A Critique of Ayn Rand's Philosophy of Religion by Byrd Dustin J.;

Author:Byrd, Dustin J.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780739190340
Publisher: Lexington Books

Eisenhower completely missed his opportunity to defend the capitalist system and denounce what he believed was Soviet authoritarianism, and what Rand believed was a dictatorship in the name of altruism. This inability to articulate the morality of capitalism, which was indicative of “conservatives,” infuriated Rand, as she attributed such mental dissonance to the conflicting conceptions and motivations within the present American political-economic system, i.e. the “mixed economy” of rational self-interested capitalism with altruist legitimation. Had Eisenhower been a true believer in capitalism, or a “radical for capitalism” as Rand deemed herself, then such confusion would have not prevented him from engaging in a debate over morality with a representative of what she saw as the “bloodiest dictatorship in history” (Heller: 2009, 247; Rand: 1995, 602; Rand: 2009, 16). Had he not ascribed to an altruistic philosophy of the “common good,” like so many other liberals and conservatives, and had understood capitalism’s true greatness as a moral economic system because of its protection of individual freedom, private property, and personal initiative, he would have been able to easily win the debate with the Soviet Marshal. Alas, he couldn’t, and she would never forgive him for this. At times like these, she bore in mind what her student Nathaniel Branden once told her, that “we have nothing philosophically in common with them [conservatives]” and that she should forget ever convincing them of their error (Burns: 2009, 146). In 1972, after decades of disgust with conservatives for their continual service to two masters (Christ and mammon), which was only increasing post 1950s, she told Edwin Newman of NBC-TV in an interview that,

I regard the conservatives as infinitely worse and more dangerous [than the liberals]. I am not a conservative—I am a radical for capitalism. The conservatives want to reverse this country’s direction on the grounds of tradition. A great many of them are trying to connect capitalism to religion, claiming that unless you believe in God you cannot be for capitalism. This amounts to the view that capitalism does not have any rational defense, which implies that collectivism does. It is the view that you need blind, mystical, unsupported faith in order to be an advocate of capitalism. They believe they can base capitalism on mystical faith. I think conservatism is as contemptible as any political movement today. (Rand: 2009, 218—219)

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.