Those of you familiar with Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, Anthem, others…), the philosophical foundation of objectivism and the modern hero were things that I was, by way of my father, raised upon (the objectivism, ‘knowing all sides,’ etc…). Do you think Rand’s philosophy has influenced society–at all? yet? or is it too early for her posthumous fame, much like Copernicus, Descartes, Plato, Jung, Aristotle, Freud? [/b]
I think Rand and Objectivism have undeniably influenced society. I have heard on several occasions that either The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged is the second most commonly bought book, where the first is the Bible. Ironic, eh?
Societally there are a lot of good and a lot of bad things about Objectivism becoming more widespread. Philosophically it’s all a lot of crap, but in a societal sense to it I’d say it’s mostly good, with the bad being an irrational level of focus on selfishness and libertarian capitalism.
Objectivism is not flawed; the people who use it, are.
The idea of looking on all sides of the mirror to find the object–the closest we can come to truth, although we are all hindered by what I call the Continuem Theorem [the tabula rasa, genetics, situationalism]–is not flawed at all…most people are in good enough of situation to find something close to a truth on most orders, whether moral, political, etc…
The problem is that if someone has an objective view, then, they can make their decision based on their own ‘wants’. Look at my “Big #1 Theorem.”
Capitalism?–the decisions of business and marketing values are skewed because of each competitor’s will to power [like that 
] in succeeding in their own area of life.
Hi Robertson. You said, â€Those of you familiar with Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, Anthem, others…), the philosophical foundation of objectivism and the modern hero were things that I was, by way of my father, raised upon (the objectivism, ‘knowing all sides,’ etc…).
It is my sense that Ayn Rand’s overall theme is essentially a mixture of Aristotle and Nietzsche. Rand’s ideology is not about “knowing all sides†as much as it is denying one of those sides. Her view is not balanced.
You said, â€Do you think Rand’s philosophy has influenced society–at all? yet? or is it too early for her posthumous fame, much like Copernicus, Descartes, Plato, Jung, Aristotle, Freud?â€
As I see it, Rand is the uber-feminist. Future generations are likely to remember feminism poorly, much as we remember eugenics today; eugenics being the mother of feminism. passion.
Ayn Rand was a goddess 
For God’s sake don’t use my name in the same breath as Ayn Rand’s… 
I agree with Passion,
I enjoyed Fountainhead but it had a heavy, heavy, heavy dose of neitzsche in it. Also, this might not be so relevent, but I found the hero ultimately boring. Like a spartan. He might have been a force of nature but he would have been one of the last people I would like to speak to at a party.
Also Rand’s notion of love is utterly bogus. You know the whole ‘they understood each other so well words would only sully the experience’ kind of thing… very romantic but not realistic. We have enough trouble understanding each other with words never mind without them. Also one of the best things about my girlfriend is that she makes me laugh… without words she’d have to fall over a hell of a lot to keep that up.
Lastly does anyone else find her notion of the triumph of form being slightly naive and shortlived? I mean, come on… plastic walls?? Hi rise blocks of flats with condensed multi purpose rooms?? Most cringeworthy proto neitzschen bit has got to be the earthward facing temple… lol