I know Mohan Garu often talks about how he disagrees with Ayn Rand.
Figured I post an Ayn Rand interview where you can see the personal side of Rand. She talks about Jimmy Carter, Aristotle, Plato, self-interest, charity, evils of sacrifice, middle-east oil, religion, atheism, god, and her husband who had just passed away. You get to see a rare personal side of Rand in the interview where she says she would die for her husband.
Ayn Rand Interview with Donahue-1
Ayn Rand Interview with Donahue-2
Ayn Rand Interview with Donahue-3
It was about 20years ago one of my colleague gave me his copy of Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged,’ asked me to read. I regarded that book as one of the best I had ever read, and the story appealed to me very well why good people tend to exit from India. And in general, sometimes why good innovations destine to ruins.
I am not able to correlate Hank Reardon, Dagny Taggart, Francois De’Anconia and John Galt to working for personal creed rather trying to excel. In way it advocates to whatever you do with honesty and perfection.
To me the financial crisis the why they (financial people) put it, appeals to be the anti-thesis of their own advocacy, which in a way no different from alchemy.
May be I have not fully read all the works of Ayn Rand, but if I consider ‘Atlas Shrugged’ as epitome of her philosophy, then certainly the financial crisis does not appeal to be failed experiment of Ayn’s theories.
I have an axiomatic analysis for the financial disasters, yet to ramify it to present it all.
But there is a good observation (the sentiment matches to that of Mohan garu) by Lancelot Hogben in his book: ‘Mathematics for the Million’:
“Our studies in Mathematics show us that whenever the culture of a people loses contact with the common life of mankind and becomes exclusively the plaything of a leisure class, it is becoming a priestcraft. It is destined to end… To be proud of intellectual isolation from the common life of mankind and to be disdainful of the great social task of education is as stupid as it is wicked. It is the end of progress in knowledge. History shows that superstitions
are not manufactured by the plain man. They are invented by the neurotic intellectuals with too little to do.’
One big clarification:
I don’t have any problem with Ayn Rand as a person or as a fiction writer. She has a very captivating writing style and probably a great human being. But, I have a problem with the ideology she preached and I have serious issue with the blind followers of her ideology.
Had it not been for Greenspan, I wouldn’t have been so tough on her ideology. Thanks goodness, Greenspan helped prove that the great ‘invisible hand’ is nothing but baloney. Unfortunately, it came at a great human cost. And, even more unfortunate, it is not over yet.