Patrick
-----Original Message----- From: Jacob Segal <jpsegal at rcn.com> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Tuesday, May 09, 2000 10:18 AM Subject: Re: From The Union "Hardhead List"
>Anyone interested in a easy and fun read, I recommend The Passion of Ayn
>Rand, by Rand's former disciple Barbara Branden. It describes in rich
>detail Rand's completely pathological behavior, her affair with Branden's
>husband and their break with destroyed the "objectivist" movement.
>
>A good case in point of the dream of reason producing nightmare.
>
>Jacob Segal
>
>
>>Yes, actually there are a few real philosophers who take Rand seriously, I
>>was exaggerating: in addition to Hospers, there is Eric Mack, Douglas Den
>>Uyl (sp?), and the Bowling Green libetertians; Nozick wrote a piece on
>>Rand as a philosopher. Moreover my friend Chris Sciabbara, a libertarian
>>student of Betell Ollman, is a actually a Rand scholar, and Chris is very
>>smart. I still think Rand is a crackpot. I guess if what you say about
>>Hospers is true, I mean about Tonga, he was a practical crackpot as well.
>>He was a fine philosopher, though. --jks
>>
>>In a message dated Tue, 9 May 2000 12:37:32 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Sam
>>Pawlett <rsp at uniserve.com> writes:
>>
>><<
>>
>>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
>> >>
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