--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Share Long <sharelong60@...> wrote: > > I remember the first time someone told me that Ron Paul follows the ideas of > Ayn Rand. I thought, oh yeah? What is his stand on abortion? > > I knew that Rand would be pro choice so I often wondered about the > Republican's liking of her. I suspected that they picked and chose from > among her ideas. They did. Plus, what they chose, they distorted for > political purposes. >
True, politicians do pick and choose from Rand's ideas. Problem is the ideas they pick suit the purposes of unregulated free markets at the expense of everyone else. Most politicians now serve the interests of global corporations who own and saturate the media with Libertarian propaganda so that people will fear the government and vote against their own best interests. > Anyone who is anti abortion is by definition not a Randian. > > Anyone who is a racist is by definition not a Randian. True. > > Anyone who wants favors, tax or otherwise, for a select few is not a Randian. > A "flat tax" ain't so fair either. > Anyone who believes in government subsidies for business is not a Randian. > Seems to me free market Libertarians are on the same page as Rand here. They don't believe in much government for anything, period. > She believes in freedom for everyone, not simply for the elite. > Yep. Everyone is free to pick themselves up by their own bootstraps. Trouble is, the elites own all the boots. > Rational self interest, as I understand it, is benevolent towards all life > forms. > In a perfect world where everyone is naturally altruistic and doesn't have a greedy bone in his or her body, Rand's vision of rational self interest might have some legs. On a practical level, not so much. > RD, I sense this is a topic on which we will not agree. > > Actually one of the most insightful comments about Ayn Rand was from my > former mother in law. She said about Rand, "She's so far to the right, > she's actually on the left." > You're probably right we won't agree but it's fun playing and I appreciate your thoughts on the topic. Since no one else seems interested in this thread, I'll make one last point by posting this video and you can choose to respond or not. http://youtu.be/JMdfptJ_XA4 > ________________________________ > From: raunchydog <raunchydog@...> > To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Wednesday, July 4, 2012 1:01 PM > Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Relationships: "master-disciple" or > "guru-groupie?" > > >  > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "feste37" <feste37@> wrote: > > > > Paul Ryan is the Randian Congressman. She provides him with the cover he > > needs to justify cruelty and selfishness. > > > > 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: > > "Manâ"every manâ"is 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 > > 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 >
