Comments on: Ayn Rand reconsidered

By: tormance

tormance — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 22:06:07 +0000

Gee whiz. If you ask me she was something if she can still provoke this amount of … squabbling. Really are we talking about her writing..? You can dismiss her own fragile physical existence, personality etc., even the greatest of us have … something a little off don’t you think… and yes her writing itself was maybe not the top of the line… I do think that is rather an individual call… but as she liked so often to say should we not be talking about ideas… whatever you say or want to dismiss… well Ms. Rand was GREAT because of the ideas she was dramatizing. Her books are profound and- atheist or not- and I don’t consider myself one- but what she said Mr. Rappoport has demonstrate quite easily has a resonance. Yeh she wasn’t great… even her writing may not be perfect but what she had to say… that was GREAT … and makes us think twice or three times even now. Don’t you think that is a good thing..? I do… I still think about John Galt and Howard Roark… as cardboard as some of us might think… I don’t think of many characters like that….

By: John

John — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 11:20:11 +0000

Try the Gary Cooper film, The Fountainhead, the Howard Roark speech made in the film is awesome, it is one of the greatest speeches about the individual and how we must all eventually come to realize that individual liberty can never be collective. You can find the speech on youtube.

By: Dr Martina Feyzrakhmanova

Dr Martina Feyzrakhmanova — Sun, 04 Jun 2017 12:16:23 +0000

Thanks for the wonderful article. What the best Rand book to start with?

By: ubercynic

ubercynic — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 20:40:59 +0000

It is informative to compare the degree of literacy and coherency – or sanity – between Rand’s admirers and detractors.

By: Ted Wrinch

Ted Wrinch — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 17:19:38 +0000

“It is fascinating for me to read what people think about her [Rand] and her writings, for it says so much about them, far more than they realize. It truly has nothing to do with her, its all about them. Its funny so many who never knew her have such strong negative opinions about her character, …I would like to know more about her parents and how she was raised.”

And yet the evidence I gave here, which was partly based on testimony from those that knew her, showed that there was something wrong with her, that she had narcissistic personality disorder. Narcissism is all about blame shifting, accusing critics of having something wrong with them to deflect vision from the flaw of the criticised. If you wish to know more about her parents and how she was raised, a very interesting albeit sad topic, you can look at the reference I gave containing the evidence.

By: Terri

Terri — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 04:53:19 +0000

Ayn was larger than life, a colorful figure that created a chain reaction like in “Pleasantville” and has left a legacy far greater than her critics could ever hope to imagine themselves creating. She was exceptional, and came here with a burning purpose which she delivered. Remarkable to express these higher ideals in such a low vibration world.

It is fascinating for me to read what people think about her and her writings, for it says so much about them, far more than they realize. It truly has nothing to do with her, its all about them. Its funny so many who never knew her have such strong negative opinions about her character, as if it matters. Envy is a powerful insidious emotion with great destructive power.

Her apparent forcefulness actually was just a reflection of where she resides vibrationally, to someone who is average she would appear to be “too much” and they would, like the millenials of today, be intimidated, jealous and angered by something they could never comprehend or match. The world would be a better place if everyone was just themselves unapologetically, and had the opportunity to express that. To have the courage to be honest with yourself about who you are is too rare in today’s society.

To be great in a world full of the common is difficult and I am sure it was frustrating for her to have so much within her to express. The fact that she has had the power to have created such controversy and diverse opinions about her work speaks for itself. I would like to know more about her parents and how she was raised.

I just found a you tube in which Donald Trump talks about how he can relate to Roarke in the fountainhead. He said it relates to business, beauty, life and inner emotions.

By: Terri

Terri — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 04:19:18 +0000

Bob, she did address the most powerful force in society; the individual. Those who print money are nothing but parasites, as she stated many times, in many ways. They are not the ones with any power, which is why they spend so much time destroying those who have and express this inherent power. They cant function in a society of sovereign conscious individuals.

By: Ginny Sing

Ginny Sing — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 04:09:30 +0000

I see….

By: Greg C.

Greg C. — Mon, 03 Apr 2017 22:53:31 +0000

Michael: When I said “our humanity” I did not mean a collective or a consensus, but our individual sense of what it means to be human. So I agree with you.

I noticed that after a few replies, the only way to reply to someone is through the WordPress notification menu – you can’t do it directly from the page.

By: Greg C.

Greg C. — Mon, 03 Apr 2017 22:42:37 +0000

I see Rand’s characters as the kind of people she wished she could be. Roark was humble to the max. Other people insulted him, his lover tried to destroy him, he worked without credit. He refused to defend himself in court. If he couldn’t reply with a kind but truthful answer, he just smiled in sympathy. That is just one possible character outcome of Rand’s philosophy. Character is a creation of our intention and work, not our philosophy. There are kind capitalists, and mean ones. There are mean Christians, and there are hypocritical Christians. There are some rare ones that practice what they preach. By your standard, we can judge Christianity by its mean and hypocritical followers.

Following a philosphy, working it out in daily life, is quite another thing from espousing it. It is possible for a composer to write a great work and play it badly, or not be able to play a note of it.