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Hypocrisy, Thy name be Ayn Rand

Pesqueeb

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
42,349
19,869
Riding past the morgue.
I wish I could still find these sort of revelations surprising, but its been going on for so long now I just can't. Sort of like finding out Ted Haggard is gay.
Joker's head explodes in 3....2....
Despite persistent rumors, Rand Paul was not named in honor of influential conservative thinker, Ayn Rand. His name is Randall.

It's good he was not named for Ayn Rand because her real name was Alisa Zinovievna Rosenbaum which she changed honoring her Rand typewriter.

Miss Rand, famously a believer in rugged individualism and personal responsibility, was a strong defender of self-interest. She was a staunch opponent of government programs from the New Deal and Social Security to the Great Society and Medicare.

A Library of Congress survey of the most influential books on American readers, "Atlas Shrugged" ranked second only to the Bible. Rand's influence is encyclopedic ranging from Alan Greenspan to Paul "I grew up on Ayn Rand" Ryan (R-Wis), a "Young Gun" who aims to cut or privatize Medicare and Social Security.

The Right should be commended politically for their ability to develop and stick to a unified message. But close inspection of this unified message reveals a disappointing secret identified by a student of the Godfather of Neo-conservatism, --- the University of Chicago's Leo Strauss. The student, Anne Norton ("Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire") identified what she called VIP-DIP meaning Venerated in Public, Disdained in Private. "Do as I say, not as I do." The list of vip-dipers on the Right runs from Harold Bloom to Newt Gingrich, but certainly not Ayn Rand. Right?

Say it ain't so Alisa Zinovievna Rosenbaum.

A heavy smoker who refused to believe that smoking causes cancer brings to mind those today who are equally certain there is no such thing as global warming. Unfortunately, Miss Rand was a fatal victim of lung cancer.

However, it was revealed in the recent "Oral History of Ayn Rand" by Scott McConnell (founder of the media department at the Ayn Rand Institute) that in the end Ayn was a vip-dipper as well. An interview with Evva Pryror, a social worker and consultant to Miss Rand's law firm of Ernst, Cane, Gitlin and Winick verified that on Miss Rand's behalf she secured Rand's Social Security and Medicare payments which Ayn received under the name of Ann O'Connor (husband Frank O'Connor).

As Pryor said, "Doctors cost a lot more money than books earn and she could be totally wiped out" without the aid of these two government programs. Ayn took the bail out even though Ayn "despised government interference and felt that people should and could live independently... She didn't feel that an individual should take help."

But alas she did and said it was wrong for everyone else to do so. Apart from the strong implication that those who take the help are morally weak, it is also a philosophic point that such help dulls the will to work, to save and government assistance is said to dull the entrepreneurial spirit.

In the end, Miss Rand was a hypocrite but she could never be faulted for failing to act in her own self-interest.
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MikeD

MikeD

Leader and Demogogue of the Ridemonkey Satinists
Oct 26, 2001
11,737
1,820
chez moi
Whatever she did in life, no bad deed will exceed in horror or repugnance the prose she penned.
 
X3pilot

X3pilot

Texans fan - LOL
Aug 13, 2007
5,860
1
SoMD
After this post, re-read Anthem again, still can't help but correlate it to Rush 2112...
 
BurlyShirley

BurlyShirley

Rex Grossman Will Rise Again
Jul 4, 2002
19,180
17
TN
rockofullr said:
If you know anything of Ayn's personal life you would already know that she was a disgusting, manipulative, self serving person.
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And Ed Abbey had 5 kids even though he preached population control.
And Jack London didn't really know sh*t about Alaska...

There are better bases (bases = plural basis?) on which to attack people's writing is all Im sayin'.
 
JohnE

JohnE

filthy rascist
May 13, 2005
13,562
2,208
Front Range, dude...
Silver said:
I only read her books for the fvck scenes. My wife underlined them for me. They taught her that in college.
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"If she underlines the fcku scenes for you..."
Plus 1 for the Slapshot reference. I can always tell when my wife has been reading the Sleeping Beauty books...;):eek::shocked::banana:
 
Serial Midget

Serial Midget

Al Bundy
Jun 25, 2002
13,053
1,897
Fort of Rio Grande
I watched 4 and5 and decided I don't mind women with conviction, she is a product of her own mind who believed in herself and made people think. I don't agree with her but I respect her conviction.
 
kidwoo

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
Aug 25, 2003
42,149
13,358
Squirtin ketchup n' mustard on charred flesh
Serial Midget said:
I watched 4 and5 and decided I don't mind women with conviction, she is a product of her own mind who believed in herself and made people think. I don't agree with her but I respect her conviction.
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I respect my dog's adamant perseverance to really get that tongue around the balls. Not just on them but like, in the little spot between the sack and the leg. Little guy just won't give up.


Guy who follows the doctrine of my dog for president 2013.
 
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