Reply #48: I Think You Nailed It [View All]

[scott_d]

I have read a couple of good biographies of Ayn Rand and I think you understand her well. She seems to have been an anti-social personality from the get go. This tendency was compounded first by her Jewish family's position in virulently anti-Semitic Tsarist Russia and then during the Revolution when the Reds saw her as "Bourgeoisie" and while the Whites saw her as a loathsome minority. Furthermore, once in the United States she never really got to know and understand the United States, living an isolated life among a group of non-religious conservative intellectuals. Rand's life was spent creating an ideology that rationalized the fears and traumas of her life.

I find her to be a very provocative and fascinating character but not one who should be given a lot of credibility nor whose ideas can serve as a model for a functional society.