Last night after recommending a friend of mine read Ayn Rand’s “Anthem” I decided to read it again myself. I confess it always brings me to tears, I think moreso each time I read it. I see Atlas Shrugged as slightly more of an intellectual blueprint of both enslavement and liberty. While still beautiful and a greater feat in its entirety it doesn’t strike as hard. I see Anthem as more of an emotional picture of liberty, while its scope is not nearly as broad its impact completely overwhelms me.
While I disagree with parts of Objectivism (primarily the necessity of government to protect rights) I’ve never found another author that presents liberty as beautifully as Rand. Recently non-fiction reading has been boring me to tears, I’m hoping some of you will have fiction recommendations stemming more from aesthetics than intellectual content.
I’m different, I couldn’t get past half of Atlas Shrugged without ragequitting due to the length. Uh, the Fountainhead is supposed to be pretty good I heard.
Fuck yes it is. Hugo is the shit. And it is indirectly linked to liberty since it traces creation and evolution all the way through the human mind. Hence, referencing creativity.
I don’t know who could look at the non-political and more personal writings and actions of Ayn Rand and not be mildly disgusted
Many libertarians do support intellectual property rights
Do you mean indirectly? Like as a reaction to his works? At any rate I do think that it’s quite relevant since we are talking about both the “most beautiful presentations of liberty”, as Ayn Rand presented what is (in my and opinion and in the opinion of many others) quite a beautiful presentation of liberty, and responding to Skeptic’s apparent rejection the work since it was (presumably, I hope I am not misrepresenting you SM) not quite fitting because Ayn Rand hated libertarians.
Yea, Ayn Rand is typically seen as more of a symbol of the worst aspects of capitalism. And she did hate the libertarians. She was friends with Baron Rothschild…I’m sure Rothbard was soooo jealous that her “liberty” got her into that world, while his “liberty” got what it did.
Rothbard even went so far as to write a play that lampooned what he percieved as being a massive cult following around a woman who had used libertarianism to create her own strange spiritual…following, or something.
Ayn Rand represents the crass conception of capitalism. “Fuck other people. Get rich and dominate.” On top of her personal opinions I see no reasons why people should look up to her. And on top of that she hated the people who are here, revering her for supporting an ideology that she didn’t support.
Her entire philosophy boils down to asthetic preferences…and a cult of personality as SM said.
Rothschild is an example of the kind of business success that is to be shunned by libertarians (according to Rothbard and many others I’m sure), but Ayn was friends with him/them. She thought they were great examples of mankind. Bankers for the State; helluva a libertarian success story.
You don’t have to admire someone to admire their works or think that something which they wrote was beautiful. If this were the case then the sorry lives of most philosophers and writers would discredit them utterly. Also, Rand’s portrayal of capitalism was not in any way crass. It was proud, optimistic, and endearing to the individual and human spirit. The protagonists in Atlas Shrugged were not only proud but they were kind and respectful of others. No one was looked down on other than those who demand things of others and those who refused to contribute to their own welfare.
I am not one for Rand or Objectivism, but I do see that the vision she portrayed in her works and in Atlas Shrugged as something especially positive, libertarian, and especially pro-market.
Okay. But I still have an extremely difficult time getting through Rand’s crude writing style. Pretty easy to get lost in that web, from what I remember.
I don’t know if you have read any Heinlein, but you might be interested in this essay by Jeff Riggenbach titled Was Robert A. Heinlein a Libertarian? The last paragraph:
I’m not a fan of Ayn Rand the person, but Ayn Rand the author was pretty good (well, I don’t think her prose is magnificent, but the stories were good). To borrow from Toscanini (about Strauss):
To Rand the author I take off my hat; to Rand the woman I put it back on again.
