Posted on 05/14/2014 6:33:32 PM PDT by OddLane
Ayn Rand, the famous novelist and free market advocate, is often caricatured as a defender of the rich or big business. But, as Steve Horwitz explains at the Bleeding Heart Libertarian blog, there are more wealthy villains in her books than wealthy heroes. And many of her heroes – including John Galt, whom Rand portrayed as the person best exemplifying her philosophy – are not particularly wealthy. Ultimately, Rand’s work praises producers, not wealthy people as such: One of the other valuable pieces of Rand’s work is also one of the most frequently misunderstood by her critics….
[T]he view [of many critics] is that Rand supposedly loved the rich and hated the poor, and that Atlas Shrugged is a story of the rich as Nietzschean heroes who should be freed to save the world from the mooching poor and middle class.
This, of course, is simply wrong. It’s not “the rich” who go on strike, but the producers.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Is THAT where the admirer claim came from?
I was about to say the same thing. Russia as far as I know never produced a Hemingway. Russians seem to me to think that if 5 words will do 238 will do better. I think it is because of excessive vodka intake. Rare to see a drunk that did not want to talk loudly and long. I like Rand by the way.
some foreigners have screwed up ideas about rich people and how they got that way. can you help it if people flock to you dollars in hand for some great idea and body of hard work you’ve created?
Ayn Rand is a defender of people who makes things done and a protagonist of another opposite breed who are lazy and irresponsible but using socio-political schemes to benefit from the first group.
Rich or poor is a distant secondary.
Claiming that Rand is “for the rich” is all about to shift in into a class warfare which is one of said schemes.
It wouldn't surprise me if Reagan still admired her even after the many negative things she said about him. People of character are like that. Even though her loathing of religion and support for abortion are totally unacceptable, I will always admire her for surviving her early years under communism and for her unwavering support of capitalism. We the Living" is still one of my favorite books.
That may well be that she despised Reagan, but it doesn’t invalidate many of the points she made.
Anyway, getting back to the point of the original poster, she certainly was not a defender of “the rich”. There were plenty of extremely wealthy people in her novels that she was NOT defending.
Take people like Harry Reid and Pelosi. They are rich, but would be the villains in her stories, passing legislation such as the “Anti Dog-Eat-Dog” law.
Her main issue is with the demonization of wealth, in my opinion.
Pretty much the same here. I don't worship her like some people do, because she does have obvious flaws, but she is spot on about many of the issues related to class warfare, wealth, taxes and government intrusion into business.
Ebay, $2.99
“I am John Galt”
Sticker for your computer
She was a great, astute, prolific writer for sure.
You are making a mountain out of a molehill.
When the president of the Ampower Corporation, sends an Ayn Rand pamphlet to the Governor candidate just months before the election, and all he gets is a thank you, that isn’t evidence that Reagan thought anything about Rand.
This is as flat and nonprofuse as it gets, without flat out blowing the Rand fan off.
“”Dear Mr. Vandersteel:
Thanks very much for the pamphlet. Am an admirer of Ayn Rand but hadn’t seen this study.
Sincerely, Ronald Reagan””
Nobody’s perfect :)
“I am John Galt” T-shirt, black, cotton $15, Ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/I-am-John-Galt-t-shirt-/251452999887?pt=US_Mens_Tshirts&hash=item3a8bc448cf
~I was surprised that Reagan said he admired her. She was a well renowned and vocal atheist at that time, although I don’t know if her views on abortion were established by the mid-60’s.~
Rand is a product of pre-Stalin revolutionary Russia. It was a place where pro-choice, gay pride, minority rights, politicizing everything and Godlessness came from. If you are to research an earlier Soviet Union you would be shocked to find that the social development in US is a carbon copy of that earlier Soviet society for a few decades and counting.
Ain is a part of it does she want it or not. It seems like she was disagree with communists on free enterprise and collectivism but she was a true believer cultural Marxist on every other aspect.
Overall, I don’t like her as a person but her stance of free enterprise and collectivism is that makes her a positive historical figure. None ever did a better job to explain the merits of the first and horrors of the latter.
I’m interested in the three part movie series “Atlas Shrugged”. I acquired Parts I and II. Do you or anyone here know about Part III ?
Scheduled for 9/12/14
Neither was Howard ROARK.
“Scheduled for 9/12/14”
Thanks for that.
Not true. BTW, the only way one knows if a person is an atheist is if they are "vocal" about it. And Rand, at that time, was anything but "renowned" in any way.
If ignorance was a virtue, you would be a saint.
Don’t get me wrong, I truly respect her. While being a bit boring as an art, her books were a life changing experience in terms of philosophy to me.
But it doesn’t mean Rand has combined all the merits ever imaginable. She is not a good Christian for sure and there is no ignorance in stating it.
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