What have the Tea Party and the Church of Satan got in common? Answer: the sinister Ayn Rand

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**Frazzled**

And for the record: Paranormal II rocks

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100084893/what-have-the-tea-party-and-the-church-of-satan-got-in-common-answer-the-sinister-ayn-rand/

Talk amongst yourselves:

What have the Tea Party and the Church of Satan got in common? Answer: the sinister Ayn Rand
By Tim Stanley World Last updated: April 24th, 2011

52 Comments Comment on this article

Anton LaVey: Satanist and big fan of Ayn Rand

Question: what have the Tea Party and the Church of Satan got in common? Answer: their favourite writer is Ayn Rand.

Ayn Rand is recapturing the hearts of American conservatives. The Cold War writer’s individualist philosophy is back in fashion among the Republican faithful. Her 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged has just been released as a movie and while critics call it slow and two-dimensional, Tea Partiers are queuing around the block to see it. Something about Rand’s take-no-prisoners prose strikes a chord with people exasperated by Obama’s tax-and-spend liberalism and desperate for a road-map to liberty.

But Ayn Rand is not a natural pin-up for American conservatives. Her individualism went beyond libertarianism. It was an exciting, revolutionary mix of greed, atheism, materialism and the Marquis de Sade. It comes as no surprise that the 1960s Church of Satan lifted most of its high-camp gospel from Ayn Rand. One of its acolytes notes with approval that, “Rand’s philosophy rejects as ethical accepting the sacrifice of another to one’s self … The Satanic view sees as ethical the reality of domination of the weak by the strong.”

The story of how Rand fell out with the libertarian economist Murray Rothbard is instructive of her anti-conservative temperament (many versions exist; this one is attributed to Rothbard’s protégé, Prof Harry Veryser). In 1958, Rothbard and his wife JoAnn Schumacher attended a seminar by Rand on the subject of God. Arguing that Christianity inhibited self-interest, Rand declared that anyone who had faith in the Almighty was “a damn fool”. She then went around the group asking each student if he or she was a believer. JoAnn happened to be a Presbyterian and, with a nervous whimper, answered in the affirmative. Rand turned to Murray and barked, “Your wife is an idiot, you must divorce her immediately.”

Murray’s response was admirable. He grabbed his wife’s arm and said, “JoAnn, we’re leaving. This woman’s nuts!”

The anecdote underlines three distinctly non-conservative, non-Tea Party traits about Ayn Rand. First, she confused worship of the individual for worship of an individual – herself. The Randian movement was a cult with Rand at the centre. She tolerated no opposition and schooled her pupils in an old fashioned didactic style: “I’m right, you’re wrong, and here’s why”. Sometimes she used the tools of totalitarianism to bring her people in to line. Rothbard was ostracised from the group, turned into a non-person in much the way Stalin expelled dissenters from the Soviet Communist Party. In this instance, her obsession with what she defined as “objective fact” (i.e. the physical “fact” that there is no God) was stronger than her belief in intellectual liberty. Her style of leadership runs counter to the Tea Party’s sensible refusal to lend its support to an individual political personality, to become the vanguard of one person’s ego trip.

Second, Rand’s insistence that Murray divorce JoAnn reflects a disregard for the most conservative of institutions: the family. Rand often stated that it was “immoral” to put family and friendship above productive work. To her, family was an accident of birth and marriage the bringing together of like minds with shared ambitions. Rationality trumped love and duty.

Third, Rand’s aggressive atheism puts her outside of the Right-wing mainstream. You don’t have to believe in God to be a conservative, but most conservatives recognise His social value – the importance of moral codes, tradition, volunteerism, mystery and the presence of an authority higher than man. But, like Nietzsche, Rand saw God as a barrier to greatness; like Karl Marx, she saw God as a distraction from material reality too.

The small-town, Calvinist populism of the Tea Party is centuries and continents apart from Rand’s libertine utopianism. Were she alive, Rand probably would have preferred to keep her distance. In the late 1940s, the Right-wing Motion Picture Alliance asked the former screenwriter to produce a manifesto for conservative movie making. Along with “Don’t Smear the Free Enterprise System” and “Don’t show that Poverty is a Virtue and Failure is Noble”, one of her commandments was “Don’t Deify the Common Man”. Yet there is nothing more healthily common than the Tea Party, which has revived a petit bourgeois spirit that would probably have horrified Rand.

Ayn Rand was a libertarian revolutionary, the Che Guevara of science-fiction writers. While her faith in the productive capacities of the free-market is useful, there is nothing of the apple-pie wholesomeness of American conservatism. Conservatism is about more than servicing the bottom-line; far more than the victory of the strong over the fantasies of the weak.

Tags: American conservatives, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, books, Church of Satan, libertarians, Sarah Palin, tea party

**WarOne**

Frazzled...now you are quoting sources from a BRITISH tabloid!?!?!?

What have you done with our all American, Texan, gun-toting, weiner legion releasing, insanomatic moderator????

**Kragura**

this shouldn't really come as a surprise both objectivism and Satanism focus primarily on the self and a sort of a survival of the fittest view on society.

**Slarg232**

I'm Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask a question?

Is a Man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?

No, says the man in Washington, it belongs to the people.
No, says the man in the Vatican, it belongs to God.
No, says the man in Moscow, it belongs to everyone!

Sorry, I just had to

**Frazzled**

WarOne wrote:Frazzled...now you are quoting sources from a BRITISH tabloid!?!?!?

What have you done with our all American, Texan, gun-toting, weiner legion releasing, insanomatic moderator????

Well I haven't been shoting in like, a week, and its starting to affect me. On the positive I have learned:
1. Finally rented Paranormal II. Liked it! Unfortunately Tbone decided to make his move and climb up and lay on my chest. His breath truly is the breath of chaos.
2. Also took Genghis Connie and a hooligan friend to see Rio. Not nearly as bad as Hop (reference that breath of chaos thing).
3. Genghis Connie is hooked on my DVD of Season 1 of Star Trek which I received for my brithday. She still likes Doctor Who better.

On the topic:

**biccat**

Frazzled wrote:3. Genghis Connie is hooked on my DVD of Season 1 of Star Trek which I received for my brithday. She still likes Doctor Who better.

Is this real Star Trek, or that crap with William Shatner?

**SilverMK2**

WarOne wrote:Frazzled...now you are quoting sources from a BRITISH tabloid!?!?!?

The Telegraph is a broadsheet, rather than a tabloid

Though I would agree with the sentiment of "GER OFF AR PAPERS!"

**whitedragon**

biccat wrote:
Frazzled wrote:3. Genghis Connie is hooked on my DVD of Season 1 of Star Trek which I received for my brithday. She still likes Doctor Who better.

Is this real Star Trek, or that crap with William Shatner?

Wait what?

**biccat**

whitedragon wrote:
biccat wrote:
Frazzled wrote:3. Genghis Connie is hooked on my DVD of Season 1 of Star Trek which I received for my brithday. She still likes Doctor Who better.

Is this real Star Trek, or that crap with William Shatner?

Wait what?

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=299

The only value of the original series was to provide a background for the far superior TNG.

**WarOne**

biccat wrote:
whitedragon wrote:
biccat wrote:
Frazzled wrote:3. Genghis Connie is hooked on my DVD of Season 1 of Star Trek which I received for my brithday. She still likes Doctor Who better.

Is this real Star Trek, or that crap with William Shatner?

Wait what?

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=299

The only value of the original series was to provide a background for the far superior TNG.

Your only considering TNG superior because they actually used actors for their characters, unlike TOS wherein they used William Shatner.

**Frazzled**

biccat wrote:
Frazzled wrote:3. Genghis Connie is hooked on my DVD of Season 1 of Star Trek which I received for my brithday. She still likes Doctor Who better.

Is this real Star Trek, or that crap with William Shatner?

There is only STOS, not the milktoast PC jerkfest formerly known as the Next Generation (except for Picard of course who is awesome).

**biccat**

WarOne wrote:
biccat wrote:
whitedragon wrote:
biccat wrote:
Frazzled wrote:3. Genghis Connie is hooked on my DVD of Season 1 of Star Trek which I received for my brithday. She still likes Doctor Who better.

Is this real Star Trek, or that crap with William Shatner?

Wait what?

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=299

The only value of the original series was to provide a background for the far superior TNG.

Your only considering TNG superior because they actually used actors for their characters, unlike TOS wherein they used William Shatner.

William Shatner and naked women painted green.

Wait, I might be arguing against my position here...

Frazzled wrote:There is only STOS, not the milktoast PC jerkfest formerly known as the Next Generation (except for Picard of course who is awesome).

I think you mean "milquetoast."

Suggesting STOS is superior to TNG is asserting that Tribbles were a legitimate alien race. This is not something I am willing to do.

**Frazzled**

Original series has sexism, women in short skirts, and guys getting drunk. Klingons are bad guys.

TNG PC. Women in pantsuits. No drinking. Klingons are...good guys.

**biccat**

Frazzled wrote:Original series has sexism, women in short skirts, and guys getting drunk. Klingons are bad guys.

TNG PC. Women in pantsuits. No drinking. Klingons are...good guys.

TNG has the Borg. And their Klingons were far superior to those in TOS. Not sure if I have a response to short skirts and the whisky-drinking fisticuff bravado of STOS.

Also, what have you got against pantsuits?

(really, the only reason to watch Voyager)

**Frazzled**

biccat wrote:
Frazzled wrote:Original series has sexism, women in short skirts, and guys getting drunk. Klingons are bad guys.

TNG PC. Women in pantsuits. No drinking. Klingons are...good guys.

TNG has the Borg. And their Klingons were far superior to those in TOS. Not sure if I have a response to short skirts and the whisky-drinking fisticuff bravado of STOS.

Also, what have you got against pantsuits?

(really, the only reason to watch Voyager)

TNG didn't have bodacious cheekas. It had Counselor Troy.

**biccat**

Frazzled wrote:TNG didn't have bodacious cheekas. It had Counselor Troy.

And Crusher.

**Frazzled**

I think I just threw up a little...

**KingCracker**

And neither were that attractive.

**MeanGreenStompa**

Farscape had Chiana, Aeryn and Sikozu and therefore trumps all other scifi.

Meanwhile, on the Church of Satan Channel:

**Frazzled**

MeanGreenStompa wrote:Farscape had Chiana, Aeryn and Sikozu and therefore trumps all other scifi.

Meanwhile, on the Church of Satan Channel:

Well BSG did have Caprica 6. Just saying.

**dogma**

Firefly had Jewel Staite, Summer Glau, and Morena Baccarin; plus bonus appearances by Christina Hendricks.

**MeanGreenStompa**

Summer Glau is a butterface.

**Manchu**

It had to be said. But Dreadnote will kill you.

**dogma**

A lot of people say the same thing about Claudia Black, though I find them both attractive.

**Manchu**

Yeah, they're both attractive. We're talking about a pretty picky standard: Summer Glau standing next to Christina Henricks; Claudia Black standing next to -- wait, she was the hot one on SG1, nevermind.

**MeanGreenStompa**

Let me be honest, if I were not happily married to Mrs S, I'd certainly perform a convincing rendition of an Exorcist head rotation should any one of those women walk into a bar I were frequenting.

I am not sure which I actually find most attractive, probably Baccarin.

Also, just been browsing Grace Park's maxim shoot, rather nice.

**Manchu**

I like the direction this thread has taken.

From:

To:

This kind of thing gives me hope that, in the cosmic battle between narcissistic sophists and hot girls next store, hot girls next door will ultimately triumph.

**sexiest_hero**

No love for DS9? The captain ordered a hit on a Romulan Ambassador. The beer serving girl was super hot. And Garrak an ex assassin had a thing for the goody two shoes doctor. TNG had data trying to feel happy or sad.

**Frazzled**

sexiest_hero wrote:No love for DS9 The captain ordered a hit on a Romulan Ambassador. The beer serving girl was super hot. And Garrak an ex assassing had a thing for the goody two shoes doctor. TNG had data trying to feel happy or sad.

Indeedy.

**MeanGreenStompa**

DS9 was extremely good in parts and I say that as a true B5 fan. Duet was one of the best bits of scifi ever acted.

Also, yes, Leeta, played by Chase Masterson, was a scorcher!

And TNG was actually mostly about Deanna Troi getting headaches and Will Riker cheese-grinning anything with a quim that came aboard. Q was cool as hell though.