Sales of “Atlas Shrugged” Soar in the Face of Economic Crisis

[Regis Philbin]

<---- Has not read "Atlas Shrugged" but plans to soon. :o


http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=22647

Sales of “Atlas Shrugged” Soar in the Face of Economic Crisis

Washington, D.C., February 23, 2009

--Sales of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” have almost tripled over the first seven weeks of this year compared with sales for the same period in 2008. This continues a strong trend after bookstore sales reached an all-time annual high in 2008 of about 200,000 copies sold.

“Americans are flocking to buy and read ‘Atlas Shrugged’ because there are uncanny similarities between the plot-line of the book and the events of our day” said Yaron Brook, Executive Director at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. “Americans are rightfully concerned about the economic crisis and government’s increasing intervention and attempts to control the economy. Ayn Rand understood and identified the deeper causes of the crisis we’re facing, and she offered, in ‘Atlas Shrugged,’ a principled and practical solution consistent with American values."

[oxymoron]

I consider Ayn Rand to be among my foremost intellectual enemies. I believe the basic premise of her philosophy, that human beings should act rationally, is undermined by her own life. After all, how rational is it to justify an affair with a man 30+ years younger than you on the basis of reason?

Those who think reason guides human behavior are irrational. Reason is a tool for indivuals to justify our base needs and for the powerful to justify ideological control over others.

Rand ought to apply her understand of the motivations to altruism, which I agree with, to the remainder of her philosophy. Maybe then she would not appear so hypocritical.

And have you ever read her fiction? Those aren't real people in her books. Those are one-dimensional robots.

And don't even get me started on her epistemology, which is a disaster. I'll take Kant and the later Wittgenstein over her any day of the week.

[oxymoron]

Note that I am not against reason. I just think it is important to recognize that biology and psychology are much stronger motivators of human behavior and that reason must always begin from a premise...in my experience that original premise is founded not upon some foundational truth (for what would be the basis of that truth?) but on a basic human need. Just as Rand's premises are founded upon her need to seek revenge upon the Bolshevik ideology that interfered with her privileged youth.

I will also note that Alan Greenspan was one of Rand's acolytes. Why anyone would be seeking guidance from one of his mentors in these economic times confounds me.

But, then again, I will admit--unlike Rand--that my own stand against Rand and Greenspan is not based on an objective truth, but merely on my own human, all to human, needs.

[pinky]

Talk about polar opposites of intellect! Regis and oxymoron in the same thread....