Just Because You ARE a Character Doesn't Mean You HAVE Character

Of course I am talking about Ayn Rand, a true-blue crackpot, and her adoring followers, who don't have the excuse of a developmental disorder to fall back on and some of whom have done a lot of damage to the country because they are in positions of power.

Rand almost certainly had Asperger or some other kind of developmental problem, and her "philosophy" was her way to try and make sense of a world where she never felt at home. She had some utopian idea that not only didn't make any sense but could create a whole lot of problems. There is no "virtue" in "rational selfishness," of which there is no such thing--that would justify being a sociopath.

I have all of her major "works," but I haven't gotten around to reading much of her work at all. I don't know if I ever will since I am pushing 60 and don't want to shorten my life expectancy. I, however, know enough about her work and have watched her interviews even when was alive to have an inkling what she was about.

Rand was smart, and when she gave interviews, she would think very carefully about what she said before she said it, but obviously something was missing when she was talking. It was about having any kind of regard for others, for empathy, but I think that is because it was part of her makeup, and she never got diagnosed with any kind of disorder, which she clearly had.

Was she evil? No, despite screwing other women's husbands and driving her husband to drink. What IS evil is the people who should know better who are pushing her ideas without any kind of understanding of what she truly was and attempting to make policy with it. Former Fed chair Alan Greenspan is perhaps the most notorious example. There are many others like Rand Paul and Paul Ryan, and they should know better.

THAT is a recipe for disaster.

However, we already have a version of Randism in the form of Milton Friedman, one of the most evil people in history, as far as I am concerned. Friedman's influence is far greater and far more damaging, and that's because we have people of different political parties subscribing to the same ruinous policies. It's because he cleverly wrapped his demented ideas in academia that made him have a lot more influence than Rand ever has.

The linked article goes into gruesome detail about Rand's torrid affair with Nathaniel Branden, who died a few days ago at the age of 84.

Speaking of Crackpot Cults

Michael Lind wrote an article for Salon detailing the latest incarnation of the Ayn Rand "philosophy," which would never work in the real world and only cause suffering and even revolution by the masses hurt by such ideas.

It has been said Ayn Rand probably suffered from Asperger syndrome, something that wasn't even given a name (until around 1944) when she was a young girl trying to make sense of the world around her, and something that wasn't formally recognized as a disorder and standardized as a diagnosis until after she died. In interviews she came across as somebody who tried hard to explain her philosophy and seemed to have put a great deal of thought into her ideas, but it was obvious to anybody but the most brainwashed of cultists that something was missing from her analysis. That missing piece was a complete inability to empathize with others, to be able to see issues from other viewpoints.

Rand had an excuse for having such a harebrained outlook, but the same cannot be said for her "followers," many of whom are now in positions of influence and are wrecking the country with idiotic ideas that have never worked in the past (after all, history bears this out) and would never work now.

The Gilded Age was a goddamned disaster and nearly destroyed the country economically. There should not even be nostalgia for such a destructive time in our history.

Everything old is new again, I am afraid. These con artists are now trying to rebrand this radical cult as "populism." "Libertarianism" and populism are total opposites.

Lind:

Ben Domenech, for example, tries to define libertarian populism by arguing that it takes “a few of its aims from the Rand Paul approach – a balanced budget amendment, flatter and simpler taxes, and more – but there is also a stronger focus on issues which cut across party lines, including reform of higher education, prison and justice systems, civil liberty protections, and an assault on D.C. cronyism from green energy to Big Banks.” But all of this is standard-issue libertarianism, including libertarian critiques of “prison and justice systems” and “civil liberty protections.” Nothing new here, folks, move along.

What Domenech and others mean by “populist” appears to be “popular.” They want a popular libertarianism, a libertarianism that majorities of Americans might vote for, not a movement that has anything to do with actual historic populism in the United States, which has generally been, to coin a phrase, illibertarian.

Of course the proponents know that. It's call about protecting the "rights" of the privileged to continue to live off of everybody else and not have to be held accountable for it.

Etc.

I thought I'd pass along this dog story.

I pity people who don't like animals.
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If you don't have the mental capability of seeing altruism not only as a social and personal good, but it is necessary for one's own self-interest, then you shouldn't even have a "legacy," let alone an "institute" peddling "selfishness" (i.e., greed masquerading as "self-interest") as a virtue.

I haven't read the two recent bios on Ayn Rand, but it is getting more likely that she did have some kind of social impairment which caused her to not fit in. Of course, Asperger's wasn't even a diagnosis until around 1943, long after she reached adulthood, and it wasn't thought about by the general public until the 1990s, long after she died. But something was clearly amiss with her. I don't think she was a sociopath, but her half-baked "philosophy" tends to attract those of a sociopathic bent.

What's dangerous is politicians like Paul Ryan and Alan Greenspan even buying that nonsense.

As an atheist Ayn Rand did not approve of shrines but the hushed, air-conditioned headquarters which bears her name acts as a secular version. Her walnut desk occupies a position of honour. She smiles from a gallery of black and white photos, young in some, old in others. A bronze bust, larger than life, tilts her head upward, jaw clenched, expression resolute.

The Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, California, venerates the late philosopher as a prophet of unfettered capitalism who showed America the way. A decade ago it struggled to have its voice heard. Today its message booms all the way to Washington DC.

People bitch about the Mormons and their cultlike tendencies, but this is even more dangerous.
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Etc.

Obituary: Actress Phyllix Thaxter, 92, after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.

She was one of the performers who made numerous television appearances in the fifties and sixties. Her first husband was disgraced CBS executive James T. Aubrey. For the record, they were divorced before he became disgraced.
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I haven't played the Powerball lottery for several weeks, so I wasn't in the running for the $377 million jackpot. Somebody in Michigan has the winning ticket.
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The media have gone out of their way to legitimize an extremist.
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Speaking of Ryan's extremist philosophy, in this piece from the distant past, the late writer Gore Vidal thought very little of Ayn Rand:

This odd little woman is attempting to give a moral sanction to greed and self interest, and to pull it off she must at times indulge in purest Orwellian newspeak of the “freedom is slavery” sort. What interests me most about her is not the absurdity of her “philosophy,” but the size of her audience (in my campaign for the House she was the one writer people knew and talked about). 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 lookout.

He saw through her just like Mike Wallace did.

She was actually on the Tonight Show in 1967.

Her "philosophy" was fatally flawed because she regarded altruism as "evil." Well, humans have to have the capacity for altruism because it is in their "self-interest." Without regard to other people's feelings or lives, humans could not exist. Those without altruism or empathy generally need to be locked up or get extensive psychiatric help. They are dangerous to themselves and to society.

People who are without any kind of altruism or empathy are regarded as sociopaths.

The tragedy here is this abortion of a philosophy has run rampant in political and economic circles.

It's been said Rand may have had Asperger syndrome, which was largely unknown in her lifetime, and its limitations had a lot to do with such a warped outlook.

Ayn and Ryan

In case you missed it, Lawrence O'Donnell last night gave the run-down on Paul Ryan's long love affair with the "philosophy" of crackpot author and failed screenwriter Ayn Rand:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Pretty good summary of the "relationship," from which Ryan is trying to distance himself.

The Passion of Ayn Ryan

Note this piece was written some time ago before the superstar attained national status:

Leave it to Matt Taibbi to rip apart who he calls one of the "young, prickish, over-coiffed, anal-retentive deficit Robespierres" who is in a good position to drown the government in a bathtub, just as his handlers Grover Norquist and the Koch brothers desire.

The rest of us can go die for all he cares:

Every few years or so, the Republicans trot out one of these little whippersnappers, who offer proposals to hack away at the federal budget. Each successive whippersnapper inevitably tries, rhetorically, to out-mean the previous one, and their proposals are inevitably couched as the boldest and most ambitious deficit-reduction plans ever seen. Each time, we are told that these plans mark the end of the budgetary reign of terror long ago imposed by the entitlement system begun by FDR and furthered by LBJ.

Never mind that each time the Republicans actually come into power, federal deficit spending explodes and these whippersnappers somehow never get around to touching Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. The key is that for the many years before that moment of truth, before these buffoons actually get a chance to put their money where their lipless little mouths are, they will stomp their feet and scream about how entitlements are bringing us to the edge of apocalypse.

The reason for this is always the same: the Republicans, quite smartly, recognize that there is great political hay to be made in the appearance of deficit reduction, and that white middle class voters will respond with overwhelming enthusiasm to any call for reductions in the “welfare state,” a term which said voters will instantly associate with black welfare moms and Mexicans sneaking over the border to visit American emergency rooms.

...

The absurd thing is that Ryan’s act isn’t even politically courageous. It’s canny calculation, but courage it is not. It would be courageous if Ryan were, say, the president of the United States, and leaning on that budget with his full might. But Ryan is proposing a budget he knows would have no chance of passing in the Senate. He is simply playing out a part, a non-candidate for the presidency pushing a rhetorical flank for an out-of-power party leading into a presidential campaign year. If the budget is a hit with the public, the 2012 Republican candidate can run on it. If it isn’t, the Republican candidate can triangulate Ryan’s ass back into the obscurity from whence it came, and be done with him.

I'd prefer not to take a chance on the pair just in the event they actually DO carry out the extremism they run on.

We should know it is up to the "third way" "Democrats" like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to do the dirty work the Republicans talk about but rarely enact. It's been mentioned many times it took Nixon to go to China, but it took Clinton to enact "welfare reform" as a way to "triangulate" his opponents.

It's disastrous shit for Democrats to pull.

Speaking of Ryan's idol, the most destructive thing about Rand was her disciple Alan Greenspan.

He was totally brainwashed by her "philosophy," but unfortunately he was put in a position in government where he gambled with millions of lives with his anti-regulation nonsense.

News, Etc.

Detroit is a mess in general, but the school district in particular is in a particularly bad mess--on purpose, of course.
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Despite New Jersey being in bad fiscal shape, its moronic politicians insist on going through with vouchers.
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Expect Obama tonight to pander to Wall Street interests and talk about the need to bend over--er, "bipartisanship." I plan to miss the SOTU speech.
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Hell, even neoliberal goddess Ayn Rand took Social Security and Medicare.
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Not to make light of Jordan Brown's heinous offenses, but trying him as an adult would be a complete and total travesty.

This kid clearly has some serious mental problems. It didn't help he had easy access to weapons, either.
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Anti-public education propaganda film Waiting for Superman didn't make the cut for the Oscars, thank god. At least somebody has some sense.
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Those Two New Biographies

of crackpot writer Ayn Rand might be worth reading. She was one screwed up individual who unfortunately has had too much influence on one political party and thus screwing up the body politic.

One almost feels sorry for her. The operative word, of course, is "almost":

Rand had become addicted to amphetamines while writing The Fountainhead, and her natural paranoia and aggression were becoming more extreme as they pumped though her veins. Anybody in her circle who disagreed with her was subjected to a show trial in front of the whole group in which they would be required to repent or face expulsion. Her secretary, Barbara Weiss, said: "I came to look on her as a killer of people." The workings of her cult exposed the hollowness of Rand's claims to venerate free thinking and individualism. Her message was, think freely, as long as it leads you into total agreement with me.

In the end, Rand was destroyed by her own dogmas. She fell in love with a young follower called Nathaniel Branden and had a decades-long affair with him. He became the cult's No. 2, and she named him as her "intellectual heir"—until he admitted he had fallen in love with a 23-year-old woman. As Burns explains, Rand's philosophy "taught that sex was never physical; it was always inspired by a deeper recognition of shared values, a sense that the other embodied the highest human achievement." So to be sexually rejected by Branden meant he was rejecting her ideas, her philosophy, her entire person. She screamed: "You have rejected me? You have dared to reject me? Me, your highest value?"

She never really recovered. We all become weak at some point in our lives, so a thinker who despises weakness will end up despising herself. In her 70s Rand found herself dying of lung cancer, after insisting that her followers smoke because it symbolized "man's victory over fire" and the studies showing it caused lung cancer were Communist propaganda. By then she had driven almost everyone away. In 1982, she died alone in her apartment with only a hired nurse at her side. If her philosophy is right—if the only human relationships worth having are based on the exchange of dollars—this was a happy and victorious death. Did even she believe it in the end?

What a pathetic mess.

Miscellaneous

In celebration of Halloween, evangelist and family values czar James Dobson is calling it quits from his Focus on the Family radio program and organization, both of which he founded some 30 years ago.

He won't say he's retired, though.
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A new biography is out about screenwriter and philosophical nutjob Ayn Rand, complete with details of her messy relationship with "protege" Nathaniel Branden, in case anybody is interested.
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The Cult Chronicles

Despite the fact she had followers like Alan Greenspan and the fact the Chicago Boys led by Milton Friedman basically dressed up her crackpot theories in economic clothing, and despite the fact "libertarianism" simply doesn't work, Ayn Rand's books are seeing a resurgence.

There is no limit to human gullibility and stupidity. The problem is many powerful people believed in the same swill, and millions upon millions of people are paying the price for their idiocy.

Back to the Cinema Stinkers

Patricia Neal takes a whip to Gary Cooper in this laughable clip from the horrendous The Fountainhead (1949):



One of the worst, no doubt. One can't claim it wasn't true to the book or whatever when Ayn Rand wrote the script. The only thing notable about it was the torrid offscreen affair between Cooper and Neal.

As the World Turns II.

Steve Fossett found a challenge he couldn't defeat and has wound up as a modern-day Amelia Earhart:

Fossett, 63, had previously survived a nearly 30,000-foot plunge in a crippled balloon, a dangerous swim through the frigid English Channel and hours stranded in shark-infested seas.
Fossett, who made millions as a commodities broker in Chicago, also completed the Iditarod sled-dog race, scaled some of the world’s best-known peaks, sailed and flew around the world, and set more than 100 aviation and distance records.

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The "philosophy" of one-time Hollywood screenwriter Ayn Rand is a key reason why American politics is so fucked up:

By rejecting altruism and embracing selfishness she rejected the Judaeo-Christian underpinning of the religious right. The only moral obligation a person had was to his or her own happiness. That meant capitalism should be given a free rein with an unregulated market economy.

She pushed America's cult of individualism into uncharted waters where ruthless self-interest and disdain for poorer members of society were the guiding principles.

Growing up in Russia probably had a lot to do with her extremist beliefs, but that doesn't excuse the fact she was one screwed-up woman.
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