My take.

crazy has it partly right, I think.

She's a very big fan of People Who Get Things Done(TM). She regarded people who simply live off the labors of others as the lowest form of life; such people should be reviled in her view. No doubt these beliefs were incubated by her early life under the Soviets. She would have liked [link|http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5291|Bill Gates] immensely and had no use for anti-trust laws.

She was very doctrinaire about her beliefs. Rather like Milton Friedman, if you catch my drift. She knew what she believed and those who disagreed were wrong.

A lot of people criticize the selfishness of her philosophy and her characters, and the flatness of the people. She addressed that in an interview (as I recall from a biography of her that I read) that the purpose of fiction is to tell a story about "what might and ought to be". Character development is secondary to the ideal she's trying to present. She makes a strong case for what she believes, but life isn't as black and white as her fiction, of course.

I greatly enjoyed The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. In Atlas Shrugged, Galt spends about 70 pages or so giving her philosophy in pretty clear terms. One could do worse than read one or both of these and make up your own mind.

HTH.

Cheers,
Scott.
(Who was a fan for a while, but grew out of it.)

Post #279,612 by Another Scott 3/26/07 2:16:24 PM Reply	My take. crazy has it partly right, I think. She's a very big fan of People Who Get Things Done(TM). She regarded people who simply live off the labors of others as the lowest form of life; such people should be reviled in her view. No doubt these beliefs were incubated by her early life under the Soviets. She would have liked [link\|http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5291\|Bill Gates] immensely and had no use for anti-trust laws. She was very doctrinaire about her beliefs. Rather like Milton Friedman, if you catch my drift. She knew what she believed and those who disagreed were wrong. A lot of people criticize the selfishness of her philosophy and her characters, and the flatness of the people. She addressed that in an interview (as I recall from a biography of her that I read) that the purpose of fiction is to tell a story about "what might and ought to be". Character development is secondary to the ideal she's trying to present. She makes a strong case for what she believes, but life isn't as black and white as her fiction, of course. I greatly enjoyed The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. In Atlas Shrugged, Galt spends about 70 pages or so giving her philosophy in pretty clear terms. One could do worse than read one or both of these and make up your own mind. HTH. Cheers, Scott. (Who was a fan for a while, but grew out of it.)
Post #279,664 by tuberculosis 3/26/07 9:24:14 PM Reply	The extra bit of fun is trying to identify the big name captains of industry. Rand wrote during the golden age of American industrialization and her heroes were the big name industrialists of the time. Enjoy them as period pieces. Clue 1: Howard Rourke is Frank Lloyd Wright. I4 NOW! Impeach, Indict, Incarcerate, Inject Bush, Cheney, Gonzalez, Rumsfeld, Rove, Rice
Post #279,720 by bepatient 3/27/07 8:40:51 AM Reply	Agree on the must read list Atlas Shrugged should be required reading. Not because its right or wrong, but because the way it was written calls many aspects of society into question from a critical thinking perspective. Mind you, she was wrong on many counts...but it forces you to think it through to make that determination. Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry._{Adrian Belew}

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