Yaron Brook's endorsement ? of Paul Ryan

[Jerry Biggers]

Never listened to Amy Peikoff's radio blog - probably because I didn't even know it existed.

Anyway, she has Yaron Brook on for a full hour on Paul Ryan, and practically everything or issue that could be brought up in that Grand Canyon-sized subject.

It's too long to summarize, he brings up most of the points that others have made here on OL (is he a "closet" reader of this forum??).

Actually, this is a very good discussion and more realistic than past ARIans might have been. But don't read too much into what I am saying, just listen. Here is the link, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/amypeikoff/2012/08/13/dont-let-it-go-unheard

[9thdoctor]

I'm playing it now. Egad, he mentioned the Atlas Society! He pronounced the name! And he didn't even utter a curse when he did it.

[syrakusos]

Thanks for the link. It was interesting.

[9thdoctor]

Does anyone have the video (or even just the audio) of the Q&A following Peikoff's Religion vs. America? Brook is saying Ryan qua Thomist is superior to the evangelical, thus less intellectual GW Bush. Peikoff (in the mid 80's) basically denounced Catholicism as the most dangerous thing in existence, because of its philosophical sophistication. It might make for a good installment in my developing "persecuting Peikoff" series.

[syrakusos]

Ninth, I found that discussion disappointing for its crudeness. I am shocked to discover such vulgarity on an Objectivist discussion board that explicitly aligns itself with the ARI.

Be that as it may, we all know that Ayn Rand said that Thomas Aquinas rescued Western Civilization by reintroducing Aristotle. While that is not factually correct, the "sense of life" meaning certainly could be an opening to accepting Paul Ryan as a Thomist. I am surprised that Yaron Brooke and Kira Peikoff both missed that. No one else seems to have mentioned it either. If Ted Keer were still here, he would remind us that Ayn Rand had a "rational priest" in an early draft of Atlas Shrugged, the Taggarts apparently having kept their Irish Catholicism at least by tradition. At Ted's urging, I got from my university library Cardinal Desire-Joseph Mercier's textbook of scholasticism. It was a perfect example of what could be expected from a Catholic committed to reason. Yes, of course, God was in the metaphysics, but all the rest from reason to natural rights were there, as well.

I also take Yaron Brooke's point that many people - millions - who are not Objectivists nonetheless say that they were "influenced" by Ayn Rand, especially by Atlas Shrugged. It is a measure of the deep and growing impact of her ideas.

Yaron Brooke said that to understand the philosophical ideas, you have to do more than read Atlas Shrugged. I could not think of a good analogy to other philosophies, but I wondered if Nausea and Existentialism would apply, or Portrait of a Lady by Henry James and the pragmatism of William James. (Battlefield Earth and Dianetics?)

[9thdoctor]

Ninth, I found that discussion disappointing for its crudeness. I am shocked to discover such vulgarity on an Objectivist discussion board that explicitly aligns itself with the ARI.

That’s just about my favorite post in all online Rand-land! Just imagine how much energy that guy put into writing that denunciation of me. Anyway, that’s where “persecuting Peikoff” comes from, so I thought I ought to give credit. It also shows the double standard at work over there, though they actually did moderate that post at first, then I gather they had a behind the scenes debate and decided to reinstate it. If I put 1/10^th that much vitriol into a post it would be toast for sure.

[merjet]

Paul Ryan's nomination offers Yaron Brook more media exposure on Yahoo Finance (link) .

[Reidy]

The hits just keep on coming.