Every time I run into an Objectivist, I get the urge to back up and run into them again. An urge, paradoxically, that Ayn Rand would likely approve of. Rand's philosophy is pretty much the opposite of the parts of Christianity that I value most from my own very religious upbringing–you know, the whole "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" business.
Her philosophizing has certainly made inroads into the political world (especially the neocon vision), and I find it quite remarkable that the fundamentalist Christian contingent is so often engaging in the political melee to support such expressly non-Christian views.
Which is to say I just read a piece in (on?) Slate about two biographies of Rand (whose real name was Alisa Rosenbaum). Quite interesting. Here's a brief excerpt, but it's well worth reading the entire piece, penned by Johann Hari:
Rand expresses, with a certain pithy crudeness, an instinct that courses through us all sometimes: I'm the only one who matters! I'm not going to care about any of you any more! She then absolutizes it in an amphetamine Benzedrine-charged reductio ad absurdum by insisting it is the only feeling worth entertaining, ever.
This urge exists everywhere, but why is it supercharged on the American right, where Rand is regarded as something more than a bad, bizarre joke? In a country where almost everyone believes—wrongly, on the whole—that they are self-made, perhaps it is easier to have contempt for people who didn't make much of themselves. …
She said the United States should be a "democracy of superiors only," with superiority defined by being rich. Well, we got it. As the health care crisis has shown, today, the rich have the real power: The vote that matters is expressed with a checkbook and a lobbyist. We get to vote only for the candidates they have pre-funded and receive the legislation they have preapproved. It's useful—if daunting—to know that there is a substantial slice of the American public who believe this is not a problem to be put right, but morally admirable.
We all live every day with the victory of this fifth-rate Nietzsche of the mini-malls. Alan Greenspan was one of her strongest cult followers and even invited her to the Oval Office to witness his swearing-in when he joined the Ford administration. You can see how he carried this philosophy into the 1990s: Why should the Supermen of Wall Street be regulated to protected the lice of Main Street?
ALSO: Go vote!
UPDATE: "I'm rubber, you're glue…"
I hope everyone brought their own crayons.
