Posted on 01/30/2005 3:14:41 PM PST by beavus
Has Ayn Rand gone mainstream? The radical champion of individualism and capitalism, who died in 1982, is no longer an exotic taste. Her image has adorned a U.S. postage stamp. Her ideas have been detected in a new mass-market animated comedy film, "The Incredibles." And Wednesday, on the 100th anniversary of her birth, there will be a Rand commemoration at the Library of Congress--an odd site for a ceremony honoring a fierce anti-statist. In her day, Rand was at odds with almost every prevailing attitude in American society. She infuriated liberals by preaching economic laissez-faire and lionizing titans of business. She appalled conservatives by rejecting religion in any form while celebrating, in her words, "sexual enjoyment as an end in itself."
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
It was about extraordinary people and society's resentment of their great qualities.
"One question: What did "The Incredibles" have to do with Ayn Rand?"
That people who have superior ability should not be punished for their ability, but should be free.
"..I don't know", Atlas Shrugged.
One of the overriding themes in "The Incredibles" was that the exceptional should be encouraged and revered. Another was that the impulse to cut down the exceptional, and make everyone the same, is one of evil.
If I have to pick between Ayn Rand and God I certainly won't pick Ayn...
Of course. Thank you. I guess the author is right. Rand has hidden in my subconscious!
Two themes, interesting. Do you agree with them?
I'm sure Ayn would have been grateful to see government money spend on ceremonies, monopoly post stamps memorializing her ideas & influence - by big-spending, ideological poseurs.
Ron Paul is the only person fit to participate
The "bad guys" in The Incredibles are like typical socialists.
Rand was THE anti-Marx. Writers like F.A. Hayek provided the economic arguments for capitalism, essentially proving that socialism can't work, and will spread misery wherever it is tried. These were fine and dandy, but it took Ayn Rand and a novel called 'Atlas Shrugged' to lay out the MORAL justifications for a society based on capitalism and freedom, rather than state control in the name of "equality".
Together, Rand (morality) and Hayek (economics) offer very powerful intellectual ammo against the left.
Supposedly one of the most widely read books in the country, but you wouldn't know it by talking with people. My guess is that most people who read it are teenage girls and think it is a romance novel.
Why would you say that? I've heard conversations about Ayn Rand come up lots of times in literate circles. Usually the consensus is that the Fountainhead is a great book, and Atlas Shrugged is a lot weaker as a novel, but has a lot of provocative ideas.
I find intellectuals and people on the left give her a lot of props and respect these days. They have a mature relationship with her, admiring some things, diasagreeing with many, without feeling the need to either join her cult following, or paint her as the anti-christ.
Because my personal experience when arguing with people is that they don't realize that intelligent responses were made to their assertions decades ago by one of the most widely read American authors. If they had read Rand, the debate would start at higher level.
I read most of Ayn Rand's works 20 plus years ago. Like most theorists, her strength was her extremism in her views. I take from her like I take from most thinkers, that which makes sense to me, and reject that which contradicts my own sense or faith. In the case of Rand, I celebrate, along with her, the talents and abilities of the gifted. To a lesser extent I agree with her rejection of altruism, but only to the extent that it leads to a sense of entitlement among those who are its beneficiaries. Altruism makes ME feel good, and so has value to me, and so by helping others I am, in a sense, being selfish, as Rand champions. I also favor giving enough assistance to others so as to encourage them to become productive, or more productive, which benefits them directly, and the rest of us indirectly. She would disagree with my religious faith, but the use of my ability to reason, coupled with a level of human intuition, provides me with no honest alternative.
Sorry for the rant, just my initial reaction to this post. And I HAVE to go see The Incredibles.
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