Y'know, I'm just gonna macro this for whenever some stupid asshat who wants to sound intelligent brings up Ayn Rand:
Ayn Rand was certainly one confused; and ultimately stupid woman. She honestly believed that the best minds in mankind, once freed of menial labour, would just spontaneously behave well and for the good of all mankind, and thus should not be limited. According to her, great intellectual minds will, by raw nature, work in tandem for greater goals. Funny, it took me about 10 seconds to think of Edison and Tesla to disprove that. A few more seconds took me to Disney and Fleischer.
She was entirely incapable of perceiving the core selfishness of mankind, while at the same time randomly thinking how to defend against something she didn't seem to think existed. I mean, on one hand she thinks that individual rights are sacrosanct... but then wants to ensure that the government doesn't get in the way of business.
The biggest oppressors of individual rights has pretty much always been the greedy. And where do the greedy end up? That's right, at the head of the same places she thought needed no regulation. Now mind you, it IS good for society at large these people end up there.. because they perform a valuable function. But the same skills and mindset that got them there also prevent them from stopping before it harms others. Unregulated capitalism would turn into corporate-sponsored fascism pretty quickly; because without regulation some small group _will_ end up owning everything eventually. It's all about balance. Go too far into socialism, and that collapses also. Both collapse because neither extreme makes allowances for Greed. And greed is the one force Objectivism seems to think doesn't exist among the truly intelligent.
The entire Rand philosophy is a hilarious exercise in selective blindness and the clear result of someone who's never had to actually deal with being poor. Her family lost a business, but gee golly gosh, she sure never had to starve. She had too much privilege, went through a whole lot of mental gymnastics to come up with a philosophy so laughable it flatout states that there are no conflicts between peoples rational interests in a rational society.
In the end, Objectivism is the philosophical equivalent of jerking off to anime porn. It's pretty sexy on the surface, and if you fool yourself hard enough, it even seems real. But when you get down to it, there's no substance at all and you're getting yourself excited about something that can never be, because of some fundamental differences with _reality_.
......so quit quoting Rand like it backs up some kind of argument, folks. It makes you sound smart but it's really just embarrassing.
