"How the Ayn Rand-Loving Right Is Like a Bunch of Teen Boys Gone Crazy" by Sara Robinson

[applegrove]

http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/155393/how_the_ayn_randloving_right_is_like_a_bunch_of_teen_boys_gone_crazy

How the Ayn Rand-Loving Right Is Like a Bunch of Teen Boys Gone Crazy

by Sara Robinson at Alternet

"SNIP...........................................................


Make no mistake: all this Ayn Rand libertarian me-first-and-the-rest-of-you-go-to-hell stuff -- the there's-no-government-like-no-government theology that's now being piously intoned as Holy Received Truth by everybody, male and female, in the GOP -- is, very precisely, the kind of politics you'd come up with if you were a 16-year-old boy trying to explain away his dependence on Mom.

Parents? I don't have any parents. I raised myself, on roots and berries and small vermin I dug up in vacant lots. That lady hanging around, feeding me and nagging me and picking up my socks and driving me to practice? She's just the nanny state. That bitch. I hate her.

Society? There's no such thing as society. There's only what I want right now, which is the ultimate good in my universe. And what I want right now is more time on the XBox, pizza money, and the keys to the family car.

The future? If I pursue everything I want now, then the future will magically take care of its self. Dinner will appear. So will clean socks and the next-gen XBox.



..........................................................SNIP"

[DirkGently]

1. Rand is what passes for philosophy & ethics for people who understand neither.

[nashville_brook]

13. well said!

[Jamaal510]

2. This article took the words right out of my mouth.

Last edited Mon May 28, 2012, 02:52 AM - Edit history (1)

These are the type of people who don't want to accept responsibility and pay up when it comes to taxes, they don't want to help out their community, they pretend they don't believe in collectivism even though they use public roads, and they pretend the nation is better off with privatized health care and education. Although one thing I will give most libertarians (with the exception of Ron Paul and his followers) is that they don't seem to be into the racism and homophobia that much. From all of this, I have concluded that libertarians and other Ayn Rand believers are nothing more than adult children when it comes to their mindset. Like children, most are not so much into bigotry, but they're irresponsible.

[Liberal Insights]

9. What are you talking about ? "Roads don't exist"

If you had read Rand, you would know that there is no such thing as "roads". That's only a concept, like groups and forests. Only INDIVIDUALS are real. So there are pebbles, etc., but when you put a lot of individuals together you only get "concepts". Rand argued that political entities and societies don't exist except as ideas in our heads - which would also mean that families, schools, churches, clubs, businesses, towns, sports teams, etc., etc., etc., don't exist. -
Don't blame ME if that sounds silly. That's the heart of Rand's philosophy. People who believe that nonsense think they are smarter than you and me because they are "objectivists".
I'm working on videos to show what irrational nonsense their "philosophy" is but so far, I've only published a web site showing how Godless anybody who embraces Rand's beliefs has to be at [ http://thegodlessconservativeparty.org .

[philly_bob]

3. Ayn Rand's influence should be mocked and refuted at every turn.

Although I like Ron Paul Republicans more than I like most Republicans -- they tend to be hipper and not as biased & puritanical -- the Libertarian philosophy has been incredibly destructive. You have large groups of people in positions of power who are trying to be selfish and greedy, as if it is a good thing.

[pnwmom]

5. Ron Paul Republicans, if they follow Ron Paul, are anti-choice and racist.

Ron Paul produced a racist newsletter for years. Supposedly he wasn't really a racist -- he just used the racist newsletter to raise millions of dollars.

Which is worse: to be a real racist or to fake being one in order to make a lot of money?

[Odin2005]

4. Randianism is the philosophy of an immature man-child.

[3waygeek]

6. One of my favorite quotes...

There are two novels that can transform a bookish 14-year-old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish daydream that can lead to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood in which large chunks of the day are spent inventing ways to make real life more like a fantasy novel. The other is a book about orcs.

Jason Van Boom, Tikkun Daily, June 15, 2010

[DirkGently]

11. Nicely done.

[JustAnotherGen]

7. Ayn Rand

Died on Medicaid and Social Security . . . Two things she spent her life railing against in between smoking cigarettes (died of lung cancer).

Zero courage of her convictions. She was a fraud.

Now my deceased father's opinion of her? Know this - he was a Cold War Era Green Beret - ie a True Believer who worshipped at the Alatar of LBJ - he thought she was a Communist Plant! Seriously - we spoke a lot about this world and country the last week he was alive. She was Public Enemy Number one as far as he was concerned. I write . He told me I should write a book about a miserable spy who dies alone and name the main female character Dana Ryn.

[awoke_in_2003]

8. K&r. Nt

[felix_numinous]

10. Self centeredness without responsibility

does sound a lot like an immature juvenile worldview. The human race needs to grow up and take responsibility for each other and the planet--it is what adults do.

[applegrove]

12. +100

[alphafemale]

14. And she admired a man who kidnapped and murdered a child as being truly free

He had sewed her eyelids open so her father would not know immediately that she was dead.