Mike Wallace Interviews Ayn Rand, 1959

[Doremus]

Run time: 09:29 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ukJiBZ8_4k   Posted on YouTube: January 09, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: February 11, 2009 By DU Member: Doremus Views on DU: 2405

 
I don't know what's more remarkable:

1. Rand's egomaniacal "I've got mine, fuck everybody else" ideology

or

2. Hearing Mike Wallace dress her down for not loving her fellow man.

:rofl:

[Idealism]

1. I cannot stand Ayn Rand

A cancer upon society; greed is not good Mrs. Gekko

[alittlelark]

2. Her eyes are EMPTY... she reeks of Nazi.

I remember reading Atlas Shrugged my senior yr of HS. It was one of the most difficult books I had ever read.

The characters were shallow, the dialog was loooong and boring, the book had too many pages of repetition.

She is a lousy author.

[WCGreen]

4. It's a philosophy for young lads who have never had an

orgasm by any other means than their own...

[Doremus]

16. Same here. Fountainhead was one of the most rambling, incoherent

books I've read to this day.

The characters were silly caricatures and, as you mentioned, deleting about half the dialogue would be an improvement.

How that no-talent magalomaniac ever gained fame is beyond me.

[provis99]

3. her family's background says everything

the daughter of brutal, oppressive Russian landowners who whined and complained when their stolen fortunes were justifiably turned over to the peasants they had oppressed for centuries when the Communists took over in Russia.

Objectivism isn't a philosophy; it is merely an excuse for rich crooks to feel good about oppressing other people.

[Warpy]

7. Very much so.

MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE!!

[Confusious]

19. Ah!

Didn't know that. That explains everything about her "philosophy"

[drmeow]

5. It was really, really, really creepy

the way her eyes kept shifting around. I'd love to see a psych eval on her - very DEFINITELY insecurely attached (dismissing to the EXTREME) although she may have had a full blown attachment disorder. Can you imagine being married to that creature? I'd say she failed her own criteria - she's completely unworthy of love. Probably some personality disorder in there as well. She must have had a royally fucked up childhood to have become such a morally dead person.

Her ideology is beyond "I've got mine, fuck everyone else." Its "I deserve mine and nobody else deserves theirs cause they are not like me" combined with fundamental ignorance about morality, love, and altruism. I see where her followers get their extreme and excessive black and white thinking plus their gross misrepresentation of everything.

[Warpy]

6. Great logic on faulty premises

only proves GIGO: garbage in, garbage out.

What the hell was going on with her eyes, anyway?

Actually, she looks like a lot of diehard Marxists I know with the dirty, severe haircut and the air of explaining particle physics to a toaster. Ironically, both philosophies suffer the same fatal flaw: they rely on the perfection of the human race to work.

However, Marxism has been a valid transition from a colonial oligarchy to a stable mixed economy; Randism only leads to serfdom.

[alittlelark]

8. The Cons LOVE Ann Rand... but they DO NOT want ppl to watch this

She is obviously mentally unstable.... her eyes are deeply disturbing...


Their heroine is laid bare.... and it is ugly.

[GaYellowDawg]

9. The contrast between Mike Wallace and his son is appalling.

Mike Wallace opposed Rand's philosophies. His son is a lapdog for her "intellectual" heirs.

[soleiri]

10. Thanks for the nightmares!

:scared:


I can not believe that people follow that person.

[Hello_Kitty]

11. I can't believe how much influence that fucking weirdo exerted and continues to exert

Also, and I can't believe I have to point this out to people but, her novels were FICTION. The whole foundation of Objectivism rests on made up stories!!

Aaargh! :banghead:

[underpants]

15. It is a justification for greed

that is the only reason that Greenspan and others sat at her feet and believed her. We have seen this carried out in to religion of all things- the justification of wealth so long as some of it returned to your church. And of course, in "business"- from Walmart operations to not only make money but run (squash, victorious crush) any and all competition to the "Masters of the Universe" culture of glorious self promotion and obedience of people in your industry (they seem to have forgotten the part about their own self interests beholden to individuals and exulting their greatness).

Rand herself thought that she was the product of and witness to the darkest behavior of humans at least in the 20th century-the Russian revolution. Yes there were horrible atrocities that is for sure but compared to Hitler or Pol Pot it paled in comparison especially in Rand's case. Her middle class family lost their pharmacy, greatly disrupting sure but not the worst thing that ever happened.

Rand was damaged goods. Why, I don't know but she clearly created a justification for her own inability to attach and expanded it on to the human condition. At the end there is no loyalty and she believes that it is acceptable to flip on a person regardless of the nature of the relationship if only to make sure they don't flip on you first.

The word Wallace was looking for was "tempered". Yes we have the drive and the need to look out for ourselves but it must be tempered by restraint. Restraint makes sure you don't cut down the forest for a night's fire or engage in public masturbation simply because you feel it is best for you right now etc.

Followers of Rand are alive and well. They are the genesis of much of the last 40 years simply because they were working off a plan while no one else knew there was a game afoot, we temper ourselves to not exist in such an inhumane world.

[snot]

12. Fascinating.

Personally, I find many grains of truth in what she said, not to mention originality; and dare I say I "love" her for them.

At the same time, I believe her philosophy to be unlivable -- to lead to misery not only to others but to one's self (I say that having tried it for a year or so back in my salad days).

Don't think I've seen anyone else whose eyes shifted so frequently.

[vanbean]

13. First of all, Ayn, take a bath at least every Saturday.

She looks grimy.

[monmouth]

14. I'm so old, I remember Mike Wallace starring on a soap opera.. Honest, he did....sigh...n/t

[SKKY]

17. She kinda fascinates me...

...It's like I'm watching the last bastion of some great society that has been proven flawed hold on to the bitter end.

[PA Democrat]

18. Alan Greenspan's role model. Ick. She is both mentally and physically repulsive.

[Mari333]

20. ugh I saw a movie based on one of her books, with Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal

Rand had written the screenplay..it was AWFUL>
but funny...
the last scene depicted the Hero, Cooper, standing at the top of a skyscraper, and Neal, the little woman, rising up to him on a lift...it was a HUGE phallic skyscraper, and I kept laughing ...and believe me, Rand was a shitty writer.

[rdmtimp]

27. That was "The Fountainhead" (1949)

Interestingly, before he unleashed "Heaven's Gate", Michael Cimino wanted to do a remake of The Fountainhead.

Steven Bach (who was an exec at United Artists at that time) wrote a book, Final Cut, in which he makes what I think is the best summmation of Ayn Rand:

"I hadn't read The Fountainhead since adolesence, which may be the best time to read it."

[Jack Rabbit]

21. A hack writer and a quack philosopher

Ms. Rand's philosophy boils down to a moralistic justification of greed and selfishness based on a poor reading of Aristotle's Organon.

One should bear in mind when reading her droppings that she defined man in such a way as to make her judgements logically valid. Any one can "prove" anything that way. She basically defines man as an acquisitive animal. Frankly, I find that a half-truth.

[lutefisk]

23. What Jack Rabbit said.

:thumbsup:

[PCIntern]

22. As Ahnold once said in a great film

"You are one ugly motherfucker."

[specialed]

24. She's like L. Ron Hubbard...

in the sense that she preaches individualism and self gain and how did she get out of Russia? Help from friends and Relatives. How did she live when she first got to America? Help from friends and Relatives. She's the do it yourself huckster of her time.

[LongTomH]

25. Thoughts on this:

Kim Stanley Robinson's definition of libertarians seems apropos: "Anarchists who want police powers to protect them from their slaves."

A comment from a writer, whose name I've forgotten, on some conservatives: "They sound like they want the sewer pipes laid down by their generation to be ripped up so the next generation will have to start over." Actually, the Reagan generation conservatives laid very little in the way of sewer pipes, or provided very little in the way of infrastructure. They even neglected the infrastructure provided by previous generations; reference the bridge collapses and electrical blackouts in recent years. That neglect is completely consistent with Ms Rand's philosophy; refuse to do anything for anyone else unless there's profit in it.

One last thought, and I know it's an unkind one: She reminds me of Frau Blucher in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein. :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared:

[seasat]

26. How her life ended up says it all.

Her final years were spent locked in a room in her apartment because she had delusions that the KGB were trying to get her. Her philosophy was more a reaction to the brutal soviet government than deep thought. It was borne of a deep paranoia and represented the exact opposite extreme to communism. I think it really appealed to some people in the US during the 50s to 70s because of the fear of the Soviet Union.

[PassingFair]

28. Reminds me of the blurb on Jon Stewart's book:

"This is similar to my works in that anyone who reads it is sure to be an asshole for at least a month afterward." —Ayn Rand

I actually agree with some of Rand's "philosophy"
at least in regards to her concept of atheism and
the care and concern for one's own intellect...

Now, with regards to her attitudes about helping
others and altruism...

FUCK HER!