read that bitch more than Playboy magazine or Sports Illustrated
combined. Ayn Randriods treat her like Christians treat Jesus. Here
is a joke: What is the difference between the Church Of Satan and
followers of Any Rand? The Satanists are ex-Catholics and Ayn
Randroids are secular Jews with college nerds!
The story about surges in purchases of Rand books (Atlas in
particular) in response first to the popularity, then the victory,
then the inauguration of Barack Obama has been kicking around the
press for a few months now. I can't help thinking of the similar swell
in Fox News' viewer ship (please don't make me link a reference), or
the sudden conspicuous frenzy of the bats hit crazy branch of the
party -- which turned out this week to include the Newtmeister, now
warning us of an impending dictatorship.
Who let the dogs out?
Most of these people in the political sphere are not pure Randians;
they believe in God, and would insert the Almighty as a projected
proxy for themselves into the process of governance wherever they
might. (More on this ostensibly unresolvable conflict with the
American Right in a later post.)
Yet the Randites share much with the delusional conservatives.
Primarily, both groups are proud of not making apologies for their
selfishness, proud of refusing anyone out of luck the benefit of the
doubt, and positively proud of the fruits of their own supposed
initiative in an age where prosperity has become so institutionalized
that "initiative" is something we can now only write in lower case:
salaried jobs, employer-provided health care, and an all-pervasive
corporate presence that clearly defines what it expects of the
individual -- all these have taken a toll on the primacy of individual
talent and its prospects in America. For outside of a mere relative
handful of celebrities, it is the corporate players who have been best
rewarded by this setup, speaking solely in monetary terms of course.
The story about surges in purchases of Rand books (Atlas in
particular) in response first to the popularity, then the victory,
then the inauguration of Barack Obama has been kicking around the
press for a few months now. I can't help thinking of the similar swell
in Fox News' viewership (please don't make me link a reference), or
the sudden conspicuous frenzy of the batshit crazy branch of the party
-- which turned out this week to include the Newtmeister, now warning
us of an impending dictatorship.
Who let the dogs out?
Most of these people in the political sphere are not pure Randians;
they believe in God, and would insert the Almighty as a projected
proxy for themselves into the process of governance wherever they
might. (More on this ostensibly unresolvable conflict with the
American Right in a later post.)
Yet the Randites share much with the delusional conservatives.
Primarily, both groups are proud of not making apologies for their
selfishness, proud of refusing anyone out of luck the benefit of the
doubt, and positively proud of the fruits of their own supposed
initiative in an age where prosperity has become so institutionalized
that "initiative" is something we can now only write in lower case:
salaried jobs, employer-provided health care, and an all-pervasive
corporate presence that clearly defines what it expects of the
individual -- all these have taken a toll on the primacy of individual
talent and its prospects in America. For outside of a mere relative
handful of celebrities, it is the corporate players who have been best
rewarded by this setup, speaking solely in monetary terms of course.
Perhaps the Randians sense that this is the case: that it is the
corporation, and not the individual, that is pulling the strings
today, and maybe this is the background ostinato that is the real
reason behind the resurgence; Obama is no more than a catalyst.
Let me leave you with the antidote, the purest refutation of
objectivism: beauty for its own sake, brought to you by another
refugee from Eastern Europe, born just two years apart from Rand (just
to show that this was not entirely a lost generation):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWNowGos9jo
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