So Paul Ryan, who looks like a complete dork/nerd/geek, says he was been very much influenced by Ayn Rand. I shake my head. Ayn Rand's real name was Alice Rosenbaum,and she wasn't American but an immigrant Russian Jew. She was also anti-American, although her followers can't figure that out.
Let's just say I refer to Atlas Shrugged as "the Talmud Lite." These days, Rand would be a neocon. For one thing, even though a rabid atheist, she somehow still supported Israel and considered the Palestinians subhuman if not nonhuman.
Long ago and far away, she'd be a Sith Lord. Darn if I can remember the exact quotes, but the Sith were described as believing in pure good and pure evil. This was apparently a dig at the inept George Bush, as as the bit in one of the movies about "If you're not for us you're against us" (again, not exact an quote).
Those quotes can also apply to Rand, who believed in pure good and pure evil. This was so bad with her that her friends used to argue if she was evil and insane. They couldn't figure it out!
One Objectivist psychologist diagnosed Rand with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Paranoid Personality Disorder, and Borderline Personality Disorder. To which I'll add: yep.
To show how crazy she was, she admired a guy named Edward James Hickman. This guy murdered a little girl and cut her body in pieces. Then he dumped her dismembered body in front of her father.
Rand was outraged he was hanged. But then, there are quite a few women out there who are serial killer groupies. Maybe they think these guys and misunderstood and that love will save them. Or maybe it's just that silly female Drama Queen nonsense.
Rand's fans, when confronted with the truth about her, go into immediate brainlock. They can't handle the truth. Cognitive dissonance hurts and they immediately go into the two main psychological defenses: self-deceptive and projection ("You don't understand Rand, but I do! Did you even read her? If you did you didn't understand her!").
Whatever.
Rand is simple to understand, like Communism ("Me good; you bad"). She's also grandiose, and many people fall for that.
For some reason I've always been immune to her. I read Anthem when I was 12 or 13 and it was the only novel I read at that time that disappointed me. And when I read Atlas Shrugged in my 30s I thought, "How can anyone believe this crap?"
Apparently many people do.
Wilfredo Pareto was the guy who came out with the 20/80 Law: 20% of the people have 80% of the brains. 20% of the people have 80% of the wealth. And so on.
Rand's fans think they aren't the 20%. They think they're the one percent, and everyone else is vermin. Let's just say believing that is not conducive to good mental health.
Fortunately Objectivists will go nowhere. The whole movement is just a circle jerk.
As for libertarians, they have to give her up. Libertarians need to become American patriots and stop supporting anti-American beliefs such as open borders. And stop supporting State-created corporate monstrosities such as Wal-Mart, for that matter.
As for Paul Ryan, I hope he's grown up enough to see through Rand. And if he ever says he now considers her nonsense, watch her fans howl. Most probably from their parent's basements, while they lovingly caress their copies of Atlas Shrugged.
