Ego

Who Is John Galt? We'll Soon Find Out

Thank you Dr. Binswanger.


On Oct 27 01:37 PM Harry Binswanger wrote:

> "Anyone who believes Rand's ultra-selfish philosophy (for example,
> Alan Greenspan) is trash."
>
> This is the kind of anti-intellectual name-calling that only discredits
> your position.
>
> I believe, and can prove, Rand's ultra-selfish philosophy. Do you
> think you can prove your Sermon on the Mount, self-sacrifical alternative
> moral code? Well, if you can, then you'd be the only one who's ever
> put forward a defense of that morality in the whole history of thought.
> Even Immanuel Kant couldn't do it. The Judeo-Christian demand for
> unselfishness is based on nothing but religous, mystical nonsense.
>
>
> Trash? Here's the kind of trash I am: I have believed and practiced
> her philosophy for 46 years; I am a philosophy professor (Ph.D.,
> Columbia, 1973), a book author, an editor, and a member of the Board
> of Directors of the Ayn Rand Institute.
>
> As to Greenspan being the refutation of Objectivism, well that's
> an ugly, tragic joke. Greenspan is the living refutation of interventionism,
> of the idea that government knows how to regulate the economy. Greenspan,
> the "maestro," praised by liberals and conservatives, screwed up
> the money, creating the too-low mortgage rates. Will the next Greenspan
> somehow know how to do it right? It can't be done right, because
> the essence of "regulation" is to throttle the minds of individuals
> peacefully pursuing their own goals.
>
> Oh, but "unbridled greed" you say. How could it be "unbridled" in
> a vast regulatory state? There were 51,000 NEW regulations imposed
> on the economy in the last 12 years. And which areas are the most
> regulated? Banking, insurance, and housing--the very areas that collapsed.
>
>
> If you dislike "greed" (which is a smear-term, really) wait till
> you see what you get when the desire for money is replaced by the
> desire for dictatorial power. You don't trust the executives, the
> hedge fund operators, et al.? Wait till you see Barney Frank, Nancy
> Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer in charge of your money.
>
> As to Ayn Rand's Objectivism, Greenspan departed from Objectivism
> a long, long time ago. I saw his apostasy begin in 1969, in an article
> he published in Barron's. Then Greenspan "saved" Social Security
> in the 80s by enlarging its reach. Objectivism opposes the very idea
> of government pensions. That didn't stop Greenspan. Then he took
> the job as the head of the Fed, when Objectivism holds there should
> be no such agency. In none of his speeches as Fed head did he espouse
> Objectivism or any of its doctrines. He betrayed Ayn Rand, who would
> damn him if she were alive.
>
> As to the comment, "even [Ayn Rand] would admit that the world is
> more complicated than that laid out in the framework of "Atlas Shrugged,"
> no she would not. Because it isn't more complicated. It appears complicated
> to those who can't think in principles, those who trapped in the
> concrete-bound epistemology of pragmatism, those who can't see the
> forest only the trees.
>
> You want it simple? Here is the lesson of Atlas Shrugged: you fake
> reality, you lose in the end. That's exactly what is going on today--with
> more fakery (bailouts) to cover failed fakery (cheap credit caused
> by faking the money supply).