What do people here think of Ayn Rand?

[Tooting Carmen]

For the most part, I dislike her ideology, as I see it as too cold, selfish and materialistic. She had a weak if not non-existent concept of public service and duty. Nevertheless, on certain social issues she actually had (especially for her time) quite interesting and radical ideas. Here, for example, is what she said about racism: https://courses.aynrand.org/works/racism/

[Tooting Carmen]

Anyone?

[lei.talk]

an apricity-reader sent two books that she thought would interest me to "lei.talk" at my book-store

---

she based this selection on socialism - the dream/the reality
and my favorite philosopher?

Spoiler!

One interview that particularly fascinated me was with June Kurisu, who worked for Rand as a secretary in the late 1940s when Rand was living in Chatsworth, California. It became quickly apparent that there was much more to the Kurisu story than I originally knew. I never knew that June’s parents were in the employ of Rand as well and lived at the house with her.

As I read the interview it seemed that the whole picture came into view. June and her family were Japanese-Americans who were incarcerated in FDR’s concentration camps for Americans for Japanese descent. When the federal government rounded them up, they lost everything. June’s father was a small business who lost his business. After the war these people found it difficult to start all over again as the federal government felt no need to compensate them for the confiscation of their property and their unconstitutional incarceration due entirely to their ethnicity.

Rand hired June’s father to work on the ranch with her husband, Frank O’Connor. June also mentioned that her mother was hired by Rand to be a cook, in spite of her having limited cooking skills. And June, who was a high school student attending a church boarding school, was hired to come to the Ranch on weekends to do typing for Rand. June’s younger brother also lived in Rand’s home. While June never said so, it appeared to me that Rand had hired the entire family, except for a 10-year-old brother, in order to help people who had been unjustly treated. At the same time, June recounts the presence of an elderly Russian woman living at the house as well.

This woman would have been Ayn’s English teacher from Russia who Ayn tracked down after the War. Ayn sponsored bringing the woman to the United States and allowed her to live with Rand for about a year.

Numerous other accounts show the side of Rand that her critics pretend didn’t exist—her benevolence. We read of children who meet Rand and said she was kind to them and would actually stay in touch with them, often calling them to see how they were doing. Another girl recounts how she lived with Ayn and Frank in a one-bedroom apartment when her parents were having marital problems. Over and over individuals recount an Ayn Rand who was benevolent and gentle.

in a post-script,
she added that she was thrilled to discover
the url-links hiding in my signature-space.

bé quiet mon coeu