[lbo-talk] My Ayn Randian, libertarian loving relatives....argh... !!!

[Fernando Cassia]

On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 11:24 AM, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:
> RE:Oh god. Has there been a large surge in Randian and libertarian worship
> among the 20 something crowd?
>
> I ask because my father's sister has has five daughters who had several boys
> who are now mostly in there early to late 20s, and it seems they are nearly
> all entranced by Rand, Nozick, and libertarian tripe in general.
>
> [WS:]  I find that hardly surprising.  The "twentysomething" is a stupid age
> in which people tend to go on self-empowerment trips.  Consequently, they
> tend to be susceptible to arrogant anti-social ideologies proclaiming the
> virtues of the heroic individual, with whom they identify, over the faceless
> mass enemy, which stands for their parents, teachers and other authority
> figures from which they feel recently "liberated."  It explains the
> popularity of such youth movements like Hitlerjugend, Komsomol, Red Guards,
> anarchists, Young Republicans or libertarians.
>
> It seems to work like that.  In their  adolescence, these people (mainly of
> middle class background) are inculcated with feelings of self-importance
> through the middle-class socialization and education that emphasizes
> individualism, personal achievement, leadership etc.  Yet the social and
> institutional reality provides little actual opportunity for the realization
> of these individualistic ambitions, as most of these "young self-made
> eagles" will land on entry level corporate positions where they have to
> kowtow to their bosses or customers and submit to a myriad of rules,
> regulations, codes, and protocols to  stay afloat.  So any ideology that
> extols the virtues of self-made individualism, creativity, innovation, risk
> taking etc. over the ossified social structures, tradition, authorities
> etc.  provides a nice escapist fantasy land for these folks.
>
> It is a virtual power trip for frustrated middle class kids, if you will.
> Rational rebating their newly found ideological glorification of the unbound
> by social norms individualism is as futile as appeals to control their
> hormonal surges. It just feeds into their self-gratifying delusions.  A
> better approach is to ask them to postpone that debate until they grow up
> and get some real-world experience.
>
> Wojtek
>

Wow, I rarely print something. But this will go straight to my wall.

And may I then post it on my blog?. If you want to be named in full,
let me know.

FC