The Scary Ghost of Ayn Rand

[Divemaster]

More dispatches from the Culper Ring deep inside the enemy camp.

Original source: http://bit.ly/2gCzbhB

The Scary Ghost of Ayn Rand Looms Over the Trump Cabinet
The men who will run our country are fans of a cruel philosophy that celebrates wealth and selfishness.

By Kali Holloway / AlterNet December 14, 2016

Ayn Rand was a terrible person who wove a philosophy of selfishness and greed out of the threads of her own psychopathy. Rand’s writings and speeches should be recognized as rantings suited for an audience of a well-trained therapist, instead of inflicted upon millions of English students.

Rand, who declared “altruism” a national disease, wrote admiringly of child-murderer William Edward Hickman's callous indifference toward others and his “immense, explicit egotism.” Her contempt for the poor and middle-class are pronounced by anti-Robin Hoods who brag about stealing from "the thieving poor” to give to "the productive rich." Rand defended Native American genocide and murderous white supremacy, once stating “any white person who [brought] the elements of civilization had the right to take over this continent.” Objectivism, Rand’s refutation of basic human decency in favor of pathological self-interest and ruthless capitalism, was correctly identified as “perfect in its immorality” by Gore Vidal more than half a century ago. Today it’s the prevailing ethos of the GOP, embraced by Republicans going back to Ronald Reagan and especially beloved among the incoming Trump administration.

As James Hohmann of the Washington Post notes, Trump pledged his affection to Rand in an interview earlier this year with Kirsten Powers. Trump, who proudly admits he doesn’t read—neither books nor intelligence briefings that might slow his roll toward starting a nuclear war—told Powers he relates to Howard Roark, the architect protagonist of The Fountainhead. Roark espouses the warped belief that selfishness is a virtue (“Man’s first duty is to himself”) and commits a violent sexual assault. Without specifics, it’s hard to know precisely where Trump thinks the resemblance begins and ends.

Trump shares an affinity for Rand with several other members of his cabinet—though that's not the worst thing you can say about them, considering the group is a motley assortment of Islamophobes, white supremacists, alleged wifebeaters, and anti-worker .1 percenters.

Hohmann writes that Trump’s labor secretary pick Andy Puzder “is the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which is owned by Roark Capital Group, a private equity fund named after Howard Roark.” When the New York Times asked for a few personal insights about Puzder from one of his business cohorts, the fast-food titan was described only as an “avid reader who love[s] Ayn Rand.” Puzder recently told the Wall Street Journal’s Jennifer Grossman that he’s advised all six of his kids to read The Fountainhead, in the hope they’ll “lead the kind of lives of achievement, integrity and independence that Ayn Rand celebrated in her novels.”

Trump’s choice for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who's as famous for being the CEO of ExxonMobil as for his coziness with Vladimir Putin, is also a Rand adherent. Hohmann discovered the oil baron “listed [Atlas Shrugged] as his favorite book in a 2008 feature for Scouting Magazine.” Trump’s choice to head the CIA, Mike Pompeo, previously indicated to the Washington Post that many of his political views are the result of “a long interest in libertarian and conservative thought, first formed at age 15 when he read Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead.” John A. Allison IV, the former CEO of BB&T Bank and Cato Institute who had a closed-door meeting with Trump late last month, reportedly gave his executive staffers copies of Atlas Shrugged, calling it "the best defense of capitalism ever written.” Paul Ryan and Donald Trump have had some friction, but maybe now they can now bond over their mutual love of Rand and the belief that “money is the creation of the best power within you.” After years of saying Rand inspired his whole career, Ryan has more recently claimed he no subscribes to objectivist philosophy. His policy proposals beg to differ.

“The fact that all of these men, so late in life, are such fans of works that celebrate individuals who consistently put themselves before others is therefore deeply revealing,” Hohmann writes. “They will now run our government.”

Ayn Rand finally hit a wall through which her delusions could no longer pass; by the time of her death in 1982, she was enrolled in both Medicare and Social Security. After a lifetime of pushing a fever-dreamed philosophy, she was forced to reconcile with reality by old age, illness, and the boundaries of her own personal wealth. The GOP was all too happy to pick up the torch. Trump’s team of millionaires and billionaires, bonded by a philosophy of cruelty, are now running with it.

[scooter]

Yawn.

I love the philosophy that truly believes that nonprofit organizations are morally superior to for-profit organizations, without comprehending that nonprofits are only possible because the profitable ones created excess wealth and someone donated it.

[scooter]

I read the comment section in the article. Very interesting. I'm not sure what to make of the hysterical genuine belief that the right is out to literally destroy the country. It makes me wonder how much the left and right are caught in self reinforcing social circles that are hardening positions and becoming more unwilling to talk to the other side. I'm curious where this will lead.

[Golf1echo]

The author of " The Fountainhead", mandatory reading for Architecture students.
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literatu...d/book-summary

[Peregrino]

Originally Posted by scooter

I read the comment section in the article. Very interesting. I'm not sure what to make of the hysterical genuine belief that the right is out to literally destroy the country. It makes me wonder how much the left and right are caught in self reinforcing social circles that are hardening positions and becoming more unwilling to talk to the other side. I'm curious where this will lead.

That's easy - "Nacht und Nebel" as soon as the cycle brings the progressives back to the top. They will see to it that this never happens again.

"Eternal vigilance is the price for freedom."

[cbtengr]

Typical leftist drivel, Trumps picks will destroy us all. My neighbor is having a hemorrhage over Trumps picks, the guy works for the VA, no poor man ever gave me a job.

"Trump’s team of millionaires and billionaires, bonded by a philosophy of cruelty, are now running with it. "

[scooter]

Originally Posted by cbtengr

team of millionaires and billionaires, bonded by a philosophy of cruelty

Weird that no one thinks that Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerburg fit this description. Or Bill Gates. Or Mark Cuban.

[doctom54]

In 2009 Atlas shrugged sold over 500,000 copies
https://ari.aynrand.org/media-center...s-a-new-record

I think we are just now beginning to see the results of all those people reading this great novel.

It scares the hell out of the socialist/communist (as well it should)

[Ret10Echo]

Originally Posted by scooter

Weird that no one thinks that Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerburg fit this description. Or Bill Gates. Or Mark Cuban.

Little closer to home.... How many $50K (+) cars/SUVs have you pulled up behind only to see bumper stickers supporting left wing politicians?

People need to stop looking up with their mouths open. They need to look forward and focus on their own situation and circumstances.

(In the past, copies of Atlas Shrugged were included with all Christmas gifts we gave.)

[Kat]

Originally Posted by scooter

Weird that no one thinks that Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerburg fit this description. Or Bill Gates. Or Mark Cuban.

No, they don't count, just as rich Dems don't count as wealthy folks.

[JimP]

Funny, I am currently re-reading THE FOUNTAINHEAD. Each year, I re-read both the FountainHead and Atlas Shrugged. Should be required reading for everyone in high school.

Anyone who bleats out an angry screed as above clearly has no concept of what Rand was talking about. She saw the evil in collectivist thought back in the 20's and 30's. The Fountain Head was her first attempt at her "anthem"....she perfected it with ATLAS SHRUGGED. If you haven't read either, get on it: NOW!!!

[nousdefions]

“The man who refuses to judge, who neither agrees nor disagrees, who declares that there are no absolutes and believes that he escapes responsibility, is the man responsible for all the blood that is now spilled in the world. Reality is an absolute, existence is an absolute, a speck of dust is an absolute and so is a human life. Whether you live or die is an absolute. Whether you have a piece of bread or not, is an absolute. Whether you eat your bread or see it vanish into a looter's stomach, is an absolute.

There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil. The man who is wrong still retains some respect for truth, if only by accepting the responsibility of choice. But the man in the middle is the knave who blanks out the truth in order to pretend that no choice or values exist, who is willing to sit out the course of any battle, willing to cash in on the blood of the innocent or to crawl on his belly to the guilty, who dispenses justice by condemning both the robber and the robbed to jail, who solves conflicts by ordering the thinker and the fool to meet each other halfway. In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit. In that transfusion of blood which drains the good to feed the evil, the compromise is the transmitting rubber tube.”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

[akv]

Meh. Heinlein Trumps Rand in every way...

[1stindoor]

Originally Posted by nousdefions

“The man who refuses to judge, who neither agrees nor disagrees,...”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

I like the way John Stuart Mill put it...
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse...A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.

[Trapper John]

Thanks for posting this DM. Ayn Rand had a significant impact on my thinking when I was a kid. As an "SF Baby" that was only solidified in my character as a young adult.

The up-tick in the level and tone of the misinformation/disinformation that is being promoted by the left is very, very disturbing and worrisome indeed.