So, this morning, I tweeted the following quip:
FYI, I'm changing my name to John Galt and running for Congress in a Republican district http://t.co/pMcLWA4Txg
— Shoq (@Shoq) June 3, 2014
Immediately thereafter, @GrimestTrigger tweeted this post that he'd written on his blog, Hints And Hunches.
I've read a lot of Ayn Rand debunkers in my time, many of them quite good, but many others grossly overwrought with tortured liberal prose trying to impress the reader with a smug condescension toward all those wayward 9th graders who are still in impressed by the objectivist queen of mean.
Grimest has avoided all of that, yet still nailed the essence of the fallacies in her world view, which has transcended its meager literary beginnings by poking a big stick in the eye of her linchpin character, John Galt, from her annoyingly popular novel, "Atlas Shrugged." Over the past 50 years, with no small help from conservative book buying clubs and foundations trying to force her convenient beliefs on an intellectually sloppy planet, Shrugged, and her other greedy epistles, like The Fountainhead, have mushroomed into a religion of rancorous rhetoric that underpins that culture of selfishness that is subsuming America's politics, and perhaps the very future of our planet as well.
Please show it every 9th grader you know, and everyone still thinking like one. It's another example of the kinds of primers I feel that liberals must make a conscious effort to share more of as widely as possible. It took conservatives half a century to teach Americans to think like they do, with no small help from false prophets like Ayn Rand. It will take us at least that long to help teach a more just and sustainable world view for the human race to live by.
Note: I've been collecting these kinds of works,and plan to share them very soon in an interesting new way. If you have some Rand debunkers or interesting essays about her works or influence, please share them in the comments and I will consider them for possible inclusion in my compendium when it drops!
by Patrick Doyle (@GrimestTrigger)
“We never think entirely alone: we think in company, in a vast collaboration; we work with the workers of the past and of the present. [Across] the whole intellectual world, each one finds in those about him the initiation, help, verification, [and] encouragement that he needs”
Antoine Sertillanges, La vie intellectuelle, 1920
Related
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Ayn Rand’s Literature of Capitalism (by Harriet Rubin, New York Times)
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How Ayn Rand became the new right's version of Marx — by George Monbiot, via the Guardian.uk —"Her psychopathic ideas made billionaires feel like victims and turned millions of followers into their doormats."
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The simplistic flaw in Ayn Rand's philosophy — Note the comments that follow the post. Various right wing Rand promoters and groups troll the internet constantly seeking out posts like this. They then post comments with objectivism propaganda meant to diminish the post and further advance her malevolent philosophy.
- Obama: Ayn Rand wrote for 'misunderstood' teens (via politico.com)
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