Thursday, August 31, 2017

Pam and Russ Martens — Trump & Company Channel Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand made her mark by writing and lecturing on a philosophy called Objectivism. It’s a philosophy that flips upside down everything that most Americans hold dear. Under Objectivism, greed is good, selfishness is noble, helping one’s fellow human beings is for suckers and an outright evil. The philosophy also holds that big government is bad and obscenely rich corporate titans are the real heroes of society. (See related articles below.) The Koch brothers’ network of billionaires has been financing the proliferation of Rand’s books into high schools and colleges for decades.
Trump is the personification of the Ayn Rand creed and his elevation from reality TV host to the Oval Office is valid proof that the Kochs and their ilk have spent their money wisely....
Wall Street On Parade
Trump & Company Channel Ayn Rand
Pam Martens and Russ Martens

16 comments:

Kaivey said...

There can't be anything worse than Ayn Rand and her objectivism. It's popular with some young people and Stephan Molyneux makes a living poncing off them selling them pseudo philosophical crap. I guess after a lifetime of being told what to by adults young people like the idea of no government, less police, and legalised recreational drugs. Anyway, with Bernie lots more young people turned towards socialism, which isn't anti capitalism, it's a better capitalism where people might actuallly get rewarded for their hard work.

Matt Franko said...

"It’s a philosophy that flips upside down everything that most Americans hold dear. "

LOL!!!

Clueless Martens strikes again!

Here let me re-write this for them: "t’s a philosophy that most Americans hold dear. "

There that is better...

Matt Franko said...

And here in case you're behind on your Darwin the Ayn Rand people have a good refresher course for you:

https://ari.aynrand.org/issues/science-and-industrialization/scientific-and-technological-progress/Darwin-and-the-Discovery-of-Evolution

Matt Franko said...

"Survival of the fittest!!!!"

Schofield said...

Social Darwinists like Ayn Rand almost literally fail to see the wood for the trees. The social group forms the selection environment for human evolution at the individual level because of the enormous energy optimization power of reciprocity. The science of coregulation which explains how chemicals affect the emotions in our bodies confirms this. Sociological and social psychology theory confirms that without reciprocity our efforts to engage in "reverse dominance" by forming governments and other rules making institutions would fail.

Tom Hickey said...

It doesn't even take science to show that Randism, and all extreme individualism, are destructive. A key aspect of upbringing and education is socialization. Every parent soon learns that the socialization process requires tempering individual freedom with responsibility, e.g., based on social relationships lie respect for others, and also self-disicpline that prevents liberty from turning into license. Those parents that don't learn this are stuck with brats and may even spawn criminals. Rand herself was fascinated with psychopaths and sociopaths, and she modeled her heroes on psychological abnormality. The fact that this "philosophy" not only has credence but also popularity is a indication of the desperate state of the American mindset, American character, and the level of collective consciousness in the US that is apparent from anti-social domestically and on the world stage behavior. In the name of "freedom." Sick.

Tom Hickey said...

And the Randites are not the only nut cases. There are also the religious fanatics.

Breitbart News
Fire and Fury: Judge Roy Moore Says Donald Trump Under ‘Spiritual Attack,’ Needs Him at His Side to Make America Great Again
Matthew Boyle

Then there are the neocons and liberal interventionists that are willing to destroy entire countries to save them by imposing "freedom and democracy (and neoliberal capitalism) on them.


Schofield said...

"A key aspect of upbringing and education is socialization."

True more the more you read up on the mushrooming "cottage industry" stemming from Attachment Theory the more you realize how easily the "socialization" to reinforce reciprocity is de-railed, post-natal depression, domestic violence in the home, poverty, financialization of societies, etc. The percentage of individuals affected by Attachment Process issues in Western societies would appear to be high although precise consensus is not yet available.

Matt Franko said...

"liberty from turning into license."

They are the same thing... synonymous ....

Matt Franko said...

"how easily the "socialization" to reinforce reciprocity is de-railed,"

LOL... what about teaching young people that they are evolved from worms via a stochastic process of survival of the fittest... yeah that probably doesn't have anything to do with it...

Schofield said...

"what about teaching young people that they are evolved from worms via a stochastic process of survival of the fittest"

Yeah but the ground has to be made fertile first to believe it!

Tom Hickey said...

No one that is scientifically inclined thinks that creation myths have any scientific standing and are pre-scientific accounts.

There is no other possible scientific explanation that is consilient with science as a whole other than the view that what is described by physics came first (energy), then chemistry (elements, molecules), then biology (life forms) and then evolutionary development of more complex life forms based on emergence. The evidence for this is overwhelming, although, of course, many of the details still need to be addressed. But the general picture is agreed upon.

Given the concept of the Big Bang as a release of "energy," monism of some sort seems to be implied, hence the quest for the equations of the "unified field."

Science cannot explain what energy is. It was previously thought to be elementary but now thinking is shifting toward energy being a carrier of information. Information could be be primary, with energy being a form of information rather than a carrier of it, similar to the way mass is "congealed" energy. This is consilient with traditional views that the assumption that "intelligence" is primary.

Where the argument now rests is the nature of the original stuff or Urstoff, which is unexplained. The possibilities are matter, consciousness, or some neutral stuff that was/is the source of matter or consciousness. These views are, respectively, materialism, idealism, and neutral monism).



Matt Franko said...

"No one that is scientifically inclined"

Evolutionism isn't scientific either it is a rationalist theory... not an empirical theory ... it's rationalist like monetarism i.e. not proven empirically...

Matt Franko said...

"These views are, respectively, materialism, idealism, and neutral monism"

Well economics is 100% materialism and should be administered by material qualified/competent people ...

Noah Way said...

"Evolution isn't scientific"

Enjoy your next visit to the Museum of Creation.

Ignacio said...

Every narrow interpretation of any phenomenon can be used to justify anything.

"Fitting" does not mean strength or might, it means health and fertility given by adaptability. Adaptability is a blank letter for anything determined by context. Adaptability is a factor of environment X attributes for a given specie.

Is vague, incomplete, and probably wrong at many levels, but the essence is probably correct. Jumping from there to whatever mental vomit implies attributing teleology to natural laws, which is insane or magical thinking. Unfortunately we have had a good share of insane ideologues and philosophers since the XIX century.

Ayn Rand was a deeply confused and conflicted woman driven by many inner fears (considering her origin) which shows in a logically inconsistent and conflicted form of thought. She was unable to carry its own ideology to the last consequence trying to impose order in an ideology which consequentially drove to chaos, making her a closet fascist and an afraid coward instead of promoting the "law of the jungle" and everyone for himself (as a logical consequence of her thought) as weakling like her would have perish to "the monsters" in such universe.

Extreme individualism is a desease that has widespread during the last decades in the West and the result is an unfortunate opposing reaction of equally or even more frightening extreme collectivism as we see is starting to happen in the West and MENA where the West has been meddling also since colonial days imposing its nihilistic individualist vision of the universe.

This is what madmen (and women) produce with their stupidity, nightmarish scenarios and chaos.