NationStates Jolt Archive

In fact, the most intelligent human beings can save time by simply placing themself on the polar opposite of any debate she had taken part in, or completely oppose any ideology she embraces.

A bit of an exaggeration, but true way too often. Ayn Rand is a good example of the kind of broken human beings totalitarian societies are really good at making. I suspect any society based on her ideas or those of Nietzche would be similarly good at making broken people. I prefer a nice liberal democracy, it may not be perfect but it's better than anything anybody's put forward to replace it.

There have been no refutations. There have been several failed attempts at refutation, but nothing more.

are you even trying?

The most distasteful thing about Rand is not her belief that it's okay to let the incompetent starve, it's the glee she obviously feels at the prospect. And it is this character defect that blinds her to the objective fact that humans are communitarian animals with altruistic instincts.

Individualistic liberalism is not the natural state of the noble savage. However wonderful it may be, it is a recent invention; probably related to the development of the nuclear family (which only has one significant person in it, since women and children should always agree with and obey their patriarch and are barely people anyway).