How Ayn Rand Became an American Icon The perverse allure of a damaged woman.

Slate ^

[Tempest]

Ayn Rand is one of America's great mysteries. She was an amphetamine-addicted author of sub-Dan Brown potboilers, who in her spare time wrote lavish torrents of praise for serial killers and the Bernie Madoff-style embezzlers of her day. She opposed democracy on the grounds that "the masses"—her readers—were "lice" and "parasites" who scarcely deserved to live. Yet she remains one of the most popular writers in the United States, still selling 800,000 books a year from beyond the grave. She regularly tops any list of books that Americans say have most influenced them. Since the great crash of 2008, her writing has had another Benzedrine rush, as Rush Limbaugh hails her as a prophetess. With her assertions that government is "evil" and selfishness is "the only virtue," she is the patron saint of the tea-partiers and the death panel doomsters. So how did this little Russian bomb of pure immorality in a black wig become an American icon?

[carcraft]

I think Rand does make a valid point about taking from the productive to fund a permana underclass. “The Giving Tree” by Silverstein is a more in tune with the idea that you can only take so much from the producers in society. The idea that every body needs to contribute is both Christian and practical (if one won't work then they won't eat. I watched an ECHO challenge with Coast Guard rescue group against other military folks. During the early phase the required women on the team was a drag for all the teams but the coast guard supported her using a rope to help her up the mountain on the bike phase, putting her in position's where others could support her because she was very strong at orienteering. The other groups complained about the weakness of the female member. Needless to say the coast guru group won because they had the best orienteer. The underclass needs needs to contribute..

[driftless2]

Thanks for the correction about Objectivism. My response to the article was generated by my dislike of many scribblers using character assassination as an attempt to invalidate what the subject was promoting. I remember many decades ago reading about Objectivism. And I remember reading accounts of Rand some years ago that cast her in an unfavorable light. That column was similar to the one posted here in that the person who wrote paid scant attention to Rand’s philosophy. The fact is nobody’s perfect, but many highly imperfect people’s ideas live one. Like Rand’s.

[KC Burke]

great quote...

[editor-surveyor]

Wow, the loonies are as scared of Ayn Rand as they are of Sarah Palin, and she’s dead!

What’s funny is that nobody that I know of has ever presented Ayn Rand as any kind of paragon. She wrote a few books that deal well with the scenarios that inevitably emerge from the damage statist thieves do to the fabric of society. Why does that scare them?

[editor-surveyor]

"I especially love 'Christians' that try to resolve their adoration of Rand"

Could you perhaps name, say a dozen of them?

[editor-surveyor]

Well, here we are at post #50, and all you have posted so far are crude rhetorical strawmen; is there reason to read on?

When will you present your argument?