Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Politics In General Ayn Rand's Ideas: An Introduction

The Ayn Rand Institute 10 minute lecture.

A jumping off point for a discussion of the ideas of the Author Ayn Rand.

YouTube

Ayn Rand's message to the GOP candidates.

I used to read her stuff back 40 years or so ago, I was just a dumbass country boy though and thought it was just good reading, I never knew it was propaganda.

Some of it I like some of it I don't like; same with most political theories. Political theory and practice are two different things.

Say no more...

I tried to find a transcript of both, but was unable to. For those of us currently condemned to dial-up, do you know of one?
Yours,
Issodhos

Issodhos, if you have a download manager program, you may be able to get these videos unattended (maybe as you sleep?). Be aware though, that YouTube uses some sort of distributed server system for downloads, and what works for me, may not for you, because of locale differences. I show the two links to the files as:

http://chi-v240.chi.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=IGIWqaPMS5A

http://74.125.15.84/get_video?video_id=1xKGZMwaIG8&origin=sjl-v104.sjl.youtube.com

You need to name them something and save them as .flv files, and have a .flv player program too.

If you do not have a download manager, DLExpert will probably work (I use it now and then). It is only 740k and can be downloaded from the 2nd to last entry on this page.

For a .flv player, GodLikeMouse (I didn't name it-Jason Graves did, although the name does amuse me a bit...) works well, and also has the ability to download from YouTube. It's a 1.63mb download from this sourceforge page. You want the newest version. presently that's GLV-FLV-Setup.2.1.exe

The most obvious result of Ayn Rand's influence, as far as I can detect, is the active, and vehement hatred of those who are suffering by Conservatives. Whereas once they might feel compassion, that word is now just a joke.

In the mind of Conservatives, those who suffer deserve their fate. The rich are "worthy" of their wealth, along with the favor of God that all rich people enjoy.

This corsening of American Conservative thought has made America a less pleasant place to live, and reduced its standing in the world, with no discernable increase in either wealth, power of honor. Only the levels of hate have increased.

I am one who believes in moderation in all things. Of late, the focus of most public discussion has been of the extremes. Rationalism is also out of favor in favor of ideologues. To the extent that Ayn Rand supported the individual above all others, the philosophy (if one can call it that) is fatally flawed. Humans are, by their very nature, gregarious. While there are "lone wolves" amongst us, they are, by definition, not the norm, but the exception. While Americans tend to idolize the "individual" that is really a con. It's kind of like being in a group of anarchists. Let's all rebel together. The reality is that Americans, like every other society on earth, are social creatures, and denying that is irrational.

I am not a big believer in, or truly versed in, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, so my response is necessarily general. I'm not sure that the modern Republican party is even close to that position, however, because it doesn't have much a cohesive philosophy at all, other than being non-Democratic. I have to admit, however, that her commentary to the GOP (cited in the original post) is fundamentally sound (and a good message for modern "conservatives"), but her absolute rejection of any kind of "social"ism is, I believe, completely irrational.