Ayn Rand may have said a few smart things, but she seems to have been a pretty empty person overall.
Rand rejected all the lessons of Communism except Atheism. I can never figure out how she missed how interconnected it all was.
But I think people read into Galt’s words too much dogmatic ideology, and I think Rand missed a huge loophole in her thought in the book.
If Objectivism is doing what is in my own self interest without cheating another, then I can choose, in my own self interest, to extend aid to another who needs it.
“Altruism” can only be immoral when it is coerced or forced from a person.
True altruism is a personal choice, rationally reached.
Rand never got that.
To me she is the definition of “half-baked”.
The Libertarian party and movement reflects this soullessness. It’s is mindless in it’s distain for goodness and humanity, imho. The absense of good is evil. There will be no vacuume.
Libertarians have awarded the Left total social and cultural power for the last thirty years. I observe it to be mindlessly anti-moral, anti-ethical and anti-human in practice. I see the evolved state of affairs in fascist America, where corporations dominate government and American life and government as the ultimate vision of Rand. It is pure materialism. It despises Christians because it is the opposite of what Jesus represented in humanity.
And sadly, this causes no shortage of morons to go after her personally, and discuss her emptiness, rather than discussing the smart things she said. Interesting, isn't it?
Some people discuss people...
others discuss events...
and still others discuss ideas.
Eleanor Roosevelt uttered something along those lines. Lets discuss her sexuality and her public disagreement with Francis Joseph Spellman, the Catholic Archbishop of New York! Juicy!
The logical conclusion of Objectivism is nihilism.