NY Times does Ayn Rand – this book review starts by identifying her as a libertarian , then connects her to Conservatives and Republicans. The “book review” never actually reviews the book, just recites Ayn Rand’s dirty laundry. Has the NY Times reviewed Glenn Beck’s “Arguing With Idiots” yet?
Another interesting thing is this “book review” about Ayn Rand’s life never uses the word Objectivism. That seems like a deliberate omission – maybe the NY Times Style Manual has that on the list of prohibited words. That would be like a biography of FDR never mentioning the New Deal
I’m going to agree that nary a “book review” is to be found…but about 2/3 of the way through the review, I think the author reveals his hand when attempting to deny Rand’s motives by re-branding her as simply an intellectual instead of a capitalist (as though the two were mutually exclusive, as many a leftist intellectual would wish, dream or have one believe!)
I would put Rand’s actions of forgiving royalties in line with the hero in the Fountainhead, Howard Roark. To Roark the act of designing and building dominated his actions and the fullfilment of his vision was more important than monetary reward. Simplistic leftist-interpretations of capitalsim and capitalists brand all practitioners as simply greedy and only motivated by money – which is far from the truth, but a realization of this truth shatters their self-righteous world view of supposed progressive-intellectual superiorty.
To learn that a fellow human has human failings is unsurprising and hardly the scandal the reviewer makes them out to be. To stand on the sidelines and point, demean or belittle simply as a means of making one’s self feel superior, as the reviewer seems to be doing (nah-nah…your “god” isn’t perfect…see!!!) isn’t a demonstration of intellectual superiority – it’s just being mean.
The fact is Objectivism as a philosophy is valuable in helping to shape a fully informed world view. Atlas Shrugged is a challenging and difficult book to read, but, an engaged and thinking reader will come away having grown as a thinker and person – even if they somehow do not subscribe to even a degree of the philosophy.
Reviews such as this one shed light on the legitimate fear the left should have of a rising and vocal intellectual movement on the right.