The Galt and the Lamers 0
As much as Mark Zuckerberg irritates me with his casual disregard for Facebook users’ privacy, he seems to irritate the Randians even more. The Ayn Rand Institute has accused him of “going guilt”:
Invoking a column he co-authored for Forbes, Watkins declared that the pledge “treats your wealth, not as a justly earned reward, but as a gift from society–one that came with plenty of strings attached. The message is: Fulfill the obligation that came with your riches, give your wealth away–or hide your face in shame.”
The pledge, he claimed, was crafted as emotional blackmail for rich people and is the reason why businessmen “feel unearned guilt for their success.”
The controversial writings of Rand, the Center’s icon, included fierce and unabashed defenses of wealth and a deep dislike of taxes, social programs, and altruism. In modern society, however, altruism is widely considered a virtue, and few, if any, extrapolate malicious intentions from it.
Randian philosophy, you may recall, is simply Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes for sociopathic greed.
