> > --- "feste37" <feste37@> wrote: > > > > Paul Ryan is the Randian Congressman. She provides him with the cover he > > needs to justify cruelty and selfishness. > > > --- "raunchydog" <raunchydog@...> wrote: > > Feste & Share: > Although Alan Greenspan, Ronald Reagan and most of his cabinet were Ayn Rand > fanboys, she opposed Reagan's candidacy for his anti-choice position on > abortion and, "the appalling disgrace of his administration's connection with > the so-called "Moral Majority"...who...with his approval...take us back to > the Middle Ages, via the unconstitutional union of religion and politics." > http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/ayn_rand_absolutely_hated_ronald_reagan/ > > Ayn Rand was an atheist, not that there's anything wrong with that, but it > sure caused Paul Ryan some embarrassment with the religionists in his party. > Recently, he saved his political neck in a statement to National Review > saying, "I reject her [Rand] philosophy. It's an atheist philosophy. It > reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to > my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person's view on > epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas. Don't give me Ayn Rand." > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/27/paul-ryan-ayn-rand_n_1459098.html > > It's understandable that as a Catholic Republican, Ryan prefers certainty. > He's an authoritarian personality who likes things spelled out for him by an > authority. He marches around the halls of Congress in jackboots and I'm sure > he steers clear of the Congressional Black caucus. > > Ryan sees it as his duty to assert what he believes is a moral and therefor > justifiable philosophy into his politics. He will blindly follow Rand to the > end of his days, even if there's ample proof that what once looked good in > print doesn't work in real life. His adherence to *rules* whether Rand or > Aquinas, of how things *ought* to be might explain the ruthlessness of his > economic plan to strip Medicare from seniors. > > Ayn Rand had it right about the separation of church and state and pro-choice > but there's a whole lot wrong with the main tenant of her philosophy, > objectivism: > > "Manevery manis an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He > must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor > sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest > and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life." > http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=objectivism_intro >
Raunchy, such extremes of ideology never works because nature functions within parameters. If every cell in the body starts working only for itself, it becomes a cancer cell. There is a delicate balance between the individual and the collective. This is how nature functions. This is how we evolved into societies and then into a civilisation in the first place. --- "raunchydog" <raunchydog@...> wrote: > > Ayn Rand's rational self-interest is nothing more than selfishness loosely > wrapped in philosophy. The Ron Paul Libertarians, Tea Party Yahoos, and > rightwings, neo-fascist and racists, who believe in "freedom" for elites > (i.e. states rights, gun rights) completely embrace Ayn Rand's notion of > unregulated, laissez faire capitalism. In a Randian world the fix is in for > the rich to get richer on the backs of the poor as anti-tax crusader, Grover > Norquist drowns government in a bathtub. > > "Thanks in part to Rand, the United States is one of the most uncaring > nations in the industrialized world." > > "Ayn Rand's "philosophy" is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the > size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a > curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed and > egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil." - Gore Vidal, 1961 > > http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/8958-ayn-rand-made-us-a-selfish-greedy-nation >
