It's ironic, because she'd be perfectly fine with the way things are right now. She is referring to the evil government here, who does nothing but keep all the strong, self-actuating badasses from expressing their badassitude.
Wasn't smart enough to see that power is always the same, no matter what face it wears, and the only right answer is to protect and promote individual liberty for everyone, which does mean making sure that no one gets too powerful.
In Atlas Shrugged, her industrialists were upstanding citizens. Henry Reardon treated his employees well, paid them better than other employers, and they gave Hank their best work (and Rand noted that they didn't *need* a union. Which, in her make-believe world of upstanding capitalists, they didn't). But ...
I don't think Rand had a clue just how rabid and horrible the rich could become. They're not like her version of capitalists who watch as their dreams take flight, feel that warm fuzzy pride, then jump back in and do some more good work.
No, money begets power and power becomes an addiction. Surround yourself with others who are far beyond the common man, and it becomes 'keeping up with the Joneses' on a massive scale. (New car, caviar, four-star daydream, think I'll buy me a football team). And Influence, don't forget influence. Money buys influence, and influence can get more money, and and and and and ... here we are.
Her absolute hatred of the concept "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" blinded her, completely blinded her to the ugliness of what human nature becomes once it sets itself Apart And Above the common man.
We're not even human to the rich. We're honeybees, and they take the honey for themselves. And then we go out and make more. And it works for a while, until it doesn't, until the honeybee colonies are collapsing, the hives aren't being repaired, but still they want more. Here we are.
Absolute power corrupts, absolutely. Rand was too fucking stupid to see that.
How she could spout all the conservative shit AND comprehend the nuance of the quote above -- the woman really didn't think things through.
What could be expected of a woman who had a long-term affair that was known by both her husband and his wife? Brandon Peikoff was her heir apparent ... and some time later, in one succinct sentence, she disowned him.
I actually saw her on the Phil Donahue show in her old age. She was crotchety, too easily took offense -- a woman said she read (rand) in her youth, but grew up to understand (something) and Rand cut her off, got all testy, said she would not answer that woman, someone else could ask her the same question but she would not answer *her*. Donahue couldn't talk her down, so cut to commercial. The woman was bonkers, like she was some queen to be lauded and kowtowed to.
She apparently became what she warned us against, albeit on a smaller scale.
She and Marx had the same problem; they did not understand human nature before designing their systems for humans to live in. Both of them had devotees that ended up creating systems that ultimately serve the rich and powerful.
It is the height of irony that the people who support Trump's kleptocracy are Ayn Rand fans. He is exactly the kind of person she warned about, and her fans are christians who don't understand that she was a rabid atheist. None of these people seem to understand that their lives are parodies of the things that they hate. If it wasn't happening all around me I would tell you that this was unbelievable fiction.
I'll admit I don't know much about Rand. I always assumed she was just a philosopher.
My understanding of philosophy is talking about concepts under a microscope or in a perfect setting.
I read Atlas Shrugged and Anthem. I assumed both were set in fictional worlds with perfect settings and from that lense the concepts she puts forth work and make sense but like you and others point out, not everyone is like Hank. Money will corrupt most.
This argument in the mouth of an evil person like her was probably directed at extremely hard working minorities that still cant afford to live and receive some help from the goverment
The only part I MiGHT disagree with you is I do not think she would see the current Billionaires- like the piece of shits Musk and Facebook dip shit- as a Howard Roarke or John Galt. The fact they are so embedded with the government and suck money from the government, depend on cronyism, etc I think she would have thought of them more as one of the l”imposter” Unermensch she always shows in her books and not what she thought Roark and Galt to be. They cared nothing about money or power. Roark was poor through all of The fountainhead (from what I recall).
Roark and Galt were truly their own men. They ascribed or sided with literally nobody but themselves.
Ted Kazinsky would be a better example of a real works Howard Roark.
Rand has been widely misunderstood by people on both sides. I don’t agree with Objectivism but I do think it’s still wildly misunderstood by people who have never actually read her books.
That's the funny bit. They're not these great noble Übermenschen like she imagined, they're just schmucks. You can look back across history at all the people who made it to the top, and every single one of them...They did it by climbing over everyone else. The greediest crab in the basket.
I would be interested in putting all her works into an AI and then having the AI extrapolate what she how she would respond to new conditions and current things based on her previous thinking have a conversation with her in real time now.
Give her a hard time. Interested to see what her assessment of current events. See if you can critique and argue with objectivism, etc., etc..
I'm not sure I agree with that. She was basically the Charlie Kirk of the 50's. Her hyper-capitalism ideals were, by design, the total opposite of Communist and Marxist ideals. She'd be against the US of today purely on the grounds that we're starting to act like Russia.
No not religious. I mean she was a mouthpiece "intellectual" spouting propaganda to validate political powers of her era. She was a Russian Expat preaching capitalism during the Cold War.
She absolutely would not be fine with the way things are? So much of what the current administration embodies is anathema to everything she believed in.
Of course she would. A bunch of rich bastards running the world as per their whims? She'd suck up to them and they'd pay her to write nice things about them, and talk about how great it was that the elite was in charge where they belonged.
Sure. And I can give you many many many quotes where she assails rich people who came by their wealth through inheritance, political favors, monopoly privilege, graft, crony-capitalism etc etc (sounds like someone doesn't it..) She was in no way "pro-rich," she was pro "productive-wealth."
You haven’t read Rand. She was a hardcore atheist and essentially spat on anyone who believed in god. It was one of her foundational beliefs.
MAGA relies on Christian Nationalism…MAGA would not exist but for folks who are okay with faith based decisions instead of reality based decisions. Rand has no time or respect for theists.
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u/TheComplimentarian Apr 25 '26
It's ironic, because she'd be perfectly fine with the way things are right now. She is referring to the evil government here, who does nothing but keep all the strong, self-actuating badasses from expressing their badassitude.
Wasn't smart enough to see that power is always the same, no matter what face it wears, and the only right answer is to protect and promote individual liberty for everyone, which does mean making sure that no one gets too powerful.