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[PenName]

Ayn Rand is seen by many conservatives as �one of them�, as their �champion�, because she was totally opposed (and rightly so) to socialism and collectivism, supposed characteristics of �liberals� (at least in the American definition of the term).

However, conservatives have �stolen� Ayn Rand in pretty much the same way that Charles Manson �stole� Helter Skelter, a very good song by the Beatles. The song became associated with a repulsive murderer, while its creators never intended such a thing.

Like I said, it�s the same thing. I can�t say I love Rand�s books and philosophy without being seen as �conservative�. And yet�

Ayn Rand was an atheist. Conservatives are mostly Christian (and usually pretty fanatical about it).
Ayn Rand had no use for tradition. Conservatives worship tradition.
Ayn Rand said that reason should be man�s only absolute. To conservatives, reason is irrelevant; what matters is faith, obedience, duty, tradition (again), etc..
Ayn Rand believed in a minimal government. Conservatives like to convince themselves of the same, but in fact they want their governments to legislate morality, outlawing anything they believe to be �wicked� � even if done by consenting adults.
Ayn Rand believed in the heroic. Conservatives have no use for it.
Ayn Rand believed that man�s own happiness is the moral purpose of his life. Conservatives believe in sacrifice to �the country� (much like socialists believe in sacrifice to �the people� � see, they aren�t so different after all), and servitude to God.
Ayn Rand believed in progress (though not in the sense that socialists say �progressive�), and in improving our lives. Conservatives do everything in their power to return to �better times�, or, at least, to keep everything as it is.
Ayn Rand believed that only rational beings have rights. Conservatives have no problem with killing people in a war (they�re foreigners, anyway), but believe embryos, which aren�t sentient and don�t even feel pain, are �sacred�, and can�t be harmed, even if it means sacrificing living people with diseases.
Ayn Rand said that morality comes from rational principles. Conservatives believe it comes from God, that there is no rational reason to be �good� except that God wills it.
Ayn Rand believed in the non-initiation of force. Conservatives invaded Iraq for no reason at all.
Ayn Rand believed in freedom. Conservatives believe in freedom to agree with them.


Dear conservative, Ayn Rand wasn�t like you at all, and you are only showing that you never understood what she wrote (or never read it at all) in the first place. Thank you.

[VanIslander]

Rand was a far right wing fanatic.
Conservatives are just right wing.

To be conservative or liberal is a good thing in itself, two halves of the whole in terms of representing the basic issues of the political spectrum, but of course the terms get distorted and bent beyond any practical use except as a foil for comparison in various slippery ways.

[ontheway]

[.38 Special]

I read your little paragraph and I concluded three things:

1) You don't know much about conservatism;
2) How you feel about conservatism, however, makes up for what you don't know;
3) This has a lot less to do with Rand than it does your issues with conservatism.

It's generally accepted that Rand was a sort of Libertarian. Some consider Libertarianism to be a form of conservatism. Rand, of course, had her own ideas about politics -- personalization, if you will -- just like any intelligent person, and therefore she cannot be 100% the political vogue of the time, and certainly not the political vogue of today with which you are anachronistically comparing her.

So other than your dissatisfaction and bewilderment that some people in the world do not agree with you, what's the point of this post? To indicate that Ayn Rand isn't a neo-con?

Thank God for your insight! To think, this whole time we've been wrong...

[cdninkorea]

Very true. If Objectivism (the philosophy founded by Ayn Rand) were a Conservative philosophy, Rand wouldn't have written an article titled "Conservatism: An Obituary" (in the book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, p.p. 192-201 of my edition). Also, while Objectivist political ideas have many things in common with libertarianism, it's very different in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, etc. (and therefore different at many levels, including the fundamental).

[VanIslander]

[thomas pars]

Conservatism is a pyramid scheme.

[.38 Special]

[reactionary]

[Kepler]

"This is no surprise, as libertarianism is basically the Marxism of the Right. If Marxism is the delusion that one can run society purely on altruism and collectivism, then libertarianism is the mirror-image delusion that one can run it purely on selfishness and individualism. Society in fact requires both individualism and collectivism, both selfishness and altruism, to function. Like Marxism, libertarianism offers the fraudulent intellectual security of a complete a priori account of the political good without the effort of empirical investigation. Like Marxism, it aspires, overtly or covertly, to reduce social life to economics. And like Marxism, it has its historical myths and a genius for making its followers feel like an elect unbound by the moral rules of their society."
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2005/mar/14/00017/

[reactionary]

[Senior]

Pithy quote, but it's far too reductive in regards to what both ideologies represent.

Marxism isn't even really a prescription of how to run society, it's just a critique of capitalism. Marx never really got around to describing how to build a worker's utopia(or what ever).

[reactionary]

[Senior]

[reactionary]

Yes, we are all little John Galts