Theodore Dalrymple on Ayn Rand
Dalrymple is a pen name for Anthony Daniels (no relation to C-3PO), a British doctor who has chronicled the nightmarish results of people dependent on the dole. Here is one brief excerpt from the main article.
Humanity, according to Rand, is divided into heroes, creators, and geniuses on the one hand, and weaklings, parasites, and the feeble-minded on the other. Needless to say, the latter outnumber the former by a very wide margin, but only the former are truly human in the full sense of the word. But let us leave aside for a moment the empirical justification for such a sharp division of mankind into two categories: it never seems to occur to Rand that her classification does not provide a very strong rationale for the limited government and free market that she claims so strongly to admire. On the contrary, it would seem to justify the reign of philosopher-kings, though she claims also to hate Plato passionately.
Posted by: mom 2010-02-13 |