Tapsearch Com EditorSubmit yourself to the Collective good
September 16th 2007 18:20
The New York Times has an interesting article about how Ayn Rand's anti-collectivist philosophy still affects businesspeople today. It's rather amusing that her inner circle was called "the Collective." Maybe they were aware of the irony.
I loved Atlas Shrugged when I read it in college, but I've come to be pretty ambivalent in the years since then. It does have a lot to say about capitalism's superiority to socialism.
But for one, her philosophy purports to apply to life in general, but she has little of value to say about the importance of family. Her characters sleep around and cheat on their spouses, as Rand herself did.
The Fountainhead is about a man who refuses to learn the basics of the architecture profession, preferring to design buildings his own way. His natural ability seems to make learning what came before unnecessary, but by and large that's an idiotic creed to follow -- Ayn Rand herself studied others' philosophies before creating her own. Then the character rapes a woman, and she likes it.
Beyond that, it seems the central tenet of her worldview is that life is fair. There's no need, no obligation to help others, since they're responsible for themselves.
I loved Atlas Shrugged when I read it in college, but I've come to be pretty ambivalent in the years since then. It does have a lot to say about capitalism's superiority to socialism.
But for one, her philosophy purports to apply to life in general, but she has little of value to say about the importance of family. Her characters sleep around and cheat on their spouses, as Rand herself did.
The Fountainhead is about a man who refuses to learn the basics of the architecture profession, preferring to design buildings his own way. His natural ability seems to make learning what came before unnecessary, but by and large that's an idiotic creed to follow -- Ayn Rand herself studied others' philosophies before creating her own. Then the character rapes a woman, and she likes it.
Beyond that, it seems the central tenet of her worldview is that life is fair. There's no need, no obligation to help others, since they're responsible for themselves.
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