My ongoing struggle to respect idiotic opinions

Over the weekend, I read several attacks on Paul Ryan which bordered on hysteria and centered on his alleged slavish devotion to Ayn Rand. The attack premise is simple. If Ryan is a lockstep Rand cultist, then it is only necessary to cite one among many of Rand’s loony or ill-tempered remarks. There is no question that she made many, as she feared no one, loved to provoke people, and said whatever was on her mind at the time.  This should surprise no one. Ayn Rand was the antithesis of a politician, and I think a favorite quote from William S. Burroughs applies to her:

I am not a politician, nor am I running for public office, and I do not have to respect anyone’s idiotic opinions.

The problem with that philosophy is that while it may make its adherents enviably free to say whatever they want, what they say can and will be used against any of their fans who might decide to run for public office. Which means if you’re one of those who seeks to rule the rest of us, you will be forced to cultivate a squeaky clean ethos, which means scrubbing out or repudiating any possibly controversial influences from youth, editing your book collection, etc. Not a pretty process. Thus, it  is not surprising that Paul Ryan now distances himself from — and repudiates the philosophy of — Ayn Rand.

I think it is sad that he should have had to do that, and the main objection to Rand on the right is her atheism. Why it isn’t possible to admire the philosophy of an atheist, I don’t know. But I find that a lot more disturbing than I do the various outbursts which routinely emanated from Rand, and which the lefties love laying at Ryan’s feet.

This Rand-fan criticism is typical:

2. He’s a big fan of Ayn Rand. “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” he said at a D.C. gathering honoring the author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. “I give out ‘Atlas Shrugged’ as Christmas presents, and I make all my interns read it. Well … I try to make my interns read it.” Even if you’re a fan of Rand’s writing and character development (as our own Ami is, sigh), Rand’s philosophy — that selfishness is a “virtue” — is quite troubling! Rand called altruism as “evil,” condemned Christianity for its work helping the poor, and described Arabs as “almost totally primitive savages.” Though Ryan has distanced himself from Rand’s atheist beliefs, and not that you should base your vote this November on which books line the candidates’ shelves, it’s worth noting whose writings they’re most influenced by.

Via Glenn Reynolds.

Did Ayn Rand emit those utterances? Yes, and she is also said to have spoken admiringly of a psychopathic killer. In the interest of supplying at least a little context, here’s the full “savages” quote:

If you mean whose side one should be on, Israel or the Arabs, I would certainly say Israel because it’s the advanced, technological, civilized country amidst a group of almost totally primitive savages who have not changed for years and who are racist and who resent Israel because it’s bringing industry, intelligence, and modern technology into their stagnation.”        Source: Q and A session during taping of Donohue, Live in New York [1]

Why didn’t she add that they were “homophobic”? Probably because Rand herself held gays in low regard. You’d think the people who hate her for being an atheist could at least love her for being personally repulsed by homosexuality. But we do not live in a fair world.

What matters is that anything Rand ever said can be used against anyone who respects her or counts her as among his influences.

Obviously, this means no one who is raising a child who might consider running for office should ever allow his child to read her! And that if he does, he must be quick to follow the right (or left) party line, and be prepared to denounce her, and say why.

The attempts to poison Ryan with Rand are of course ongoing. Salon editor Joan Walsh has a column with this “damning” headline:

Paul Ryan: Randian poseur

Mitt Romney couldn’t have chosen a better example of the fakery at the heart of today’s GOP

The “fakery” is grounded in the fact that Ryan and his family received social security (especially in the form of death benefits paid out after his father died). This, it is claimed, renders Ryan “a man wholly supported by government” and “a pampered scion of a construction empire who has spent his life supported by government.” Never mind how much his father paid in during his working lifetime.

And never mind the fact that there is no way to opt out of Social Security.

Needless to say, if receiving social security while opposing the entitlement structure constitutes “hypocrisy,” then most conservatives are hypocrites. So too are all libertarians.

Oh, and of course, Ayn Rand was the worst hypocrite of them all.

But this is child’s play. With the coming nationalization of healthcare, they’ll be able to say that any opponent of the system who gets sick is a hypocrite, simply because big government will be behind every doctor and every hospital.

What they forget is that when we are all hypocrites, there is no hypocrisy.

It’s a hopeless world out there. (Just kidding. I actually find cause for optimism in universalized hypocrisy.)