Only rarely in U.S. history do writers transform us to become a more caring or less caring nation. In the 1850s, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) was a strong force in making the United States a more humane nation, one that would abolish slavery of African-Americans. A century later, Ayn Rand (1905-1982) helped make the United States into one of the most uncaring nations in the industrialized world, a neo-Dickensian society where health care is for only those who can afford it, and where young people are coerced into huge student-loan debt that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.
How Ayn Rand Seduced Young Men and Helped Make the U.S. into an Uncaring Nation (via azspot
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Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Perfect. This is completely right. This is how the United States went from a nation that valued collaboration, pooling together to help everyone and high code for human rights and so forth, to a selfish, military driven, let them eat cake plutocracy. From a leading industrial country to a depression riddled union with the lowest standard of living among first world nations. At least in part, because of course it’s impossible for one person to change everything herself (and holding one woman for a downfall has a unsavory “blame eve” misogyny element to it), but this essay is correct in noting how when one corrupt author has followers in high places (including the worst president, who strip away many of the good ideas of the best president) then that person has a bulk of the blame. Now that the problem has been exposed, hopefully the long repair process can begin for that country, and the writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe and ideas of Franklin Delano Roosevelt can come back.
