"The person who loves everybody and feels at home everywhere is the true hater of mankind. He expects nothing of men, so no form of depravity can outrage him." – Ayn Rand
Grr, Ayn Rand drives me nuts. She’s attacking a straw man here — who are these people who supposedly “feel at home everywhere.” They don’t exist. I’m not religious, but Jesus is most people’s ideal of someone who “loved everybody.” Yet even he supposedly did a number on the moneychangers outside the temple.
I might try to love everybody but, for one of many examples, I hate Ayn Rand and the people who follow her selfish philosophy. Rand caricatures our best impulses — “peace, love and understanding” — and makes them look like irrational insanity. I think she’s kinda evil.
I’m rather confused as to the logic of that statement, most likely because I am such a person.
Here’s my take on the quote –
If you love everyone regardless of their actions, then it means you don’t have any moral expectations for people.
In Ayn Rand’s view, anyone who lacks expectations for others is a moral mutant (a “hater of mankind”)
That is, if you’re hanging out with a lynch mob and all you do is love the excitement in the air, you’ve got problems in Ayn Rand’s book.
Grr, Ayn Rand drives me nuts. She’s attacking a straw man here — who are these people who supposedly “feel at home everywhere.” They don’t exist. I’m not religious, but Jesus is most people’s ideal of someone who “loved everybody.” Yet even he supposedly did a number on the moneychangers outside the temple.
I might try to love everybody but, for one of many examples, I hate Ayn Rand and the people who follow her selfish philosophy. Rand caricatures our best impulses — “peace, love and understanding” — and makes them look like irrational insanity. I think she’s kinda evil.
(Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.)
Maybe you should include that in the actual blog post so no one will mistake you for an Objectivist 🙂
Anyway, I think it *is* possible to feel at home among people you are disappointed with.
To be clear the comment left by “Ben” was not me — ie there was no way for the Ben who left that comment to have made it in the original post.
isnt that this dogville kind of moral? although in dogville, it made much more sense than in the quote above.