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Sunday, August 12, 2012

Ayn Rand followers applaud Paul Ryan

Paul Ryan waves Saturday. | Reuters

The head of the Atlas Society, an organization devoted to philosopher Ayn Rand’s principles of Objectivism, praised Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan on Saturday as “great news” and a “huge step forward for the liberty movement.”
“I think the announcement is great news,” Aaron Day, the CEO of the Atlas Society, told POLITICO. “[T]he influence of Rand on Ryan as it relates to the role and nature of government is a huge step forward for the liberty movement.”

Day’s comments come after Ryan distanced himself from Rand’s teachings earlier this year.
“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan told the National Review in April. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas…Don’t give me Ayn Rand.”
But Ryan’s disavowals come after years of promoting Rand’s books and endorsing her in 2009 as doing “the best job of anybody to build a moral case of capitalism.”
Even so, Objectivists appear happy with the pick, as they see many of their principles as aligned with Ryan’s.
“Ryan highlighted the principles of liberty, freedom, free enterprise, and self-determination (all consistent with Ayn Rand’s philosophy). Ryan has always stated that he doesn’t fully agree with Rand’s philosophy (specifically, he is not and has never been an atheist),” said Day in an email.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/79612.html#ixzz23L88YkjZ


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