Wednesday, August 21, 2002

No threat from Objectivists?

One of my commenters in my brief link-post on Ayn Rand below argues that while Communists killed millions upon millions of people in the 20th century, Objectivists committed no such atrocities, and ergo, they are not even close to Commies on the Baddie Scale.

He (of course) does have a point: no government/organization espousing Objectivism has killed on such a vast scale. However... I would argue that Objectivism (and libertarianism in general) has contributed to the overly-individualistic mentality that supports abortion -- apart from the fact that the vast majority of people who espouse these positions support abortion rights -- and so has some guilt in the death of millions upon millions of human beings (go read the stuff at Libertarians for Life before ranting at me on this point). Have such people "pulled the trigger"? Of course not. But the ideologue does bear responsibility for those who listen to him and follow his thought out.

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