Obama Says Ayn Rand Is For Teens

[highplainsdem]

Source: BuzzFeed

In a new interview with historian Doulgas Brinkley and Rolling Stone executive editor Eric Bates — where Obama appears to suggest Romney is a "bullshitter" — the president also weighs in on Ayn Rand. His take? Something teenagers read when they are "feeling misunderstood" but should grow out of in adult hood.

Q: Have you ever read Ayn Rand?
Obama: Sure.

Q: What do you think Paul Ryan's obsession with her work would mean if he were vice president?

Obama: Well, you'd have to ask Paul Ryan what that means to him. Ayn Rand is one of those things that a lot of us, when we were 17 or 18 and feeling misunderstood, we'd pick up. Then, as we get older, we realize that a world in which we're only thinking about ourselves and not thinking about anybody else, in which we're considering the entire project of developing ourselves as more important than our relationships to other people and making sure that everybody else has opportunity – that that's a pretty narrow vision. It's not one that, I think, describes what's best in America. Unfortunately, it does seem as if sometimes that vision of a "you're on your own" society has consumed a big chunk of the Republican Party

-snip-

Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedpolitics/obama-says-ayn-rand-is-for-teens

[LynneSin]

1. Even as a teen I refused to read this book

I have standards you know!

[nichomachus]

2. I tried ro read Rand -- it was garbage

[ashling]

12. That was my experience as well

[xxqqqzme]

18. I couldn't even

get through The Fountainhead movie w/ Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal when it was on TCM.

[Hissyspit]

65. You were watching it wrong.

It's a comedy.

[PATRICK]

152. My first bad experience

with a dialectical novel. I guess you could read it to find out why the movie(s) turned out so strange and bad. No warning label to tell you that as far as literature or entertainment or art was concerned this is the same category as a ghostwritten autobiography of a celeb or hack politician.

Apparently Obama and Ryan both went to that well predisposed to find some self meaning and capitalist reaffirmation. A little chilling, but Obama rejected it on both values and merits.

[Panasonic]

5. Looked at the book. Fell asleep reading the word "Atlas..

*clonk*kjhulggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggiyffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff *snore*

*wakes up abruptly*

See what I mean?

[ET Awful]

34. I'd rather read Battlefield Earth than Atlas Shrugged

That should tell you how horrible it was.

[pamela]

74. Battlefield Earth is one of Romney's favorite books.

He has that listed as a "favorite" on Facebook or his web site, I forget which.

[politicaljack78]

82. Oh My Gawd !

Wiping the remnants from my mouth, that was the worst movie I ever watched. I tried to give the book a chance but alas it was worse than the movie!

[dchill]

148. Moroni help us!

[caraher]

151. It is!

Wow... and the LA Times confirms this: http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-obama-romney-reading-20121021,0,1421008.story (can't get the DU link feature to work on this, I think because of the commas)

[catbyte]

38. I grew up tribal. The whole selfishness of it is a completely evil & alien concept to me

I was taught we are all connected and all need each other--humans, animals, the entire planet. I just don't get the GOP mindset and I never will. How can they be so selfish and mean-spirited?

[DallasNE]

57. As A Teen

I was curious about what all of the chatter was about and after just 1 or 2 pages I could see where it was going and knew it didn't make sense so I stopped right there. Perhaps my timing was off a little as I had just finished reading and making a book report on John Hershey's "Hiroshima".

[emmadoggy]

84. I also did a book report on

Hersey's "Hiroshima".

Made a big impact on me.

[ellisonz]

141. +1

[pnwmom]

3. That's a pretty good analysis. Some people never grow out of the self-obsession

of the typical teen.

[underthematrix]

69. which means PBO just

called lyinryan a narcissist and immature - and he did it in such an awesome way.

[whathehell]

107. Yeah...Her theory made sense to me for about five minutes -- Then I realized it was bullshit.

[Newsjock]

4. You know that feeling when you click 'DU Rec' on something with 4 recs

... and when you click, it comes back and says the new count is 16. That's a good feeling.

[thelordofhell]

6. Yup

[Liberalynn]

29. Love it

[ryan_cats]

46. LOL. exactly what I was thinking

LOL. exactly what I was thinking. Hard to believe they used to be funny.

[CheapShotArtist]

126. You know, I read the comments to that video,

and someone had suggested that this was actually a jab at Ayn Rand critics rather than her fans, since Officer Barbrady is an idiot on the show.

[Ash_F]

131. I think the joke is that even an idiot who just learned to read knows Atlas Shrugged is terrible /nt

[msanthrope]

7. "There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and

Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

I have no doubt the President has read this on the Internets.

[azurnoir]

16. there is one that really can change a 14 yearolds life IMO-Siddhartha

and change it for the better too

[louis-t]

27. Loved it.

Narcissus and Goldmund was the other one. Similar themes. Herman Hesse is worth reading.

[azurnoir]

62. agreed have not read Narcissus and Goldmund though

I'll have to check it out

[duhneece]

76. One year I gave Narcissus & Goldmund to my mom as 'my favorite book ever'

My mom's been dead for over 24 years & I'm not sure how long before that I gave her that book, but I loved it and The Glass Bead Game.

[Voice for Peace]

39. also Ishmael

[azurnoir]

61. sounds interesting have you ever seen Transformation of Myth through time?

it was a 14 part lecture series by Joseph Campbell very much the same subject matter from watch I've been reading about Ishmael

[Voice for Peace]

121. I think I saw parts of it, or maybe I'm thinking of the Bill Moyers series

I've never read Ishmael - one of my daughters read it as a teenager and was blown away.

[liberal_at_heart]

135. I love Joseph Campbell's work on mythology

My son loves mythology. That will be one I get him when he is at a higher reading level.

[EC]

44. Anything Herman Hesse can do that.. n/t

[azurnoir]

60. Steppenwolf was an excellent read

but Siddhartha was for me life changing

[EC]

67. That was the first one I gave my daughter to read.. n/t

[Richard D]

66. Yes.

Changed my life. 40 years later I still think about it from time to time.

[azurnoir]

98. +1 n/t

[smirkymonkey]

99. Damien by Hesse is another one.

Rand is absolute crap. It's not worth the paper it is written on.

[ryan_cats]

150. Agreed, it's on my bookshelf now.

Agreed, it's on my bookshelf now. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran is great as well.

[hifiguy]

49. One of the Intertubes' all time top ten quotes

from a guy with the handle kungfu monkey IIRC. Never has Rand's typing been described with more deadly accuracy.

[Hekate]

85. LOTR has a strong ethical & social contract component, unlike Atlas Shrugged

Very few readers of LOTR fail to grow out of the "I am an elf" phase, but nearly all of us remember the adventure, friendships, good over evil, sacrifice, and courage that it embodies.

I was delighted to share LOTR and The Hobbit with my kids, long long before the movies came out, and was really delighted when my sullen and rebellious teenaged son began reading Herman Hesse. In fact, his new bride recalls that the first time she saw him, almost 20 years ago, he was wearing a black leather jacket, had spiked hair, and was reading "Siddhartha." I think the whole picture kind of made her swoon

I would have been appalled if he had been reading Ayn Rand. My gods, the woman couldn't even write well!

The president is right: Ayn Rand is for adolescents at a certain point in their development, and we can only hope they outgrow it before someone elects them to office.

[truebluegreen]

144. Didja ever notice how "green" LOTR is?

Made me an environmentalist before I knew what that was...

Ayn Rand? Couldn't even get through it--and I read everything.

[ncteechur]

92. Catcher in the Rye changed mine.

[Hepburn]

110. Ditto

And I started a pattern of reading it every 10 years. Next year...I will be 65...and my first read was at 15.

[FreeBC]

8. Awww, that's what I always say.

Now people will say I'm ripping off Obama.

(He did say it better though, and without so much of the sarcastic tone I use)

[reflection]

9. Genius. A brutal intellectual and moral takedown of Ryan. n/t

[Fresh_Start]

10. I actually find most teens today to be more socially conscious

they wouldn't buy the crap that Ayn Rand was selling anymore

[Skittles]

96. they are a lot more aware than I was at their age

I credit the intertubes

[TM99]

129. Don't Kid yourself

Sadly, there are just as many teens today that get sucked into the Randian black hole as there have been in every generation since she wrote that pablum.

I couldn't stomach it when assigned to read Atlas Shrugged in an AP high school English class. I complained, and I was allowed to read Hesse's Magister Ludi instead.

[JonLP24]

132. I agree

I think it largely depends on parents on what the kid's views are. Of course, there are some w/ different views but when it comes to politics, it is very low on their priorities. That is also true for most grown ups.

[leftyohiolib]

11. she was a satanist - she may not have been yelling "hail satan" but she lived under his law

[ryan_cats]

63. Satanist, you're too kind.

She was a hard drinking and hard partying and chain smoking scumbag who even sought her husband's permission to commit adultery.

Now that's a role model.

[leftyohiolib]

105. a regular born-again hedonist

[fasttense]

139. You forgot to add a forger, armed robber, child kidnapper, serial murderer promoter

She had nothing but good things to say about Hickman who murdered and mutilated a 12 year old girl.

In fact, she was working on a book that used Hickman as the main hero.

"At the time, she was planning a novel that was to be titled The Little Street, the projected hero of which was named Danny Renahan. According to Rand scholar Chris Matthew Sciabarra, she deliberately modeled Renahan - intended to be her first sketch of her ideal man - after this same William Edward Hickman."

This serial murderer was the ideal she was promoting.

[DonCoquixote]

89. you ain't whistlin dixie, look here.

http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/06/the-fountainhead-of-satanism
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/5/4/9476/33834
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11025968

[leftyohiolib]

103. 'do what thou will' shall be the whole of the law

[Hestia]

143. The whole quote - Do What That Whilt Shall Be The Whole of the Law

Love is the Law - Love Under Will.

Changes things, don't you think? Love Is The Law

[leftyohiolib]

153. yep but i think rand ignored that part too

[JDPriestly]

13. Mr. President, you are (one of my) soulmate(s).

Thanks you for finally putting Ayn Rand in her place. You are so right.

To say that it is "a pretty narrow vision" is overly kind. Thanks for setting the record straight on this.

Well said.

[JudyM]

77. The entirety was an understatement, & about something so emotional. Our prez: 1 classy guy. nt

[Lost-in-FL]

14. I recently tried to read it and was horrified by the writing. nt

[dorksied]

17. I read it when I was younger.

I didn't understand how people could be so stupid and self absorbed.

[hifiguy]

51. To quote Truman Capote

(though about another author), "that's not writing, it is typing."

[smirkymonkey]

100. Touche!

[coalition_unwilling]

111. I prefer Virginia Woolf: "There's no there there" (said about the city

of Oakland, but oh-so-appropriate for Rand).

[azurnoir]

15. read Rand at about 14

and thought all this depends on people going along with sh^t and if they don't? John Galt was kind of an only child

[treestar]

19. He's a smart man

This is more proof.

[The Wielding Truth]

20. We have a wise leader. Paul Ryan is immature.

[SoapBox]

22. And you can't spell Ryan without Ayn!

I agree with you...he seems immature.

[duhneece]

21. When I was 18, I read everything she wrote & loved every word

Then I grew up a little more, became a bit less self-centered I hope...

[hifiguy]

54. I think a lot of people have that reaction.

It's such an appealing adolescent power fantasy. I read the crap and thought it was meaninfgul for about six months. Then I sat down and thought through what a Randian world would actually look like and flung "Atlas" away with great force, as Dorothy Parker put it.

[central scrutinizer]

23. We hosted a foreign exchange student from Thailand a couple of years ago

Thai culture is very collectivist - the antithesis of individualistic. One of her first reading assignments in English class was an Ayn Rand book - I forget which one but it was pretty short. We tried to help her with her homework as a way of improving her English but it was a real challenge to explain why the characters acted the way they did.

[Justice4All1]

24. Well, Obama's right about Ayn & lyinryan

sad what's happened to the party of Lincoln.

[missingthebigdog]

25. Can't make myself read her crap

I'm pretty tenacious when it comes to "challenging" books. I got through all of Tolkien's stuff. The Ludlum books with pages of conversations in another language, and characters briefly introduced on page 7 and not heard from again until page 307. The delightfully bizarre West of Eden series by the late Harry Harrison (btw, if you haven't read them, you should). I read every appellate opinion I can get my hands on. I've even read one of Rush's books (know thine enemy).

I cannot make myself move forward in Atlas Shrugged. I get to page twelve or so, and it is just too much work. I have started and stopped a hundred times. It has become a kind of joke at our house. We have an ancient paperback, and, voracious readers that we are, it continues to be unread. Kudos to anyone who got far enough to form an opinion.

[JohnnyRingo]

26. Maybe for teenage bullies.

I never read it, but from what I understand she gives a moral out for those who prey on weaker people. Extrapolating to adulthood, it gives a reason why some people think it's OK to fleece the unsuspecting or ignorant as long as one profits from such actions.

[Danang1968]

28. Christians

I don't know how anyone could believe what Ayn Rand says and be a Christian as some republicans claim.

[truthisfreedom]

30. I read it at 20 and found it interesting, but quickly realized that it didn't fit with the real

world. I respect Ayn for standing up for her principles, but I'm glad she was never terribly involved in politics, only philosophy. We the Living is an interesting book, as is The Virtue of Selfishness, which pretty much goes straight to the core of Objectivism. Plenty of arguments can be made against these ideas when you try to apply them to modern society, however.

[We People]

123. She wasn't directly involved in politics while she was alive...

but thanks to some of her latter-day fans, she's very involved, even indirectly. To our detriment

From all indications about her personality and how she encouraged a cult following, I'm sure she would be overwhelmingly gratified to know how much influence her Objectivism has over people with financial and political power today.

[sheshe2]

124. Hi We People

I knew I would bump into you again...I am just checking what people are saying.
My vote is for Obama 2012.
It's a vote for WE People! LOL
Obama Rocks!

[truebluegreen]

145. Standing up for her principles? Not.

She ended her life on Social Security and Medicare--according to her principles, a parasite. If she really wanted to live up (i.e. down) to them she should have stranded herself on an ice floe, and good riddance.

[MicaelS]

31. I thought "The Fountainhead" wasn't too bad.

As long as you're into "We had to destroy the village in order to save it" mindset.

[ryan_cats]

48. The Fountainhead isn't too bad until...

The Fountainhead isn't too bad until the rape scene. I had to look twice, this was written by a women? Freaked me out, the fact that he knew she wanted it and so did she is the justification??? And it's a violent scene too.

That cured me of any thoughts that Rand was some brilliant philosopher or writer.

[MicaelS]

59. That got me too..

A woman wrote this??? Jeez.

[Paladin]

32. Bullseye, Mr. President.

Anybody who clings to Ayn Rand's twisted philosophy beyond college is in trouble.....

[jumptheshadow]

33. I am right with the President on this one...

Last edited Thu Oct 25, 2012, 05:15 PM - Edit history (1)

When I was 16 and 17 I was inspired by Ayn Rand's concept of self-determination. I knew I had a lot of work to do in order to meet my life goals. Then I matured and found inspiration in people who did good works.

Unfortunately, I gave my copy of Atlas Shrugged to my brother. He bought into the philosophy and it created the basis for his radical conservatism which has persisted to this day. (He is generous to the people he loves, however.)

I can see how the pull-yourselves-up-by-your-bootstraps Randian logic could appeal to a younger person struggling to rise out of adversity and/or poverty.

I don't understand how a spoiled guy like Paul Ryan would embrace it as a lifelong philosophy, especially if he's a Catholic. It's like he's adopted everything that is regressive about the Church while rejecting its message of compassion.

[hifiguy]

115. I hope the shade of John XXIII comes back and haunts him.

There was a pope even this atheist can honestly admire.

[Ratty]

35. I wish Ryan's Rand obsession would get more press

The lady was a godless atheist and only in the last couple of months has Ryan claimed to distance himself from her. If more senior citizens knew Rand's philosophy in regards to Medicare and Ryan's love of here that would win us Florida right there. The fact that Ryan thinks of himself as a devout, pious, religious Catholic and at the same time embraces with a passion Rand's atheistic worldview demonstrates the fundamental disconnect Christian conservatives display between their need to hate, judge others, dominate women, and their greed.

"Ryan not only tried to get all of the interns in his congressional office to read Rand’s writing, he also gave copies of her novel "Atlas Shrugged" to his staff as Christmas presents, as he told the Weekly Standard in 2003."

"[T]he reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand. And the fight we are in here, make no mistake about it, is a fight of individualism versus collectivism." -- Paul Ryan, 2005

"What’s unique about what’s happening today in government, in the world, in America, is that it’s as if we’re living in an Ayn Rand novel right now. I think Ayn Rand did the best job of anybody to build a moral case of capitalism, and that morality of capitalism is under assault." -- Paul Ryan, 2009

His "denunciation" of her is certainly very recent and politically expedient.

[sendero]

36. Obama is a smart man..

... he's exactly right.

[RoccoR5955]

37. That is so true.

Just my feelings about her writing wrapped up in a few sentences. I couldn't have said it better.

[neeksgeek]

40. Dorothy Parker said it best (about Atlas Shrugged, IIRC):

"This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."

[ProudProgressiveNow]

55. +1

[infidel dog]

83. Dorothy, I've always loved you!

[alcibiades_mystery]

93. I still love her comeback to Claire Booth Luce the best

Claire Booth Luce was, of course, a playwright (The Women) and a Republican congressperson when there were no women in Congress, and married to Henry Luce, founder of Time-Life and uber-conservative douchebag (the Rupert Murdoch of his day).

She had a long-running feud with Parker, who had no time for her Time-Life bullshit.

At the entrance of some party or other, they both reached the door at the same time. Booth, who was, truth be told, quite attractive, gestured for Parker to enter first. She said "Age before beauty," to some laughter all around.

Getting in a contest of wits with Dorothy Parker? You must be mad.

Parker grandly swept in through the door, but before she got in, she deadpannned "Yes, dear, and pearls before swine."

As the kids say today, fucking BURN.

[hifiguy]

116. That is one of history's all-time great

verbal smackdowns if not the very best. How do you ever recover from getting torched like that in public?

[smirkymonkey]

101. Dorothy Parker was absolutey brilliant.

And one of the most quotable women ever.

[coalition_unwilling]

113. ha-ha. That's priceless! - n/t

[Moonwalk]

41. Well said, Mr. President! And all too true. The reason Rand rings a bell with teens....

...is that they're at that point where they're trying to assert their individuality. The teen sees their parents trying to make them an extension of them--not incorrect in some cases. And a book that glorifies individuality, that urges them to be who they are rather than what others want them to be, will certainly ring a bell.

But teens tend to be blind to other messages in Rand's writings--which is why so many adults, going back to the book, are pretty horrified--because they're now seeing those other messages and realizing what bad--and very incorrect--messages they are.

[olsondr]

42. This image sums it up for me

[hrmjustin]

43. LMAO!!! Welcome to DU.

[Unknown Beatle]

130. Thanks for the funny pic.

Hilarious!

Welcome to DU. I'm new here too, a couple of weeks, you're in a great site.

[NICO9000]

45. Made it through about a third of "The Fountainhead" before I returned it to the library

I was about 18 or 19 (late-70s) and knew nothing about Rand's twisted view of the world when I tried to read it. I liked it OK at first, but then it just went on and on and on and on...

[onehandle]

47. God, I love this President. nt

[ieoeja]

50. I don't think it is self absorption of a teen that makes them like it.

I think it is that it provides easy answers. People only fail because they are bad.

And, of course, Conservatives shamelessly make fun of intelligent people. Gore was too smart, and Kerry was too nuanced. They hate the "intellectual elite". Their answers to all national security issues are bigger bombs. I can't tell you the number of times I heard, "you know, there is such a thing as too much education," when I was growing up.

At least then people were proud when their kids went to college. I actually know people where I grew up express shame nowadays when a child goes off to college.

I like to tell people the PNAC plan for Iraq makes sense ... if you are playing a game of Risk. But in the real complicated world, it was a disaster. And PNAC was devised by those who are supposedly the best and brightest in the Conservative ranks.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

52. I read all of her books when I was sixteen

then I grew up

[ProudProgressiveNow]

53. Slam!

Down goes Ryan!

[Patiod]

56. I spoke about this at my Dad's funeral last month

I said that my Dad's politics were hard to pin down, but that "his politics might be described as whatever the opposite of a Libertarian would be. He believed in community. He believed in Lion’s Club and public schools and PTA. He believed it was his obligation to help others, and that people who think only of themselves and their own families and their own money are deeply impoverished people, no matter what their back balance is.:

[Historic NY]

79. +1

[rhett o rick]

58. I agree. I was hooked in high school. Quickly recalibrated once I enter the real world. nm

[Dont call me Shirley]

64. I read Fountainhead and didn't get it, don't remember anything about it.

[sarcasmo]

68. Bazinga!

[nolabear]

70. Couldn't have said it better. Normal adolescent stage. Adult, not so much.

[eppur_se_muova]

71. I wish Obama had mentioned this little tidbit about Ayn Rand ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/125170304

For that matter, I wish it popped up anytime anyone Googled Ayn Rand ...

[lyingsackofmitt]

72. Not for teens

for psychopaths...

[deafskeptic]

140. Exactly.

Ever since I read Ayn Rand's collection of essays in her Voice of Reason when I was in my late thirties, I have found her philioshopy quite repellent. As far as Im concerned, her philioshopy is fit only for scociopaths and Narricassits.

I don't care to read any other works by her.

I found Voice of Reason quite unreasonable.

[David Zephyr]

73. Best put down of Rand I've ever heard. And I've read everyone of her books.

President Obama is tres cool. K&R!!!

[Hamlette]

75. natural born diplomat!

he trashes the book and everyone who likes it in such a sweet way.

[David Zephyr]

88. Yo!

It's the best put down I've ever read or heard about Rand.

[SunSeeker]

78. And to think Ron Paul named his son Rand Paul in honor of Ayn Rand.

[infidel dog]

80. I never thought ANYONES liquidation in a Stalinist death camp would make the world a better place.

Ayn Rand is an exception. Too bad she crawled out of the USSR in the 20's. Heaven forgive me for saying that, but what a vicious, venomous insect.

[MichiganVote]

81. I read Ayn Rand. Then I read Hemingway and F.Scott Fitzgerald and Salinger

And I knew then that Ayn Rand portrayed life as a one dimensional affair. From then on I refused to read any author who could not provide a gloriously rich depth of three dimensional life. Anything else is just a waste of paper and letters.

[Hekate]

87. Welcome to DU

Enjoy your stay!

Hekate

[smirkymonkey]

102. Excuse me, but can you even read?

I doubt it very much. Enjoy your short stay.

[hifiguy]

118. I tell ya, they ain't makin' trolls like they used to.

MIRTed with extreme prejudice in the blink of an eye.

[vlyons]

90. I read Rand back in 1963, when I was 16

and I was definitely misunderstood by my parents. So POTUS sure called that one. Right on! The importance of personal relationships, emotional bonds, group belonging is built right into our DNA. It's something that we share with our cousin apes and primates; chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, baboon, monkies, etc.

[Blanks]

91. I saw 'Atlas Shrugged Part I' on Netflix.

I categorize it as a futuristic dystopia along the lines of 'The Watchmen'. Of course; 'The Watchmen' was a graphic novel (a better format for unrealistic superhero stories).

'The Watchmen' was somehow closer to reality than 'Atlas Shrugged'. I'm not sure how someone could be viewed as a visionary when they looked into the future from 1956 and saw trains as the primary source of transportation.

The story is rubbish, but I'll watch part II. The story had 'our heroes' running down a cheap energy source. Maybe it'll have Dr. Octopus in it.

[flamingdem]

94. neener neener paul ryan

[Skittles]

95. LOVE that answer!

[AlbertCat]

97. Something teenagers read when they are "feeling misunderstood" but should grow out of in adult hood.

I'd say one should grow out of Ayn Rand after the "terrible twos". Surely by age 4.

[Bonhomme Richard]

104. I think all republicans social/mental development stopped in 9th grade. n/t

[Odin2005]

106. EPIC WIN!!!

[TBF]

108. Atlas Shrugged (by Ayn Rand) ATLAS SHRUGGED: THE ABRIDGED VERSION (with spoilers)

Saturday, January 07, 2006


AYN RAND
Hello, I'm Ayn Rand. I wrote a novel based on my Objectivist philosophy called The Fountainhead, but I don't think 700 pages was quite enough to get my point across, so I will write the exact same novel, only it will take 1100 pages this time.

READERS
Hey, great.

HEROINE
I'm Dagny Taggart. I am a railroad tycoon, woman-in-a-man's-world, stunningly beautiful heroine. I am the only person capable of running this railroad. I am the only woman in the universe worth a damn. I am also the only woman in the universe with a real job. I am basically the only woman in this novel.

LOVE INTEREST #1
I have worshiped you, the only woman in the universe worth a damn, from afar for my whole life.

HEROINE
That's nice.

LOVE INTEREST #2
I have worshiped you, the only woman in the universe worth a damn, naked on the forest floor. Yet I will nobly step aside in the name of noble idealism, despite the fact that I love you and want you, the only woman in the universe worth a damn, desperately.

HEROINE
Okay ...

Read remainder here (it is hilarious!): http://www.mopie.com/blog/2006/01/atlas-shrugged-by-ayn-rand.html

[Lucinda]

112. LOL...thanks for that!

[TBF]

138. Glad you enjoyed it -

that is my favorite synopsis of the book! lol

[Hepburn]

109. Actually, she is for IDIOTS of any age! n/t

[Great Caesars Ghost]

114. If any books deserve to be burned, it's Ayn Rand's

[calimary]

117. Added to my quotes file. GREAT answer!

Really nails the so-called "goddess of selfishness."

[rwsanders]

119. Waiting for the sequel...

Wherein the 12 labor unions of Hercules castrate Atlas. That was the original greek myth wasn't it?

[Mkap]

120. most of the ayn rand readers

Most of them that read that i know are like 14-23 years old and think that their is such thing as "capitalist-anarchism" which is an oxymoron. And they hate cops and military for some reason too in their typical angst driven teenage attitude

i say
who cares where John Galt is...
WE NEED TOM JOAD

[daleo]

122. Good response

He doesn't exactly mock Ayn Rand types, but lays out the essential shallowness of that way of thinking.

[Union Scribe]

125. Obama is truly in his stride

He is piercing holes in the GOP all over the place these days, hitting all the nails on their heads. I don't know if I love this takedown more, or the one on Trump from Leno.

[Speck Tater]

127. I loved Atlas Shrugged. I was 20 when I read it. That was 47 years ago....

...Now I think it's just stupid.

[Dustlawyer]

128. Ayn who?

[JI7]

133. You should have included one of the Paul Ryan Pics with the backwards Cap in your post

[pansypoo53219]

134. nobody should read ayn rand

[sendero]

136. I have talked and "chatted".

.... with a LOT of Libertarians. I seriously believe that they did not finish developing as human beings emotionally.

Libertarians cling to a black/white mentality. In their simple world there is no gray. Everything either is or it isn't. There are no decisions to be made in this paradigm because everything is already decided. No hard choices because everything is black, or it is white.

Most of these folks possess a strange combination of naivete and cynicism. The great unwashed bring out their cynicism. They are all leeches to be cut off. The rich and powerful can do no wrong. We don't need regulation because the captains of industry will always do the right thing.

One would think that the events of the last decade would have disabused these fools of their delusional ideas, but I see no evidence of that. It is sad to say, but it seems like this thinking has started to infect the government, most specifically with the Tea Party. Who probably didn't have exactly this bullshit in mind, but who are not very good at controlling their own agenda.

[truebluegreen]

146. Yep. I'm thinking "arrested development." n/t

[Hubert Flottz]

137. I'm glad Paul Ruin never read...

Scooter Libby's book!

[crim son]

142. As a teen, with no preconceived ideas about Ayn Rand or her writings,

I found "Atlas Shrugged" a long, boring book touting an appallingly cold, inhuman philosophy. I haven't changed my mind.

[JitterbugPerfume]

147. my older sister made me read Rand

She said I "needed to" LOL

She stll believes that shit after all of these years....that was in the 1950s

[Flipper999]

149. I love that Obama has pointed out something that any thinking person already knows.

Ayn Rand's philosophy is simplistic, inhuman drivel.

I forced myself to read The Fountainhead several years ago. It was dull and repetitive, and the 'philosophical' lessons that it attempts to teach remind me of a small screaming child who demands everyone's attention and toys. A decent editor could have cut the book's length in half.