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Ask HN: What influence do you think Ayn Rand had on the modern world?
I keep seeing her name come up everywhere. I've explored her work and am familiar with objectivism. I'm aware of how she has had a major influence on many thinkers and creatives over the last few decades.
I agree with some aspects but also disagree as well, she seems to be ignoring a major part of the human experience and dismissing it as primitive. I look at her life and wonder if she was aware of this or not, hard to tell.
If you know some good articles or essays, I'm looking for those as well.
- mimixco 8y agoHer book, "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" is a series of essays written in the early 60's. Reading it today, I would say she hasn't had enough influence over the world. I think Rand would be horrified at the current popularity of socialism. She rightly points out that, historically, it's created nothing but poverty and misery. I would highly recommend her essay, A Textbook of Americanism, available free online here: http://laissez-fairerepublic.com/textbook.htm http://laissez-fairerepublic.com/textbook.htm Perhaps if more people read Rand (especially her nonfiction), we might not be in this predicament.
- mindcrime 8y agoHer book, "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" is a series of essays written in the early 60's. Reading it today, I would say she hasn't had enough influence over the world. I can't agree strongly enough. Everybody should read Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. And go into it with an open mind, instead of planning to reject it based on preconceived biases. A lot of people might be surprised at how they feel about things at the end. All of that said, I think Rand hurt herself in one crucial way w.r.t her writing. And that is her somewhat nonstandard use of certain words, especially "selfish" and "selfishness". For better or worse, her use of those words is a bit different from the common, colloquial usage, and most people - in my experience - don't bother to try and really dig in and parse out what she meant. I'm not even sure a word exists that, by itself, captures exactly what she meant by "selfish" or "selfishness". Something like "self interest" or "inner desire" or maybe "self reward" comes close, but those all feel kinda clumsy if inserted into her works in place of "selfish" and its other forms. Perhaps if more people read Rand (especially her nonfiction), we might not be in this predicament. Agreed. Sadly, even among people who have read Rand, too many just read Atlas Shrugged and formed their opinions there. And while I enjoyed AS and think it has a lot of virtue, it's not a great novel in many ways, and as a non-native English speaker, her writing in AS can feel a bit wooden and stilted at times. I think The Fountainhead is a bit better in this regard, in addition to being shorter, and generally recommend it as a better intro to Rand's fiction, for people who want to go down that path.
- WheelsAtLarge 8y agoAlan Greenspan Former Chair of the Federal Reserve of the United States, is a life long devotee. He had great influence over the economy from 1987 to 2006. A period that saw a great market boom and collapse.
- mimixco 8y agoHe has several essays in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, as well. It's sad to see how he changed his ideas about the Fed once he was put in charge of it. :-(