[S.C. Congressman] Mick Mulvaney, [S.C. Senator] Jim Demint, as well as Vice Presidential Nominee, Paul Ryan and a number of other Republican lawmakers share a common philosophical hero in the author Ayn Rand. Mick Mulvaney has declared that he has read, “everything she wrote six or eight times.” Until recently
, Ryan and Mulvaney have
championed running our government according to her principles. Ryan
tried to distance himself from Rand recently, but he didn’t change any
of his proposals.
With so many of our leaders wanting to govern us by her principles, perhaps it is time to find out more about Ayn Rand.
In a nutshell, Rand was a radical atheist who celebrated the wealthy to the point where they were the only people who had any value whatsoever. Much of her conversation was about money and how accumulating it should be a primary goal of everyone, no matter who they hurt in the process. A man’s, “highest moral purpose is the achievement of his own happiness.”
On the other hand, the poor and middle class have no value except to meet the needs of the wealthy. She even went so far as to say that the poor don’t deserve to be loved because they haven’t earned love. According to Rand, “Love should be treated like a business deal, but every business deal has its own terms and its own currency.” She also states that a man should love no-one above himself. Rand believed one should be loved only if he or she demonstrated virtue and that virtue usually manifested itself as financial success.
Rand made a big show of her philosophy, which she called Objectivism. It touts a rigid and absolute individualism. She famously said, “I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” She hated any government program that helped anyone, yet she took Social Security benefits as soon as she was eligible.
Rand despised both people who need help and those who provide it. Her term for them was ‘Moocher”. She displays her attitude in her book, Atlas Shrugged, with her treatment of the hero’s mother and brother who had the temerity to ask for support for their charitable causes. Rand refers to nursing homes as, “the halls of the useless” and demonizes any businessman with any sense of commitment to society as a whole in her books.
Rand held that selfishness is a virtue, selfishness to the point that it is ok to lie, cheat and steal to achieve your goals. She was adamantly pro-abortion declaring, “a potential has no rights, only actual beings have rights.” She was so radical as an atheist that she didn’t just deny the existence of God, but stated that she was, “against God,” in a 1959 interview with Mike Wallace. It baffles me that so many on the Christian Right are buying this philosophy hook, line and sinker.
The part of Rand’s philosophy that Mulvaney and Demint undoubtedly like the most, is her assertion that government should have no power to regulate businesses. In her terms, businesses should be free to do what they want without any interference whatsoever. Many businesses would use this power for good, I’m sure, but we no from distant and recent history that unregulated business leads to a few dishonest businesses cheating people, poisoning our air and water, and ruining our economy to enrich the CEO’s and boards of directors.
Rands sums her philosophy up well in the eleventh chapter of her book, Anthem, when she says, “There is no God but I,” and, “I need care only for myself and my chosen friends.” If Mulvaney, Demint and Ryan gain more power, this is the philosophy our government will follow.
With so many of our leaders wanting to govern us by her principles, perhaps it is time to find out more about Ayn Rand.
In a nutshell, Rand was a radical atheist who celebrated the wealthy to the point where they were the only people who had any value whatsoever. Much of her conversation was about money and how accumulating it should be a primary goal of everyone, no matter who they hurt in the process. A man’s, “highest moral purpose is the achievement of his own happiness.”
On the other hand, the poor and middle class have no value except to meet the needs of the wealthy. She even went so far as to say that the poor don’t deserve to be loved because they haven’t earned love. According to Rand, “Love should be treated like a business deal, but every business deal has its own terms and its own currency.” She also states that a man should love no-one above himself. Rand believed one should be loved only if he or she demonstrated virtue and that virtue usually manifested itself as financial success.
Rand made a big show of her philosophy, which she called Objectivism. It touts a rigid and absolute individualism. She famously said, “I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” She hated any government program that helped anyone, yet she took Social Security benefits as soon as she was eligible.
Rand despised both people who need help and those who provide it. Her term for them was ‘Moocher”. She displays her attitude in her book, Atlas Shrugged, with her treatment of the hero’s mother and brother who had the temerity to ask for support for their charitable causes. Rand refers to nursing homes as, “the halls of the useless” and demonizes any businessman with any sense of commitment to society as a whole in her books.
Rand held that selfishness is a virtue, selfishness to the point that it is ok to lie, cheat and steal to achieve your goals. She was adamantly pro-abortion declaring, “a potential has no rights, only actual beings have rights.” She was so radical as an atheist that she didn’t just deny the existence of God, but stated that she was, “against God,” in a 1959 interview with Mike Wallace. It baffles me that so many on the Christian Right are buying this philosophy hook, line and sinker.
The part of Rand’s philosophy that Mulvaney and Demint undoubtedly like the most, is her assertion that government should have no power to regulate businesses. In her terms, businesses should be free to do what they want without any interference whatsoever. Many businesses would use this power for good, I’m sure, but we no from distant and recent history that unregulated business leads to a few dishonest businesses cheating people, poisoning our air and water, and ruining our economy to enrich the CEO’s and boards of directors.
Rands sums her philosophy up well in the eleventh chapter of her book, Anthem, when she says, “There is no God but I,” and, “I need care only for myself and my chosen friends.” If Mulvaney, Demint and Ryan gain more power, this is the philosophy our government will follow.
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