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Ayn Rand vs. Jesus Christ
Charles Murray is squeeing over the two new biographies on Ayn Rand. He is intellectual enough to accept her faults, such as her dexedrine-enhanced years, nothing like a little speed for your happy over-achiever. The drugs fueled the larger personality problem that developed in the later years of her exalting success, what Murray calls her “self-delusion on a grand scale”, cowing her devoted acolytes and adoring groupies with an overbearing, dictatorial tempter.
Such is the corruption of power, and I understand it well enough. After all, it was the same with Elvis, all the way down to the crippling reliance on drugs, as it is the same with perhaps countless superstars. It happens. It’s not like Ayn Rand was the messiah of capitalism, but just its greatest prophet. We really need to resist the temptation to deify the greats . It should be enough that we make them rich and famous.
And I am a fan myself, not of the libertarian/objectivist philosophy and the creed of selfishness, of course, but I love “Atlas Shrugged” as one of the great novels of all time. The world she creates is vast and deep and so fantastic, and I get lost in her vivid evocation of a world falling apart and a civilization dying, as her gritty band of hyper-achievers give up on trying to save people from themselves and begin to build a new world of their own.
Murray’s review has whetted my appetite to dive back into that crumbling world for my third reading. It has been almost ten years since my last go, which happened to be a little before I first got on the Internet and settled myself in the blogosphere - it has been a long time. The book is definitely ripe for a rereading.
However, it is a good idea to wait for at least a few months. I am still running a little hot on this Christ thing, and seeing how Rand effectively offers up an entire, opposing metaphysical system for how the universe works, I am sure that I would enjoy “Atlas Shrugged” much more if my psychological space was less crowded. Besides, I have at least a couple of other books that I am more anxious about getting into, not least of which being my first reading of Alice’s adventures in wonderland, finally.
Such is the corruption of power, and I understand it well enough. After all, it was the same with Elvis, all the way down to the crippling reliance on drugs, as it is the same with perhaps countless superstars. It happens. It’s not like Ayn Rand was the messiah of capitalism, but just its greatest prophet. We really need to resist the temptation to deify the greats . It should be enough that we make them rich and famous.
And I am a fan myself, not of the libertarian/objectivist philosophy and the creed of selfishness, of course, but I love “Atlas Shrugged” as one of the great novels of all time. The world she creates is vast and deep and so fantastic, and I get lost in her vivid evocation of a world falling apart and a civilization dying, as her gritty band of hyper-achievers give up on trying to save people from themselves and begin to build a new world of their own.
Murray’s review has whetted my appetite to dive back into that crumbling world for my third reading. It has been almost ten years since my last go, which happened to be a little before I first got on the Internet and settled myself in the blogosphere - it has been a long time. The book is definitely ripe for a rereading.
However, it is a good idea to wait for at least a few months. I am still running a little hot on this Christ thing, and seeing how Rand effectively offers up an entire, opposing metaphysical system for how the universe works, I am sure that I would enjoy “Atlas Shrugged” much more if my psychological space was less crowded. Besides, I have at least a couple of other books that I am more anxious about getting into, not least of which being my first reading of Alice’s adventures in wonderland, finally.
Rand the "Tempter"
No one would call her a "temptress," so it fits especially nicely.
Hugz, Justine
Re: Rand the "Tempter"