Which is a kind of crazy nihilism... that there is no honorable way to win.
Understand you are an Ayn Rand freak, and Ms. Rand outlined some follies that attack Western society, but she never really gave a fair hearing to the phenomenon we know as Christian faith. But without such a worldview being common (and it has to be voluntary by evangelism, no state can force it) there isn’t any anchor for a set of dogmas to call Objectivism. One poignant observation to me is that Rand deemed the dollar superior to the whip, and yet there are people who will let on in an honest moment that they prefer the whip. Without a central mercy figure like Christ at the core of one’s worldview, that ugly undercurrent will exist unabated and may even prevail.
Yes.
Freedom and objectivity are both based on a Christian worldview.
Remove the Christian worldveiw, and the world devolves the prior dog eat dog state of nature.
Modern examples: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Communist China, Cambodia, Cuba, Venezuela... on slower terms, France, Germany, Sweden, England.
Well said Red.
Rand clearly identified the enemies of civilization—the witch doctors (fraudsters) and the violent folks who use force when fraud doesn’t work.
Leftist dominated institutions like the major media, the universities, leftist churches, etc. go the fraud route.
Leftist governments (if they can get themselves elected by using fraud) stop the pretense and go for force.
I know many folks here think our present day issues are unique—they are not—human history is fractal, you just need to look at it from a bit of distance.