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Aug-20-2012 14:46
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The GOP and the John Galt Factor
Ralph E. Stone Salem-News.comWith the addition of Ryan, the GOP presidential candidates now celebrate the virtue of selfish capitalism.
 Tea Party demonstration. |
(SAN FRANCISCO) - Vice President candidate Paul Ryan once remarked, "The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand," Ryan said at a D.C. gathering four years ago honoring the author of Atlas Shrugged The Fountainhead. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/
And at the Rand celebration he spoke at in 2005, Ryan invoked the central theme of Rand's writings when he told his audience that, "Almost every fight we are involved in here on Capitol Hill... is a fight that usually comes down to one conflict - individualism versus collectivism." (http://www.jsonline.com/
Ryan has handed out copies of Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged as Christmas presents. Later he seemingly rejected Rand's philosophy. (http://www.nationalreview.
According to Rand, "Totalitarianism is collectivism. Collectivism means the subjugation of the individual to a group—whether to a race, class or state does not matter. Collectivism holds that man must be chained to collective action and collective thought for the sake of what is called “the common good.” (http://fare.tunes.org/
John Galt, by the way, is a fictional character in Rand's 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged. The Tea Party loves Ryan.
Conservative commentators Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh have praised the book. And Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
Clarence Thomas cited Atlas Shrugged as among his favorite novels.
Who is Ayn Rand and what is it about Atlas Shrugged that appeals to Ryan and the Tea Party?
As the Atlas Shrugged plot unfolds, Galt is acknowledged to be a creator, philosopher, and inventor who symbolizes the power and glory of the human mind. ;He serves as a principled counterpoint to the collectivist social and economic structure depicted in the novel. This depiction portrays a society based on oppressive bureaucratic functionaries and a culture that embraces stifling mediocrity and egalitarianism, which the novel associates with socialistic (http://en.wikipedia.org/
As outlined in Atlas Shrugged, the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or rational self-interest that the only individual rights embodied in laissez-faire capitalism"
My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."
Paraphrasing the late Gore Vidal on Ayn Rand: Rand gives moral sanction to greed and self interest. She has a great attraction for simple people who are puzzled by organized society, who object to paying taxes, who dislike the “welfare” state, who feel guilt at the thought of the suffering of others but who would like to harden their hearts. For them, she has an enticing prescription: altruism is the root of all evil, self-interest is the only good, and if you’re dumb or incompetent that’s your tough luck. In sum, Rand’s “philosophy” is nearly perfect in its immorality.
With the addition of Ryan, the GOP presidential candidates now celebrate the virtue of selfish capitalism. Remember, Romney devoted his career to vulture capitalism; he would buy up companies, extract the most profits for Bain Capital and its investors, often firing workers, outsourcing jobs, and loading up companies with so much debt that they were forced to declare bankruptcy. Bain and Romney left with massive profits.
If she were alive today, Ayn Rand would probably vote for Romney/Ryan in the November election, favor a free market economy devoid of regulation, and, of course, oppose any tax on the rich.
In sum, Rand in her writings had the particular genius of recasting the wealthy, the talented, and the powerful as oppressed. The GOP and Ayn Rand are a match made in Heaven. Well maybe not in Heaven.
Salem-News.com writer Ralph E. Stone was born in Massachusetts. He is a graduate of both Middlebury College and Suffolk Law School. We are very fortunate to have this writer's talents in this troubling world; Ralph has an eye for detail that others miss. As is the case with many Salem-News.com writers, Ralph is an American Veteran who served in war. Ralph served his nation after college as a U.S. Army officer during the Vietnam war. After Vietnam, he went on to have a career with the Federal Trade Commission as an Attorney specializing in Consumer and Antitrust Law. Over the years, Ralph has traveled extensively with his wife Judi, taking in data from all over the world, which today adds to his collective knowledge about extremely important subjects like the economy and taxation. You can send Ralph an email at this address stonere@earthlink.net
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Anonymous August 22, 2012 3:12 pm (Pacific time)
Ralph what is the political ideology of most of these critics? Proof is in the pudding, and conservative approaches to the economy, as referenced below in the unemployment rates in red v.s. blue states is quite evident. Of course exceptions happen but from my tracing back to what caused our current economic downturn was strongly associated with subprime loans in residential housing. Compare and contrast commercial and residential real estate and see the reality of what happens when sound business decisions are made. The left has simply proven to be woefully incapable, but at least President Clinton signed the conservative legislation put before him. Obama and his crew are clueless(?-see below comment), as are most people who have little private sector experience...in a way, critics are like those government workers, having never really done anything other than voice an opinion based on subjective irrelavancies. But maybe what Obama is doing, is planned. If so, then what would you say about that? He is either incredibly incompetent, or he is doing his best to destroy our economy. Recall, he did promise to fundamentally change America, and that appears to be one promise he's trying to fulfill. Wake up people. You saw that Marine put in a psycho ward, you see the gunrunning crimes, and on and on...you better believe this is all on Obama, and his surrogates.
Fuguewriter August 22, 2012 1:31 pm (Pacific time)
The number of fallacies out there about Ayn Rand is astounding. To take the simplest, "greed" in her philosophy is not the degraded vice in scare-stories: it's an enlivened pursuit of *rational* and *long-term* success through one's own effort. It has nothing to do with "getting" money! Her worst villain is a smarmy corporate President and heir. At least get the facts about Rand right.
Ralph E. Stonel August 22, 2012 7:25 am (Pacific time)
Part 1 of the "Atlas Shrugged" film received overwhelmingly negative reviews; Rotten Tomatoes reports that 5 of 45 written reviews from critics (11%) were positive – with an average score of 3.5 out of 10, including only 1 of 17 Top Critics' reviews (6%) being positive. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film only one star, calling it "the most anticlimactic non-event since Geraldo Rivera broke into Al Capone’s vault." Guess we can expect Part 2 to be a similar critical non-event.
Anonymous August 21, 2012 6:19 pm (Pacific time)
Would Ms. Rand be correct? Best Places for Job Growth Largely Red States. It’s not just Texas; in this era of rampant unemployment, guess which color states had the lowest unemployment in July? The top four were red: North Dakota, at 3.0%, Nebraska, 4.0%, South Dakota, 4,4%, and Oklahoma, 4.9%. One of the worse places is Ralph Stones home state of California. Cities filing bankruptcy, so what happens to those pensions? In Wisconsin, conservative leadership saved those union pensions. So who has a better handle on the economy and improving and maintaining people's lives? Duh. And the elites on the coasts think they’re so much smarter.
Everyman August 21, 2012 3:12 pm (Pacific time)
Atlas Shrugged Part 2 will be in theaters October 12th, 2012.
Anonymous August 21, 2012 1:58 pm (Pacific time)
Hey Josh, you seem to be pretty confused about Rand and John Galt. I suggest reading the book, of course there are no pictures. Maybe for you, get the audio version. What do you think capitalism is? What do you think America is all about? Even this site, what does it run on? Ideally earned revenue... How about the writer of this article, his entire working background as a government employee was financed by those he probably does not care for. Less than 50% of Americans pay federal income tax, and that 50% probably do not even understand what that tax is.
Josh Akers August 20, 2012 8:48 pm (Pacific time)
Hey "Anonymous" why don't you stay anonymous because the bullshit that your spewing is rediculous. "Talk is cheap, and it has been liberal policies that have been the smoke and haze of utter failure." You're sure right when you say "talk is cheap" because I don't have to write an essay to prove you are up to your ears in BS. Good thing you still have Salem-News.com to put you freedom of speech on a comment huh?
Josh Akers August 20, 2012 8:43 pm (Pacific time)
good take on Rand. I knew there was a good reason why I never read Atlas Shrugged. I can sort of feel out an author before I even read them. Too many intelligent, well informed, well intentioned people have criticized these works. Although this hasn't stopped me from reading some books, it has stopped me from reading hers.
Anonymous August 20, 2012 6:33 pm (Pacific time)
Ralph you wrote: " "Who is John Galt?" signs are seen at Tea Party protests." I have been to several Tea Party functions and have never seen a John Galt sign, which I would have noticed. Though there were many anti-Tea Party protestors around doing their thing out on the fringes, which were pretty typical juvenile behavior. In all of the TP gathering I have been to, they have all been peaceful, and everyone picked up after themselves. In the gathering of opposing views, there has been violence, threatening signs and effigies of different conservatives hanging, and when it was over it looked like a garbage dump. Ralph I will point out that when it comes to charitable giving you will see it is the conservatives who do most of the giving and "hand up" assistance, while the liberals are the ones who use taxpayers money in failed policies. Just look at what has happened with the trillions of dollars given away since the 60's, and everything, by most all metrics, have gotten worse. Talk is cheap, and it has been liberal policies that have been the smoke and haze of utter failure. The evidence is irrefutable. Regarding Bain capital, the myths from the left are laughable and have no validity. Bain bought failed companies that were closing or about to close and they turned them around saving as many jobs as they could. They have had an 80% success rate. Otherwise all those companies were goners, and no jobs at all. Please note how President Clinton gave high praise to Bain and Romney not long ago. Those who have never worked in the private sector, but lived off us taxpayers, have no idea what it takes to keep a company profitable. Without profit, there is no government, none.
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