[ExI] Ayn Rand and Evolution (was What is Meant by "Slavery"?)

[Olga Bourlin]

My hubby Patrick brought this to my attention recently - I had no idea about this aspect of Ayn Rand's views.  Patrick belongs to an Internet forum discussion group (talk origins or some such), and he forwarded one discussion to me where a person wrote "I can tell you what made Rand uncomfortable about the theory of evolution. If man descends from a lower animal, of whatever sort, then /the mind of man is no longer exceptional."

I am still looking around exploring this subject ... hmmm:

"She goes on the same entry to describe those incapable of rational life as "sub-human" who need to be "enslaved" and "controlled." (p. 467.)"

http://solohq.org/Articles/Parille/Ayn_Rand_and_Evolution.shtml

Olga

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Stefano Vaj 
  To: ExI chat list 
  Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2009 1:15 PM
  Subject: Re: [ExI] What is Meant by "Slavery"?


  2009/5/30 painlord2k at libero.it <painlord2k at libero.it>

    To call "slavery" something that is not is cheapening the word.


  I think we both like rigour in language and have a distaste for the undue emphatic and wildly metaphoric extension of historical concepts for purely rhetorical purposes. Thus, I second your remark.

  But it must be added that other social phenomena usually (and wrongly) assimilated to slavery are not necessarily better for those concerned. For instance, the medieval "serfdom" replaced servitude to a man or a family to that to an estate, which per se is a dubious improvement  and may lead to an even lower social mobility. Moreover, the slave owner has a vested interest in the survival and productivity, if not the welfare, of the slaves he owns, something which does not necessarily remains the case when they are replaced by fungible "proletarians". 

  Yet, it remains the case that societies widely based on slavery are poor performers in pseudo-darwinian terms, something which I suspect played a more important role than ideology in their near-extinction.


  -- 
  Stefano Vaj



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