Ayn Rand

I had just finished watching what can in my mind only be called propaganda biography of Ayn Rand. I would later discover that the institute supporting her philosophy and her cause produced it. And although the program was geared to put a very positive light on her life and writings, there was still a wealth of information. I disliked the production for it’s bias but did learn quite a bit. It also sparked further study on my part and anything that inspires one to gain more knowledge can never be wholly bad. Granted she was a brilliant and fascinating woman. The more I study and read of and about her I become more interested. I also see that as with Hitler’s reading of Nietzsche her philosophy has been bastardized and abused by many. It has been twisted to justify their own personal agenda. I still disagree deeply with objectivism as a philosophy; I see it as an intellectualized attempt to justify relativism. To justify Egoism, in a sense I like to think of it as Humanism without a soul. While praising and glorifying the human spirit and the rational mind Objectivism neglects the second part of what makes us human, our connection to and dependence on each other. In fact it rages against that part of our existence at every turn. However in today’s world our dependence on others and the whole has never been more important. That is what has always concerned me about any philosophy that attempts to justify a reliance on perception alone, as its basis. To argue that perception can be subjective, but also rational to me seems contradictory and incompatible. It defies logic, it is logically impossible for two separate and opposite perceptions to both be true. Ayn Rand’s ideas came from her situation and her time. Not sure that her ideas would have been the same or as strong if she had been living in London at the same time in history. The industrial revolution in certain parts of the world and then the brutal political revolution in her nations deeply affected her thinking. Her ideal man and her ultimate hero John Galt could have only come about during that time in history. Bringing her memories of the devastation of Russia with her to the glory and freedom she found in America was the perfect spark to start the raging fire that she was. When man was changing how he lived and how he defined himself. It was a time when man could change his world. When man could make life better for himself. Ayn came to this nation just as it was truly beginning to define itself. We had very strong and powerful men who made their mark on history and in doing so made this country great. There is no denying that at all. This was a time in history when this could happen. Not sure if it could have happened any other time in our country’s history. But we have passed that point in our history. We have built this nation into the most powerful country on the planet. But now we must maintain it. That cannot happen with the same wild west lassie fair abandon we had at that time. Even then some saw the need to pull back on the reins to protect the nation from ruin. It is the reason our President Teddy Roosevelt fought so hard to prevent the brutal results of unchecked greed from crushing the common man. The frightening thing today is that the greed of people like Rockefeller, Ford, Hughes, and others like Rand’s hero John Galt has gone uncheck for far too long. It has gone too far and I fear there may not be a way to save the country as we did before. Also the influx of those who hold the earlier mentioned bastardized ideals of Rand’s philosophy have become a strong force in our current government. There are a vast number of those in our government today who want to see a complete destruction of the federal power. Not just a simple limitation of the federal government but a complete starvation of the beast so to speak and a stronger control to the individual states. Those who believe that compromise is a loss of individual morals and rights have taken hold. To the point where they are no only willing to see the government fail but in fact have that as their end goal. They see this unshaken uncompromising stand as a type of holy war, and are willing to use any means necessary to achieve their desires. To them the only true victory would be the loss of the federal government, as we know it today. This terrifies me mainly because there are those who still believe that we can bring these individuals around to a rational line of thought. This will never happen they try to show these cult like followers that their uncompromising stand will lead to a destruction of the government in hopes that they will change their ways. Hoping that it will lead the group to give up some ground to save the nation. But what they are missing is that the loss of and failure of the federal government does not scare them. It is in fact what they came to Washington to achieve. It is in my opinion the same as a cult following. There is no way to reason with this type of mindset. When they begin with the concept that there is one way, only one way to resolve any problem is their perception of the world then they will never move. Reason becomes useless; it’s like trying to talk a suicide bomber out of performing his mission. There is an ingrained deep fanatical belief system that cannot be changed. That is why I am more afraid of this new form of thought infesting our government than the airplanes that brought down the towers. The damage done by the planes on 9/11 will pale in comparison to the damage that will occur of these men succeed in their mission.