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Obama on Ayn Rand
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/obama_on_ayn_randIn the new Rolling Stone cover story, out todayyes the same one where Obama says Mitt Romney is a bullshitterwe get to hear the Presidents take on reichwing icon Ayn Rand:
Q: Have you ever read Ayn Rand?
Obama: Sure.
Q: What do you think Paul Ryans obsession with her work would mean if he were vice president?
Obama: Well, youd have to ask Paul Ryan what that means to him. Ayn Rand is one of those things that a lot of us, when we were 17 or 18 and feeling misunderstood, wed pick up. Then, as we get older, we realize that a world in which were only thinking about ourselves and not thinking about anybody else, in which were considering the entire project of developing ourselves as more important than our relationships to other people and making sure that everybody else has opportunity that thats a pretty narrow vision. Its not one that, I think, describes whats best in America. Unfortunately, it does seem as if sometimes that vision of a youre on your own society has consumed a big chunk of the Republican Party.
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Obama on Ayn Rand (Original Post)
swag
Oct 2012
OP
Tomay
(58 posts)1. Very insightful response from Obama
He really nails Ryan and the other Rand worshippers in the Repugnicant Party on their self-absorption. As Obama says, Rand is usually popular with alienated teens, but adults should know better.
ProfessionalLeftist
(4,982 posts)3. In other words Paul Ryan needs to...
...grow the fuck up. Ayn Rand espouses the self-centered narcissism of a 6-year-old (or younger). In the normal course of childhood development, most of us grow out of that around 6 years of age. Paul Ryan evidently did not.
Uncle Joe
(58,107 posts)5. Kicked and recommended.
Thanks for the thread, swag.
immoderate
(20,885 posts)6. Yep. When I was 16, and smarter than everybody else, Ayn Rand...
... had it all figured out.
When I expressed my ventures in philosophy to a favorite (chemistry) professor, he said, "Ayn Rand huh? She's a flying hunk of shit!"
That started me thinking...
In a year or two, and motivated by the Vietnam War, I was quite a different person.
--imm