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Sunday, October 14, 2007 |
Independent: "Fifty years after it was first published, Ayn Rand's most influential book offers a vital clue to why so many Americans vote against their economic and social interests.
Rand's credo is summed up by the title of a collection of her essays, The Virtue of Selfishness, which have circulated in an almost samizdat fashion among enthusiasts of capitalism red in tooth and claw.
It attracted the devotion of America's top corporate executives, who would only speak of its impact behind closed doors. A staple read of undergraduate business schools, the book provided comfort to each generation of entrepreneurs by telling them that there is no conflict between private ambition and public benefit.
She pushed America's cult of individualism into uncharted waters where ruthless self-interest and disdain for poorer members of society were the guiding principles.
One of the characters in Atlas Shrugged, summarises her philosophy of Objectivism with the following oath: 'I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another human being, or ask another human being to live for mine.'
Her novels continue to inspire visceral feelings of worship and disgust among readers. Reviewing the newly published memoir of her acolyte Greenspan, the conservative writer Andrew Ferguson complains in The Weekly Standard that 'her creepy philosophy of Objectivism, placing the self at the centre of the moral universe, still is embraced by tens of thousands of pimply teenage boys in the dreamy moments between fits of social insecurity and furious bouts of masturbation'.
One way or another Rand's ode to American individualism has made her one of the towering figures of US political thought in the late 20th century.
By rejecting altruism and embracing selfishness she rejected the Judaeo-Christian underpinning of the religious right. The only moral obligation a person had was to his or her own happiness. That meant capitalism should be given a free rein with an unregulated market economy.
The coming presidential election will reveal the extent to which ordinary poor Americans will proudly vote themselves out of jobs, off the land and ensure that their children can never afford to go to university or afford health care. It happened in the last two presidential elections, and the Ayn Rand Institute is banking that it will happen again."
If there is any validity to Ayn Rand's doctrines, then it would be perfectly all right for the poor to think only of their welfare and start getting it back from the neocon frauds. The poor would have every moral and legal right to revolt and kill anyone in their way. That is after all what the neocons are doing in their own interests; and I guess their needs are already fulfilled to the utmost, the poor are still very much in need and deserve more welfare; the poor are backed by everything our civilization has produced that is worthwhile, including the statutes of the United Nations.
But you see, the neocons restrict the pursuit of happiness to the happy few, their own clique; the poor are only there to provide cheap labour and should be kept poor. The neocon happiness is paid by the poverty of millions.
The immorality of the present neocons can be seen in Iraq. First the US set up a criminal regime in Iraq, supported Saddam in his fight against the opposition, then the US had to fight its own creation. Same in Afghanistan. The Taliban is a creation of the US, they were set up to fight the Russians. But the neocons don't care about the victims. As long as they get their share of oil and drugs, they will continue the carnage as long as we allow it.
The immorality of this system is even supported by politicians who call themselves 'Christian' or 'socialist'; the Dutch PM Balkenende and his socialist coalition partners are collaborating in this immoral and illegal scam.
It's up to the people to stand up for THEIR rights.
11:13:59 AM 
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