I am a member of the Massachusetts Green-Rainbow party and I like Ayn Rand.
I feel like I should join a support group. I found out just yesterday that a movie had been made based on her novel, Atlas Shrugged, and 10 minutes later was out the door and on my way to the theater.
I thought that Francisco was too fat and Dagny was too vulnerable, the overly-dramatic background music grated on my nerves and some of my favorite moments or lines were distorted from the novel. The movie also cut the book into two parts but the first part was only 90 minutes long. Other than that it was alright.
Ironically, I read Atlas Shrugged while I was volunteering in India. I had read The Fountain and We the Living previously. Although Ayn Rand is known as a champion for the Red (I'm much more of a rainbow), I don't think that her ideals go against mine and in fact, I perceive her ideals as being critical of the current state of the Republican party.
Although the author would disagree, the philosophy Atlas Shrugged is not anti-altruism but rather seeks to expose the irony of persons using a shield of selfless-ness to further their career or to profit from the hard work of others. You can call is altruism. You can call it selfless-ness. You can call it utopia. But selfish destructive acts can easily be perpetrated under the guise of morality. The looters of Atlas Shrugged construct a morality that will keep them in power and keep wealth within their circle of cronies and call it in the best interest of society. Those with the intelligence to see through the bullshit and the audacity to succeed in spite of open distain for the administration are black-listed.
Ayn Rand also questions motives in her novels. I don't like suffering. I like sleeping in a bed. I like having heat in my house. I like being able to take hot showers. I do like volunteering and reading Ayn Rand did not take any of the enjoyment out of that for me. In volunteering, I am given a unique experience to expose myself to different work environments for a short period of time. In international volunteering, I came to a new place, a new culture, and was able to make friends in a new place and to gain exposure to different systems. I like meeting people and being able to teach them things about my culture and ways to better improve their health. It is fulfilling to come to a new place for a short time and leave knowing that you will be remembered.
I do not volunteer because I feel that forcing my opinions and ideals on other people will save their lives. I have gone away from my volunteer experiences with so much more knowledge than I could have ever hoped to give to anyone else. I would not expect that everyone would want to spend their money on the same things that I have spent my money on. Ultimately, it makes me happy and my selfish motives do not change anything objectively that I have done.
Someone who truly suffers for the sake of others without hope of anything in return is bound to burn themselves out. I strongly believe that no one is truly able to help others or contribute to society unless they put themselves first, for obvious reasons: a sick or mentally unwell person would be incapable of delivering a high quality of work and eventually would become a burden on the people around them and on their society.
Rather than putting it in terms of selflessness and altruism, it is human nature to trade. In Howard Bloom's The Global Brain, he shows that human civilizations through all ages have relied on trade for survival. Even babies will trade with each other. A person will be more likely to share or give to a stranger in whom they can identify qualities that they associate with themself, unconsciously in hopes that a stranger would give to them if they were in a similar situation. I don't give money to homeless people but I gave money to a pregnant middle class girl at South Station who was trying to get home to New Jersey, and I have met much more pleasant homeless people. Altruism is not selfless, it is human to expect something in return.
Although Atlas Shrugged depicts "the looters" profiting from the hard work of others, ultimately, it is the workers who profit in the end. Although Ayn Rand starkly defends wealthy businessmen who have profited from a lifetime of competence and hard work, her Atlantis is also filled with everyone who is hard working and good at the jobs that they do, no matter what the job. The workers, in the end, take over the bourgeoisie policy makers. Atlas Shrugged stands against the lazy and inactive who profit off the hard work of others.
In that, the ideals behind Atlas Shrugged are shockingly similar to Marx in that, as society tumbles and falls, it is the workers who will prevail. Any idea can be distorted. Communist societies have more parallels to dictatorships than to the ideals of the Democratic party. It all comes down to semantics in my opinion.
I thought that Francisco was too fat and Dagny was too vulnerable, the overly-dramatic background music grated on my nerves and some of my favorite moments or lines were distorted from the novel. The movie also cut the book into two parts but the first part was only 90 minutes long. Other than that it was alright.
Ironically, I read Atlas Shrugged while I was volunteering in India. I had read The Fountain and We the Living previously. Although Ayn Rand is known as a champion for the Red (I'm much more of a rainbow), I don't think that her ideals go against mine and in fact, I perceive her ideals as being critical of the current state of the Republican party.
Although the author would disagree, the philosophy Atlas Shrugged is not anti-altruism but rather seeks to expose the irony of persons using a shield of selfless-ness to further their career or to profit from the hard work of others. You can call is altruism. You can call it selfless-ness. You can call it utopia. But selfish destructive acts can easily be perpetrated under the guise of morality. The looters of Atlas Shrugged construct a morality that will keep them in power and keep wealth within their circle of cronies and call it in the best interest of society. Those with the intelligence to see through the bullshit and the audacity to succeed in spite of open distain for the administration are black-listed.
Someone who truly suffers for the sake of others without hope of anything in return is bound to burn themselves out. I strongly believe that no one is truly able to help others or contribute to society unless they put themselves first, for obvious reasons: a sick or mentally unwell person would be incapable of delivering a high quality of work and eventually would become a burden on the people around them and on their society.
Rather than putting it in terms of selflessness and altruism, it is human nature to trade. In Howard Bloom's The Global Brain, he shows that human civilizations through all ages have relied on trade for survival. Even babies will trade with each other. A person will be more likely to share or give to a stranger in whom they can identify qualities that they associate with themself, unconsciously in hopes that a stranger would give to them if they were in a similar situation. I don't give money to homeless people but I gave money to a pregnant middle class girl at South Station who was trying to get home to New Jersey, and I have met much more pleasant homeless people. Altruism is not selfless, it is human to expect something in return.
Although Atlas Shrugged depicts "the looters" profiting from the hard work of others, ultimately, it is the workers who profit in the end. Although Ayn Rand starkly defends wealthy businessmen who have profited from a lifetime of competence and hard work, her Atlantis is also filled with everyone who is hard working and good at the jobs that they do, no matter what the job. The workers, in the end, take over the bourgeoisie policy makers. Atlas Shrugged stands against the lazy and inactive who profit off the hard work of others.
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