Posted on 03/29/2009 1:22:09 PM PDT by freemike
Ayn Rand, the author of Atlas Shrugged is interviewed by Mike Wallace in 1959. She talks morality and government. If I had to peg her, I would say she'd be a backer of Ron Paul. Definitely not a Palin supporter. I did just get her book and am into the second chapter. It's a good read so far.Libertas
If you can dig both Rand and the Bible, you're missing a lot in one or the other. Rand despised the Bible.
I can see the brillance in her eyes. She was toying with Wallace.
If you think about it. The Lord is the one who gave us the sense of right or wrong - and the ability to chose the wrong. He doesn’t force us. He just loves us into it.
Very little room for love in Rand’s objectivism.
It's like this in my opinion,,, wisdom,, all wisdom comes fro God. Rand, Thomas Paine, anyone,,, when they speak wisdom such as liberty, freedom, self reliance, self government,, that wisdom comes from God. Though they may deny God,, just as the earth itself comes from God, so too does wisdom. You can worship the earth yet still deny the One who made the earth. You can worship reason and common sense, yet deny the One who is Reason and Common Sense. It is unfortunate, but the way of man. Worship the creation, yet deny the Creator.
I still like Atlas Shrugged.
I have a Liberal (yes Liberal) friend that loved Atlas Shrugged and cannot believe Conservatives are claiming Atlas Shrugged as their own. I think the only thing he likes is the anti-Christian slant of Ayn. THanks for the reply post.
She did not support conservatives, or libertarians, who often misquoted, wrongly interpreted her statements.
Just like Donahue.
In fact, she viewed them as more dangerous than the left—at that time.
Now, I believe she would be raging against what is happening in DC.
Any Rand was NOT a feminist. She agreed with some points like women working and abortion rights, but not much more.
She had a thing about worshipping men. As a man, I must say, it sounds pretty on target to me. ;) Beside any great man you’ll find a great woman. I guess I’m old-fashioned that way.
“I believe in masculine superiority passionately, enthusiastically, delightfully,” — Ayn Rand
In response to being questioned about feminism:
“I’m a male chauvinist.” — Ayn Rand
“It’s like this in my opinion,,, wisdom,, all wisdom comes fro God. Rand, Thomas Paine, anyone,,, when they speak wisdom such as liberty, freedom, self reliance, self government,, that wisdom comes from God. Though they may deny God,, just as the earth itself comes from God, so too does wisdom. You can worship the earth yet still deny the One who made the earth. You can worship reason and common sense, yet deny the One who is Reason and Common Sense. It is unfortunate, but the way of man. Worship the creation, yet deny the Creator.”
Very well stated, freemike.
It is interesting how many Christians, libertarians, liberals, conservatives, and feminists enjoy reading Rand despite her distaste for Christianity, libertarianism, liberalism, conservatism and feminism. Objective truth is objective truth regardless of the messenger who declares it and regardless how right or wrong that same messenger is in regards to other topics.
“Very little room for love in Rand’s objectivism.”
It is what it is. She wasn’t writing romance novels she was attempting to apply her philosophy to a story line. It was an ASTOUNDING success too.
Not many would have read her “dry” philosophy. But put in a novel and BOOM! a best-seller for decades.
Of course her style is going to appear “soulless” to many—she didn’t believe in souls!
I read Atlas Shrugged in High School—required reading at the time (late eighties in the MidWest), if you can believe that.
It was a revelation to me. Written on those pages were the ideas and concepts that I thought about and was drawn to. In the same way that the writings of the founding fathers moved me.
She was puttig forth that a human had a natural right to live for his/her own sake. Not a pawn of a religion, a government, a God, their neighbor, their abusive husband/father/mother/wife, etc.
She stated the clear truth that we survive as individuals first. Without the individual being strong and healthy the group hasn’t a chance of being strong and healthy. Can you say: What makes America strong?
The only ones preaching self-sacrfice, extoling the virtues of “selflessness” (death) were those who sought to own you, enslave you, or outright kill you.
Freedom—that’s what her philosophy is about.
I don’t try to live EXACTLY like these FICTIONAL characters do anymore than I would try to live like Mickey Mouse.
As an something to strive for, or ideals to work at living up to, I think her philosophy is 95% on target. The tenderness is lacking but I think she was more concerned with getting other ideas across first. There’s always been an excess of touchy, feely around to bait the emotional set.
I will have to get back to you on that. It sounds fishy, like a secondary source with an agenda.
Have you read “The Passion of Ayn Rand” by Barbara Branden (Nathaniel Branden’s ex-wife)? It is a remarkable biography that gives tremendous insight from someone who knew her very well.
Mayhew, a philosophy professor, contributed twice to John Edwards' Presidential campaign. Get real and go back to the DailyKos.
John Edwards and Ayn Rand? Not exactly a compatible combination.
Thanks for posting.
An amazing leftist interrogation, though tame by today's standards.
Did I say say I bought into Objectivism 100%?
Ron Paul discussing Ayn Rand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjwuGHPilwI
John Piper providing a Christian response to Ayn Rand
No. That's why I said "if". So you must be missing a lot of "the other".
I love to point out the truth in people’s beliefs, even more than the wrongs. “Truth will out” and when someone begins to believe in true things, they begin to depend or act on the predictability and dependability of true things.
You might also want to avoid socialized dentistry, I had an exchange student who came from Albania (in 2000) whose teeth were in awful shape at eighteen. Ayn Rand came from that sort of communist society.
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