The Speech: "What did Paul Ryan know about Ayn Rand and when did he know it?"

[phantom power]

I had forgotten that The Speech was 64 fucking pages long

Here is a partial transcript for those who have better things to do than watch doddering old whore Brit Hume obediently deliver his softballs by slow freight (emphasis added):

Brit Hume, FOX News: What is your view of Ayn Rand? Are you an Ayn Rand disciple?

Rep. Paul Ryan: No. I really enjoyed her novels, Atlas Shrugged in particular. It triggered my interest in economics. That's where I got into studying economics. That's why I wanted to study the whole field of economics.

I later in life learned about what her philosophy was, it's called Objectivism. It's something that I completely disagree with. It's an atheistic philosophy. But I think what she's done is she's showed -- she came from communism. She showed how the pitfalls of socialism can hurt the economy, can hurt people, families and individuals and that to me was very compelling novels. Which says freedom, free enterprise, liberty is so much better than totalitarianism and socialism. Those novels, I thought were interesting. But her philosophy, which is different, is something I just don't agree with.

And right there -- right at the point where Paul Ryan states categorically that "Atlas Shrugged" (which Paul Ryan "really enjoyed" so much that he made his staff read it and handed copies of it out as Christmas presents) is "different" than Ayn Rand's philosophy "called Objectivism" (with which Paul Ryan "completely disagree[s]&quot -- is where Mr. Ryan knowingly tells what may be the biggest and most consequential lie any Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate has told in recent memory.

It's not just that "Atlas Shrugged" was written by Objectivism's inventor and chief spokesperson. Oh my no. It's that the novel's philosophical apogee and most memorable element -- that deadly, long-ass "This is John Galt Speaking" slab of awful that swallows up 64 pages of its pages -- was consciously designed by Ayn Rand to be a comprehensive introduction to her Objectivist philosophy -- a philosophy which excoriates those who claim to act out of a religious faith that teaches charity and mercy as mere dictators and degenerate "mystics" whose only "craving is to kill" and whose "only satisfaction is to torture"

...

So who is John Galt?

Well, if we had any honest national political journalism left in this country, "John Galt" would be fiery wreck that ended Paul Ryan's public career, and the iceberg that finally sank Willard Romney's presidential dreams once and for all.

http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2012/08/who-is-john-galt.html?m=1

[lightcameron]

1. A phrase containing "Paul Ryan" and "Russian atheist" needs to be a trending topic on Twitter.

If people knew the most important philosopher in Paul Ryan's life was a Russian atheist, how would they react?

We should find out.

[russspeakeasy]

2. Paling around with atheists ?

[Raven]

3. There is no way anyone with half a brain

could read Ayn Rand and not know she was against religion and the family and everything charitable...no way. BUT, I was with 4 people last night and only 2 of them knew who Ayn Rand was.

[lightcameron]

4. Even better. The fewer people who know her, the easier it is to associate Ryan with this Russian

atheist.

Of course, if they do a little research on her, they'll see it's true.

[SoapBox]

5. The woman was a Looney-Tuney!

I've always known the name and the "Atlas Shrugged" title BUT
then I looked at Wikipedia....what a NUT! And a foreign born NUT! And a nut who lived the end of their
life on SOCIAL SECURITY!

And this is who all these crazy types want to be? The book was fiction for gawd's sake.

[phantom power]

7. It's fiction, but she wrote all three of her novels to popularize objectivism...

This was her stated purpose for writing them. She was hardly ambiguous about what her goals were on that count. You really cannot be a fan of Ayn Rand without knowing this. Ryan is surely lying out his ass on this account.

I think one reason it's so popular among teenagers (and I'd guess mostly boys, but I don't know) is that her arguments are almost entirely in opposition to straw-men. This is the sort of thing that a thinking adult with some life experience will perceive pretty easily, but a kid is more likely to not understand. Then again, if you get infected with these memes as a kid, it probably makes it harder to notice they're bogus as you get older, especially if you live in a group-think bubble.

And, you know, also:

(Which, when you run it through the Adolescent Boy Tantrum Translator, comes out as "I am an unappreciated genius in a world full of loser assholes who shit all over me. Fuck you, world!", thus explaining why "Atlas Shrugged" is very popular with smart, angry adolescent boys.)

[EOTE]

8. Without strawmen, Rand wouldn't have had a career.

You can see it at its most insidious as Rand describes the people who'll be sent to their deaths in the Winston Tunnel scene. Not only does she describe their beliefs, but she describes their intentions as well, I'll be damned if there's a single person alive who matches her descriptions, filled with frothing hatred.

I think you've nailed it on the head why her books are popular amongst a certain crowd. These are angry assholes with no outlet for their anger, Rand provides that outlet in the form of various strawmen. Because hey, it's easier than actually thinking.

[phantom power]

10. Have you ever seen that bumper-sticker...

It's really the same basic straw man. Yes, we liberals hate nothing more than people working hard, succeeding and finding happiness... it's like kryptonite - noooo! I never considered, but the straw-man is so similar I wonder if these bumper stickers don't somehow trace back to an objectivist.

Bonus, these bumper-stickers also embody another pathological conservative trend: evaluating all positions based on whether they imagine liberals will be upset by them. This trend seems to have reached such an intensity that any objective(*) considerations of whether an idea is good or not no longer apply. It's all about whether they imagine liberals suffering impotent outrage.

(*) ha! burn!

[EOTE]

13. I have. And if there's one thing that pisses me off...

it's someone who's successful and/or happy. You thrown in he/she being a hard worker, well that just sends me into a white hot rage. I am, after all, a liberal.

[Ikonoklast]

12. Ayn Rand didn't create Objectivism, she did however perfect Projectionism.

Every fault she projects onto her perceived foes all belong to her.

Rand was a petty, vindictive, hateful bitter soul.

[EOTE]

14. That's not true at all.

I refuse to accept for one moment that Rand had a soul.

[Ikonoklast]

15. Those are fighting words, calling me a liar like that!

I have it on excellent first-hand authority that Ayn Rand had the soul of a beautiful young artist...


















...and she kept it in a tobacco tin on her mantle.

[EOTE]

16. DUzy! NT

[yellowcanine]

6. Please don't insult whores by calling Brit Hume one.

A whore is engaged in honest, albeit socially unacceptable and often illegal, work.
A whore provides a service which someone willingly pays for and generally satisfies the customer. Brit Hume does neither of these things.

[Viva_Daddy]

9. Ayn Rand was also staunchly PRO-CHOICE, which is why she opposed Ronal Reagan for President.

[phantom power]

11. Ayn Rand would have considered most of her modern standard-bearers to be parasites...

The keyboard kommandos, banksters, gordon-gekko vulture capitalists like Romney. None of these people bear even a passing resemblance to John Galt or Howard Roark. They literally make their fortunes by consuming the work of people who actually make things or start real companies. They're a lot more similar to Ellsworth Toohey or Peter Keating.