Ayn Rand (1905-1982) The Culture Of Greed In America

A new book by the name of MEAN GIRL AYN RAND AND THE CULTURE OF GREED  by Lisa Duggan speaks to this American problem today.

GIRL AYN RAND AND THE CULTURE OF GREED

Who was Ayn Rand? How did she become what she became? She was a powerful figure in the rise of American neo-liberalism. She was instrumental in the formation of the Reagan approach to the capitalist system, so defined as a system that gives full reign to markets without government interference. Today, her memory remains a controlling force in the minds of many Republican members of the U.S. Congress. It controls the thought process of many members of the Donald Trump Cabinet. One could even say that Donald Trump is the reincarnation of Ayn Rand.

She began her youth in St. Petersburg, Russia as an economically disenfranchised teen age product of the Bolshevik Revolution. Her parents (father owned a pharmacy) had lost almost all they had. The family was Jewish, but that had no negative meaning at that Russian revolutionary time. Then in her 20’s after Russian university studies she escaped to America where she fell in with a group of anti-Bolshevik American right-wing anti-New Deal anti-Socialism defenders of unregulated capitalism.

All of this then raises the question: Why were so many Americans so quick to succumb to her societal/economic spell? (even the young Alan Greenspan was a member of her inner circle) Why do so many Americans today remain under her spell; even Donald Trump?

And then an even more perplexing question: Why do so many Christian Evangelicals like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence as well as so many other Christian Evangelicals in and out of government embrace her philosophy? (she was an outspoken atheist)

There may be a terrible irony playing out here. Could it be that Ayn Rand will end up having been the Christian Evangelical Antichrist ushering in the Apocalypse these Evangelicals have been so eagerly waiting for?

Mike Pompeo has talked about the rapture. He said in 2015 at a “God and Country Rally” “We will continue to fight these battles” because there is a “never-ending struggle” until “the rapture.” Vice President Mike Pence has spoken in the same terms.

Donald Trump is by all indications far too self-serving and self-absorbed to adhere to this Evangelical Christian eschatological viewpoint. Yet it all works well for him so he uses it to his advantage.

Beginning in the late 60’s with Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring having been published, Ayn Rand responded by describing the ecological perspective as being at the core of despicable anti-industrial socialist thought. She called the ecologists “the new vultures.” For Ayn Rand the material planet was an object that should be used and abused at the will of man, and that included a disregard for the leaving of waste on it from the factories and from the mines; as well as the waste of downtrodden human life. Today in many parts of the world her perspective reigns among “free market” neo-liberal advocates.

So here is the question bow being raised: Did the late Ayn Rand usher in an economic mindset that will in fact bring on an Apocalypse?

Scientists today are now telling us that temperatures on the planet may reach the point where human life can no longer exist. (see 2012 World Bank Report quoted below) Warning signs are now flashing before our eyes. These signs point to the question of whether seven, nine, ten or even twelve billion human beings will be able to live in a symbiotic relationship with a Nature that allows both our species and organic and inorganic matter to recycle and renew.

It gets worse: There is ample evidence that both Mike Pompeo and Mike Pence would welcome an Apocalypse. They both believe that this will bring on the Rapture, an event allowing their Messiah to return.

In closing let me give you a quote from John Adams:

“The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.”

Ayn Rand destroyed the benefit of the power of rational thinking for many Americans. That includes many in the government today; including the President. She remains a destructive force.

 

See my Web Site and these Blogs:

http://inquiryabraham.com/

71  The Need for a New American Formula

65  We Need An Ecological Revolution

64  Homo sapiens Extinction ?

61  Donald Trump vs Our Planet

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Quotes From Blog 65

“Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo are each genuine, end-of-days, believers in the apocalypse. Financial Times journalist Edward Luce said their religious beliefs about the end times exert a troubling influence on their duties.”

https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/pence-and-the-apocalypse-the-vp-and-mike-pompeo-juggle-work-and-doomsday-rituals/

Many of the President’s evangelical advisors such as Robert Jeffress, Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas (Often FOX guest) also hold this apocalyptic view.

Millions of Americans Believe God Made Trump President

Quote From Blog 64

2012 World Bank Report

“Without quick action to curb CO2 emissions, global warming is likely to increase by 4 degrees Centigrade (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above today’s normal during the 21st century and that is dangerously close to the temperature of 6 degrees Centigrade above normal that initiated the Permian-Triassic extinction event 252 million years ago when 96% of all marine species and 70% of all terrestrial vertebrates were wiped out.”

David Anderson brings together a wide range of interests in his writings, namely; theology, history, evolutionary anthropology, philosophy, geopolitics, and economics. He has written four books. The fourth is about a necessary geo political, social, religious, economic paradigm shift for human survival. See: http://www.inquiryabraham.com/new-book.html


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