AYN RAND'S "THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS"

Because a reader suggested I read at least the title essay in Ayn Rand's book, The Virtue of Selfishness, I did so.  What follows is my unedited, brief commentary as I picked out selected quotes.  Toward the end of the essay, I may have stopped my notes.  I'm not saying that my responses are in any way worthwhile, but they are mine.  The beginning of the essay was tedious, nearly beyond what I could bear, and, although it became more interesting further along, I was not at all taken with the ideas nor with the style of writing, and I remain perplexed about the appeal of Rand's philosophy, except to those who wish to justify their own egotism and selfishness.  The text of the book may be found here in pdf format.
    
Rand: "The Objectivist ethics holds that human good does not require human sacrifices and cannot be achieved by the sacrifice of anyone to anyone. It holds that the rational interests of men do not clash—that there is no conflict of interests among men who do not desire the unearned, who do not make sacrifices nor accept them, who deal with one another as traders, giving value for value."

Me: Bullshit.  Just because you say so does not mean that my rational selfishness will not conflict with your rational selfishness?

Rand: "The principle of trade is the only rational ethical principle for all human relationships, personal and social, private and public, spiritual and material.  It is the principle of justice.  A trader is a man who earns what he gets and does not give or take the undeserved. He does not treat men as masters or slaves, but as independent equals. He deals with men by means of a free, voluntary, unforced, uncoerced exchange—an exchange which benefits both parties by their own independent judgment. A trader does not expect to be paid for his defaults, only for his achievements. He does not switch to others the burden of his failures, and he does not mortgage his life into bondage to the failures of others."

Me: What of inherited wealth?

Rand: "Nothing is given to man on earth except a potential and the material on which to actualize it. The potential is a superlative machine: his consciousness; but it is a machine without a spark plug, a machine of which his own will has to be the spark plug, the self-starter and the driver; he has to discover how to use it and he has to keep it in constant action. The material is the whole of the universe, with no limits set to the knowledge he can acquire and to the enjoyment of life he can achieve. But everything he needs or desires has to be learned, discovered and produced by him—by his own choice, by his own effort, by his own mind."

Me: What about education in childhood and youth?

Rand: "In spiritual issues—(by “spiritual” I mean: “pertaining to man’s consciousness”)—the currency or medium of exchange is different, but the principle is the same. Love, friendship, respect, admiration are the emotional response of one man to the virtues of another, the spiritual payment given in exchange for the personal, selfish pleasure which one man derives from the virtues of another man’s character. Only a brute or an altruist would claim that the appreciation of another person’s virtues is an act of selflessness, that as far as one’s own selfish interest and pleasure are concerned, it makes no difference whether one deals with a genius or a fool, whether one meets a hero or a thug, whether one marries an ideal woman or a slut. In spiritual issues, a trader is a man who does not seek to be loved for his weaknesses or flaws, only for his virtues, and who does not grant his love to the weaknesses or the flaws of others, only to their virtues."

Me: Love as conditional; love as long as the beloved gives you pleasure; love as a commodity to be traded.  Not love at all.

Rand: "But these very benefits indicate, delimit and define what kind of men can be of value to one another and in what kind of society: only rational, productive, independent men in a rational, productive, free society.  Parasites, moochers, looters, brutes and thugs can be of no value to a human being—nor can he gain any benefit from living in a society geared to their needs, demands and protection, a society that treats him as a sacrificial animal and penalizes him for his virtues in order to reward them for their vices, which means: a society based on the ethics of altruism."

Me: Is illness a vice?

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As I've already said, I read The Fountainhead when I was in college, but I thought it weird and boring, and, in hindsight, I believe I didn't "get" it. I'm not the only one who "missed the point".

Journalist Nora Ephron wrote that she had loved the novel when she was 18 but admitted that she "missed the point," which she suggested is largely subliminal sexual metaphor. Ephron wrote that she decided upon re-reading that "it is better read when one is young enough to miss the point. Otherwise, one cannot help thinking it is a very silly book."

As I read the information about the book at Wikipedia, I remembered that I saw the 1949 movie with Gary Cooper, and I have a vague sense that I thought it dull and dreary and found Cooper's Roark to be a lackluster character.  Thus, I saw no reason to follow up and read Atlas Shrugged, Rand's pièce de résistance.

Ayn Rand's given name is pronounced to rhyme with "mine ".

Paul Ryan then:

"The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand," Ryan said in a speech in 2005.

Paul Ryan now:

“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan says firmly. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview."