Coeur d’Alene Sen. John Goedde, chairman of the Idaho Senate’s Education Committee, introduced legislation Tuesday to require every Idaho high school student to read Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” and pass a test on it to graduate from high school.
When Sen. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, asked Goedde why he chose that particular book, Goedde said to laughter, “That book made my son a Republican.”
Ugh
Tea Party Brain Washing.
But
Tea doesn’t wash that well, it leaves stains!
Bills don’t require — it’s
Bills don’t require — it’s future until posted. The headline should read “Bill would require …”
Really?
Really? I mean really? You are seriously going to quibble with the headline?
It is a headline. Headlines are typically short.
“Bill requires” is shorter than “Bill would require”
Hence the headline you see.
No
We must be pedantic. We must be accurate. Through that we can show our lack of intellectual selfishness.
Is it a prank?
Atlas Shrugged? Forget that. It’s over 1,000 pages! In contrast, the Communist Manifesto is less than 90 pages.
Nah
If we can’t test for physical endurance or make physical fitness a condition of gradiation, then darn it we’ll just see if they can survive reading a huge novel. At least it is an American novel. We could throw War and Piece at them.
The book is anti-Christian
The book is strongly anti-Christian thought and morals, which makes it an interesting thing for a Republican to advocate for. It makes a mockery of “Love thy neighbor as thyself” and “Greater love hath no man than he who gives his life for another.”
If Americans actually lived like Ayn Rand proposed, conservative Americans would not recognize their own country. Like many fantasies, it is aimed at the frustrated mediocre who dream of being the new rulers, like many Germans who accepted Nazism, and many Russians who accepted Communism. For most Germans and Russians, it did not turn out like they expected, and their conservative dreams and freedoms were used, along with many human bodies, as fertilizer for the new state.
Besides, she is not all that good as a writer. She also believed in strong sex, and William F. Buckly called her “the intellectual’s pornographer.” That, at least, should get some of the kids to read her books. But it isn’t a conservative selling point. Maybe he means a censored copy. Ayn Rand would have approved of that.
Rand
I must admit that I have not read Rand. Mainly because I have heard enough of the nutty parts of her philosophy that it dissuaded me from reading her books.
One Rand quote for example — Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think.
Problem: What about inherited money? What about stolen and ill gotten wealth?
Another Rand quote: I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.
Problem: Quote of a very selfish person. Will the world really work well if it is filled with selfish people?