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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: neolib who wrote (7952)12/23/2005 6:32:37 PM
From: Lane3  Read Replies (1) of 541756
 
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.

I'm sorry if I misled you. I didn't mean to. I agree wholeheartedly with her on that philosophy. I was trying to convey to you 1) how that's actually a good idea and 2) how it doesn't have to play out as starkly and coldly as it does in her novels, that you can be a nice person and reasonable person and still be libertarian. (This was new to me. I'm used to trying to convey to people that you can be non-religious and still be a nice person and an ethical person. <g>)

So, my concise philosophy is the same as hers. My implementation style is more collaborative. This is a democracy, after all. She was an extremist. As a general rule, I can't abide extremists. But she grew up in the Soviet Union so I can't blame her in being extreme in her articulation of how collectivism is horrid and doomed to failure. Dagney Taggert (her heroine in Atlas Shrugged) was an arrogant bitch. Just because one subscribes to her philosophy doesn't mean one can't be a good friend and neighbor.

Edit: I subscribe to that narrow functionality for the federal government. If localities want to provide broader community services through the public sector, that's another matter.
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