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1OldSarge
We have been blessed or cursed, depending on your viewpoint, with two new biographies of Ayn Rand this year.
GODDESS OF THE MARKET: Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns
AYN RAND AND THE WORLD SHE MADE by Anne C. Heller
I'm currently reading GODDESS OF THE MARKET. While I do find aspects of her personality, behaviour and philosophy disturbing, I have always found her fascinating.
I first read her work (THE FOUNTAINHEAD) when I was twentyfive. I had been out in the world, making my own way while "friends" were still going to college at mommy & daddy's expense and living at home. Needless to say it made an impression on me.
When I did finally make an attempt at college in my mid to late twenties, I once (and only once) attended a meeting of the local Objectivist society. These people creeped me out. They trumpeted Ayn Rand's philosophy, while being totally guilty of the collective group-thought that she damned.
That was enough for me to walk away. I'm a Libertarian and that's that. Yeah I know, I've given twentyfive years of my life to the Army, but that's another story.
Anyone else read these yet?
GODDESS OF THE MARKET: Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns
AYN RAND AND THE WORLD SHE MADE by Anne C. Heller
I'm currently reading GODDESS OF THE MARKET. While I do find aspects of her personality, behaviour and philosophy disturbing, I have always found her fascinating.
I first read her work (THE FOUNTAINHEAD) when I was twentyfive. I had been out in the world, making my own way while "friends" were still going to college at mommy & daddy's expense and living at home. Needless to say it made an impression on me.
When I did finally make an attempt at college in my mid to late twenties, I once (and only once) attended a meeting of the local Objectivist society. These people creeped me out. They trumpeted Ayn Rand's philosophy, while being totally guilty of the collective group-thought that she damned.
That was enough for me to walk away. I'm a Libertarian and that's that. Yeah I know, I've given twentyfive years of my life to the Army, but that's another story.
Anyone else read these yet?
2Doug1943
OldSarge: You might like to read Murray Rothbard's essay The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult.
3lriley
I read her three novels a long time ago and was kind of swept away by them for a short period of time. I don't think they work very well as literature. The best of them is set in the new Soviet state. The other two set in America have hokey plots and a mean spiritedness to them and it's all interspersed with mind numbingly long rants that after you've read through one or two seem all too familiar later on--time and again. The conclusion to Atlas Shrugged in particular is absurd.
As for her economics I don't like her bend towards elitism. That people should get out of the way and let unfettered capitalism do what it does best and let the best people rise to the top. There will always be a question of just who the best are. It's not something that self evident to all. In the case of deregulating financial markets--the recent Wall St. collapse is a case in point. Economics in itself goes beyond theorization--there is always something of the chaos factor involved. Regulation of the markets and the banking systems may be 'evil' for some but it is a necessary evil for the majority of the people who work in this country and who have invested their lives just as much as the more wealthy. Finally I think the ideas of Milton Friedman and the work of Alan Greenspan--two of her more noted acolytes--bears some scrutiny. They are both proven failed as far as I'm concerned.
As for her economics I don't like her bend towards elitism. That people should get out of the way and let unfettered capitalism do what it does best and let the best people rise to the top. There will always be a question of just who the best are. It's not something that self evident to all. In the case of deregulating financial markets--the recent Wall St. collapse is a case in point. Economics in itself goes beyond theorization--there is always something of the chaos factor involved. Regulation of the markets and the banking systems may be 'evil' for some but it is a necessary evil for the majority of the people who work in this country and who have invested their lives just as much as the more wealthy. Finally I think the ideas of Milton Friedman and the work of Alan Greenspan--two of her more noted acolytes--bears some scrutiny. They are both proven failed as far as I'm concerned.
4Lunar
In the case of deregulating financial markets--the recent Wall St. collapse is a case in point.
The American financial industry is the most heavily regulated industry in the world. And you were saying what about unfettered capitalism?
The American financial industry is the most heavily regulated industry in the world. And you were saying what about unfettered capitalism?
5lriley
Laws and/or regulations on the books not being enforced however. Regulators in bed with the people they're regulating. Not enough of them anyway. Which is basically to say the whole system of regulating has no teeth.
6codyed
Here's Rothbard's one act play, Mozart Was a Red. It was based on Rothbard's numerous meetings with Rand.
