Quote:
Originally Posted by lendaddy
I would say that the most glaring example or experiment in this theory is America itself. The standard of living and the charmed life of our "poor" is the proof in the pudding.
Can we agree there is no more "greedy" or self-interested country in the world? If so, how do you explain the above if not from the fruit of unbridled human nature or as you call it "greed".
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There is no questioning the power of self-interest. And the brute fact that America owes much of its prosperity to its understanding and harnessing of this force. Greed is not good, and not bad. It is what it is. Same with money. Even more so. Rand can make some folks imagine there is some special power in money or greed, or that those things earn special respect or admiration, but as was stated above, that is a purely literary construct. If rocks made you guys handsome and comfortable and enlarged your Johnsons, then I could make you imagine that rocks are a moral "good." But you'd be just as incorrect.
It is what it is. The individual does have power. We can call it a "special" power, but that would be like saying that Lendaddy has intelligent intelligence. Rand did the intellectual equivalent of selling the Ten Commandments to the Jews. They didn't need to be sold on the concept since they had already been, and it wouldn't actually be adding anything of value that was not already there. Like selling the importance and value of beauty to a group of high school cheerleaders. Brilliant! You know their reaction before you begin, and if you're skilled at dialectic, then they'll think you're a prophet.