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.
“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.