The evolution of Ayn Rand

Chicago Tribune ^ | 1/30/05 | Steve Chapman

[higgmeister]

What I was hinting at was that she influenced a number of individuals such as Goldwater and Reagan and eventually brought the fall of the Soviet Union even if she doesn't often get credit.

[Aquinasfan]

One question: What did "The Incredibles" have to do with Ayn Rand?

You're only encouraging them.

[beavus]

Not a lot of people will keep going if it isn't easy read right off the bat.

One of the quickest reads I've ever had. The book looks thick, but it goes by fast.

[beavus]

Good point.

[bayourod]

I thought it was a science fiction novel and found it too psychobabblish to get more than a couple hundred pages.

[ShadowDancer]

I had a hell of a time getting into it until this part, then she had me. I didn't know where it was going to take me but after this, I knew it was going to be somewhere I'd never been before.

She sat listening to the music. It was a symphony of triumph. The notes flowed up, they spoke of rising and they were the rising itself, they were the essence and the form of upward motion, they seemed to embody every human act and thought that had ascent as its motive. It was a sunburst of sound, breaking out of hiding and spreading open. It had the freedom of release and the tension of purpose. It swept space clean, and left nothing but the joy of an unobstructed effort. Only a faint echo within the sounds spoke of that from which the music had escaped, but spoke in laughing astonishment at the discovery that there was no ugliness or pain, and there never had had to be. It was the song of an immense deliverance.

[Dales]

Absolutely.

[beavus]

It swept space clean, and left nothing but the joy of an unobstructed effort.

I'll bet it's been 10 years since I read it, but now that you mention it, it brings me right back. I remember that passage as if I read it yesterday. It was at about the same time that I discovered Mendelssohn and Wagner. I'll bet I listened to the Scottish & Italian symphonies, Hebrides overture and the Gotterdammerung trauermarsch & Seigfrieds Rheinfahrt 100 times back then. They would put me in the very state of mind that that passage describes.

Thank you for that. It's a pleasant recollection.

[Burr5]

"Ayn rhymes with rain"

NO, it rhymes with MINE.

[Capitalism2003]

Oh yes, Thomas Sowell's "Vision of the Annointed" and "The Quest for Cosmic Justice" are two of my all time favorites...Actually they are the top two on my all time non fiction list. Must reads.

[Mad Dawgg]

"Vision of the Annointed" and "The Quest for Cosmic Justice"

Yep, them be the ones!

[cannon fodder]

in '75 my sisters read it (AS) and both proclaimed it the best thing they had ever read, I was still contemplating Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and it took me till 2000 to read it(AS). They are both successful professional women and I slave in a blue collar world. I wish I had read it sooner.

[skinkinthegrass]

ROBERT HEINLEIN..I still get the most kicks out of watching giant bugs getting blasted to pieces.

STARSHIP TROOPTERS, excellent book...the movie, its' ok. :)

[skinkinthegrass]

its' a quick book, has hard sections, like the "John Galt's TV speech"

[beavus]

its' a quick book, has hard sections, like the "John Galt's TV speech"

Yeah, you read the whole fricken book thinking you're going to be picking up her philosophy, and then she summarizes it all in the last 50 pages!

[ARepublicanForAllReasons]

Ron Paul is the only person fit to participate

Ron Paul is foursquare against our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, while Ayn Rand championed our military strength and our soldiers. Rand was a Taft Republican, not a libertarian in any sense, as she made it plain during her life.

[skinkinthegrass]

Well, Yeah...I don't think Atlas Shrugged had "the Cliff Notes Edition" the 1st time around. (1977?)..so ya HAD to read the (damn! :) Whole thing. *grin*

[bronxboy]

I loved the Fountainhead. I enjoyed Atlas Shrugged also.

[4Liberty]

I was referring to domestic policies.

As for foreign policy, I agree with the Libertarian party, concerning Govt. snooping post-911 (Homeland Security measures), and I approve open borders (fluid labor markets), unlike many Republicans.

Not sure how Ayn would side on these things....

[Clemenza]

Ayn Rand is one of two people responsible for turning me away from Socialism. The other being Frederick Hayek.

For a REAL Randian hero, check out The Aviator.