Courtesy of Pam Martens
Paul Krugman
On Friday, the print edition of the New York Times carried this headline over a column by Paul Krugman: “How Many Americans Will Ayn Rand Kill?” (The digital headline reads: “When Libertarianism Goes Bad.”) Krugman makes the following points: libertarian rhetoric is all about “freedom” and “personal responsibility.” Politicians in states filled with the Ayn Rand crowd refuse to issue mandates to wear masks, believing this comes under the Ayn Rand screed that individual choice must always triumph. Krugman correctly defines this failed logic as follows:
“Many things should be matters of individual choice. The government has no business dictating your cultural tastes, your faith or what you decide to do with other consenting adults.
“But refusing to wear a face covering during a pandemic, or insisting on mingling indoors with large groups, isn’t like following the church of your choice. It’s more like dumping raw sewage into a reservoir that supplies other people’s drinking water.”
Unfortunately, Krugman fails to make the essential connection between Ayn Rand, the brand of Republican politician that dominates now in so many state houses, and Charles Koch – the man who has been leading the billionaire network that has been funding this anti-government, anti-regulation movement for more than forty years.
This movement has very little to do with individual freedom and everything to do with Charles Koch’s freedom to have a net worth of $44.9 billion, achieved by polluting the air we breathe with his fossil fuels and chemicals empire called Koch Industries, while financing the political campaigns of people who will make sure he retains those rights.
Ayn Rand was a lousy writer. But the Koch network of corporate billionaires liked what she had to say so, for decades now, they have financed putting her books into high schools and colleges. Then the Koch money machine financed an operation to get economic professors to teach her nonsense that selfishness is good and helping one’s fellow human beings is evil. Then they financed a dizzying network of nonprofit think tanks to spread this drivel onto OpEd pages and news talk shows. After decades, we have full-scale brain washing among a significant part of the United States populace. (See related articles below.)
Ayn Rand’s philosophy is called “Objectivism” and it holds that big government is bad and obscenely rich corporate titans are the real heroes of society. Their success proves they’re smart so they should be listened to. The poor deserve their lot in life and should receive no tax support from other citizens.
…
Image: Ayn Rand & Alan Greenspan, at GQ, by John Ritter
