Who is Ayn Rand?

[liveonearth]

She was born in Russia and immigrated to the US in 1905 at the age of 21. She wrote a bunch of interesting books in her time. I discovered Ayn Rand when I was in college in the 1980's. I read a pile of her books, and passed them on to my friends. The Fountainhead was the first that I read, followed by Atlas Shrugged and then plodding on through a few more before I burned out. In these novels she began to develop Objectivism, her very own philosophy. She became quite famous later in life and was associated with Alan Greenspan and a host of other intellectuals.

I find it interesting that these days people scoff at Ayn Rand in much the same way that they scoff at Ron Paul. As if they were the lunatic fringe, not the sanest people around. Anyone who has not read at least one of Ayn Rand's books has no right to denigrate her ideas. And I pity the fool who dismisses Ron Paul before they really listen to him speak about what is happening in our country today.

It is true that Objectivism does not address the decimation of Earth's resources that we are now facing. But Rand's philosophy does insightfully assess many assumptions in our culture that continue to cause trouble. For example, Rand observes that "values" in our culture involve not so much specific codes of behavior as the idea that one's actions are right and good if they are done for someone else. Acting for yourself is not seen as being righteous. Acting for others will get you into heaven. Rand reintroduced the idea of rational self interest. In our culture we go to great lengths to appear unselfish, because to be selfish is the greatest sin of all. But to be a self with needs is to be selfish. So to deny our inherent selfishness is to deny our very selves. There are deep problems associated with the religious-unduced selflessness slant of our culture. Objectivism seeks to be objective about what is happening and why. I appreciate that.

It appears that someone is trying to get Rational Self Interest back into college curriculums, by appealing to the self interest of Universities. According to The Week at least 17 universities accepted a million buck donations under the condition that Atlas Shrugged be required reading in a course on capitalism from a moral perspective. That should be an interesting course.

I didn't know it until just now, but Anglina Jolie and Brad Pitt are working on putting together a movie version of Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged. It's on the shelf for now, because they want to do it right and until the pieces come together they won't touch it. I look forward to that one coming through.

Apparently Ayn Rand blocked a number of attempts to make her book into a movie, fearing perhaps that Hollywood would be completely oblivious to Objectivism and misconstrue her lifework. I wouldn't doubt it.

The Youtube video below is by a serious young man who purchased Greenspan's recent autobiography The Age of Turbulence and reads a portion of it so us that considers Ayn Rand.

words

Comments

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

In matters of language I am a descriptivist, not a prescriptivist. In other words, I attempt to understand what people mean regardless of how their use of words relates to the historical implications of the word. So yes, the language is blurry and the original meanings are often lost. Today, "should" and "ought" both imply that one is obligated to behave in a certain way for often unclear beneficiaries or values.

I suppose I may be a nihilist too. I have not yet found a basis for absolutes in right/wrong. I do however have an internal sense of joy/suffering, and bias my operations towards maximizing joy. Does that make me a hedonist, too?

It is interesting that Rand accepts property rights and not others. Every philosophy has assumptions that can be challenged.

As for her morality or amorality, I would have to embark on a whole new program of reading to really comment on it. My 20-year memory of her reading is that she objects to other people's valuations of things regularly. Does she make any firm statements about what is right and wrong? I don't recall.

I had no intention of falling into the position of defending Rand's positions when I made this post. I wanted to give her credit for influencing my thinking and to take note of a couple of current happenings that brought her back to mind.

[gavin6942.livejournal.com]

I will respond more fully in a bit. Just wanted to say, I certainly don't expect you to be the defender of Rand. So don't worry about that. :)

[gavin6942.livejournal.com]

Point taken on your use of language. I'd still stress an ought/should difference, as well as may/can lend/borrow and others. But certainly I do understand what people mean when they speak.

There's no harm in being a nihilist. I happen to find it a very respectable position. I am not one myself though I have great sympathy. If you consider pleasure to be the ultimate good and pain the ultimate evil, you could be considered a hedonist, sure.

I don't know if I want to scour the Rand books for exact quotations. But when selfishness is a "virtue", capitalism is an "ideal" and property rights are seen as the foundation of all Western rights... I'd say that's a moral system. She certainly talks the talk, at least.

Random quotations. Use of the word evil:

"There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil."

Talk about rights:

"A crime is the violation of the right(s) of other men by force (or fraud)."

"Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual)."

"Rights are moral principles which define and protect a man's freedom of action, but impose no obligation on other men."

"Since there is no such entity as 'the public,' since the public is merely a number of individuals, the idea that 'the public interest' supersedes private interests and rights can have but one meaning: that the interests and rights of some individuals take precedence over the interests and rights of others."

"The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence... The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud by others, and to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law."

Here I think she makes it clear she's moral (or immoral), and certainly not amoral:

"There is no escape from the fact that men have to make choices; so long as men have to make choices, there is no escape from moral values; so long as moral values are at stake, no moral neutrality is possible. To abstain from condemning a torturer, is to become an accessory to the torture and murder of his victims."

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

Excellent quotes. Thanks!

I guess I'm not a hedonist either, because I do not believe in good/evil.

[gavin6942.livejournal.com]

Well, "good" and "bad" if you prefer (and certainly you would say pleasure is good, since that's what makes it pleasurable). I don't believe in evil, either... I tend to use it more figuratively.