A y n R a n d (rhymes with Cain Band) was a Russian with a terrible first name and a wandering eye who became known for developing a teenager's "philosophy" called objectivism. She moved to the United States in 1926 and eventually wrote (quite badly) THE FOUNTAINHEAD and ATLAS SHRUGGED.
Rand is popular at the moment in some rightwing circles and (I am guessing) among advocates of open marriage who horse around with each other Back East.
All you really need to know about Rand's beliefs is that she advocated egoism and unrestricted capitalism, making her a favorite author among CEOs of major corporations, disastrous economists, and happy libertarians, who read her (correctly) as a ruthless rightwing anarchist seeking absolute freedom at the expense of the less fortunate.
In recent years we have seen her ugly beliefs being applied to living flesh by lamebrains like Alan Greenspan, Ron Paul, Rand Paul and Corporate Republicans in general. In Rand they claim to find a justification to tax the poor and subsidize the super rich. They ignore her atheism. She's again the rage. Meanwhile, I wish she were dead.
Actually she is dead.
Ayn Rand was a dim-witted self-centered cougar, but I doubt if she wanted us to tax the poor and subsized the rich. I can't say for certain. She was long ago dismissed by experts in fiction and by experts in philosophy. Life is too short to spend weeks of it studying the trash she generated. She's not part of an education.
In the human comedy we all enjoy, we can take a certain pleasure in watching, once again, how easily deluded we are. My suggestion is that we name all our cats "Rand" and then get back to living together. (Could that be the reality Rand of Russia missed: that humans live together?)
Gary Goss
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment