Ayn Rand

Christopher Hitchens referred to Ayn Rand's philosophy as "excrement on the page", I don't know that I would go that far, well actually I have on more than one occasion. So yeah, it's crap.

My real problem with Rand isn't her, it's the majority of her devotees. Her philosophy, which she called objectivism is easy to understand. She was born in Russia to a wealthy family. The Soviet Union stripped her family of their wealth and social standing, so she was pissed off. I don't blame her, any of us would be but not all of us turn our bitterness into a political philosophy skewed from experience with communism. Rather than blaming the ruling elites, she chose to blame the masses, everywhere.

Her basic gripe comes down to this, there is a small number of smart productive people who make the world work and then there's the rest, who are nothing more than leaches. Very similar to Mitt Romney's 47% statement in 2012.

Rand's prominence came about because of two philosophy books masquerading as novels.Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are two truly horrible books that are, to be kind, tedious. Over time they became books that for some reason most young people read in college. It impressed and inspired some, while boring most.

Let's focus on the inspired ones. There's no better known or powerful one right now than Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. Until his run for Vice-president in 2012, Ryan had been very vocal about how important Ayn Rand was to forming his political philosophies. He spoke at length of discovering her in college after reading those two novels. For him it was as though a fog were lifted. I think it's fair to say that Paul Ryan is a reasonably intelligent man and doesn't appear defective in anyway. In 2012 he started getting questions about his devotion to Rand but he really didn't want to talk about it. He wanted his fierce advocacy of her philosophy for the previous twenty years to be ignored. Ryan is a devout Christian, whatever that means. During one press conference he got peppered with Rand questions and attempted to side step them. When asked about Rand being an atheist, he said he didn't know that and that he strongly disagreed with that. He didn't know it? Ayn Rand made no secrecy of her atheism and it's all over her work. How could he not know that and why should that matter, if her philosophy was so compelling to him. He disavowed her and it's only because he didn't want to be associated with an atheist.

Ayn Rand's political philosophy has nothing to do with atheism. Intriguingly her most devout followers are people of faith. How thoroughly they have studied her complete writings is questionable.

I reject Rand's political philosophy and most importantly her long sleep inducing novels.

I doubt that Donald Trump knows who Ayn Rand is, but there are echoes of her in his rantings.

Did you really think I wasn't going to throw Trump in there?

Silly you.