i will accept your answer as you i suspect know her better than me--her realities, as a lot of noise surrounds Rand.
****************************************************
i will now say much MORE
(i do so fully MINDFUL that Orkious BANNED me from this thread permanently because of my attempting to have reasoned thought/debate on Ayn Rand, and i would still be BANNED if Orkious was still the thread moderator. i also note that on the same day i was BANNED here i was BANNED from the Mish thread, for my simple attempt to approach Rand without presuming she was A Demon From Hell, as i despise BLIND HATRED)
i write this also to see if this thread has progressed , or will i be damned again by DAMNED FOOLS that think Ayn Rand was the devil incarnate, rather than a COMPLEX person they have no right to think they KNOW.i hate ignorance, period!--max)
But i want to say this, because my source is an established Ayn Rand expert and a respecter and defender of what he views as the real Ayn Rand, the expert being himself an anti-war Libertarian, Justin Raimondo( Ayn Rand was largely an anti-war Libertarian)>
He(Raimondo), in sources i can dig up, gave a dissertation on Ayn Rand, which describes, that when she was dying of cancer, was surronded by a gaggle of idolatrous sycophants, they were NOT at all like Ayn Rand herself.
But they played to her illness and her being a widow, and in the end they managed to get control the Ayn Rand Foundation via her will.
Justin Raimondo states the Ayn Rand foundation is now a bastion of Ultra Militaristics Neo-Cons of the rankest nature.
And because they now RULE the Ayn Rand Foundation, Ayn Rand's name has taken a beating.
Based on Justin Raimondo, for whom i have great respect--though a don't always agree with him for sure( for instance, i fiercely oppose his Chinese sympathetic views on Tibet--i repeat i fiercely oppose his views on that matter) but nonetheless oft do concur with him and with that i join him in uttely condemning the Ayn Rand Foundation, but fully recognize they do NOT give a accurate view of Ayn Rand.
In truth, Randism has been HI-JACKED, with there being quite different groups laying claiming they are the true Randist, and it has become a MUDDLE.
Justin Raimondo, said, Rand as an economist, was mediocre, her non-fiction writings mediocre , and she should be recognized for her fiction only, and realize that also after the death of her husband and the onset of her cancer, she succumbed to being a foolish lonely lady that that wanted to have those feeding her vanity by her side, and as such ended up surrendering Her Name to them, via giving the control the Ayn Rand Foundation.
i haven't even read her fiction, i will note as i have avoided "Altas Shrugged" because my first wife said 'You have got to read this book, this John Galt talks like you speak!'- that scared me, i figured i didn't want to know this John Galt guy, because i knew I was youung, sophomoric and probably talking a lot of trash.
But i did see an excellent 150minute(or so) documentary and a must see by Randist AND anti-Randist.
Such things as her "Selfishness is Good" is totally NOT understood, but she had a real weakness of coining phrases and not realizing few would read what she actually meant by the statement.
In that documentary we have her saying on the Phil Donahue show "Conservatives! They are WORST than liberals!"(she laughs) and then adds "The conservatives will end up ruining this country"
Well that is mindblower, no? <>But we also need know which Conservatives did she mean??
i state, because of her eing anti-militarism, anti-imperialism and pro-gay, we can know what branch of Conservatism she meant.
On this documentary, it is established she fiercely opposed to all forms of totalitarianism( and explicitly Stalinism, Hitlerism, Mussolinism).
In this documentary we can see actually Rand was paradoxically a bigtime romantic, having a weakness to being naive.
In the documentary we have her saying forcefully(having seen the documentary, i can confirm she had "piercing eyes" as the cliche goes); we have her saying "If i knew there was life after death i would Commit Suicide right now to be with my husband!"
But never was she so naive and utterly used then when she was recruited by 'House for Unamerican Activities'
She wrote guidelines for them on the belief that Hollywood had a stupid, romantic notion on Russia(on this she was RIGHT!) , but she fell completely into a cruel trap of being used to the extreme by the ultra-right wing, and to end up being branded a champion of McCarthynism.
In this documentary, we learn how years later she agreed to be the Guest Speaker/Lecturer at a major Democratic Fund Raiser at Carnegie Hall.
She was naive enough not to realize she was invited on the thought the Democrats could have a 'Witch Burning' event.
This event result i see as CRUCIAL , as, for me, it brings out the fact of how complicated and misquoted and smeared she is by the left, amd how misused and misquoted, and not understood, by the Fascist ultra-right.
What happened is one heck of a story.
As she took the podium the entire crowd stood up and started a relentless and loud booing, the intent was to drive her off the stage and be the 'great revenge' for her association to the HUA,
She stood firm and just stared into the crowd.
At one lull of the booing she spoke clearly and loudly in the microphone saying(Not Word for Word!--but i am being true to the event!-max)
She commmenced: "There are evidently a lot of people here who don't know what Ayn Rand stands for. I now cast aside my speech and i will turn this into a question and answer evening, all questions, accusations, let them come, and then you DECIDE who I am, when we are done"
So it proceeded, 90 minutes/2 hours,, or whatever, and she came to closing off the evening at which point the whole Democratic Carnegie Hall type, rose to their feet and gave her a standing ovation.
i write this saying , to those that think they know Ayn Rand, oft are full of methane gas----i write this, as i yet do NOT know who Ayn Rand was, but know there is NO SWIFT and PREJUDICIAL answer. Max post now done.
p.S. O yes, Ayn Rand said she considered all racist to be "Boorish Beasts"
|
