Ayn Randian Ethics

@Cycloptichorn,

Cycloptichorn wrote:

It's only a relative few CEOs which are 'scumbags?' Really?

Yes it is. For example, when my father retired, he had been a CEO for 25 years. He was not a scumbag. I can also assure you that you wouldn't consider his salary excessive if I told you. (Obviously, I won't -- it's not my secret to tell.) I kind of resent your overgeneralization from the non-representative sample of CEOs you read about in the press.

1 Reply

@nimh,

I'm guessing you haven't read Rand for yourself, if you're believing much of this nonsense.
This, for instance, never took place.

Johann Hari wrote:

One of the strikers deliberately causes a train crash, and Rand makes it clear she thinks the murder victims deserved it, describing in horror how they all supported the higher taxes that made the attack necessary.

"The Strikers" had zip to do with that train crash (though cartoonishly, it did seem the passengers were all bad guys.)

And this is total nonsense:

Johann Hari wrote:

Both she and the Soviets insisted a small revolutionary elite in possession of absolute rationality must seize power and impose its vision on a malleable, imbecilic mass. The only difference was that Lenin thought the parasites to be stomped on were the rich, while Rand thought they were the poor.

To describe her as anything but live and let live, is completely dishonest. Her (my) philosophy in business is to exchange value for value to the mutual benefit of us both, or not at all. Note she was advocating a "strike", NOT a "revolution."

Johann Hari is a liar, an idiot, or both.

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@nimh,

Although I didn't read the two biographies myself, I suggest you read the original books rather than this axe-grinding review. NPR ran interviews with the authors of both; they both seem more nuanced, more intelligent, and more interesting to me than Johann Hari. In particular, although neither of them likes Ayn Rand's politics, the biographers realize that attacking an author for the life she lived is no substitute for addressing her books.

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Here's a recent, interesting take on Ayn Rand: the article argues that Rand, for all the revile she had for the culture she was born into and fled, was in her writing and her worldview fundamentally a product of Russian rather than American culture.

Ayn Rand: Engineer of Souls
A critical account of the "Chernyshevsky of individualism."
Anthony Daniels, The New Criterion (Feb 2010)

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@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

Cycloptichorn wrote:
It's only a relative few CEOs which are 'scumbags?' Really?

Yes it is. For example, when my father retired, he had been a CEO for 25 years. He was not a scumbag. I can also assure you that you wouldn't consider his salary excessive if I told you. (Obviously, I won't -- it's not my secret to tell.) I kind of resent your overgeneralization from the non-representative sample of CEOs you read about in the press.

Sure, sure. The same way that most gang members, bookies and affiliates of drug smuggling organizations are nice guys who never really did anything wrong to anyone. They just get a bad name because of the few who do.

Cycloptichorn

2 Replies

@Cycloptichorn,

If that's truly how you see the analogy, discussing the character of CEOs with you is as pointless as discussing civil rights with a KKKlansman. I respectfully decline to go there.

1 Reply

@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

If that's truly how you see the analogy, discussing the character of CEOs with you is as pointless as discussing civil rights with a KKKlansman. I respectfully decline to go there.

I think you are unfairly damning these people based on what you've read about just a few of them in the media, Thomas. Try and keep an open mind - they are running businesses as well, and just following human nature, after all, in trying to maximize their profits.

Cycloptichorn

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@Cycloptichorn,

Cycloptichorn wrote:

Thomas wrote:

Cycloptichorn wrote:
It's only a relative few CEOs which are 'scumbags?' Really?

Yes it is. For example, when my father retired, he had been a CEO for 25 years. He was not a scumbag. I can also assure you that you wouldn't consider his salary excessive if I told you. (Obviously, I won't -- it's not my secret to tell.) I kind of resent your overgeneralization from the non-representative sample of CEOs you read about in the press.

Sure, sure. The same way that most gang members, bookies and affiliates of drug smuggling organizations are nice guys who never really did anything wrong to anyone. They just get a bad name because of the few who do.

This has to be the single dumbest thing I've seen you write. Do you really believe that no one with your values succeeds or ascends in business? How old were you when CEO’s took over the boogieman’s job of hiding under your bed?

1 Reply

@OCCOM BILL,

OCCOM BILL wrote:

Cycloptichorn wrote:

Thomas wrote:

Cycloptichorn wrote:
It's only a relative few CEOs which are 'scumbags?' Really?

Yes it is. For example, when my father retired, he had been a CEO for 25 years. He was not a scumbag. I can also assure you that you wouldn't consider his salary excessive if I told you. (Obviously, I won't -- it's not my secret to tell.) I kind of resent your overgeneralization from the non-representative sample of CEOs you read about in the press.

Sure, sure. The same way that most gang members, bookies and affiliates of drug smuggling organizations are nice guys who never really did anything wrong to anyone. They just get a bad name because of the few who do.

This has to be the single dumbest thing I've seen you write. Do you really believe that no one with your values succeeds or ascends in business? How old were you when CEO’s took over the boogieman’s job of hiding under your bed?

I think it's rare, because there is very little incentive for people with my ethos to achieve that level; those who are motivated by personal greed are willing to work far harder to do so then I am. Not only that, but achieving the highest levels surrounds you with ever-increasing numbers of people who are motivated by greed, and they don't really appreciate people who aren't like them, in my experience.

My original comment was tongue-in-cheek, though I guess I didn't make that clear enough. However there is plenty of truth in it; there is no incentive and little opportunity for those who would reduce Corporate greed and corporate malfeasance to make it to the highest levels.

Cycloptichorn

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http://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Ayn-Rand.jpg

Cycloptichorn

1 Reply

@Cycloptichorn,

Cycloptichorn: You've brought me this close to defending Ayn Rand. Please don't make me!

1 Reply

@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

Cycloptichorn: You've brought me this close to defending Ayn Rand. Please don't make me!

Lighten up - it's just a funny picture.

Cycloptichorn

1 Reply

@Cycloptichorn,

Oh. In this case, I bide you a hearty "ha-ha-ha".

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http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/28/ayn-rand-took-govern.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+boingboing/iBag+%28Boing+Boing%29

Quote:

Ayn Rand took government assistance while decrying others who did the same

Mark Frauenfelder at 10:30 AM Friday, Jan 28, 2011

Noted speed freak, serial-killer fangirl, and Tea Party hero Ayn Rand was also a kleptoparasite, sneakily gobbling up taxpayer funds under an assumed name to pay for her medical treatments after she got lung cancer.

Quote:
An interview with Evva Pryror, a social worker and consultant to Miss Rand's law firm of Ernst, Cane, Gitlin and Winick verified that on Miss Rand's behalf she secured Rand's Social Security and Medicare payments which Ayn received under the name of Ann O'Connor (husband Frank O'Connor).

As Pryor said, "Doctors cost a lot more money than books earn and she could be totally wiped out" without the aid of these two government programs. Ayn took the bail out even though Ayn "despised government interference and felt that people should and could live independently... She didn't feel that an individual should take help."

But alas she did and said it was wrong for everyone else to do so.

Total fraud

Cycloptichorn

0 Replies

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