Reply #40: In terms of psychology, I think there is something to offer [View All]

[DBoon]

People do use fraud and force to dominate and oppress. Depriving people of faith in their own rational abilities is a way of dis-empowering them. I knew someone of otherwise impeccable liberal credentials who swore by Nathaniel Branden's psychology.

As a political and economic "philosophy" I find her extremely dangerous. She conflates liberty with making money, and in the process degrades liberty.

She is treated as a hero by many Silicon Valley millionaires who fancy themselves "libertarians". See http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n35_v13/ai_19807022 :

"If a decade ago students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology could be seen lugging around copies of Rand's novel The Fountainhead, today many of the same guys are pulling down million-dollar-a-year salaries in a tiny pocket of economic affluence known as Silicon Valley"

One reason why (with the exception of Bill Gates) none of these insanely wealthy individuals has engaged in charitable enterprises in the same way that many robber barons of 100 years prior. Andrew Carnegie started a foundation, and the beginning of our public library system. Larry Ellison has done absolutely nothing.

Her net influence is very negative just for this reason.