Ayn Rand, Hugely Popular Author and Inspiration to Right-Wing Leaders, Was a Big Admirer of Serial Killer
February 26, 2010
Mark Ames Alternet.org
There's something deeply unsettling about living in a country where millions of people froth at the mouth at the idea of giving health care to the tens of millions of Americans who don't have it, or who take pleasure at the thought of privatizing and slashing bedrock social programs like Social Security or Medicare. It might not be so hard to stomach if other Western countries also had a large, vocal chunk of the population that thought like this, but the U.S. is seemingly the only place where right-wing elites can openly share their distaste for the working poor. Where do they find their philosophical justification for this kind of attitude?
It turns out, you can trace much of this thinking back to Ayn Rand, a popular cult-philosopher who exerts a huge influence over much of the right-wing and libertarian crowd, but whose influence is only starting to spread out of the U.S.
One reason most countries don't find the time to embrace Ayn Rand's thinking is that she is a textbook sociopath. In her notebooks Ayn Rand worshiped a notorious serial murderer-dismemberer, and used this killer as an early model for the type of "ideal man" she promoted in her more famous books. These ideas were later picked up on and put into play by major right-wing figures of the past half decade, including the key architects of America's most recent economic catastrophe -- former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan and SEC Commissioner Chris Cox -- along with other notable right-wing Republicans such as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Rush Limbaugh and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.
Find out how she worked the mindset of a serial killer into her two best selling books.
Back in the mid 80s I sold a magazine article (New Decade - an eastern publication) about this same subject; Rand and her serial killer idol.
ReplyDeleteI made a whopping $50 bucks and was thrilled. I really don't know what kind of reader response there was.
I wonder how many of her followers are really aware of her history?
This guy is a lunatic - but what can you expect from someone who writes for Alternet.
ReplyDeleteOK - if you're buying all this shit, but you don't mind all the stuff that has come out about the people Obama is appointing - and the people they "worship."
This link is being passed around like it is candy from the pied piper - c'mon, you're not afraid of a little old movie are ya?
I've known about this for years but never took it all that seriously,as I have always pretty much viewed Rand as not much more than a bookwriter or philosopher,whatever who most certainly did not practice what she preached in her personal life.The Rand Corporation,and its connection to so much government,is a fitting name for a company.
ReplyDeletefrom firedoglake.com Jan.27th,2011
ReplyDelete"Critics of Social Security and Medicare frequently invoke the words and ideals of author and philosopher Ayn Rand, one of the fiercest critics of federal insurance programs. But a little-known fact is that Ayn Rand herself collected Social Security. She may also have received Medicare benefits.
An interview recently surfaced that was conducted in 1998 by the Ayn Rand Institute with a social worker who says she helped Rand and her husband, Frank O’Connor, sign up for Social Security and Medicare in 1974.
Federal records obtained through a Freedom of Information act request confirm the Social Security benefits."
Mark, you are spot on. Ayn Rand was a hypocrite.
ReplyDeleteDo as I say and not as I do. Sound familiar? It's all the rage these days.
Rose, why are you avoiding this? Do you have sources to refute this? Reliable UNBIASED sources. Not from Ayn Rand disciples or people who do not like her. Who are the people you speak of concerning Obama? If you're going to make statements...prove them. Thank you.
ReplyDelete