What I find extremely ironic is that you are insulting Ayn Rand, while at the same time saying you are for the EXACT SAME THING Atlas Shrugged and her ideas were about. She, and the characters in her book, were not for joining the government and destroying it from within, or even for fighting it. Her whole point in the book was to just stop supporting it and make it irrelevant. The characters didn't fight, and didn't impose their views on others, they simply casually avoided it and allowed it to rot from within.
I wouldn't say it is an irony but a superficial appearance...
Let me qualify my words then by saying that I would, and do, support different things about the government, if it is in the
best interest of society. I do support, like a majority of Canadians, things like medicare and the various 'social safety nets'
we have here, and which we continue to vote for ( it is not something imposed on us, and things like medicare can be
opted out of in many jurisdictions; it is a provincial area not federal ). I would not automatically let all rot in the way
things are at present, but only those non-democratic, antiquated hierarchies etc., which keeps democracy from operating
fairly. It is all part of the balancing act proudhon mentioned.
And there is a great difference I feel between my views and hers in terms of self-interest. I don't feel "greed is good"
* but that my well being is greatly linked to that of all of humanity... and it is not just an idea but, I feel, an authentic
impulse that I find within me. I know nothing of her real inner reality and so only criticize her views as she expresses
them in her words.
(
*has her views been misrepresented in terms of quotes like that? Do you feel the example of pushing
or letting fall over a cliff that was presented is unfair? )
But there are indeed parts of what she says that I do agree with, just as there is much overlap in the type of
anarchism I like, and general libertarian views. I try not to think in terms of absolutes; "this way is all bad" or
"this other philosophy is all good".... but more like, "I can somewhat agree with these parts but am turned off
by these other areas."