"The Virtue Of Selfishness"

I've compared Barack Obama many times on this blog to the worst philosophical villains in Ayn Rand's two epic novels, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Now Obama gleefully makes those comparisons upon himself:

"John McCain and Sarah Palin they call this socialistic," Obama continued. "You know I don’t know when, when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness."

Well, this brings Obama's socialism out of the closet as clearly as if he marched on the White House with a red-star flag and a backpack full of Marx's volumes.

Obama's denouncing of Rand is the denouncing of capitalism, the denouncing of the right of the individual to the fruits of his labors, and the upholding of the collective over the individual.

Rand knew about the evils of which she wrote; she lived through it...

Let's take a quote out of one of Ayn's seminal works, the one that Baracky invokes in order to scorn, to see exactly the ideals upon which he wishes to spit:

“Sacrifice” is the surrender of a greater value for the sake of a lesser one or of a nonvalue. Thus, altruism gauges a man’s virtue by the degree to which he surrenders, renounces or betrays his values (since help to a stranger or an enemy is regarded as more virtuous, less “selfish,” than help to those one loves). The rational principle of conduct is the exact opposite: always act in accordance with the hierarchy of your values, and never sacrifice a greater value to a lesser one.

- Ayn Rand, “The Ethics of Emergencies,” The Virtue of Selfishness

From my own post on this very same subject (same link):

Remember Obama's demand for sacrifice, and see above on what he is truly asking us to give up - our reasoning minds, over to him.

More Rand, and how it relates to Obama:

"It only stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of service and sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.”

That's when we become subjects rather than citizens, incidentally.

Incidentally, author Robert Heinlein echoed Rand's theorem; will Barack now denounce Science Fiction as unfit for the masses as well?

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as "bad luck."

Guess Barack will have to ban "Starship Troopers" now, as well....

But this is why Obama is not just undesireable, but dangerous. He seeks to convince America that their system, their exceptional country and culture - the one that the immigrant Rand loved - is faulty, broken beyond repair, and that all the old ideas must be thrown out and replaced by that which He deems necessary, which is nothing less than a socialist system - the antithesis of what made this country great.

He must not be elected. And based on today's polls, it seems as if America is finally beging to understand who this man is and exactly what he represents...

Even ABC's Jack Tapper gets it,as he reports on Obama's smackdown of Rand:

It would seem to be, given the themes of Rand's work, what happens when independent achievers are demonized.
Which would fit with this description of those who want to keep their hard-earned tax dollars as "selfish."
Atlas may not be shrugging, but Obama is.

Atlas, the man whom Obama must destroy in order that he may rule...