On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 12:36 AM, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net> wrote:
> On 11/3/2013 3:17 PM, Telmo Menezes wrote:
>
> On Sun, Nov 3, 2013 at 11:51 PM, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>> On 11/3/2013 10:49 AM, John Clark wrote:
>
>>>
>>> Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is considered by many to be a
>>> intellectual, in fact the leading intellectual on the Supreme Court,
>
>>
>>
>> Of course that "many" consists of bible thumping Tea Baggers, worshipers
>> of
>> Ayn Rand, and snake handlers who have general contempt for
>> "intellectuals".
>
> I don't understand how Ayn Rand find herself in such dubious company.
> She was a harsh critic of religion and she essentially praised
> science, philosophy and other intellectual pursuits as the source of
> all that is good in the world.
>
>
> Because she preached greed is good

I think it was Gordon Gekko who preached that greed is good :)
In fact, Gordon Gekko's speculative activities would be much harder to
pull off without the leverage made possible by fiat money, which Rand
opposed.

> and implied that if you were richer and
> more powerful than other people it was no reason to do anything to help
> them, you earned it (even if you inherited it).

In Atlas Shrugged, an important story arc is the contrast between two
inheritors: Dagny and James Taggart. Dagny is a hero and Taggart is a
villan in the story. She never opposes helping anyone, she just
opposes being forced to do so.

Furthermore, her point is that competition in a free market actually
helps everybody -- by providing better goods and services at lower
prices -- while redistribution of money based on violence does not,
and is in fact generally a con used by politicians to extract even
more money from the population.

The ineffectiveness of wealth redistribution through taxation is not
such a crazy idea. Compare this graph:

http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=7373

with this one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_Unite...


>  And it would be immoral for
> the government to take any of your money to help those proles.

Because this is ultimately enforced by violent means. If you oppose
violence, again, not such a crazy idea that you would consider this
immoral.

>  This of
> course appeals to people with money and power who fund political astroturf
> movements that oppose anything that might upset their favored position in
> society.

Ok, but it's not her fault if her ideas are distorted. She abhorred
religion, as I said.

> She glorified the ultra-individualist. Did you read about her
> thoughts on William Hickman?
>
> "...the amazing picture of a man with no regard whatsoever for all that a
> society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. A man who really
> stands alone, in action and in soul. … Other people do not exist for him,
> and he does not see why they should." She called him "a brilliant, unusual,
> exceptional boy," shimmering with "immense, explicit egotism." Rand had only
> one regret: "A strong man can eventually trample society under its feet.
> That boy [Hickman] was not strong enough."

No, I don't even know who Hickman was. Wikipedia mentions a
frontiersman, a stunt driver and a criminal. Who is she referring to
an in what contest?

> She was so taken with idea of the Ubermensch and hatred of communism that
> she did not appreciate that man is a social being and progress depends on
> empathy and cooperation as much as genius.

Again, I find this to be a distortion. She highly praises free
cooperation and natural empathy. She opposes that these things should
be enforced by violent means.

> Brent
> "If I have seen farther than other men it is because I have stood on the
> shoulders of giants."

Yes, Rand thought the same. On a side note, Newton tried to make a
fortune by speculating in stocks (and failed miserably). Ayn Rand
never speculated in stocks, as far as I know.

Telmo.

>     --- Isaac Newton
>
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