Opinion of Ayn Rand

[they don't love you like i love you]

Horrible Horrible HORRIBLE Person.

[Bono]

Had some good points, but mostly horrible person.

[David S]

Horrible Horrible HORRIBLE Person.

Can you elaborate? Possibly you could tell us why.

My opinion -As someone who lived through the communist takeover of Russia she had a better understanding of communism, and hatred for it, than most folks. She was also a strong supporter of capitalism. For that I give her good marks.

[J. J.]

I give her good marks as well.  That said, I feel that she regards profit as the sole motive for human nature, especially on her opposition to the Civil Rights Act.

[Richard]

I give her thumbs up.  And any decent human would oppose the Civil Rights Act.

[Buckwheat]

I like her, so "freedom fighter" I guess.

[KEmperor]

Freedom Figher of course.

[Bono]

Horrible Horrible HORRIBLE Person.

Can you elaborate? Possibly you could tell us why.

My opinion -As someone who lived through the communist takeover of Russia she had a better understanding of communism, and hatred for it, than most folks. She was also a strong supporter of capitalism. For that I give her good marks.

Answering to a question about the morality of massacring innocent civilians in the "inevitable" war against the Soviet Union. Her response was to reply that there's no such thing as an innocent civilian in the Soviet Union: they're all complicit and thus they all "deserve what they get"

"A government is not an independent entity: it's supposed to represent the people of a nation.

If some people put up with dictatorship—as some do in Soviet Russia and as they did in Germany—they deserve whatever their government deserves."

Feel that feeling in your gut?  That's what "offended" feels like.

Isn't it funny when a fanatical champion of individualism expresses one of the most offensively collectivist ideas you can possibly communicate?

[opebo]

An interesting crazy lady who worshiped power, had rape fantasies, was a bad writer, and did not observe the world around her very carefully.

Oh yeah - Horrible Person.

[Vincent]

Horrible Person.

[ilikeverin]

Horrible Horrible HORRIBLE Person.

Can you elaborate? Possibly you could tell us why.

My opinion -As someone who lived through the communist takeover of Russia she had a better understanding of communism, and hatred for it, than most folks. She was also a strong supporter of capitalism. For that I give her good marks.

Answering to a question about the morality of massacring innocent civilians in the "inevitable" war against the Soviet Union. Her response was to reply that there's no such thing as an innocent civilian in the Soviet Union: they're all complicit and thus they all "deserve what they get"

"A government is not an independent entity: it's supposed to represent the people of a nation.

If some people put up with dictatorship—as some do in Soviet Russia and as they did in Germany—they deserve whatever their government deserves."

Feel that feeling in your gut?  That's what "offended" feels like.

Isn't it funny when a fanatical champion of individualism expresses one of the most offensively collectivist ideas you can possibly communicate?

That's not collectivism, that's being a meanie

[Bono]

Horrible Horrible HORRIBLE Person.

Can you elaborate? Possibly you could tell us why.

My opinion -As someone who lived through the communist takeover of Russia she had a better understanding of communism, and hatred for it, than most folks. She was also a strong supporter of capitalism. For that I give her good marks.

Answering to a question about the morality of massacring innocent civilians in the "inevitable" war against the Soviet Union. Her response was to reply that there's no such thing as an innocent civilian in the Soviet Union: they're all complicit and thus they all "deserve what they get"

"A government is not an independent entity: it's supposed to represent the people of a nation.

If some people put up with dictatorship—as some do in Soviet Russia and as they did in Germany—they deserve whatever their government deserves."

Feel that feeling in your gut?  That's what "offended" feels like.

Isn't it funny when a fanatical champion of individualism expresses one of the most offensively collectivist ideas you can possibly communicate?

That's not collectivism, that's being a meanie

Actually, that's being a genocidal maniac.

[Emsworth]

Horrible, horrible person.

Her philosophy of "objectivism" was horrible as well. I am a libertarian, but I would never claim that libertarianism is objectively moral and that everything else is objectively immoral.

[Bono]

Horrible, horrible person.

Her philosophy of "objectivism" was horrible as well. I am a libertarian, but I would never claim that libertarianism is objectively moral and that everything else is objectively immoral.

So one is an horrible person for defending objective morality?
Hm, where have I seen this...

[nini2287]

A cold heartless horrible person.

[Emsworth]

So one is an horrible person for defending objective morality?

She was horrible, not for defending objective morality, but for other reasons.

My comment about objective morality was related to how "horrible" her philosophy was, not how horrible she personally was.

[Bono]

So one is an horrible person for defending objective morality?

She was horrible, not for defending objective morality, but for other reasons.

My comment about objective morality was related to how "horrible" her philosophy was, not how horrible she personally was.

Ah, ok. Sorry.

[Storebought]

Freedom fighter and horrible person.

(1) Her philosophy has never gotten the academic respect that it deserves. Even though I disagree with some of its tenants, her objective libertarianism has had as much an impact on American life as, say, Simone de Beauvoir's feminism, to say the least of Sartre, Derrida, Foucoult, and all the other unemployed French scribblers whose ideas make up 'postmodernism.'

(2) Rand, herself, was, as Bono so elegantly put it, "a used c**nt rag" of a woman. Hell, I doubt she even regarded herself as female...

[opebo]

(2) Rand, herself, was, as Bono so elegantly put it, "a used c**nt rag" of a woman. Hell, I doubt she even regarded herself as female...

Of course she did, Storebought.  Hence all the rape-fantasies, sado-masochism, and worship of 'strong men'.  She embraced the traditional sex roles rather vehemently in her bad fiction. 

[Storebought]

(2) Rand, herself, was, as Bono so elegantly put it, "a used c**nt rag" of a woman. Hell, I doubt she even regarded herself as female...

Of course she did, Storebought.  Hence all the rape-fantasies, sado-masochism, and worship of 'strong men'.  She embraced the traditional sex roles rather vehemently in her bad fiction. 

I only meant the implications of her philosophy as she acted on them in real life, not her private fantasies, which she was perfectly entitled to entertain -- not that concocting sadistic rape fantasies would be an exclusively feminine pasttime.

[opebo]

(2) Rand, herself, was, as Bono so elegantly put it, "a used c**nt rag" of a woman. Hell, I doubt she even regarded herself as female...

Of course she did, Storebought.  Hence all the rape-fantasies, sado-masochism, and worship of 'strong men'.  She embraced the traditional sex roles rather vehemently in her bad fiction. 

I only meant the implications of her philosophy as she acted on them in real life, not her private fantasies, which she was perfectly entitled to entertain -- not that concocting sadistic rape fantasies would be an exclusively feminine pasttime.

Well I meant she fantasized about being raped, or at least many scenes in her fiction so suggest.

I see what you're saying about the implications of her philosophy, though, at least if we're assuming traditional male and female social roles.

[Storebought]

From a 1964 interview in Playboy Magazine

PLAYBOY: According to your philosophy, work and achievement are the highest goals of life. Do you regard as immoral those who find greater fulfillment in the warmth of friendship and family ties?

RAND: If they place such things as friendship and family ties above their own productive work, yes, then they are immoral. Friendship, family life and human relationships are not primary in a man's life. A man who places others first, above his own creative work, is an emotional parasite; whereas, if he places his work first, there is no conflict between his work and his enjoyment of human relationships.

Yep: c**ntrag through and through

Then, there is this little gem:

PLAYBOY: As one who champions the cause of enlightened self-interest, how do you feel about dedicating one's life to hedonistic self-gratification?

RAND: I am profoundly opposed to the philosophy of hedonism. Hedonism is the doctrine which holds that the good is whatever gives you pleasure and, therefore, pleasure is the standard of morality. Objectivism holds that the good must be defined by a rational standard of value, that pleasure is not a first cause, but only a consequence, that only the pleasure which proceeds from a rational value judgment can be regarded as moral, that pleasure, as such, is not a guide to action nor a standard of morality. To say that pleasure should be the standard of morality simply means that whichever values you happen to have chosen, consciously or subconsciously, rationally or irrationally, are right and moral. This means that you are to be guided by chance feelings, emotions and whims, not by your mind. My philosophy is the opposite of hedonism. I hold that one cannot achieve happiness by random, arbitrary or subjective means. One can achieve happiness only on the basis of rational values. By rational values, I do not mean anything that a man may arbitrarily or blindly declare to be rational. It is the province of morality, of the science of ethics, to define for men what is a rational standard and what are the rational values to pursue.

PLAYBOY: You have said that the kind of man who spends his time running after women is a man who "despises himself." Would you elaborate?

RAND: This type of man is reversing cause and effect in regard to sex. Sex is an expression of a man's self-esteem, of his own self-value. But the man who does not value himself tries to reverse this process. He tries to derive his self-esteem from his sexual conquests, which cannot be done. He cannot acquire his own value from the number of women who regard him as valuable. Yet that is the hopeless thing which he attempts.

She actually makes a point here, but it's lost in all of her icy bitchiness...

[opebo]

c**ntrag

I must say I am not very clear on the meaning of this term.. are you using as roughly analogous to a 'prick' when speaking of a male?

[Storebought]

c**ntrag

I must say I am not very clear on the meaning of this term.. are you using as roughly analogous to a 'prick' when speaking of a male?

I use that word in more or less the same spirit that Geoffrey Chaucer had the original four-letter word...

[Max Power]

Freedom fighter and horrible person.