Ayn Rand-Loving Right Is Like Teen Boys Gone Crazy

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/273-40/11396-focus-ayn-rand-loving-right-is-like-teen-boys-gone-crazy

If, as George Lakoff says, we view politics through the metaphor of family, then Mother's Day is a good time to ask the question: Where's Mom in this picture? What are all those dirty socks and pizza boxes doing in the living room? (Seriously: it looks like a frat house in here.) Who's been drinking the beer I hid in the basement fridge?

And, sweet mother of God: how did we end up letting the 16-year-old boys take over the entire household?

Make no mistake: all this Ayn Rand libertarian me-first-and-the-rest-of-you-go-to-hell stuff - the there's-no-government-like-no-government theology that's now being piously intoned as Holy Received Truth by everybody, male and female, in the GOP - is, very precisely, the kind of politics you'd come up with if you were a 16-year-old boy trying to explain away his dependence on Mom.

Parents? I don't have any parents. I raised myself, on roots and berries and small vermin I dug up in vacant lots. That lady hanging around, feeding me and nagging me and picking up my socks and driving me to practice? She's just the nanny state. That bitch. I hate her.

Society? There's no such thing as society. There's only what I want right now, which is the ultimate good in my universe. And what I want right now is more time on the XBox, pizza money, and the keys to the family car.

[PDJane]

1. Absolutely true. Finally, someone says it.

I am sick to death about hearing about the 'nanny state', about how lowering taxes always makes the government coffers grow (it's magic), about how marriage is a religious rite (it's always been about property).

The next person who says 'nanny state' to me is going to be taken back in time and dropped in boiling oil.

[Zookeeper]

2. Exactly! I've been saying for years that they all...

come across as adolescents who are pissed off at Mom and Dad. They strike me as incredibly immature and self-centered. (Having parented teens, I'm familiar with the attitude! )

[eridani]

3. That's why when they whine about socialism or communism, you should never

--riposte with a denial, even if it's true. They don't have a fucking clue what the words mean; they are just attacking the notion of civil society and public goods. Just call them the whiny brats that they are, and tell them that those words are just a childish refusal to invest in public goods for people other than themselves.