Jesus and Rand
by digby
Via Atrios, I see that Roy at Alicublog has responded to the hilarious nonsense being spouted by Randroids about the lack of a “left canon”:
[A]t Power Line, Steven Hayward asks, “WHY IS THERE NO LIBERAL AYN RAND?” He’s taking off from Beverly Gage who, slightly less stupidly, asks, “American conservatives have a canon. Why don’t American liberals?” Sure we have a canon — it’s called Western literature. And it beats the snot out of the sad, long-form political pamphlets wingnuts like to name-check. You will learn more about the human condition from the works of novelists, playwrights, and poets than you ever can from a thousand power freaks’ blueprints for the mass production of Procrustean beds.
And frankly, I think these alleged smart guys steep themselves in PoliSci because Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky and the rest confuse them and make them feel bad. They know they’re smart, yet here are all these famous writers making them feel all this stuff their parents told them is wrong and bad. Much better to follow someone who writes with a slide rule.
Very true. It reminds of internet debates I used to have back in the day with conservatives who claimed that it would be impossible to teach children morality and ethics unless they were allowed to teach the Bible in public schools. I used western literature in that argument as well, along with the philosophers going all the way back to Aristotle. Shakespeare alone will teach you almost everything you need to know about human nature and morality.
But this raises an important question: is the Bible still part of the “conservative canon” and, if it is, how do they deal with that when simultaneously worshiping the great atheist Ayn Rand? Paul Ryan has tied himself in knots over it, but he’s a politician who has to pander to the rubes. Everything about his career says that he’s a Rand True Believer. How do sincere conservatives reconcile the idea that the Bible is inerrant while also believing in Randian morality? Which parts do they pick and choose to make that work?
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