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June 14, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EDT
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) "” "Atlas Shrugged" is Ayn Rand's most popular work. A mysterious rebel leader John Galt saves America from economic ruin. But before we rise from the ashes, before the redemption, comes the blowup. And for that, let's turn to my favorite, "The Fountainhead," where Rand offers a subtle hint of capitalism's eventual demise and self-inflicted death.
In "The Fountainhead" Howard Roark is the ultimate individualist, an idealistic architect and archetypal free-market capitalist. Enraged when second-rate competitors compromise the integrity of his plans for a modern building, Roark seeks revenge, takes the law into his own hands and, in a terrorist act, sneaks onto the construction site in the dark of night and dynamites the building "” kaboom "” destroying it.
The President outlines how the government is partnering with the private sector to ensure workers have the skills they need to be competitive and grow the economy.
Flash forward: You have a perfect metaphor for Rand's extreme ideology, how today it is turning against America, blowing up capitalism, self-destructing as the excesses of a great ideology spin out of control, choking on the very dreams that fueled it for decades.
Yes, soon the commanding inner voice of Rand's supercapitalism that's imbedded itself deeply in America's collective unconscious will trigger the suicide of capitalism, in a volley of excesses taking down the market, triggering a total economic collapse and profoundly altering America's political destiny as the global superpower.
Since "The Fountainhead" was published during WWII, Rand has been a driving force in America's collective consciousness. Today she is the patron saint of conservatives and free-market capitalists in the ideology of the GOP and Tea Party, in the mind-set of Greenspan, Bernanke and Reaganomics, in the ranting of Beck, Palin and Limbaugh, in the Ryan plan to kill social programs.
The polarizing of all American politics has its strongest roots in her classic, "Atlas Shrugged," where a capitalist elite engage in a perpetual cultural warfare for the soul of America, fighting society's "moochers, looters and parasites," anyone and everyone demanding government money to solve their problems. The elite see America degrading into a socialist welfare state and communism. Rand says capitalism must be free:
"When I say "?capitalism,' I mean a pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism, with a separation of economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as a separation of state and church." Why? Because "capitalism is the only system that can make freedom, individuality and the pursuit of values possible in practice because capitalism demands the best of every man, his rationality, and rewards him accordingly. It leaves every man free to choose the work he likes, to specialize in it, to trade his product for the products of others, and to go as far on the road of achievement as his ability and ambition will carry him."
Paradoxically Rand's capitalist ideals have gone far off the course defined by Adam Smith, warping into an unwritten conspiracy binding conservative politicians and the egocentric excesses of Wall Street, Corporate CEOs, and the Forbes 400 Super Rich.
In a recent USA Today op-ed piece, "Ayn Rand and Jesus," Stephen Prothero, a Boston University professor of religion and author of "God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World"”And Why Their Differences Matter," poses a serious challenge to Rand's disciples: "Idolatry of the conservative icon should lead to some soul-searching within the GOP. After all, Christian morality has no place in an "?Atlas Shrugged' world."
Prothero's list of "Rand's adoring acolytes" includes Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. But while "Ayn Rand is the GOP's new savior, no one seems to be taking notice of just how opposed their two philosophies are." For Rand, the war is not between "God vs. Satan, but individualism vs. collectivism. While Jesus says, "?Blessed are the poor,' she sings hosannas to the rich. The heroes of "?Atlas Shrugged' "¦are the captains of industry "¦ The villains are the looters and moochers," people who by hook (guilt) or by crook (government coercion) steal from the hard-won earnings of" rich capitalists.
Get it? Rand turns "traditional Christian morality" on its head: "Altruism is immoral and selfishness is good. Moreover, there isn't a problem in the world that laissez-faire capitalism can't solve if left alone to perform its miracles." In Rand's quixotic world, capitalists are the new saviors, capitalists are performing miracles.
But can you imagine Jesus ever saying that? No wonder Prothero says "Rand's work reads to me like a vulgar rationalization for greed lying on top of a perverse myth," leaving him surprised "at how few GOP thinkers seem to see how hostile her philosophy is to conservatism itself." Why indeed, because there's nothing Christian about Rand's defense of a soulless capitalism that's not only lacking in traditional Christian compassion but has become totally narcissistic.
"Ayn Rand's "?Death of the Soul of Capitalism' http://on.mktw.net/lx16x4" 11:59 p.m. EDT, June 13, 2011 from MKTWFarrell
"We need an "?Evil Plan' to foil our own leaders http://on.mktw.net/iO2rmK" 11:39 p.m. EDT, June 6, 2011 from MKTWFarrell
"R.I.P. Reaganomics Revolution: 1981-2011 http://on.mktw.net/kKjyyQ" 12:18 a.m. EDT, May 31, 2011 from MKTWFarrell
Paul Farrell writes the column on behavioral economics. He's the author of nine books on personal finance, economics and psychology, including "The Millionaire Code," "The Winning Portfolio," "The Lazy Person's Guide to Investing." Farrell was an investment banker with Morgan Stanley; executive vice president of the Financial News Network; executive vice president of Mercury Entertainment Corp; and associate editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. He has a Juris Doctor and a Doctorate in Psychology.
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