Why all the hysteria over Ayn Rand?

Altruism means "serve everyone but yourself" when the logical thing to do from the utilitarian perspective is to serve everyone including yourself.


The basic principle of altruism is that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the only justification of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, virtue and value.
Do not confuse altruism with kindness, good will or respect for the rights of others.


Ayn Rand meant selfishness in the sense of standing up for yourself. There are many real life examples of where the traditional roles of selfishness and altruism are overturned, where selfishness is good and altruism is evil. For instance if you're being bullied the altruistic thing to do would be to sacrifice your own personal gain for others, by sitting there and taking it like a little bitch. The selfish thing to do would be to gain pleasure at the expense of others, escape, tell your bros then jump them the next day, spraying them up with mace and beating them with phone books.

I don't agree with Ayn Rand on everything, I believe the "common good" as a concept has been abused, not that it is invalid. The common good should ideally be democratic concerning groups and include individual rights when the group is at odds with the individual.

http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/altruism.html
http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/common_good.html

However I have never heard anyone criticize Ayn Rand on these legitimate points and issues, only ever "hurr durr selfish randroids derp".

>>2
I suppose hating on Ayn Rand is part of the general left wing versus right wing thing, it would be easier just to stick her name on the list of things the left wing are supposed to hate than to fund an organized attempt to discredit her ideas. Her name is also put on the list of things the right wing are supposed to worship, which possibly does more to discredit her ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttYrF5gtrXs

That is not what Ayn Rand said at all.

http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/charity.html
http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/sacrifice.html


It is altruism that has corrupted and perverted human benevolence by regarding the giver as an object of immolation, and the receiver as a helplessly miserable object of pity who holds a mortgage on the lives of others—a doctrine which is extremely offensive to both parties, leaving men no choice but the roles of sacrificial victim or moral cannibal .


There are some mainstream evaluations of her work that are neither completely ignorant or fawning obsession though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goddess_of_the_Market
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand_and_the_World_She_Made

Of course they are not very popular and the ignorance does reach right to the top.

http://www.thedailydolt.com/2012/10/26/obama-on-paul-ryans-hero-ayn-rand-is-something-you-pick-up-when-youre-17-or-18-and-feeling-misunderstood/


Then, as we get older, we realize that a world in which we’re only thinking about ourselves and not thinking about anybody else


Obama is either oblivious to the basics of Ayn Rand's philosophy and just repeated some rhetoric he heard somewhere or he is intentionally reinforcing the rhetoric.

>>3
Why would the quadriplegic Magikarp suffer if others believed in "randism"? Do you have any sources that can reveal to us what is wrong with Ayn Rand?

>>4
I will ask him.