2.12.2005
Ayn Rand at 100
No other modern author has had such extravagant claims of greatness made on her behalf: Followers of her philosophy, Objectivism, regard her as the greatest thinker to have graced this earth since Aristotle and the greatest writer of all time. Mainstream intellectuals tend to dismiss her as a writer of glorified pulp fiction and a pseudo-philosophical quack with an appeal for impressionable teens. Politically, too, Rand is an outsider: Liberals shrink from her defiant pro-capitalist stance, conservatives from her militant atheism, and conservatives and liberals alike from her individualism.
Understanding this author may not be the easiest intellectual endeavor, but her ideas never fail to reach out and grab hold of your thought processes. As she would say, there are no contradictions, only misunderstandings of the baseline truths. The woman continues to amaze me by the sheer force and magnitude of her intellect.
There are a lot of testimonials and tributes out there. Start withthis one , by Cathy Young.
No other modern author has had such extravagant claims of greatness made on her behalf: Followers of her philosophy, Objectivism, regard her as the greatest thinker to have graced this earth since Aristotle and the greatest writer of all time. Mainstream intellectuals tend to dismiss her as a writer of glorified pulp fiction and a pseudo-philosophical quack with an appeal for impressionable teens. Politically, too, Rand is an outsider: Liberals shrink from her defiant pro-capitalist stance, conservatives from her militant atheism, and conservatives and liberals alike from her individualism.
Understanding this author may not be the easiest intellectual endeavor, but her ideas never fail to reach out and grab hold of your thought processes. As she would say, there are no contradictions, only misunderstandings of the baseline truths. The woman continues to amaze me by the sheer force and magnitude of her intellect.
There are a lot of testimonials and tributes out there. Start withthis one , by Cathy Young.
// posted by HunterByrd @ 5:08 AM 
