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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Right-Wing American Love Affair With One of the Most Disturbing Serial Killers
All roads lead to Russia...
"...in Rands universe, the producers had no obligations to the looters. Providing welfare or sacrificing one nickel of your own money to help a looter on welfare, unemployment, or Social Securityparticularly if it was taken at the barrel of a gun (taxes)was morally reprehensible.
Like Trump saying, My whole life Ive been greedy, for Rand looking out for numero uno was the singular name of the gameselfishness is next to godliness.
Later in Rands life, in 1959, as she gained more notoriety for the moral philosophy of selfishness that she named Objectivism and that is today at the core of libertarianism and the GOP, she sat down for an interview with CBS reporter Mike Wallace.
Suggesting that selfishness undermines most American values, Wallace bluntly challenged Rand.
You are out to destroy almost every edifice in the contemporary American way of life, Wallace said to Rand. Our Judeo-Christian religion, our modified government-regulated capitalism, our rule by the majority will
you scorn churches, and the concept of God
are these accurate criticisms?
As Wallace was reciting the public criticisms of (Ayn) Rand, the CBS television cameras zoomed in closely on her face, as her eyes darted back and forth between the ground and Wallaces fingers. But the question, with its implied condemnation, didnt faze her at all. Rand said with confidence in a matter-of-fact tone, Yes.
Were taught to feel concerned for our fellow man, Wallace challenged, to feel responsible for his welfare, to feel that we are, as religious people might put it, children under God and responsible one for the othernow why do you rebel?
That is what in fact makes man a sacrificial animal, Rand answered. She added, [mans] highest moral purpose is the achievement of his own happiness.
Rands philosophy, though growing in popularity on college campuses, never didin her lifetimeachieve the sort of mass appeal she had hoped. It was confined to college coffee shops, intellectual conferences, and true-believer journals, but never hit the halls of Congress, the mainstream television airwaves, or water-cooler political debates. There were the handful of true believers, but that was it
until today.
Now, Ayn Rands philosophy is a central tenet of todays Republican Party and the moral code proudly cited and followed by high-profile billionaires and the president of the United States.
Ironically, when she was finally beginning to be taken seriously, Ayn Rand became ill with lung cancer, and went on Social Security and Medicare to make it through her last days. She died a looter in 1982, unaware that her sociopathic worldview would one day validate an entire political partys embrace of a sociopathic narcissist president."
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/08/13/right-wing-american-love-affair-one-most-disturbing-serial-killers
bdamomma
(63,822 posts)She added, [mans] highest moral purpose is the achievement of his own happiness.
And fuck everyone else. Period. That is what is happening today.
modrepub
(3,493 posts)It was my understanding that Rand was very reliant on the welfare state programs she railed against near the end of her life. That being the case I'd argue her supporters are cut from the same cloth. They may complain about government give aways but they are nearly all on the receiving end considering most states contributing the highest amounts of federal revenue tend to vote democratic and most states receiving more than they contribute tend to vote Republican. My question is, are your taxes so high because of all the government spending or because your government returns less to your community than it takes?
I'm all for what these people want. You support your own, keep taxes local, split the military bill per capita and charge everyone a flat rate. I really mean it even if it was only done 6 months out of the year. People seem to have very little understanding of where tax money comes from and where it goes.
Mopar151
(9,977 posts)To alligators, maybe. Sumbitches.....