CATO Institute and Ayn Rand
Via alternet comes this bit of news:
…John Allison, a former bank CEO and a leader of the Rand movement, has just become president of the Cato Institute, the oldest and most influential libertarian think tank. This received only a modest amount of attention when it surfaced late last month, and you had to be a real political junkie to even be aware of it. But it is a seminal event in recent political history—a dramatic indication of the mainstreaming of the radical right.
What it means is that the Rand movement, which was little more than a cult when the Atlas Shrugged author died thirty years ago, has effectively merged with the vastly larger libertarian movement. While many differences are likely to remain—particularly as far as Ron Paul’s fading candidacy is concerned, given the Randers’ support for abortion and opposition to his foreign policy views —this means that Objectivism, Rand’s quasi-religious philosophy, is going to permeate the political process more than ever before.
Allison, former CEO of North Carolina’s BB&T Bank, is not just going to be the Cato Institute’s sugar daddy. He replaces Ed Crane as president, meaning that he will have day-to-day control over the most significant libertarian organization in the country. Allison is a board member of the Ayn Rand Institute, the orthodox, no-compromise Randian organization, and is best known for his foundation donating free Rand books to thousands of schoolchildren across the nation—a crass exploitation of the fiscal troubles besetting primary schools.
Oh dear.
I quite like Cato even if they’re a touch too strong even for me at times.
And I cannot stand Objectivism. That’s definitely too weird even for me.
Ho hum.
Tim
It’s not too late to repent.
I had no idea Cato was “mainstream.” But that might explain the “democrats” who are “center right.”
And to think it all comes from charity. Who would have thought Randians would be donating books to little children?
Gosh, just like that nice Mr Peterson. Maybe they have a heart of gold after all.
GIVING books, upon request, to cash-strapped schools is “crass exploitation”? Hilarious. You’ve set some kind of new standard for redefinition. Even Marx didn’t call showering someone with free goods “exploitation”.
Of course, you could always offer those same schools thousands of free copies of Das Kapital — by request only, of course. Let us know how it goes, won’t you?
Y’know, I found ATLAS SHRUGGED a bit of hard slog in my early 20’s, and I thought THE FOUNTAINHEAD was just a tad salacious when I was a young college student. And I never did make it through WE THE LIVING.
You really think dumping these books on elementary school kids is going to have a tremendous impact?
“Who would have thought Randians would be donating books to little children?”
==>
Why is that a question? Anybody who has read even 1% of wgat Ayn Rand has written knows that she is NOT against Charity but only against upholding Charity has a moral duty (and something that the Govt. should do for us).
She doesn’t mention Charity much in her writings because she considers it to be “no big deal” – it is *fine* for individuals to be charitable if it their choice and doesn’t sacrifice their values…yes, she considers giving up anything of greater value to you for a smaller value to you as a sacrifice and something that is bad for you – she believes in a win-win relationship among men – on one has to nor should lose their values for anyone else.
Donating books to share ideas that I value is a greater value to me than the value of the book – yes, it is a Charity I will happily engage in!
o gee.
i hadn’t realized AB had a following in the Randian camp. Let me say here, quite clearly, that “giving books” to kids to (hopefully) influence their little minds to believe in a simple minded “philosophy”, not to say execrable “literature” is not charity.