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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: Lane3 who wrote (7948)12/23/2005 5:48:10 PM
From: neolib  Read Replies (1) of 541805
 
I think you may be thinking greed when what she's actually known for is selfishness.

It's been 25 years since I read Atlas Shrugged, but I thought she used the word greed.

In all seriousness, the significant thing that Ayn Rand did was to claim that collective action, i.e. government had only two significant functions, namely protection of the individuals life, and protection of property. Not only were these necessary and sufficient conditions for society, but she went even further and maintained they were optimal. Thats a very startling result, that only those two rules are the optimal rules for human interaction.

I happen to think they are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions, although I do think they are very useful conditions for a good society.

The problem with pragmatic Libertarians, is they don't provide anything nearly as concise. Neither you nor Tim can articulate the necessary and sufficient conditions, like Ayn did. IMO, you are correct and she is incorrect, but she had a concise philosophy where you and Tim simply have a philosophy which says "as many rules as needed". But that can span anarchy to communism depending on ones POV. Ayn would have a heart attack if she new things had come to this.
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