| Two memorable discussions here in which I played a seminal part: http://news.ycombinator.net/item?id=359551 The link died, but it was a comparison between Rand and Gladwell, and provoked a lot of interesting conversation/drama. That's pretty old; I was actually still arguing in favor of Rand. http://news.ycombinator.net/item?id=499109 This one has some of the most elegant denunciations: This was one of the few arguments that wasn't overridden by one side or another. But if you want a really terrific online discussion, I'm going to abandon ship and give you a link to MetaFilter instead, which starts with a series of critical articles and leads on to one of the most lucid, multifaceted discussions of Rand's many flaws I've ever seen. This was the discussion that severed the last of my connections to Rand and her philosophy. http://www.metafilter.com/86325/She-screamed-You-have-reject... rdtsc's link is thorough, but dry reading. I found it harder to digest than the community conversations. |
I'm not defending Rand, but is it really intellectually honest to judge her stated principles by her behavior, as most of her critics do? Many of the most influential philosophers in all schools of thought have proven to be either hypocritical or downright nuts.
It's easy to attack someone as flawed as Rand, and it's even easier to attack strawmen fashioned from bits and pieces of her work. Neither of these facts tell you anything about the quality or relevance of her overall message.