Ayn Rand

Niki just finished reading Ayn Rand's “The Fountainhead” tonight.  I read “The Fountainhead” years ago while working on an assembly line at Ford Motor Company's Louisville Assembly Plant.  Although I was never very attracted to the cultish aspects of Rand's devotees or to her attempt to extrapolate a complete philosophical system from her cogent and cutting insights into the logical outcome of collectivism in all its varied forms, included the vaunted “mixed” economy.

My question for everyone is what do you think about Ayn Rand's ideas and what role they have to play in an evolved understanding of how individuals should be allowed to deal with one another economically?

What are the proper rules for a society that would seek to create a legal framework for capitalism to be more than a hand-maiden to statism and corporatism?

If you've read “The Fountainhead” or “Atlas Shrugged”, what are some of you thoughts?

Rand was a self-professed atheist, although she stated many times that she was not a “militant” atheist.  How should a truly capitalist system view religious faith and what guarantees should any free society give to its members regarding the free seeking of their own religious convictions?

Niki & I watched “The Scanner Darkly” on DVD last night based on the book of the same name written by Philip K. Dick.  I haven't read the novel but will try to do so asap.  Coincidentally, one of the characters in the movie attempts suicide by overdose on the drug “Substance D” with a copy of “The Foutainhead” laid across his chest.  If you've read “Scanner”, what was all that about?

Be Good & Profit!

Kurt, for Niki & Kurt