chompalot
01-19-2013, 05:27 PM
With this week’s news that Glenn Beck and others are preparing to take build libertarian communes and “Going Galt,” I figure now is the time to finally refine my theory about those who claim to be Ayn Rand acolytes or who brag that their favorite book is “Fountainhead Shrugged” (they are the same book written twice in order to double Rand’s profit, so for brevity, let’s just use one name).
To be sure, a strict Objectivist would probably argue that many developing-world nations don’t represent Rand’s vision because they are ruled by corrupt governments. But that’s not really relevant because many of those places are now defined by Authoritarian Capitalism whereby political freedoms are limited, but Randian free-market extremism most certainly is not. Indeed, as some American CEOs will openly admit, if you want to see a more purely Randian version of a socially darwinist free market than exists in America, head straight across the Pacific Ocean to China.
Put all this together, and I’m officially amending my theory. To be a Rand groupie is to flaunt your immaturity, your ignorance, your desperation to justify greed or your lack of international travel. It is, in other words, to admit your blindness to how so much of the world already lives, and to ignore what America would look like if “Fountainhead Shrugged” was seen as a public policy manual rather than what it really is: a dangerous farce.
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/19/ayn_rand_is_for_children/?source=newsletter
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/14/glenn_beck_wants_to_build_an_ayn_rand_inspired_uto pia/
Beck's tax-free floating island would make for excellent bombing targets for practice by the USN.:laugh: Relax resident objectionists, I was just making a very funny joke.:laugh:
To be sure, a strict Objectivist would probably argue that many developing-world nations don’t represent Rand’s vision because they are ruled by corrupt governments. But that’s not really relevant because many of those places are now defined by Authoritarian Capitalism whereby political freedoms are limited, but Randian free-market extremism most certainly is not. Indeed, as some American CEOs will openly admit, if you want to see a more purely Randian version of a socially darwinist free market than exists in America, head straight across the Pacific Ocean to China.
Put all this together, and I’m officially amending my theory. To be a Rand groupie is to flaunt your immaturity, your ignorance, your desperation to justify greed or your lack of international travel. It is, in other words, to admit your blindness to how so much of the world already lives, and to ignore what America would look like if “Fountainhead Shrugged” was seen as a public policy manual rather than what it really is: a dangerous farce.
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/19/ayn_rand_is_for_children/?source=newsletter
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/14/glenn_beck_wants_to_build_an_ayn_rand_inspired_uto pia/
Beck's tax-free floating island would make for excellent bombing targets for practice by the USN.:laugh: Relax resident objectionists, I was just making a very funny joke.:laugh: