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The author cites this quote: "The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes th
by zdean 14y ago
The author cites this quote:
"The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws."
but doesn't realize that the "One" it is referencing is government, not the "disruptive" citizens Mr. Carr is attacking. The point of the quote is that where the government fails to find criminals (criminal activity), it (the government) will create criminals by declaring "so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws."
If he doesn't understand that basic premise of the book, my guess would be that Mr. Carr hasn't in fact read the book at all but is simply pulling quotes off of the internet for which he really has no context.
- nirvana 14y agoYes, in fact, this article is like every other Rand bashing article I've seen-- they aren't honest about what Rand actually said. It's politically motivated, and written by someone who has no integrity..... he doesn't care if he's lying. People getting outraged at his lies is, as far as he's concerned, good publicity. The sad thing is, every month you see a Rand bashing article posted to hacker news and every month you see a lot of people posting in the comments attacking Rand for things she didn't say. They believe what they're told to think about Rand and they internalize it so that it becomes fact. So, they actually believe she thought charity was evil, for instance. This is the kind of anti-intellectualism that is consuming american political discourse. They want to prevent others from reading the book, so they lie about it.