The Vindication of Ayn Rand

The Autonomist ^ | 03/11/05 | Cass Hewitt

[Hank Kerchief]

This review shows why this story will be of interest to a much wider audience than only those intersted in Objectivism and Ayn Rand. The nature of deception and the fact that ultimately the truth always reveals itself are wonderfully illustrated.

[Hank Kerchief]

PHILOSOPHY PING

(If you want on or off this list please freepmail me.)

Hank

[armymarinemom]

bump to you dad.

[ken21]

"Rand is presented as a seriously psychologically disturbed individual whose very philosophy was not only flawed but dangerous. "

read her book "the new left" and you'll see why the left attacks her.

she had them figured out in the 60s.

[West Coast Conservative]

I'm reading Atlas Shrugged right now. Pretty good so far.

[ShadowDancer]

If you think it's pretty good so far, just wait. It gets better and better with each page.

[Larry Lucido]

Ayn Rand was a great mind. Alas, even great minds can be flakes.

The Brandens were only two of many, many purged from the Collective. Tibor Machan, David Kelly, just to name a couple. If she had lived long enough, I dare say Leonard Piekoff may have crossed her eventually.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

It is the best book that extols personal responsibility.

[ShadowDancer]

I'm not just saying this because I'm on this site (although this site is what led me to read her works), that is the most unbelievable book I have ever read in my life. It was so far past amazing to me that there are no words for it. Honest to God.

[gorush]

"I'm reading Atlas Shrugged right now. Pretty good so far."

I envy you...it's the only book I have read multiple times.

[Larry Lucido]

I wish they had made the movie a long time ago. It would seem anachronistic now, a movie about the "future" where the hero has to stop an get a "long distance operator" on a pay phone to call someone.

[sam_paine]

Its an important work, but it's a pain in the arse. There's no excuse for the repetition and flowery cliche in some places. She was brilliant, and yet a fool for not accepting the help of an "objective" editor.

[ShadowDancer]

I envy you...

I thought the same thing when I read that post. I would give an awful lot to have the feeling I had when I read that come back again.

[ShadowDancer]

Honestly, I still think they could pull it off.

Personally, though, I would never watch it. I have a thing about watching a movie after I have read the book. I won't do it. I relish deeply the characters my mind has made.

[Lester Moore]

I'm reading Atlas Shrugged right now. Pretty good so far.

It is a good book but is not the best writing. It's ideas are more important than her writing style. Reading the book I found it to be obviously be written by a woman. Even the heroin, Dagney, whines about how she can't find a man of the mind anywhere when she needs a man, of the mind of course.

[wolfpat]

You'll see different things in it the second time you read it. The last time I read it, it scared me. I would read the things said by James Taggart and his friends, and then read the same things in the current issue of the newspaper.
I've read it 4 times so far.

[dpwiener]

One can appreciate Rand's philosophy and her intellectual genius without requiring that she be the kind of perfect human hero depicted in Atlas Shrugged. Those who insist on denying her flaws are themselves denying reality. This author appears intent on re-writing history to comport with some idealized image.

Ayn Rand certainly did have an incredibly brilliant mind. It was fascinating for me to hear her speak at the Ford Hall Forum and other venues back in the sixties. But she could also be arrogant and impatient and short-tempered. I remember times when someone would ask an innocent (or perhaps merely ignorant) question, and she would suddenly and viciously attack the questioner and speculate on the person's psychological and philosophical flaws as a human being. It wasn't pretty. Other times she could be gracious and relatively charming.

So read her books and remember the good and accept that there was also some bad. The former heavily outweighed the latter.

[PatrickHenry]

Ping.

[dynachrome]

The story of Starnesville(sp?) scares the hell out of me

[Mad Dawgg]

"I envy you...it's the only book I have read multiple times."

I a, rereading it again and I have lost count, I am up to "The Money Speech" (my favorite part!)