A Democratic administration is in power, so of course, time has come ’round again for a rise in popularity of Ayn Rand’s so-called philosophy.
Very popular in geek circles, and of course, among Conservatives who want a label that doesn’t lump them in with the Southern Regional Populist crowd that has taken over the Republican party.
Of course, I’ve always been very fond of this quote from the blog kung fu monkey:
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. ”
The reason why *every* political philosophy, across the spectrum from conservative to liberal, is better than Libertarianism, is that the other philosophies aren’t based on bad novels.
The sad thing about Libertarians, is that they apparently all think that they are John Galt — that they are the alpha-industrial-creatives that the “masses” live off of — who will stop production and really show them all.
What they never seem to grasp is that they are the masses, not the alphas. It’s sad — a bunch of wanna-be Galts, toiling in obscurity, who think the world should work the way it was presented in a badly-reviewed bomb of a novel from 1957.
It would be almost funny, if they didn’t actually believe it.
They’re like the Scientologists of politics.