Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to re: John Galt

re: John Galt
Alisa — (archived)

You keep mentioning Ayn Rand's employer's paradise. I think that maybe you are taking her fiction a bit too literally. I'm curious: Do you think that Rand's philosophy can improve life on a smaller scale? In my opinion, things must change on a personal level before they can ever hope to affect a massive social scale. For example, an important part of Rand's philosophy is self-responsibility. Taking responsibility for your life is practiced by so few people, and with good reason. It's much more convenient to blame someone else. However, admitting responsibility is the first step to changing things for the better, because if you aren't in control of your life you have no ability to change it. You said the ideas are good. Can you yourself find value in living by them, even if other people cannot be depended upon to be honest? (One last thing: communism didn't require honesty as much as it required altruism. Honesty is necessary for altruism to a certain degree, but obviously this is an arguable point.)

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (68 posts)