In Mark Ames' February 26, 2010 AlterNet article, "Ayn Rand, Hugely Popular Author and Inspiration to Right-Wing Leaders, Was a Big Admirer of Serial Killer," we discover in part where so many libertarians learn their disdain for democracy and democratic institutions:
"As much as Ayn Rand detested human 'parasites,' there is one thing she strongly believed in: creating conditions that increase the productivity of her supermen--the William Hickmans who rule her idealized America: 'If [people] place such things as friendship and family ties above their own productive work, yes, then they are immoral. Friendship, family life and human relationships are not primary in a man's life. A man who places others first, above his own creative work, is an emotional parasite.'
Republican faithful like GOP Congressman Paul Ryan read Ayn Rand and declare, with pride, 'Rand makes the best case for the morality of democratic capitalism.' Indeed. Except that Rand also despised democracy, writing that, 'Democracy, in short, is a form of collectivism, which denies individual rights: the majority can do whatever it wants with no restrictions. In principle, the democratic government is all-powerful. Democracy [for Rand] is a totalitarian manifestation; it is not a form of freedom.'"
Bertrand Russell described in his 1928 collection Sceptical Essays , in the chapter "Freedom in Society," the form of freedom Madam Rand is writing of; "Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate."
Mark Ames continued to describe this sociopathic phenomenon perfectly in his AlterNet article from February 26, 2010:
"The fear that some felt at the time was that these philosophers' dangerous, yet nuanced ideas would fall into the hands of lesser minds, who would bastardize Nietzsche and Schopenhauer and poison the rest of us. This aptly describes Ayn Rand, whose philosophy developed out of her admiration for 'Supermen' like [serial killer William] Hickman. Rand's philosophy can be summed up by the title of one of her best-known books: The Virtue of Selfishness. She argues that all selfishness is a moral good, and all altruism is a moral evil, even 'moral cannibalism,' to use her words. To her, those who aren't like-minded sociopaths are 'parasites,' 'lice' and 'looters.'
But with Rand, there's something more pathological at work. She's out to make the world more sociopath-friendly so that people her hero William Hickman can reach their full potential, not held back by the morality of the 'weak,' whom Rand despised.
Rand and her followers clearly got off on hating and bashing those they perceived as weak. This is exactly the sort of sadism that Rand's hero, Hickman, would have appreciated."
An ape cannot stare into a mirror, and a sage stare out. As I stated in my article "Contra Rand" (OpEdNews May 6, 2011), it is self-evident that Rand's knowledge of Nietzsche is at best superficial. She "cherry picked" the parts that she liked and ignored what she found no use for, including the following:
"It would be completely unworthy of a more profound spirit to consider mediocrity as such an exception"When the exceptional human being treats the mediocre more tenderly than himself or his peers, this is not mere politeness of the heart--it is simply his duty." (The Antichrist, No. 57; The Portable Nietzsche, translated by Walter Kaufmann. )
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