JKSCHW at aol.com wrote:
>
Real philosophers (I used to be one, that is whatI did for a
> living before I was a lawyer) mainly do not take her work seriously. Her
> following is a scary cult. And Greenspan is part of it.
>
Except for John Hospers, a very good philosopher. I'm told that he and Rand were good friends and she got a lot of ideas from him. In his serious work though, you would be surprised to find that he is a political crackpot. Apart from his tome *Libertarianism* he drops few hints that he is in with Rand. He had a plan with Us real estate developer Michael Oliver (who wanted to create the ultimate offshore financial operation) to set up a libertarian paradise in one of the Tonga islands. The local people showed up with spears and weapons and turned them away violently.
If you want to know what Greenspan thinks check out his essays in the Rand edited collection *Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal* (yes that's right, capitalism is a moral ideal and we haven't had the real thing yet but we're gonna get it and the Randians don't care how many people die.) One of G's papers is a defence of the gold standard. The kind of ranting you'd find in the Liberty Lobby's Spotlight or something.
Sam Pawlett