Ayn Rand

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I don't take Rand too seriously myself, but I admire her ability to get certain types of leftists into a high lather. Anyone who gets called one of the most evil women of the 20th century by Noam Chomsky can't be all bad...

Given that my views are opposed to ethical egoism, pure free-market economics, and the other blight Ayn Rand proposed, I would say I am not terribly favorable of the lady.

I've never actually read any of her works but I'm pretty familiar with objectivism generally and I generally object to it.

I mean they aren't actually objective, when talking about politics or morality I don't see how it's possible to be objective. And their views on art are just depressing.

I'll have to say, Rand's philosophy applied to art is one of the more absurd parts based on what I've read (ie, from the Ayn Rand lexicon). I'd have to agree with her appreciation of realism and the romantic. But how she thinks she can ascertain a person's state of mind based on what art they like isn't always objective. Albeit she was living during a time when two world wars killed the Romantic Hero of the previous century and the intellectual world descended into a cynical world view about humanity, which was reflected by some of the philosophies behind the art of the era. It wasn't all like that and someone can still get something completely different from abstract art that's totally different than any sort of pessimistic philosophy the artist may of had.