I loathe objectivism. I think what I find so distasteful about it is that it attempts to rationalize selfishness as a morally righteous act. It attempts to validate sociopathic levels of apathy. I kind of get why this extreme egotism was important to Rand, as a survivor of communism, but the last thing Americans need is permission to be more self-absorbed.
Also she’s really not a very good writer.
As for Nietzsche, I don’t know why you gotta drag him into this. I think it can be argued that he would find the idea of a capitalist meritocracy pretty repugnant.
Wish I’d wrote that, but I’m happy to be saved the time.
Also people, when talking about Nietzsche, editions of his material published before he was committed are necessary. After he was shipped of to the looney bin his sister published materials and altered editions under his name. The Nazis loved her stuff.
That doesn’t mean Objectivism is really anything like Existentialism as expounded by Sartre or Camus or Heidegger or even the proto-existentialism of Nietzsche.
Yes, there’s a concern with individual achievment and growth, but I don’t think Objectivists even use the words the same way Existentialists do - freedom, reality, reason - these mean different things when Rand uses them.
As an existentialist of a phenomenological bent, I can’t think of any non-religious modern philosophical school more opposite to me than Objectivism. Ditto for my feelings about romantic realism. Same-same for my feelings about laissez-faire capitalism…
Whatever. The point is that she was quite smitten with him before her writing career took off, and the influence on her work and way of thinking are clear. And while I don’t claim to be a scholar, I’ve read some things by and about Nietzsche, and anyone who doesn’t see the resemblance between Nietzsche’s superman and Rand’s heroic capitalists is working very, very hard not to see it.
Nietzsche was a significant influence on Rand’s fiction and philosophy. Accept it. Get over it. Move on.
It looks to me like the point of departure is the early to mid fifties. Radio and newspapers still seem to be the main forms of mass communication, though television is available, trains are still the preferred means of long distance travel, Galt’s radio speech seems to be modeled on Roosevelt’s fireside chats, and practically everybody smokes cigarettes.
A group of people banding together to protest a corrupt government that creates alters laws that cater to big business and special interests, I guess the occupy wall street protesters are just as selfish.
Here’s what the *adult *Rand thought of Nietzsche:
“Philosophically, Nietzsche is a mystic and an irrationalist. His metaphysics consists of a somewhat ‘Byronic’ and mystically ‘malevolent’ universe; his epistemology subordinates reason to ‘will,’ or feeling or instinct or blood or innate virtues of character.”
And:
“Nietzsche’s rebellion against altruism consisted of replacing the sacrifice of oneself to others by the sacrifice of others to oneself. He proclaimed that the ideal man is moved, not by reason, but by his ‘blood,’ by his innate instinct, feelings and will to power - that he is predestined by birth to rule others and sacrifice them to himself, while *they *are predestined by birth to be his victims and slaves - that reason, logic, principles are futile and debilitating, that morality is useless, that the ‘superman’ is ‘beyond good and evil’ that he is a ‘beast of prey’ whose ultimate standard is nothing but his own whim.”
And some readers may have pitched a moral tenet.
Anyway, her books are a useful counterweight to some of the vapid ill-considered pro-communist feelings that existed at the time. Her protagonists may be idealized to the point of nonexistence and nonbelievability, but her antagonists had plenty of real-world analogues.
Alan Greenspan was the head of the Federal Reserve for many years and omitted many actions which contributed to the 2008 meltdown. He had more power over the US economy than any other single person, except perhaps the President, and was not elected by anyone. He was a Rand worshipper.
This is true, BG, and it’s nice to see you acknowledge that opponents of Government Healthcare have strong arguments. We’ll make a Republican of you yet.
Now we need to get you shirtless at a football game…