We all should be a lot more selfish . That was one of generator Ayn ( rhymes with " mine")Rand ’s credo . She was also far-famed for saying we are not , after all , our brother ’s steward . And money is n’t the root of all evil — but altruism might be . These brief insights into Rand ’s thoughts and personality make it easygoing to see why she is either reviled or worshipped by so many . In a recent installment of Part - Time Genius , co - hosts Will Pearson and Mangesh ( Mango ) Hattikudur look atwhy Ayn Rand is a political rock maven .
Will and Mango point out that Rand ’s fans include Alan Greenspan , the band Rush and Billie Jean King , not to cite Paul Ryan and members of the Tea Party motion . Her script oftenappear on readers ' listsof the ones that have most influenced them .
Rand , who die in 1982 , is famed for writing the best - sell novels " The Fountainhead " and " Atlas Shrugged . " Both are intellectual and political tomes . She also created a philosophy she dubbed " objectivism , " which as Will notes , says , " Man is a heroic being whose own happiness is the moral purpose of his life , with fat achievement as his noblest action and reason as his only right-down . Selfish behavior is moral behavior . "
Rand was born Alisa Rosenbaum in 1905 in St. Petersburg , Russia to a wealthy family that lost everything in the Russian Revolution . As a young woman she came to the United States , where she finally made a name as a novelist , philosopher , playwright and screenwriter . Her in - your - look words and actions pleased some , but made others squirm .
Rand preach that the only end of government activity was to protect individual right . But she did not like to be classify as a conservative or a libertarian . She championed godlessness and abortion rights , and even had an open married couple . Ridiculously certain of her committal to writing , she refused to be edit . Ridiculously sure of her ideas , she also made a lot of dissentious financial statement .
" In her computer address to the graduate class at West Point in the ' 70s , she said , of Native Americans , ' They had no rightfulness to a country merely because they were born here and then acted as savages . The white man did not appropriate this country , ' " Mango says .
Later , Rand defend this instruction , saying whenever a superior technology meets an inferior one , that society has the right to obtain . She insisted this was not a racist tilt .
For a while , with the nativity of the Tea Party movement , conservativesoften cited Rand , and even fictitious character in her novel , because of their pro - capitalistic , limited - government activity view . But it was unmanageable to disregard her stance on religion , abortion and marriage , nor to turn down her lack of compassionateness . So many instead began simply say Rand had had a overconfident influence on them because she get them thinking about the earth .
And that may be why Rand and her novels continue to resonate with people over the decades . While scholarly person and critics in ecumenical never take her that in earnest , " … ignoring her intelligibly is a mistake , " state Mango . " meg of people intensely identify with her tarradiddle … She got a whole populace of multitude to rethink their values , and also maybe believe in themselves . "
Learn more about Ayn Rand in " A fellow traveler to Ayn Rand ( Blackwell fellow traveler to Philosophy ) " by Allan Gotthelf and Gregory Salmieri . HowStuffWorks picks related to title based on volume we mean you ’ll like . Should you take to buy one , we ’ll receive a component part of the sale .
