Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by stevenAthompson 446 days ago
To be fair, Rand herself said (to paraphrase) that because the state took it from her against her will it was fair play to take it back and I think that was self-consistent.

That said, she wanted to let the disabled starve to death so I don't think anyone really has to be fair to her at all. Empathy is only for the empathetic.
2 comments
autoexec 446 days ago
"Selfish person happily takes from the government, but feels bad about having ever given the government anything" seems pretty consistent to me too.
link
marknutter 446 days ago
Ayn Rand did not "want to let the disabled starve to death". What a ridiculous lie.
link
stevenAthompson 446 days ago
It is not a lie. She felt that the government had no right to assist, and that they should be left to depend on "charity" (IE - Begging).

There are also tapes of her saying that the retarded should not "be allowed to come near children," and that children cannot deal with the "spectacle of a handicapped human being."

link
mapontosevenths 446 days ago
Question from audience: [muffled audio which sounds like:] "...why is this culture..."

[loud noise which sounds as if it represents a point where the tape has been edited]

Rand: [mid-sentence] "...for healthy children to use handicapped materials. I quite agree with the speaker's indignation. I think it's a monstrous thing — the whole progression of everything they're doing — to feature, or answer, or favor the incompetent, the retarded, the handicapped, including, you know, the kneeling buses and all kinds of impossible expenses. I do not think that the retarded should be ~allowed~ to come ~near~ children. Children cannot deal, and should not have to deal, with the very tragic spectacle of a handicapped human being. When they grow up, they may give it some attention, if they're interested, but it should never be presented to them in childhood, and certainly not as an example of something ~they~ have to live down to."

- Ayn Rand, The Age of Mediocrity, Q & A Ford Hall Forum, April, 1981

*EDIT* Youtube video: https://youtu.be/Q1HD8KXn-kI

link
glenstein 446 days ago
Great pull, thank you for the quote and the link.
link
try_the_bass 446 days ago
> Children cannot deal, and should not have to deal, with the very tragic spectacle of a handicapped human being. When they grow up, they may give it some attention, if they're interested, but it should never be presented to them in childhood, and certainly not as an example of something ~they~ have to live down to."

There's an irony in here, since this is more of less a summary of the ideology that wants "safe spaces" in schools.

Just, you know, with an entirely different set of things that proponents want to shield children/young adults from.

link