Bashing Ayn Rand

Hmm..

Ayn Rand's The Little Street

In 1928, the writer Ayn Rand began planning a novel called The Little Street, whose protagonist, Danny Renahan, was to be based on "what Hickman suggested to [her]." The novel was never finished, but Rand wrote notes for it which were published after her death in the book Journals of Ayn Rand. Rand wanted the protagonist of her novel to be "A Hickman with a purpose. And without the degeneracy. It is more exact to say that the model is not Hickman, but what Hickman suggested to me."[4] Rand scholars Chris Matthew Sciabarra and Jennifer Burns both interpret Rand's interest in Hickman as a sign of her early admiration of the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche, especially since she several times referred to Danny (the character which Hickman 'suggested' to her) as a "Superman" (in the Nietzschean sense).[5][6][7]
William Edward Hickman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Still trotting out that old piece of left-wing slander?
 
a fluffer like bripat supporting libertarian sociopathology, not surprised
 
Hmm..

Ayn Rand's The Little Street

In 1928, the writer Ayn Rand began planning a novel called The Little Street, whose protagonist, Danny Renahan, was to be based on "what Hickman suggested to [her]." The novel was never finished, but Rand wrote notes for it which were published after her death in the book Journals of Ayn Rand. Rand wanted the protagonist of her novel to be "A Hickman with a purpose. And without the degeneracy. It is more exact to say that the model is not Hickman, but what Hickman suggested to me."[4] Rand scholars Chris Matthew Sciabarra and Jennifer Burns both interpret Rand's interest in Hickman as a sign of her early admiration of the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche, especially since she several times referred to Danny (the character which Hickman 'suggested' to her) as a "Superman" (in the Nietzschean sense).[5][6][7]
William Edward Hickman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



*snicker* A quote from Wikipedia regarding somebody else's speculation of what a dead person believed.
 
tinydancer as also described many of the reactionaries on the Board as well as liberals. But then some are very well read and still do not have a clue. Finding those who have solid education, interested study, and common sense are a rare find in society.

Some have attacked her for collecting her social security. Why not? She earned it.
 
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tinydancer as also described many of the reactionaries on the Board as well as liberals. But then some are very well read and still do not have a clue. Finding those who have solid education, interested study, and common sense are a rare find in society.

Some have attacked her for collecting her social security. Why not? She earned it.

I'm with you Jake on this. I am not your enemy on this topic.

Whether we discuss Ayn or Saul I care not. Applications of either thought processes I have an issue with_____fill in the blank. :eusa_angel: I throw a smilie. Keeeeeeeeeeeding.

But I am with you so solid that we should be able to discuss these philosophies without "stupid"

Although come on its fun and an easy target; hey I've watched you too ready to neg the crap out of someone:lol:
 
As an author of fiction, she was mediocre at best.
As a political/social philosopher...I think of her along the same lines as I do P.T. Barnum...her presence deflected notice (and still does) from greater thinkers/commentators...Chodorov, Nock, Mencken, Lane, Garret, Dos Passos and others.

Rothbard on Randoids 1

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRJVMTpP8L8"]Rothbard on Randoids 2[/ame]
 
Romancing the Stone-Cold Killer: Ayn Rand and William Hickman | Michael Prescott

In her journal circa 1928 Rand quoted the statement, "What is good for me is right," a credo attributed to a prominent figure of the day, William Edward Hickman. Her response was enthusiastic. "The best and strongest expression of a real man's psychology I have heard," she exulted. (Quoted in Ryan, citing Journals of Ayn Rand, pp. 21-22.)

At the time, she was planning a novel that was to be titled The Little Street, the projected hero of which was named Danny Renahan.According to Rand scholar Chris Matthew Sciabarra, she deliberately modeled Renahan - intended to be her first sketch of her ideal man - after this same William Edward Hickman. Renahan, she enthuses in another journal entry, "is born with a wonderful, free, light consciousness -- [resulting from] the absolute lack of social instinct or herd feeling. He does not understand, because he has no organ for understanding, the necessity, meaning, or importance of other people ... Other people do not exist for him and he does not understand why they should." (Journals, pp. 27, 21-22; emphasis hers.)

"A wonderful, free, light consciousness" born of the utter absence of any understanding of "the necessity, meaning, or importance of other people." Obviously, Ayn Rand was most favorably impressed with Mr. Hickman. He was, at least at that stage of Rand's life, her kind of man.

So the question is, who exactly was he?

William Edward Hickman was one of the most famous men in America in 1928. But he came by his fame in a way that perhaps should have given pause to Ayn Rand before she decided that he was a "real man" worthy of enshrinement in her pantheon of fictional heroes.

You see, Hickman was a forger, an armed robber, a child kidnapper, and a multiple murderer.

Other than that, he was probably a swell guy.
 
Atlas Shrugged was all about individualism vs collectivism.

Individualism leads to peace, prosperity and growth.

Collectivism leads to death, destruction and decay.
 

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