or whatever the length was). Frankly, I don’t cotten to her how-to-live philosophy—but giving up royalties to keep her book intact is completely consistent with that philosophy. The author’s ignorance of her extensive writings on this subject is astonishing.
The last line in the article is wonderful self-irony, though:
“For if there is one thing Rand’s life shows, it is the power, and peril, of unjustified self-esteem.”
This is the first time in decades that the NYT has worried about unjustifed self-esteem.
The title is the tip-off that the author doesn't understand Rand and exposes the fact that, no matter what new biographical information it offers, the book is intended to belittle its subject.
Not!
Maybe, if I glue a picture of Brad Pitt on it.........
Fixed it.
Here’s something else you guys can have fun with:
http://www.zompist.com/libertos.html
parsy, who ain’t one to go ‘round stirring up trouble
Literally true.
“This is an incredibly ignorant and condescending article about Rand. For example, they accuse Rand of not being a true capitalist because she gave up a portion of her royalties on Atlas Shrugged in order to keep the John Galt speech 400 pages long (or whatever the length was). Frankly, I don’t cotten to her how-to-live philosophy—but giving up royalties to keep her book intact is completely consistent with that philosophy. The author’s ignorance of her extensive writings on this subject is astonishing.”
Couldn’t agree more!!!
Most people that disagree with her notions about greed or self-interest think that self interest is all about money. They should think more broadly. Thus, choosing something on the basis of self interest simply means that at the moment that you choose a course of action you believe that out of all the possible choices available to you, the one you pick will make you the happiest. Giving up 7 cents of royalty in return to have her full message shouted to the world must have been the ultimate no brainer for her.
So, in my book, Mother Teresa was “selfish” in that what she chose to do was what made her happiest.
That each one of us is motivated by that motive and that alone is a fact - it’s our nature. It’s neither good or bad, just as a lion eating a gazelle is neither good or bad, it’s his nature.
Whether or not you help your fellow human being depends on a couple other human attributes - empathy and wisdom.
“Even Republicans weren’t immune: after Wendell Willkie’s defeat in 1940, Rand helped to found an organization called Associated Ex-Willkie Workers Against Willkie, berating the candidate as “the guiltiest man of any for destroying America, more guilty than Roosevelt.” “
Must be an early ancestor of RINO.
Give her the audio version. That finally worked for me with my kids.
“I hate liberals. They equate banksters and wall-street children with businessmen.”
Very good. It reminds me of the Foreign Service and diplomats.
“Republicans often still don’t really grasp “liberty” as a concept.”
I think that many are of the Rockefeller wing of the party and only grasp the FDR or Bush version. Noblesse oblige leads to big government.
Thank you BUMP.
Tatt
I am John Galt.
If they decide to confiscate my wealth, I will simply stop. There’s no place to hide, like in the novel - with an invisibility screen, no less! - but no power in the world can force me to be productive to my best potential. Every slave who has ever lived knows that truth.
Not only do I think this, I also tell anyone who will listen. Nothing like a disenchanted, sullen population to greet the royalty when the kings and queens want just a little bit more.
Unlike most places in the world, we have had a history and tradition of liberty and freedom. It was easy for the state to establish totalitarian rule in places like German, Russia, China, and Japan, where people have never known individual rights. We are different. I expect the looters to collapse under the weight of their own stupidity, and I expect my son and I will be left standing to rebuild. Like I teach my son, it is impossible to defeat a free man. The best you can do is kill me. The ideals remain.
Sometimes I think the United States is like an alcoholic - we have to hit bottom before most of us appreciate what we have. It looks like the bottle is almost empty right now.
So much of life is about perspective - from mine, Rand's "message" is hopeful - there is a way out of the mess...
For the New York Times ( eternally standing with a dejected angry teenage mentality ) the message called "grow up" is a threat.
Sooooooo good NOT to be them.
And once we do recover power and start picking the pieces left by the libs ... again ... and patching up our damaged republic, we’ve got to slam the door shut behind us.
We need to put in place a host of iron-clad procedures and Congressional resolutions, etc., that will DEMAND compliance with Constitutional limits. Pass the Enumeration Act, adopt procedures for Constitutional review of all articles, provide for severe punishments for violating the oath of office, and repeal and revoke all laws that do not pass muster. Make it difficult to the point of impossibility for future Legislatures to drag us back into this mess.
While we’re at it, maybe we should amend the Constitution to establish terms of office for the Supreme Court. They do clutter up the place, sleeping away their lifetime tenures while basing every decision on precedent and nothing on the actual, written Constitution. Let them go sleep at home.
That is my observation of the tea parties I've attended.
Couldn’t have expressed it better.
Rand’s thinking is merely another form of materialism and as such it is largely in conflict with American conservatism.
When the collectivism of leftist ideology comes under fire, leftists would prefer to spotlight a materialist individualism rather than individualism consistent with a Judeo-Christian worldview.
As long as a particular worldview denies divine existence, the leftists are more or less comfortable with it.
“So, in my book, Mother Teresa was “selfish” in that what she chose to do was what made her happiest.”
Don’t make the same mistake about Christians the author makes about Rand.
I got about 4 paragraphs in and quit reading. This article is the prototype for the libs that like to attack fans of Atlas Shrugged.
Specifically, all of us knuckle dragging Neanderthals must fully agree with and support every aspect of Ayn Rand’s life!! And on top of that, we must accept and live life by every word of Atlas Shrugged, or we’re hypocrites.
I hate to break it to the libs, but I am “nuanced” (I HATE that word.....) enough to take the parts of the book that resonate with me, and marginalize or ignore the parts that don’t. That’s one of the reasons I have never been bothered by the claims that the book is anti-Christian. In my world, I can make it work. And as for her personal life, I have never been that much interested in what shaped or bent her philosophy.....
hh
Re: the Supreme Court
As I saw on another thread: holding to precedent only applies to abortion and any other activist decision; challenges to the Second Amendment can always be considered and are never settled.....
hh
managed to mass market elitism — to convince so many people, especially young people, that they could be geniuses without being in any concrete way distinguished.
The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.
The sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group or class.
Control, rule, or domination by such a group or class.
Did this guy even read the book? It was abundantly clear that the main characters despised elitism in all its forms. Reardon hated his wife and family for the elitist attitudes his fortune provided for them.
Parsy wouldn't understand the concept of 'freedom' or 'liberty' if either kicked him square in the balls.
Lurker, who wonders exactly how many books Parsy has sold.
I haven’t sold my Ayn Rand books. I did sell Isis Unveiled or whatever, by Madame Blavatsky. I am thinking I kept the wrong ones, now.
parsy, who grew out of his Ayn Rand phase
If everyone here is so conservative, why worship the writing of a woman who was a pro abortion atheist?
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