What is your opinion of Ayn Rand?

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Having one older brother that follows Rand’s philosophy as well reading and watching You Tube Videos of her. She did not have sound philosophical reasoning in my assertion, but only used her writing skills, her experience growing up in stark poverty in communist Russia to put forth an idea based upon extreme capitalism to drive her own ego in order to kill or numb the pain in her life.

She based her beliefs on the rational conscious mind of what is perceived by and through the human senses. As she once said in reply to Phil Donahue on his show after he said to her, “You cannot prove God does not exist.” “Show me God, I cannot see God, I cannot touch God…”

She asserts morality is man’s rationale thought and the highest level of existence, to obtain one’s happiness is the greatest good, which in turn is the highest moral existence. She takes capitalism to an extreme almost a radical level in Atlas Shrugged. Her belief is a lot like that of Nazi Germany, as in to eliminate those people in the world that are less than able to contribute to society. Those that are deemed unable to contribute to society nor function as such have the moral obligation to get out of the way of those that can and do have such ability.

She grew up in communist Russia and perhaps her views of God were radically skewed. As it was written that she once said the three greatest A’s in philosophy are, Aquinas, Aristotle and Ayn (Rand). If she read any of Aquinas she would have read “The Five Proofs,” which she would have come to understand on some level that as created, contingent beings, we cannot obtain full and complete knowledge of all existed, exists now, and will exist, and we did not, nor cannot cause ourselves to exists or come into existence. If we did not bring about our own existence, how can she assert based limited finite knowledge that something or some does not exist now, in the past or will in the future? If she held that what exists only on the basis of what can be experienced first hand, how can she prove, emotions, time, history or numbers exist. It is said when she died, she died alone, miserable and was buried in a casket in the shape of a dollar sign. Based upon this, it would seem she did not obtain the happiness that she herself with her own philosophy deemed the highest moral good.

I cannot give her any more credit for developing sound philosophical thought, logic or reasoning, than I would a 12 year that states, “I cannot go to school tomorrow, because tomorrow does not exist, I cannot see tomorrow, nor can I touch tomorrow.” It is impossible for any human being to not live with faith on some level, to believe in something or someone that we cannot experience directly nor prove to exist in the physical world.
 
Is there anything in her work you admire?

Is there anything in her work you detest?

Is she anyone with whom you would have liked to talk for an hour on any subject of your choosing?

Why or why not?

Any takers?
I love free market captitalism…and despise her philosophy. Why?

We have a problem today with social solutions based on the premise of a God-free world. If one looks at the world as God-free, “red in tooth and claw” then the world quickly divides between the STRONG and the WEAK. Leftism is a fear-based philosophy of the WEAK trying to manipulate utopian solutions by banding together under powerful, big government. Leftism REQUIRES an empathetic leader or leaders to refrain from dominating the populace in cruel ways. (Leftism has never found this because it is a fear-based system that cannot trust people with freedom and self-governance).

The answer to Leftism is not Ayn Rand’s turning the world over to the STRONG…but rather to have a people of God live in loving, freedom with limited government and plenty of common sense safety nets (that are affordable).
 
I find her philosphy disturbing and incompatible with altruism, charity, Truth and God.
 
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