July 28, 2012
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Friend of mine said this in a stream of FB comments, and I thought it was excellent:
The psychotic philosophy of Ayn Rand has so infected mainstream right-wing ideology that reasonable ideas like this one [referring to Obama's "You didn't build that" speech to the entrepreneur, and resulting controversy] appear outrageous to them. Of course, Americans have long made an unrealistic mythology of individualism, and by adding the strain of Rand poison, this moves from being benignly inaccurate to toxically dangerous.Yes.
His jumping off point was this quote:“Personal property is the effect of society; and it is as impossible for an individual to acquire personal property without the aid of society, as it is for him to make land originally. Separate an individual from society, and give him an island or a continent to possess, and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich…” Thomas Paine – Agrarian Justice (1795)In other words “You didn’t build that.”
