Ayn Rand as Seer on Health Care Shenanigans
So I’m currently reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (I know, I know… But anyway…).
I won’t go into how it’s killing my mother, the effect it’s having on my prospects for finding a boyfriend, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.
Point is, I just went through Chapter 11 of Part 2 (“Ellsworth M. Toohey”). Howard Roark had just selected Steven Mallory to craft a sculpture for the Stoddard Temple. After what can only be called an epiphany of spirit, Mallory explains what the commission (and by its nature, Roark’s great understanding of his own demons) helped him discover. Tell me if it reminds you of anything:
“I know that the terror exists. I know the kind of terror it is. You can’t conceive of that kind. Listen, what’s the most horrible experience you can imagine? To me—it’s being left, unarmed, in a sealed cell with a drolling beast of prey or a maniac who’s had some disease that’s eaten his brain out. You’d have nothing then but your voice—your voice and your thought. You’d scream to that creature why it should not touch you, you’d have the most eloquent words, the unanswerable words, you’d become the vessel of the absolute truth. And you’d see living eyes watching you and you’d know that the thing can’t hear you, that it can’t be reached, not reached, not in any way, yet it’s breathing and moving there before you with a purpose of its own. That’s horror. Well, that’s what’s hanging over the world, prowling somewhere through mankind, that same thing, something closed, mindless, utterly wonton, but something with an aim and a cunning of its own. I don’t think I’m a coward, but I’m afraid of it.”
Who knew Ayn Rand could so perfectly describe the Speaker and the “drooling beast” that the Stalinization of Health Care Act of 2010 has become, way back in 1943?
-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from TML)
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Nick, I’ve read The Fountainhead at least five times, and Atlas Shrugged probably six times. Anthem and We the Living multiple times. Don’t forget, I’ve been around for a number of years. I actually met Rand at a lecture in NYC when I was in college. Fascinating if flawed woman.
She followed a very simple line of thought: continue through to the logical conclusion of your basic premises. And she was dead on target, it just took a bit longer than she expected for all of this to come to life, but she knew it would.
Who is John Galt? It sure as hell ain’t Obama.
Comment by John in Dublin, CA — March 18, 2010 @ 10:07 pm - March 18, 2010
John:
Oh, Anthem! I have Chapter XI bookmarked and re-read it just about weekly. (Now that might explain some things to my mother!)
Comment by ColoradoPatriot — March 18, 2010 @ 10:13 pm - March 18, 2010
I wish you folks would go Gault…
http://www.angryflower.com/atlass.gif
Comment by gillie — March 18, 2010 @ 11:12 pm - March 18, 2010
gillie, you can’t even spell Galt right. And if we do go Galt: you’ll be so screwed.
Nick: Are you into _Atlas_ then? I’ve said before that I feel like I’m living it. Surrounded by the bad parts.
As for the “drooling beast”: It’s “actual selflessness”, aka “the principle behind the Dean.” People who have no “I”, no passionate self that values things of their very own, and then all they can think about is running the life/lives of some other/s. I’m not sure I agree with Rand that “selfish” is the proper antonym to that degraded state, but I do see her point.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — March 19, 2010 @ 12:31 am - March 19, 2010
(the Dean at Stanton College… Roark thinks in the beginning that there must be some kind of principle behind what kind of person that is, then at the end, Roark puts it together)
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — March 19, 2010 @ 12:34 am - March 19, 2010
“I’m not sure I agree with Rand that “selfish” is the proper antonym to that degraded state, but I do see her point.”
Yeah, that would be way too uncomfortable now, wouldn’t it. But of course it is accurate – selfishness is the core attribute here – it is the cult of the ego. One could argue the ego as fetish. That is why this has always been the “philosophy” of the insecure teenager – the inexperienced mind in the throes of declaring its independence from childhood and fantasizing about its own superlative powers and autonomy. Some people just never grow up…
Comment by Tano — March 19, 2010 @ 2:04 am - March 19, 2010
And, the Drooling Beast speaks. Thank you Tano for that illustration.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — March 19, 2010 @ 2:23 am - March 19, 2010
You mean like our Agitator in Chief?
Comment by ThatGayConservative — March 19, 2010 @ 3:49 am - March 19, 2010
Of course, Tano believes ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.’
Where have we heard that before?
Comment by The_Livewire — March 19, 2010 @ 6:57 am - March 19, 2010
Tano, you forgot to cite “your” comment. I am particularly impressed with this “original” declaration: “One could argue the ego as fetish….”
Sounds like a topic sentence for the part of the lecture on The Individual vs. Individualism. Ah, didactics, never leave home without them.
Comment by heliotrope — March 19, 2010 @ 9:24 am - March 19, 2010
‘And, the Drooling Beast speaks.”
Yeah, thanks for reminding me of that point. Read over the “Drooling Beast” passage again – what does it remind you of? To me it comes across as a verbal comic book – all the attributes of a cartoon without the pictures. Another reason why it finds its niche with the pimply wannabes.
Comment by Tano — March 19, 2010 @ 10:56 am - March 19, 2010
That is why this has always been the “philosophy” of the insecure teenager – the inexperienced mind in the throes of declaring its independence from childhood and fantasizing about its own superlative powers and autonomy.
Which perfectly explains Barack Obama and the Obama Party, who don’t believe the rules matter, refuse to pay the taxes they impose, and openly steal from the welfare system they created.
The Obama Party in a nutshell — selfish screaming bratty children like Tano, who refuse to pay a dime or spend their own money and refuse to follow the laws they impose on others. Barack Obama is nothing more than a delusional pimply teenager with dreams of grandiosity and no self-control or wisdom whatsoever.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — March 19, 2010 @ 11:20 am - March 19, 2010
This is not beyond your reach, Tano. Although I never knew anyone who aspired to being pimply, I am sure you can pop out with a rash of zits that everyone will stand in awe of. Have some chocolate.
Oh, maybe, in your dark basement of a mind, you meant to say wannabes with pimples. In that case, I wonder if Obamacare will eradicate acne. After all, only nationalized health care could add the war on zits to the endlessly successful war that eradicated all vestiges of poverty at practically no cost.
Comment by heliotrope — March 19, 2010 @ 11:59 am - March 19, 2010
“I’m not sure I agree with Rand that “selfish” is the proper antonym to that degraded state, but I do see her point.”
Rand used the word “selfish” to deliberately inflame the Left. A less inflammatory translation would be “rational self-interest,” meaning that the most moral thing an individual could do was act as rationally as possible to secure their long-term future happiness. And no, this does not include lying, cheating, stealing, or hitting people over the head with a club in order to get what you want, because while that might work once or twice, it usually ends with you in jail if you’re formally caught or forsaken by reputable individuals if you’re not.
Comment by Brianna — March 23, 2010 @ 4:22 pm - March 23, 2010