Big Sister is Watching You (Whittaker Chambers on Ayn Rand)

NRO | 28 December, 1957 | Whittaker Chambers

[annyokie]

It figures. Don't bother to learn.

[ken21]

interesting, thanks.

i began my journey from the democrat party when a doctoral candidate in our philosophy program said that i should not be seen with a book that i'd just purchased at the campus bookstore:

the new left: the anti-industrial revolution, by ayn rand.

since his father was a big shot in philosophy across the united states, i couldn't wait to get home and read the book banned on a state university campus by an "intellectual".

the new left's a collection of her essays of the 60's, and boy, did rand have today's left pegged.

[68 grunt]

Learn? Why? Because the (reformed) commie doesn't like Rand you find him useful? Your petty dislikes mean absolutely nothing to me.

[dennisw]

btttttt

[annyokie]

As I stated up the thread, Whittaker Chambers was instrumental in Alger Hiss being sent to prison. People change. Harold Ickes father was an operator in FDR's cabinet and a fellow traveler of Hiss'. It was the beginning of the route of the commies in the cabinet.

Chambers is a true American hero. He was outed as a closet bisexual at tremendous cost to him and his family. He was marked for death, ala Arkanside, but stuck to his guns and did the right thing.

[annyokie]

Thanks! (Happy New Year, my FRiend)

[LibFreeOrDie]

Thanks for the suggestion.

There's so much about that case I want to read, but having lived thru that era, I can tell you the airwaves (and conversations) were filled with Chambers vs. Hiss arguments for years. The hatred for Chambers was amazing.

I shoud also read Chamber's autobiography, "Witness", and his letters to Buckley.

[Taliesan]

She also got her husband to leave his then-wife-and-family for her. Not much of a role model.

But if her own happiness was her moral cause, she was indeed a good role model for her acolytes.

I think she lived out her atheistic premise with integrity. The children and the other woman be damned. They are merely symbols in the equation.

[68 grunt]

I suppose my point, obscure as it was, was Rand's book, We The Living, was a hugely powerful anti-communist indictment. It was the hardest book that I have ever finished, and I doubt that I could ever read it again. It is brutal. I suggest that anyone who ever favored commie policies would find this book quite offensive and color any future works by the author.

[Wormwood]

I love Rand's ideas, and have taken them to heart.

Her fiction, on the other hand, is awful.

[Rhetorical pi2]

Ayn Rand was an atheist. I knew that when I read the book.
You don't have to be an atheist to agree with some of her boldly (or somewhat exaggerated [or not]) caricatures of relgulators.

Ayn Rand WAS tyrannical, unbending and DID use Atlas Shrugged to shout her message of materialism, acchievement and anti-bureacrat philosophy. It was written in stark contrasts.

It IS a hard read for some people. But it should be read by everyone.

I've read it twice, and just this Christmas put the book in three stockings for my son, and two sons-in laws to read.

I wanted them to know "who is John Galt?"

[annyokie]

I was not even born when Chambers wrote this review----missed it by a little less than 12 months!

Tannenhaus' book is exhaustive in its detail and Chambers is completely exonerated while Hiss is damned.

Witness is a great book, as well, but for the modern reader, the style is plodding.

[aynrandfreak]

Chambers was instrumental in sending Hiss to prison, but Rand was instrumental in weakening Communism. Even after Chambers renounced Communism, he said he still believed that it would ultimately win.

I know the stories about her & Branden being harsh with their 'flock', and I don't agree with that approach, but why are you focussing on personal issues instead of your view of the philosophy? I've found that if you substitute 'Reality' for 'God', there is much common ground between Objectivists and Conservatives.

What was your point in posting this article? Have you read Atlas Shrugged? Do you agree with what Chambers said about it? Or are you just trying to pick a intra-right fight?

[annyokie]

I don't care for her style. She is too much of a polemic writer for me.

[Rhetorical pi2]

Ayn Rand was an atheist. I knew that when I read the book.
You don't have to be an atheist to agree with some of her boldly (or somewhat exaggerated [or not]) caricatures of relgulators.

Ayn Rand WAS tyrannical, unbending and DID use Atlas Shrugged to shout her message of materialism, acchievement and anti-bureacrat philosophy. It was written in stark contrasts.

It IS a hard read for some people. But it should be read by everyone.

I've read it twice, and just this Christmas put the book in three stockings for my son, and two sons-in laws to read.

I wanted them to know "who is John Galt?"

[annyokie]

The only one "picking a fight" is you. I posted this article because I happen to admire the courage of Whittaker Chambers and I dislike Ayn Rand.

[Annie03]

ping

[dennisw]

Happy New Year and new btttttttt

[Tax-chick]

Yet from the impromptu and surprisingly gymnastic matings of the heroine and three of the heroes, no children — it suddenly strikes you — ever result.

Chambers could really put a sentence together! There are other winners in the article, but this is the one I noticed first :-).

[annyokie]

LOL I thought the same thing!