Cackling on the Right: Alan Greenspan Again?
Since Alan Greenspan is now selling a book, his publicity crank is turning fast and hard and his face is everywhere, a friendly old mask as inscrutable as the syntax he was fond of throwing out at the American public during his years as head of the Federal Reserve.
The trouble with the way the media is now handling Alan Greenspan is that commentators criticize his inconsistencies in economics and politics without any apparent understanding that his supposed inconsistencies are not inconsistent at all if you look at where Mr. Greenspan is coming from.
Alan Greenspan (like the economist Milton Friedman) was one of the original worshipers of Ayn Rand, and Mr. Greenspan has always stated (and states again in his new book) that Ayn Rand was one of the great intellectual and personal influences of his life.
It's therefore not a surprise that looking at Alan Greenspan's political life as an economist and government official through the lens of Ayn Rand's beliefs shows us there's really nothing inconsistent about Alan Greenspan's supposed inconsistencies.
So who was Ayn Rand and what did she say and believe that's relevant here?
Ayn Rand (1905-1982) was a Russian immigrant who arrived in this country in 1926. After living briefly in New York and Chicago, she moved to Hollywood to become a screenwriter. She met the famed director Cecil B. DeMille, and he gave her a job as a movie extra and then as a script reader. She also worked in the costume department at RKO Studios. During the 1930s, Rand wrote screenplays, novels, and stage plays, none of which had any commercial success. Then, in 1943, her novel The Fountainhead was published, and it soon became a bestseller and made Rand financially independent.
Although she had no formal university training in economics, politics, or philosophy, Rand had a strong political and philosophical bent, and she infused her ideas (called "Objectivism") into her fiction, especially in the novel Atlas Shrugged (1957), an immediate bestseller.
Rand's fundamental philosophical idea of great relevance in understanding the people who were and are her disciples is simply stated: according to Ayn Rand, the moral purpose of any individual's life is his own happiness.
Rand believed that the only moral social system is laissez-faire capitalism -- the complete absence of any regulation of capitalist enterprises.
According to Rand, "For a woman qua woman, the essence of femininity is hero-worship - the desire to look up to man." She believed that women are not psychologically suited to be President and strongly opposed the modern feminist movement.
Rand's personal view was that homosexuality is "immoral" and "disgusting".
Rand defended the right of businesses to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, race, or any other criteria.
Rand opposed the idea that charity is a moral duty, and she did not consider charity a major virtue. She opposed all charity and social programs by the government.
The general ideas of Ayn Rand about how people should behave as individuals were put down in her 1964 nonfiction book, The Virtue of Selfishness.
A rationalized individual selfishness is the fundamental creed of Objectivism, and apparently the intellectual engine that has been driving Alan Greenspan throughout his public and private life.
Alan Greenspan has been called inconsistent and murky by the media, but after a close look at Ayn Rand, his professed intellectual source, the murkiness vanishes and the inconsistencies become recognized as a pattern.
Nothing surprising. It's unfortunate that the media is missing the boat to understanding Alan Greenspan.
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Jibberish!!!
Whatever Ayn Rand proselytized, she was the REAL THING.
Greenspan is and always has been nothing more than a political hack--an arm of Corporate Control.
Now he has added to his corrupt resume by admitting and complaining/bragging (in an attempt to boost book sales) that he is and was a COWARD--by withholding information that could have headed-off the demise of two sovereign nations.
As for Ayn Rand, this quote about sums her up:
[The Native Americans] didn't have any rights to the land and there was no reason for anyone to grant them rights which they had not conceived and were not using.... What was it they were fighting for, if they opposed white men on this continent? For their wish to continue a primitive existence, their "right" to keep part of the earth untouched, unused and not even as property, just keep everybody out so that you will live practically like an animal, or maybe a few caves above it. Any white person who brought the element of civilization had the right to take over this continent"
So much for those who claim that she believed that, "one person's need, no matter how great, does not give this person rights to another's life, liberty and pursuit of happiness."
As for Greenspan, well I could print trillions of dollars and throw them into the economy at the right time and make everyone feel prosperous. I could manipulate inflation rates in the most farcical ways and claim there is relatively no inflation. His final act as Fed chairman was to declare that the government will no longer publish M3. That sums up his real genius, the ability to lie and cover up his misdeeds with the tacit approval of the thieves on Wall St and Capitol Hill.
I had a history professor who had a term called, "the toilet of time". This is that place where the legacy of liars, thieves, murderers, mediocrity and incompetence ultimately get flushed by the sometimes visible hand of truth.
Greenspan was nothing more than a Repug go-along to get-along guy. All that so-called "fed speak" was his was of saying nothing, nada, zippo, zilch. The current Fed Chair has proven that "fed speak" is really just Greenspan mumbo-jumbo and limited only to him. Greehspan would like us all to believe that it's a special category of fed-speak, but thanks to Bernicke we know better.
You left out Rand's main point on politico/social interaction: one person's need, no matter how great, does not give this person rights to another's life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
Rand advocated government limited to only three functions: the courts, the police and national defense.
Rand called herself Objectivist, not Libertarian.
Despite Greenspan's early association with Rand, his actions while a member of government violated most of Rand's precepts.
Libertarianism is a dead end, just like Communism is.
Give it a few more years, you'll see.
Okay, I've read both the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and I have to admit, a lot of what Rand has to say is quite attractive - hire the best, let the best do their jobs to the fullest of their ability without interference from less capable administrators, give only your best or refuse to give at all - as a creative type hired to make other people's ideas work, I can get behind this kind of philosophy, and I do better work when I hold fast to my ideals.
There's also no room for compassion or charity with Rand, though. Those not smart enough or talented enough to make the grade are to be tossed aside and forgotten. Roark rapes Dominique, then abandons her when she tries to convince him to compromise his standards. Gault is willing to let the entire world collapse into ruin rather than work inside the system to make his point. Rand seeked to turn Capitalism into this gleaming Shangri La where cut-throat sensibilities were to be admired and emulated, while Welfare was only for the weak and the parasitic. It's no wonder the Big-Business Republicans love her so much, she foresaw the selfishness of the 80s by two decades.
Rand never realized that a civilization is not just judged by how wealthy and hard-working it is, but how well it takes care of the least fortunate of its citizens and how high in esteem it holds its artists and intellectuals; that a society is only as strong as its weakest members; that while we may respect those who have made it to the top through sheer force of will, it's those people who still remember the "little people" and give back to the society that has "given them so much" that we truly admire and aspire to be.
The 2nd most significant document of 1776 was "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Weath of the nations", by Adam Smith.
The most widely understood principle of the book was the "invisible hand" that argued people acting out of self interest did more to benefit society as a whole than if they intentially tried to do good for society by acting out of altruism.
Of course there is some truth to this. But it has become akin to a religious tenet to many, and as with all religions, the fundamentalist fantatics that take the theology to its most extreme logical conclusion, serve to simultaneously fuck up both the religion, and, in proportion to the level of influence, the world.
Fools who stop reading Smith at the Wealth of Nations and fail to grasp his Theory of Moral Sentiments http://books.google.com/books?id=dGOfM6b_vJEC&dq=Adam+Smith&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fsource%3Dig%26hl%3Den%26q%3Dadam%2Bsmith%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch&sa=X&oi=print&ct=result&cd=1 are leading us off a cliff.
Why do we follow them anymore? Aren't we brighter than that?
Like Alan Greenspan, I too read Ayn Rand's writings (both her fiction and non fiction works) in the late fifties and sixties). They bacame the foundation of what I believe, who I am and what I aspire to be.
I challenge every reader of this blog to actually read Atlas Shrugged before they associate it with any so called "Right Wing" in the United States. It is not a "conservative" view ... it is a truely radical view of what our institutions and society could be.
I read it years ago. It's an adolescent fantasy world. It's no different from L Ron Hubbard's Mission Earth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Earth_%28novel%29 .
Yes, that Scientology Hubbard.
The world is about people living together, caring about each other in their families and their friendships and their communities, their work, their churches, their nations and their world. Those who believe otherwise don't deserve the support or protection of those who do. It's about time we stopped letting the folks who believe they are Hobbesian/Hubbardian/Randian princes and princesses run the show and put them on an island of their own. Let Johan Gault and Jettro Heller duke it out somewhere else while the rest of us can make a world we can live in together, eh?
in10....to address your admonition..here's news..
Cheney IS John Galt... I, in my teens..really enjoyed both The Fountainhead AND Atlas Shrugged..but enjoyed them as FICTION...just like I enjoyed THE BUTTERFLY REVOLUTION and ANIMAL FARM....visions of...um...not exactly Utopia..just good fiction writing...
re ayn..
Rand's personal view was that homosexuality is "immoral" and "disgusting".
I think we can all surmise..that if she'd ever visited the WOMEN'S room at the Minneapolis airport..she'd be in the news...if ever there was a self-loathing lesbian...it's Ayn..
Greenspan can't have it both ways..yet wants it both ways... if he's so smart...why didn't he gently raise interest rates 3 years ago?
Hubris...
"
This is more proof of the Republicans confusing fiction with reality. You see this all the time with their ideas about the Iraqi invasion to the trickle down economic theory. They live in this fictional dream world where their distorted ideas about society are just used to promote the benefits of their greedy behavior. But as we are seeing, greed can lead millions of people into horrible financial circumstances. "Atlas Shrugged" is interesting for its utopian view of the world from its author Ayn Rand. But, it is just a work of fiction and not meant to be confused with the daily functions and complications of civilized society. This is why the Republicans fail.
Ayn Rand wrote about the man she wanted in her life. She was living in a dream world.
If she had a couple of hanidcapped kids she would be singing a different tune. The perfect world she outlines in her books does not exist and has never existed.
WANT PURE CAPITALISM? MOVE TO BRAZIL WHERE PERSONAL SECURITY IS LARGEST INDUSTRY! THEY LIKE TO GO TO WORK AND GET BACK HOME ALIVE.
No matter where you decide to poke our society, you hit greed.
Ayn Rand, the wingnuts' wingnut. Alan Greenspan, the economists' Homer Simpson.
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Posted September 17, 2007 | 10:14 PM (EST)