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The evolution of Ayn Rand
Chicago Tribune ^ | 1/30/05 | Steve Chapman

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: aynrand; aynrandlist; capitalism; freemarkets; objectivism
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To: beavus

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.


81 posted on 01/30/2005 5:52:49 PM PST by higgmeister
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To: beavus
One question: What did "The Incredibles" have to do with Ayn Rand?

You're only encouraging them.

82 posted on 01/30/2005 5:53:45 PM PST by Aquinasfan (Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
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To: ShadowDancer
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.

83 posted on 01/30/2005 5:54:21 PM PST by beavus
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To: higgmeister

Good point.


84 posted on 01/30/2005 5:54:47 PM PST by beavus
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To: beavus
I thought it was a science fiction novel and found it too psychobabblish to get more than a couple hundred pages.
85 posted on 01/30/2005 5:59:58 PM PST by bayourod (Gun grabbers won't stop with "ASSAULT" weapons nor anti-immigrants with "ILLEGAL" immigrants.)
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To: beavus
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.

86 posted on 01/30/2005 6:00:15 PM PST by ShadowDancer (Vivere est cogitare)
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To: bvw

Absolutely.


87 posted on 01/30/2005 6:06:14 PM PST by Dales
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To: ShadowDancer
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.

88 posted on 01/30/2005 6:48:20 PM PST by beavus
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To: Crawdad

"Ayn rhymes with rain"

NO, it rhymes with MINE.


89 posted on 01/30/2005 6:57:19 PM PST by Burr5
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To: Mad Dawgg

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.


90 posted on 01/30/2005 7:12:24 PM PST by Capitalism2003
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To: Capitalism2003
"Vision of the Annointed" and "The Quest for Cosmic Justice"

Yep, them be the ones!

91 posted on 01/30/2005 7:23:54 PM PST by Mad Dawgg (French: old Europe word meaning surrender)
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To: beavus
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.
92 posted on 01/30/2005 7:41:50 PM PST by cannon fodder
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To: beavus
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. :)

93 posted on 01/30/2005 9:25:33 PM PST by skinkinthegrass (Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you :^)
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To: ShadowDancer

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


94 posted on 01/30/2005 9:30:20 PM PST by skinkinthegrass (Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you :^)
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To: skinkinthegrass
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!

95 posted on 01/30/2005 10:35:23 PM PST by beavus
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To: 4Liberty
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.

96 posted on 01/30/2005 11:34:01 PM PST by ARepublicanForAllReasons (Go away, nanny state, just go away!)
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To: beavus
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*
97 posted on 01/31/2005 7:19:10 AM PST by skinkinthegrass (Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you :^)
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To: RepublicanReptile

I loved the Fountainhead. I enjoyed Atlas Shrugged also.


98 posted on 01/31/2005 11:25:12 AM PST by bronxboy (Blessed to live in the USA)
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To: ARepublicanForAllReasons


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....


99 posted on 01/31/2005 5:31:13 PM PST by 4Liberty (wages & revenues are price signals-- and some people [unions, subsidized cos] can't accept criticism)
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To: beavus
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.

100 posted on 01/31/2005 5:33:39 PM PST by Clemenza (I Am Here to Chew Bubblegum and Kick Ass, and I'm ALL OUT OF BUBBLEGUM!)
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