Who do you hate more? Ayn Rand or Sarah Palin?

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

My first show will be on the "climate crisis." Or it might be on Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged. I've prepared both shows because I can't decide which I should do.

What do you think?

I'm partial to an Atlas show because I reread the novel recently and was stunned. It was as if Rand had seen the future. Writing half a century ago, she predicted today's explosion of big government in shockingly accurate detail.

The "Preservation of Livelihood Law." The "Equalization of Opportunity Law." The "Steel Unification Plan."

Don't these sound like laws passed by the current Congress?

All were creations of Rand's villain, Wesley Mouch, the evil bureaucrat who regulates business and eventually drives the productive people out of business. Who is today's Wesley Mouch? Barney Frank? Chris Dodd. Tim Geithner? I'll ask my TV audience to vote.

Atlas is still a big bestseller today. This year, it reached as high as NO. 15 on Amazon's bestseller list. Pretty amazing.

Clearly there's some magic in Atlas Shrugged. The Library of Congress once asked readers which books made the biggest difference in their lives. Atlas came in second, after the Bible.

Yet elites and the MSM hate Ayn Rand. When Atlas first came out, The New York Times wrote that "the book is written out of hate."

Maybe that's why no Atlas movie has been made. Angelina Jolie once wanted to play heroine Dagny Taggart, but it never happened. Rand's books still sell millions of copies, yet college "women's studies" courses rarely mention her. One professor says her department head asked, "Why would you study that fascist?"

Why such antipathy?

Rand celebrates business and free markets. The elites don't like business. In every newsroom where I've worked, and at my college, Princeton, capitalism was derided as selfishness.

And lately, as a failure. On one website, someone wrote: "You'd think it was a joke, when the global economy was collapsing because of greed, that anyone might turn seriously to the purple prose of crypto-fascist (!) Ayn Rand and think it was the answer to anything."

Well, I, for one, think her prose answers much.

The embrace of freer markets has lifted more people out of the misery of poverty than any other system—ever. The World Bank says that in just the last 30 years, half a billion people who once lived on less than $1.25 a day have moved out of poverty.

But now, Wesley Mouch—I mean, Congress and the bureaucrats—tell us they are going to "fix" capitalism, as if their previous "fixes" didn't hamstring the free market and create the problems they propose to solve.

Who are they kidding? Rand had it right. She learned it the hard way in Soviet Russia. What makes a country work is leaving people free—free to take risks, to invent things—and to keep the rewards of their work.

Critics say Ayn Rand promotes selfishness. I call it "enlightened self interest." When free people act in their own self-interest, society prospers.

So there's my first show, maybe.

John Stossel
Reason.com
(Libertarian web site)

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

More from John, an earlier piece:

I was one of America's first TV consumer reporters. I approached the job with an attitude. If companies ripped people off, I would embarrass them on TV—and demand that government do something. (I now regret the latter—the former was a good thing.)
I clearly had a point of view: I was a crusader out to punish corporate bullies. My colleagues liked it. I got job offers. I won 19 Emmys. I was invited to speak at journalism conferences.

Then, gradually, I figured out that business, for the most part, treats consumers pretty well. The way to get rich in business is to create something good, sell it for a reasonable price, acquire a reputation for honesty, and keep pleasing customers so they come back for more.
As a local TV reporter, I could find plenty of crooks. But once I got to the national stage—20/20 and Good Morning America—it was hard to find comparable national scams. There were some: Enron, Bernie Madoff, etc. But they are rare. In a $14 trillion economy, you'd think there'd be more. But there aren't.

I figured out why: Market forces, even when hampered by government, keep scammers in check. Reputation matters. Word gets out. Good companies thrive, and bad ones atrophy. Regulation barely deters the cheaters, but competition does.

It made me want to learn more about free markets. I subscribed to Reason magazine and read Cato Institute research papers. Then Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, and Aaron Wildavsky.

My reporting changed. I started taking skeptical looks at government—especially regulation. I did an ABC TV special, "Are We Scaring You to Death?" that said we TV reporters often make hysterical claims about chemicals, pollution, and other relatively minor risks. Its good ratings—16 million viewers—surprised my colleagues.

Suddenly, I wasn't so popular with them.

I stopped winning Emmys.

John Stossel
Reason.com

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

I wonder how many books Sarah has sold by now?

 

[vrosej10]

Sarah Palin no contest. She shits me up and done and really reminds me of someone who seriously annoys me.

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Sarah Palin no contest. She shits me up and done and really reminds me of someone who seriously annoys me.

You should read her book and not let the media inform you about her.

They hate her like they hate Rand, for the same reasons.

 

[vrosej10]

You should read her book and not let the media inform you about her.

They hate her like they hate Rand, for the same reasons.

This is a visceral dislike not something rational. I see her pic and I become enraged. This is not a usual reaction for me. I am very placid and friendly generally. I think it might be the amount she resembles the other person I know; they even have similar body language.

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

This is a visceral dislike not something rational. I see her pic and I become enraged. This is not a usual reaction for me. I am very placid and friendly generally. I think it might be the amount she resembles the other person I know; they even have similar body language.

At least you're honest about it.




I can respect, even if I don't understand, that...

 

[vrosej10]

At least you're honest about it.




I can respect, even if I don't understand, that...

The weird thing is I am not normally like that. I think that other person has trigger a pavlov's dog style rage thing with people who look like her (that individual was an incredible pain in the arse. I'd rather spend a week locked in a chat room with the most annoying trolls on the planet than an hour with her!).

 

[unregistered]

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

The weird thing is I am not normally like that. I think that other person has trigger a pavlov's dog style rage thing with people who look like her (that individual was an incredible pain in the arse. I'd rather spend a week locked in a chat room with the most annoying trolls on the planet than an hour with her!).

Gotcha...

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

"Who do you hate more? Ayn Rand or Sarah Palin?"

For the left this is a quandary that can put you in the Funny Farm.

Don't I know that!

 

[JohnnySavage]

They're both hot chix!

 

[vrosej10]

Gotcha...

Yes I do seem to be spending the weekend in a chat room with annoying trolls ! Damn it, I gotta get out more. Soon enough I am going to be quequing up for anaesthesia free dentistry. (I think I am probably spelling wrong, but it's after midnight and I am not feeling well).

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Yes I do seem to be spending the weekend in a chat room with annoying trolls ! Damn it, I gotta get out more. Soon enough I am going to be quequing up for anaesthesia free dentistry. (I think I am probably spelling wrong, but it's after midnight and I am not feeling well).

I hate the drool of anesthesia.

 

[Sean]

Rand was an indifferent thinker and a terrible writer. Palin is a non thinker and I have no idea what her writing is like. I don't hate either of them. Dislike, maybe, but they don't have enough effect on my life to engender hatred.

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

But you know you don't like them!

You have plenty of negative things to say...

 

[Sean]

But you know you don't like them!

You have plenty of negative things to say...

I dislike stupidity. And Rand's prose is something everyone should dislike, it's awful.

 

[BigGator5]

I dislike stupidity. And Rand's prose is something everyone should dislike, it's awful.

Then why is Atlas Shrugged still such a best seller?

 

[miles]

Remember your audience. I doubt many of them know who Ayn Rand is.

 

[Sean]

Then why is Atlas Shrugged still such a best seller?

Sales are an indicator of good writing? Ever read any Dan Brown? Stephanie Meier?

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

I dislike stupidity. And Rand's prose is something everyone should dislike, it's awful.

But what about getting beyond the prose; all the Russian writers tend to go on like an Obama speech...



It's not her style that keeps her alive, but her ideas, ideas shared by Palin.

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Sales are an indicator of good writing? Ever read any Dan Brown? Stephanie Meier?

Sales over time might be indicative of something. No?

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Remember your audience. I doubt many of them know who Ayn Rand is.

They know who to hate. Don't fool yourself.





Even if they've never read a single passage, they know the reviews by heart...

 

[Sean]

But what about getting beyond the prose; all the Russian writers tend to go on like an Obama speech...



It's not her style that keeps her alive, but her ideas, ideas shared by Palin.

I doubt Palin understands what's in Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead. And her ideas aren't new or original, merely the usual "government is bad, corporations are good" spiel that Americans have been brainwashed into believing so that they will enrich those that run the corporations.

 

[unregistered]