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

[Bryan Atinsky]

True, but I still think it is a relevant question because when I was 20 
something, I didn't know one "Objectivist" personally. Definitely were 
the tendencies towards Anarchists and TAZ hippie types and perhaps the 
Ditto Heads or two, but no Randians. Now it seems to me that there is an 
upsurge in libertarians and Randy sorts, and I even had a friend (my 
age...40) recently come visit and he was reading The 
Fountainhead...(though he is a business owner and fancies himself an 
entrepreneur, so he has those tendencies).

So, while there is a tendency among 20 somethings to latch on to a 
rebellious ideology, the question still remains... Why this one? Why 
now? (that is if my personal experience actually indicates a real rise 
in popularity of this specific tendency).

Bryan

Wojtek S 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.
>