Ayn Rand

[asterroc]

I haven't ever read Ayn Rand, and I have no intention of doing so. However, I am told that the author of the series I am currently reading, Terry Goodkind, is heavily influenced by her works, and her concepts of "objectivism" and "enlightened self interest." Anyone care to explain these concepts to me in shorter form?

Comments

[tiurin.livejournal.com]

You could probably get a decent summary just off wikipedia. But in a nutshell, objectivism is a shoddy philosophical(I use the term loosely) system based on assertions which are either tautological or unjustified. It's pretty much an entire philosophy founded around the phrase "Fuck off!"

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I was looking for something shorter and more to the point than the doctoral thesis that is the Wikipedia page.

Where I think objectivism particularly comes up in the series is there is a large nation where the people all believe they are working to help their fellow man, but it ends up being bureaucratic socialism/communism run amok, with nobody being willing to work for their own benefit so everyone's conditions are quite crappy. The nation also has a national religion of mankind being wicked and evil and the Creator's light burning into them showing how horrible man is. In contrast, the main character is all about working hard to help yourself, though he feels that a strong government is essential to protect the nation from outside threats.

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

What you've described sounds an awful lot like a sketch of the background of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged as depicted in another work I read. So I'd say that the impression that he's strongly influenced by Rand is spot-on.

I have no personal knowledge of her works or philosophy--not having read or studied either--so I'll leave it at that. (Except to recommend the book that I referenced above--Matt Ruff's Sewer, Gas, Electric--on its own merits: good humor+decent SF.)