Ayn Rand calls Libertarians "monstrous, disgusting bunch of people"

[Jeremy]

Ayn Rand Lexicon: Anarchism


Anarchy, as a political concept, is a naive floating abstraction: . . . a society without an organized government would be at the mercy of the first criminal who came along and who would precipitate it into the chaos of gang warfare. But the possibility of human immorality is not the only objection to anarchy: even a society whose every member were fully rational and faultlessly moral, could not function in a state of anarchy; it is the need of objective laws and of an arbiter for honest disagreements among men that necessitates the establishment of a government.

I don't think she understood what Rothboard and his followers were proposing.

 

[FrankRep]

I don't think she understood what Rothbard and his followers were proposing.

Sounds like she would like Rothbard's view of Capitalism, but call Rothbard's vision of anarchy "naive" and a utopian fantasy.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Sounds like she would like Rothbard's view of Capitalism, but call Rothbard's vision of anarchy "naive" and a utopian fantasy.

She claims that there "is the need of objective laws and of an arbiter for honest disagreements among men that necessitates the establishment of a government." Rothbard doesn't object to objective laws or arbitration. He just (correctly) points out the state (lowercase s and capital S) as an institution is not capable of this. And he is correct (at this point in history). Mises agreed with him on this. (see Mises' "Liberalism")

 

[ClayTrainor]

Rothbard doesn't object to objective laws or arbitration.

Reminds me of one of my favorite Rothbard quotes.

"Rights may be universal, but their enforcement must be local"

 

[Raudsarw]

Rand's arguments against anarchism were primitive and vague. She hardly(if at all?) touched upon specific theories of how a stateless society might function. Probably because she had no idea, I think she just hated the fact that not every libertarian intellectual was willing to be her bitch.

I must add that I was once quite a fanatical follower of her. As were many of my libertarian friends. When you read her novels, which are very great I must mention, especially The Fountainhead, there is a stage of total fanaticism that follows, for a few months at least, until critical thinking finally kicks in. Then you become an anarcho-capitalist.

 

[josh b]

Rand could be really irrational sometimes.




lol

By the way Raudsarw, you bumped this thread by like three weeks. Are we allowed to do that here?

 

[Raudsarw]

It was on the front page, I didn't even notice how old it was.