Once Again, History Repeats Itself—The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Or, Ayn Rand Fiction—a study of human nature

I used to think of the characters Ayn Rand created in her books as exaggerated caricatures of real people, and the way they behaved, not examples of literal behavior and thinking. But over time I’ve come to understand that she was simply making a documentary-like statement about the kinds of behaviors and thinking she’d witnessed as a young person, growing up as the hard left took over her country, killing and justifying taking people’s lives and things in the name of the people.

 

“We must not think. We must believe. Believe, Katie, even if your mind objects. Don’t think. Believe. Trust your heart, not your brain. Don’t think. Feel. Believe.”

——Ellsworth Toohey quote, The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand.

 

I could go on, but tend to stay away from the kinds of posts that become overtly political. Needless to say, the activities and over-the-top demonization we see today are noting new——Neither are the PR tactics. We saw them  from V.I. Lenin, and from Joseph Goebbels, and from his more recent disciple, Saul Alinsky et al.

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