Ayn Rand's Children

Ayn Rand

Did you ever notice how disciples pick and choose those tenets of their inspirational leader which they find most agreeable and dispense with those that they dislike, even despise?

The adherents of Ayn Rand, who include Alan Greenspan, Paul Ryan and many in the Tea Party, are no exception. Which of them advocates abortion as a human right or proudly exclaims their atheism? Ayn Rand did, but that would place her as a heretic to the modern conservative movement.

And though Rand's objectivism is a trivial, dilute version of enlightened self-interest, and her prose is so stilted and didactic as to be nearly unreadable, she did get a few things right. To wit:

"...When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed."
.................................................................................from Atlas Shrugged