LOB Book Club - David Sirota - Part II
Part II of David Sirota's Back To Our Future focuses on how 80s culture has influenced today's policymakers to adopt an egoistic, individual stance toward solving society's problems. Although Sirota focuses on the Republican Party, I strongly believe that this anti-government nonsense is a bi-partisan position. I just have one question to ask this week - what's with the obsession with Ayn Rand? I don't get it. Having waded through the turgid prose of both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged I scratch my head when I hear that people like Paul Ryan are influenced by this fringe philosopher who clearly never got over the experience of her Russian family having their property expropriated by Stalinists in the 1920s. Can anyone explain to me her continuing relevance in the 21st century?
posted by The Blue Devil @ 2:31 PM
2 Comments:
Great question, Bob. I labored a little with The Fountainhead, but her philosophy never spoke to me and me and Ayn never spent any quality time together. Her philosophy, however, was hugely influential with Alan Greenspan, who led the country to the brink of financial disaster with his largely laissez faire approach as our chief central banker.
But her relevance is derived from the knuckleheads who continue to fall under her spell. More later.
You know, I thought that Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath would put paid to the "small government" rhetoric in Washington and particularly in the states. That seemed like a stark lesson in the need for a big government response to a crisis and the tragic consequences for not doing so.
But at the GOP debate this week, you had to blink to make sure you hadn't been spirited back to 1980. Anyone else out there surprised by the lasting influence of these ideas?
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