11/15/2010

Ayn Rand: Goddess of the Great Recession

Why Christians should be wary of the late pop philosopher and her disciples.

"Whereas traditional conservatism emphasized duties, responsibilities, and social interconnectedness, at the core of the right-wing ideology that Rand spearheaded was a rejection of moral obligations to others."

Jennifer Burns
Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right

Read more @ Christianity Today

6 comments:

Roadkill said...

Sunny,

One of the few viewpoints that Rand shared with Socialists, Communists, and other children of the collectivist left was her visceral aversion to religion. Both she and Marx considered it an "opiate of the people."

I'm glad to see that you -- like most all conservatives -- regect political philosophies that are hostile to religion.

Sunny Badger said...

RK:

Do you think religion is an "opiate of the people?'

Roadkill said...

Of course not. Do you?

Sunny Badger said...

I don't think opiate is the correct pharmaceutical. Perhaps the importance of religion has dissipated in the 125+ years since Marx wrote that. I think religion has way less sway today. In fact, religion has gone the route of politics and sports. More and more people go to church, but not for any type of salvation or divine guidance. I know many who go to church because the music rocks at their church.

Then again, there's a difference between church and religion. Church is a community and religion is a personal belief system. It think Marx was pointing to the superstitions that drove the thinking of the ignorant masses that made up much of church doctrine. Looking at the Catholic church and its history, one can see the impact of money and power and the working of an ever growing bureaucracy. More times and less control over information is crumbling the Catholic church. Maybe the less people know about religion, then more they talk about church.

Politics is the same. I see a lot more people speaking up about political things and knowing less and less of what they speak. The bulk of the TEA Party reflects this. I can't believe how ignorant of facts and history many proponents of the TEA Party are. When I ask where they heard that, they tell it's all over the news. What news? FOX News. Or it's all over the radio. What radio? Conservative talk radio.

Obama's $2 billion trip to India is a recent example. Pure baloney that five minutes on the Internet could verify. Yet, Sarah Palin said it and I heard Glenn Beck, Limbaugh and Hannity say it and say it on the same day...the day before the November election.

Maybe people are straying from the religious flock keepers and moving to the pastures fertilizes by the conservative hucksters. On the other hand, I hear as much baloney being excreted on the left by the liberals. The problem I have with the liberal market place of ideas is that their local radio station 950AM does not come in go.

Since I consider public radio to be as close as unbias as I can get, I prefer the exchange of ideas and discussions that take place on Wisconsin Public Radio.

...instead of opiate, I would say a shot and a beer of the people.

Roadkill said...

Your opiate/pharmaceutical, Sunny, is Liberalism, and considering that last rambling comment of yours, you might want to lay off the stuff for awhile.

My original comment on your post pointed out the common thread of atheism in the thought of Ayn Rand and in that of all Collectivists from Marx to Lenin to Hitler to Sartre to Marcuse. That is to say, if Christians should be wary of Rand due to her atheism, should they not be just as wary of atheist collectivists?

Sunny Badger said...

RK:

I got carried away on that last post. I was reading about the failure of Proposition 19.

I think Marxism embraced christian principles more than Randism.