[Peace-discuss] Ayn Rand

[David Green]

I post these two letters from the Chicago Tribune,
because the director of the Ayn Rand Institute in San
Diego seems to be the only speaker available for the
"Students for the Defense of America," on campus at
UIUC, other than economics professor Fred Gottheil
(you can look up "The Smoking Gun" online), an
economics professor who is also a Zionist crackpot.
Yaron Brook has visited three times here, but is best
known for having his literature confiscated under
Canadian hate speech laws. It's also interesting that
Steve Chapman's wife, Fern Schumer Chapman, is best
known for a book about her mother, who came to this
country on the kindertransport from Nazi Germany in
the late 1930s. I wonder what Ayn Rand would have
thought of those who helped her survive? It's also
interesting, I guess, that columnist Steve Chapman was
adamantly opposed to the invasion of Iraq, the only
Trib editorial board member to be so, I think.
Interesting world.

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE (LETTER)
Ayn Rand's disturbing popularity

Ralph Cook
Published February 4, 2005

Chicago -- The double whammy of columnist Steve
Chapman's "The evolution of Ayn Rand" in Commentary
and cultural critic Julia Keller's "Rereading `Atlas'
on Ayn Rand's 100th" in the Arts & Entertainment
section of the Sunday Tribune, both on the
pseudo-philosopher Ayn Rand, was just too much to
take. When one person tries to turn 25 centuries of
the Judeo-Christian ethical tradition, not to mention
the Greco-Roman philosophical underpinning of our
society, on its head, any thinking person has to
question the amount of ink wasted on this vituperative
recluse.

There is no question of the popularity of her fiction
or her ability to string thoughts together in a
coherent way. But coherency does not a truthful
argument make.

Our social order depends on the ability of human
beings to create just structures that allow
individuals to succeed within limits decided by the
whole. Rand could never understand what justice, the
basic value of our society, was about. For her justice
is what is good for the powerful. Let's just all go
back to the Dark Ages or to Nietzschean fascism.

It is inconceivable to me that any movement based
primarily on selfishness gets the play that this
charlatan does. Some suggest that present political
trends follow her lead. Her suggestions logically can
only lead to anarchy. Is that what the Bush
administration is heading toward? If there is any
philosophical basis for our present leaders, it seems
to be expediency rather than something they read.

The notoriety of Rand can only bode ill for our
society. If we are headed toward an order where
individual wants take precedence over the concepts of
justice and neighbor care, we are in deep trouble.
Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune 

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE (LETTER)
Reality vs. Rand

John McAuley
Published February 4, 2005

Glenview -- Steve Chapman's column praising Ayn Rand
and her philosophy of "The Virtue of Selfishness" is
naive.

I read "Atlas Shrugged" many years ago, but as I
remember the book, the captains of industry were all
wealthy but honest individuals who provided valuable
goods for society, such as steel and railroads.

I don't remember such characters as Ken Lay, Dennis
Kozlowski, Bernie Ebbers and "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap,
whose talent was to temporarily push up stock prices
(and his compensation) by the wholesale firing of
employees.

For that matter, I don't remember a chapter on airline
bankruptcy, where retirement plans are decimated and
the whole mess is dropped on the backs of the
taxpayers.

If the characters in "Atlas Shrugged" were real, life
would be grand. Unfortunately truth is stranger than
fiction.