Posted on 01/30/2005 3:14:41 PM PST by beavus
I don't think Rand was against altruism at all.
What she hated was FORCED altruism via the government.
Here’s an except that I posted on it.
Please tell me you're drunk.
You're just not talking to the right crowd. I've read it twice and am now listening to the audio version of it while working out.
My mother has read it twice.
My father has read it.
My son-in-law has read it and has begun reading it a second time.
My son-in-law to be is reading it.
None of these people are teenage girls. The book is ranked at #434 on Amazon 48 years after it was first published. That's pretty good.
You are correct, what I took from Ayn's writings is you must take care of yourself in order to have the means to be altruistic.
If one were to read "The Fountain Head" that would be considered more of a romance but even a teen would quickly find it much deeper than they would want to continue with.
Alan Greenspan was once one of her disciples.
I'm not sure what you are referring to here. Are you referring to one of the common errors by people who claim to have read Rand?
I've read both Atlas Shrugged and The Fountain Head and was even at one time a teen aged girl. Believe me when I say that neither of those books are something that would keep the attention of your average girl let alone have them think they tended toward romance.
She and Sir Karl Popper,Jewish, are amoung the greatest minds of the 20th century.
" 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"
I find it interesting that the literary circles would find the Fountainhead a better book than Atlas Shrugged. My take on the Fountainhead is the premise is flawed. We have an architect demanding to do things his way with other peoples money. It's fine to do things your way when your footing the bill, when you expect to get things your way on someone elses dime I think you've gone too far.
Ayn rhymes with rain.
I am quite sure she would not have liked the briliant Jewish femal classification, since she was anti-religion and anti-feminism, as both things, in her mind were subjective ways of keeping the people unequal and from realizing their true potential.
Some would call it "idealism".
I take from her like I take from most thinkers, that which makes sense to me
You might recall that she recommended no more than that. She was a self-proclaimed philosopher, after all. Understanding was vital to her.
Altruism makes ME feel good, and so has value to me, and so by helping others I am, in a sense, being selfish
Reminds me of a funny rant by Kant regarding regarding the apparent impossibility of altruism.
Sorry for the rant, just my initial reaction to this post.
Not at all. A very interesting post. You sound like an introspecting individual.
I saw the "Incredibles" when it first came out. Now I vaguely do remember some thought of Rand popping into my head when I watched it. But that was quickly washed away by thoughts of Hillary Clinton who resembles the female lead.
The movement was always very idealistic. You might get some idea of how they would behave in practical situations by reading the Objectivist news letters pertaining to current events. But even those are highly simplified and idealistic, IMO.
Your are right on!!!
personally i think her book of essays "the new left: the anti-industrial revolution" is her best book.
she had these people figured out a long time before anyone else.
dear old Alis Rosenbaum (re)named herself after a writing machine, an Remington-RAND typewriter.
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