Monday, February 15, 2010

Ayn Rand, makes me think

Since writing the piece on Ayn Rand I have get back to reading Atlas Shrugged. She has to be one of the most famous authors in America, no doubt due to the use of her work as Republican propaganda and the more I read of her work the more I simultaneously like it and perhaps distrust it. Her infamous philosophy of Objectivism seems like common sense to me, the motivations and problems facing the main characters resound with me. Sometimes her style of writing does seem strange or inconsistent but it really doesn't matter, the message shines through.

So what does that make me? I've never really been affected by anything like this before, I've rejected the religion I was raised in and never really shared a view with anybody totally. I have always questioned things and now I am faced with an ideology that declares I should question things, I agree with it. It is not earth shattering stuff by any means but it is truly a new experience for me to encounter something that actually makes sense.

We live in a world where mans true nature is constantly obscured and painted over, as a race we are constantly trying to be something else. Our lies create vacuums of power, of weakness only transparent by the grace of others. We become dependent on others as they are on us to maintain this group delusion, power is defined by the swell and destruction of the vacuum while reality is an afterthought. We can see this in Ireland today, where favours, such as buying out certain banks become more important than actual sense and it goes a long way back.

For my part, my belief stands like this at the moment. Men must be dangerous, all of them. The second you cease being dangerous is the moment where your opinion ceases to matter, no government in the history of the world has ever respected anything about its people other than their ability to remove them from power. This is the nature of man, this is reality. That they care about anything other than that is another example of this paint, of this vacuum. With Haughy it became so thick it almost drowned the entire country, now we see the same thing again.

Ireland will survive however, with a highly educated populous, you have danger. We are not nearly as active as we could be but a lot of the Irish people will react when they are wronged because they know they can, because they know enough to know that they have to. This is what must be encouraged, this is what has and will save us. Ireland has always had the benefit of realising the true nature of their government but look still how difficult it is, how easily the paint infiltrates, things should be done about it.

So that's an example of what it has got me thinking about, but of course it goes deeper than that for me but all in all I am pleased to finally have read some real world sense.

2 comments:

  1. Ayn Rand has little affinity for the Republicans, more with the libertarian 19th century Democrats who followed Jefferson and Madison. (See The Changing Face of Democrats on Amazon and claysamerica.com). The modern Democrats follow Robespierre and Marx, while Republicans hang with Hamilton, Clay, Lincoln and TR, all interventionists. She identifies with the result and not the cause, when we consider the Pilgrims, their Geneva Bibles and the foundation of American law.

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  2. Cool, thanks for the comment. I was basing my opinion on a little sleeve on the inside of my copy that, while I can't remember the specific details of it, seemed to be republican in nature. I also remember reading (perhaps on that leaflet) that Atlas Shrugged was required reading for young republicans.

    Rand's near idolization of the self made man and the morality of industry also seemed to have a republican spin to me at the time, though of course I don't know much about American republic ism beyond the superficial.

    Thanks for your input, I hope to read more into it in the future.

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