The Horrors of an Ayn Rand World: Why We Must Fight for America's Soul

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http://www.alternet.org/story/154700/the_horrors_of_an_ayn_rand_world%3A_why_we_must_fight_for_america%27s_soul?akid=8475.277129.G0sl_U&rd=1&t=2

Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from Ayn Rand Nation: the Hidden Struggle for America's Soul, by Gary Weiss

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The whole damned history of the world is a story of the struggle between the selfish and the unselfish! . . . All the bad around us is bred by selfishness. Sometimes selfishness even gets to be a cause, an organized force, even a government. Then it’s called Fascism.

—Garson Kanin, Born Yesterday

There is no real doubt what an Objectivist America would mean. We may not be around to see it, but it’s likely we’ll be here for its earliest manifestations. They may have already arrived.

The shape of a future Objectivist world has been a matter of public record for the past half century, since Ayn Rand, the Brandens, Alan Greenspan, and other Objectivist theoreticians began to set down their views in Objectivist newsletters. When he casually defended repeal of child labor laws in the debate with Miles Rapoport, Yaron Brook [President of the Ayn Rand Institute] was merely repeating long- established Objectivist doctrine, summarized by Leonard Peikoff as “Government is inherently negative.” It is a worldview that has been static through the decades, its tenets reiterated endlessly by Rand and her apostles:

No government except the police, courts of law, and the armed services.

No regulation of anything by any government.

No Medicare or Medicaid.

No Social Security.

No public schools.

No public hospitals.

No public anything, in fact. Just individuals, each looking out for himself, not asking for help or giving help to anyone.

An Objectivist America would be a dark age of unhindered free enterprise, far more primitive and Darwinian than anything seen before. Objectivists know this. What perhaps they do not always appreciate, given their less than fanatical approach to reality, is what turning back the clock would mean. Or perhaps they do not care.

[99th_Monkey]

1. Human life being "brutish and short" seems to be the Ayn Rand vision for America? ~nt

[Icicle]

2. For everyone except the "fortunate few," yes

Nevermind that those "fortunate few" got to where they are through the benefits of our society. They would pull the ladder up behind them and call "Every man for himself!"

[saras]

3. The "fortunate few" fall back really quickly to those with two shoes rather than one or none

An Ayn Rand world only gets one generation to plunder what previous ones have built. After that, they're too stupid to build or fix anything, and it is just an argument about who gets to use up what first.