Ayn Rand

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Tomahawk wrote:

She is one of the founders of the modern libertarian movement. Her ability to explain the basis for individual liberty was considerable.

If she had a fault, it was that she was intolerant of any deviation from her interpretation of the world. If you weren't an atheist, if you weren't a believer in the gold or silver standard, etc., you were on the road to tyranny. She even took it a bit farther: if you didn't like the same music she did, if you ever drank a sip of alcohol, you weren't right in the mind and were on the road to tyranny.

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Right you are. She actually hated libertarians and often derided them as cheap ripoffs of her works. She was a purist and wanted everyone to think just like her. But her books are loved by many libertarians and individualists.

I've never actually read any of them.

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I just finished reading Anthem and wanted to thank everyone for the recommendation. It was a great book. I didn't realize how short it was, and now wish I'd read it sooner.

I found this excerpt particularly good:

"But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. This and nothing else.

At first, man was enslaved by the gods. But he broke their chains. Then he was enslaved by the kings. But he broke their chains. He was enslaved by his birth, by his kin, by his race. But he broke their chains. He declared to all his brothers that a man has rights which neither god nor king nor other men can take away from him, no matter what their number, for his is the right of man, and there is no right on earth above this right."

Now I guess I'll have to read Atlas Shrugged, but it seems it will take significantly longer to finish.

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cloudcroft wrote:

I know about her, but since shewas a modern-dayproponent ofthe popular18th century "Enlightenment" belief system, I dismissed her as being just an ignorant deluded anti-Christian Secular Humanist...so I never wanted to read her books.

-- John D.

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This comment persuaded me to go out and buy Atlas Shrugged today. Will begin reading tomorrow...

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I've not read any Rand yet.

I think I have some of her work on my Zippo drive, though.

I know Kendo_Bunny has... I might have to borrow a book or two from her.

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Speaking as a future English teacher, I believe 'Anthem' is Rand's best book. Her problem was that she never learned how to write conversation and is unable to have two characters that embody her philosophy talking without it coming off sounding incredibly awkward. She was also apparently deadly afraid that if she didn't repeat her point 15 times, no one would understand it. See the 62-page monologue in 'Atlas Shrugged'.

As someone interested in politics, I think she was spot-on a fair amount of the time with people's slavish devotion to the tyranny of mediocrity. I can say that as a religious Christian- to me, she did worship a god. She worshipped a god of rationality, and my particular brand of my religion has only let me see God as a rational being.