Does Ayn Rand: Do We Promote Estrangement?

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Emma Goldman says that the current institutions not only prevent men from being rational but they in fact promote estrangement. One of the arguments that human nature is inherently evil is the existence of crime, an argument which Goldman emphatically refuses and blames on the institutions (Goldman, 114). “Laws, police, soldiers, the courts, legislatures, prisons, - is strenuously engaged in ‘harmonizing’ the most antagonistic elements of society” (Goldman, 59) She believes this is true because they help monopolize the world by protecting a privileged minority and by giving an advantage to some people over the other they are causing estrangement through social class difference. If humans are estrange in essence, the evil in human is nurtured …show more content…

Ayn Rand believes that a free capitalist society is the solution to overcome the current system and finally liberate people. She proposes a capitalist system with the minimum amount of regulation by institutions. She believes that rewarding the hard work is the only moral way in which a society can exist and she proves this through the fictitious example “From Each According to His Ability, To Each according to His Need” (Rand, 112f.) since she shows that a society that doesn’t reward people in relation to their hard work is bound to …show more content…

“The new Intellectual will be the man who lives up to the exact meaning of his title: a man who is guided by his intellect- not a zombie guided by feelings, instincts, urges, wishes, whims or revelations. Ending the rule of Attila and the Witch-Doctor” (Rand, 51). In other words, overcoming the same factors that where pressuring men not to use reason. However, she sees the potential of becoming New Intellectuals in everyone who is willing to attempt becoming one. She believes that being rational is a matter of choice (Rand, 136) and this is an important factor since rationality can’t be imposed, as this would go against rationality’s essence. She also thinks that men should attempt to be moral, not the type of morality preached by Witch-Doctors, but everyone’s individual morality (Rand, 142), the morality derived from reason. Rand asks the people who aspire to be “New Intellectuals” to come up with their own morals using their own reasoning since this is the only way to come up with real morals because those who live by someone else’s morals, are self-destructing (Rand,

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