A Conservative Tears Apart Ayn Rand and 'Atlas Shrugged'

Duh

Schleshinger.... you dolt!

Any Rand is proven right

On a smaller scale than federal, please pay attention to the Exodus from NY that is taking place right now. Look to the mass abandonment of US business production to overseas due to "regulation". The current congress not to mention Obama may be able to put the final nail in the coffin of US industry leaving the country a true socialist utopia with no way to pay for these "programs" other than worthless printed money.

Ayn Rand will be proven correct thanks to Obama

Obama is doing his best to prove that what was predicted in Atlas Shrugged can happen in America.

Rand offered an alternative to going along with this destruction of freedom for those who actually work and produce. Leave and allow the powers that be to enjoy their "win". Let's see how much the people who elected this hope/change like it when they see the reality of what happens as a result of their "win".

Obama and Pelosi like to keep reminding the citizens of the U.S....they won! Let's see what you do with that, Winners. Show us what you have to offer. Let's see how good you are at making the U.S. and the world a better place to live in. Prove that your ideas actually work better than the constitution and free markets.

Not doing so well, so far. but you have a year to figure it out.

Atlas Shrugged

Robert Schlesinger, don't write about something you know nothing of. Go read Atlas Shrugged, then come back and apologize to your readers.

ayn rand

i've been amazed at the right's touting of ayn rand lately.

i have always thought ayn rand should be read in one's teens in order to really embrace her b.s.

Nice hit piece

Careful... Can't let truth get recognized TOO deeply, or all you have been working toward will slowly vanish in a puff of smoke.

Re: Kate Alexander of CA

""Rand identified the root cause of all of today's ills, that being the corrupt moral code of altruism, which strips its victims of their self-esteem and replaces happiness with sacrifice as ones only virtue."

One's ONLY VIRTUE? when was altruism the ONLY virtue?

perhaps it is this moral absolutism that is the trouble."

By the way, that was the reviewers OPINION of Rand's work. She never said that selfishness was the only virtue, nor that altruism was. Stop beating a straw man.

"I have found that talent and intelligence is not distributed on the basis of individual merit ,{all notions of karma aside)"

If talent and intelligence don't equal merit, than what pray tell does merit mean? Consult a dictionary.

"and I think that her failure to apply any notion of compassion is a glaring denial of the unfairness that pervades reality"

She did not deny compassion. Another straw man. Rand's point was that compassion cannot be forced by the state. If the state forces people to be compassionate, it destroys the possibility of that action assuming a moral status. The reason being that no free will was involved. On the contrary, Rand believed that charity had a legitimate function in society. But that the individual had 100% claim to their property and that the choice to help others, how much, and who was ultimately the choice of individuals and not the government.

"Why was Eddie Willers left on the train siding, for example? A loyal assistant who had more compassion for his fellow man..."

Eddie was left on the train siding because he thought that he could keep things going without the others. He didn't quit when he had the chance, and he didn't possess the ability to shoulder the burden himself. He was a loyal friend, but he tried to take on more than he could handle. And ultimately, each person's life is their own responsibility. He chose his path, and he had to accept the consequences of his choices.

But did his story end there? The novel actually ends with Galt declaring that it is time to go back into the world and reclaim it for humanity. The Eddies of the world would surely have their place in such a world. But they must not expect that it is their right to demand sustenance from others. They will have to earn their way just like everyone else. Eddie's fate is a horror only if we write him off completely and assume that he would have nothing to offer his fellow men in exchange. I think better of him than that. I respect the courage of the Eddies of the world too much to pity them.

So, what? He wasn't a genius. Most of us aren't by the way. Which is even more of a reason why we have little right to claim superiority to men and women of boundless creative capacity. Is it arrogant to assume that people know best how to live their own lives? Isn't it more arrogant to assume that you know better than an Einstein, a Tesla, or a Rockefeller how they should live theirs?

Gosh I read Rand over and over for a long time

"Rand identified the root cause of all of today's ills, that being the corrupt moral code of altruism, which strips its victims of their self-esteem and replaces happiness with sacrifice as ones only virtue."

One's ONLY VIRTUE? when was altruism the ONLY virtue?

perhaps it is this moral absolutism that is the trouble.

I have found that talent and intelligence is not distributed on the basis of individual merit ,{all notions of karma aside)

and I think that her failure to apply any notion of compassion is a glaring denial of the unfairness that pervades reality

There are many things in Atlas Shrugged that are interesting, and her works were very important to me when I was young and angry.

but sadly, I have noted few absolutes in my subsequent experience,

Why was Eddie Willers left on the train siding, for example? A loyal assistant who had more compassion for his fellow man...

seems like a shabby reward for a loyal friend.

As I Grew Up...

...I came to realize more and more that Ayn Rand was a genius that our culture greatly needed. If our country survives, in the next few hundred years we will see her portrait next to Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and others of that stature, hanging in school rooms. Those who say, "I liked Ayn Rand when I was a kid, but then I grew up and now I know better" -- they grew sideways, not up, the way a diseased tree grows.

Sorry, Scotty...

...but Ayn Rand's philosophy is the ONLY hope for a rediscovery of rationality, rights, and free markets. Those who attack her defense of these values are doing as much harm to them as are the Marxists. Which is why Republicans are now in cringing retreat.