Posted on 04/16/2011 10:49:59 AM PDT by stfassisi
Exactly how is my materialism, which I acquire in a free market environment without looting, mooching or taking at gunpoint, by the sweat of my own labor and thoughts as 'evil as Marxism'?
Please enlighten us.
I think one way to approach this question is to point out that the values you show in this question cannot be derived from pure materialism.
This was Rand's problem as well. Without some truth transcending materialism, the virtues, or any virtues, have no foundation.
Exactly. She’s a compelling figure, but ultimately a fatally flawed one.
Outstanding and very well stated!
People today have difficulty grasping this because modern liberalism and conservatism have both high-jacked and switched the real meaning of freedom to suit their agenda's
Perhaps you might not want to call it materialism and call it personal needs that you enjoy for starts.
We are talking apples and oranges when we think of Rand's materialism and things we gain that do not go beyond greed,dear friend
I assume you know the difference?
“I doubt that Ayn Rand would have much respect for the typical Tea Party member. Ordinary people were of no value to her.”
****
Rand disliked sheeple and looters.
I’d contend that Tea Party members are far from ordinary. Most are producers instead of looters. The small business owners among them have much in common with John Galt.
Would Rand have been part of the Tea Party? No. But that’s beside the point.
Just as conservatism outgrew Buckley and Goldwater, objectivism (and small “L” libertarianism) has moved beyond Ayn Rand and Harry Browne.
Bfl. I’ve always enjoyed Whittaker Chambers.
On the contrary, I’m very sure the elite Ms. Rand would look down her nose at the Tea Party commoners.
Call it what you wish but defend your statement that my quest for 'personal needs that I enjoy' (materialism) is as 'evil as marxism'.
and things we gain that do not go beyond greed,
Pleae provide your definition of 'greed'.
I understand your position as a good Christian- it would be hard to swallow the philosophy of an avowed atheist. But Rand proposed a rational basis for morality that at it’s core is not hugely different than many Christian beliefs. Not all and certainly not some very important ones but there is more commonality than you might expect.
But you shouldn’t project your perfectly reasonable differences with Rand into the realm of Marxism. Her life was dedicated to the defeat of the Marxist philosophy.
It’s just bad writing, regardless of the politics expressed.
This is the famous 1957 review of Atlas Shrugged by Whittaker Chambers.
And he got paid by the word...
False. The "core" of Christianity makes us responsible not just for our own morality but the morality of those who are supposed to love (ie: everyone). Not such a popular sentiment these days, but this was central to the worldview of most of the Founding Fathers. Rand is good science fiction to me, but our society is still mostly populated with people who are correctly guided by either their own religious convictions or the those that have been socialized into them. They are noticibly absent in the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
Perhaps you need to educate yourself on what materialism is 1st,dear friend
Materialism
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10041b.htm
“”but defend your statement that my quest for ‘personal needs that I enjoy’ is as ‘evil as marxism’””
I never said things you might enjoy are evil,materialism is evil once you understand what it is.
I wish you a Blessed evening!
Rand's heroes are selfish, barren fornicators. Like herself.
Chambers put it this way:
Yet from the impromptu and surprisingly gymnastic matings of heroine and three of the heroes, no children — it suddenly strikes you — ever result. The possibility is never entertained. And indeed, the strenuously sterile world of Atlas Shrugged is scarcely a place for children. You speculate that, in life, children probably irk the author and may make her uneasy.
They no doubt made her more than "uneasy": Rand's entire philosophy collapses when confronted with the reality of parenthood. We are, after all, and in direct contradiction of Rand, the means to our children's ends -- and morally obligated to be so.
What else, except "damned fraud," can you call a person whose supposedly rational philosophy can't account for the propagation of the species?
See post 33.
Correct!
Rand was nothing more than an undercover Marxist by being anti- family.They both are non intellectual immoral self serving fools who are easily exposed by moral people
Placemark.
"What else, except "damned fraud," can you call a person whose supposedly rational philosophy can't account for the propagation of the species? "
Check and mate.
Thank you for this precise and penetrating comment. The human race simply cannot persist long enough to creat a "society" (necessarily a multi-generational enterprise) on a basis of godless self-centered materialism.
Whether of the so-called Left or the so-called Right.
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