Ayn Rand & Ressentiment
I have no idea what is going to happen politically in the next six weeks, but the victory for Tea Party wingnuts like Christine O’Donnell over the past few weeks says that the lunatics have taken over the Republican Asylum.
So I’ve been trying to understand where this “Don’t Tread on Me” anger stems from and I think Ayn Rand and her belief in radical selfishness is at the heart of the matter.
Ever focused on her own achievements, Rand always made time to cultivate elites who might help her, all the while oblivious to anyone, including her family, who could or would not. She explained in a famousPlayboy interview that “charity is not a moral duty,” and took to wearing a dollar-sign broach on her coats. A six-foot wreath of the dollar sign was at the head of her casket—the same symbol the character John Galt made over the world in the last sentence of Atlas Shrugged. Galt was her CEO-type savior. The dollar sign was a symbol of selfishness and material productivity that was to replace the cross, a symbol of sacrifice and eternal concerns. Read more…