(OR, One more déjà vu in the story of Ayn’s “Objectivism”)
Did you know that by Ayn Rand’s own admission, her “Objectivist” philosophy was born in her mind at the age of 2½ and remained essentially unchanged for the rest of her life?1 (Oh! those terrible twos! as they say.)
She claimed “Objectivism” was a new, revolutionary philosophy, but her claim does not, by any measure, bear the weight of her beloved “objective reality.” If one really wants to hear Ayn in her own words, take an afternoon, “YouTube” her, and THINK rationally / empirically.
The only thing semi-original2 about Ayn is perhaps her bluntness in claiming virtue for the déjà vux predilection that has forever plagued mankind—that self-con which admonitions to altruism have sought to conquer (with mixed results).
Whatever Ayn’s claim, the ideas she wraps in “Objectivism” have been, through the ages, the carrot of ten thousand times ten thousand offenses and betrayals. So perhaps it is time to lay to rest the offenses and betrayals that Ayn and her devotees have heaped upon Ayn’s dear Aristotle and his preference for observation and empiricism? Let us ask them all, in the spirit of Aristotelian objective reality, to answer:
• Are Ayn’s latest (inadvertent? accidental?) disciples, i.e., David Petraeus3 and Paula Broadwell, not classic examples of “Objectivism” in practice?---------------------/
• Are the likes of Abramoff, Boesky, Corzine, Keating, Lay, Madoff, etc., etc., etc., not direct products of “Objectivism”?
• What would altruism have done for these people—their privacy, families, friends, careers, prospects, peace of mind, reputation, happiness?
• Isn’t extreme individualism as fraught with danger as extreme collectivism?
*Thanks to my sister for observing the ironic closeness of the Petraeus name and act; though his betrayal is far more of himself and his family than of us or the US.
1. See Ayn Rand interview with Tom Snyder (1 of 3) from 8:09 – 8:38 seconds at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4doTzCs9lEc
2. (Though Epicurus, the Marquis de Sad, Faust, Screwtape, Korihor, and others might beg to differ! For Korihor, see the Book of Mormon, Alma 30, particularly verse 17.)
3. (and all his déjà vu predecessors like Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Newt Gingrich, John Kennedy, John McCain, Mark Sanford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Eliot Spitzer, David Vitter, etc., etc., etc., not to mention their accomplices; plus all the Hollywood and sports stars to exhaustive to enumerate)
