Happy Ayn Rand Day?

The bill provides that, every year on February 2 (Ayn Rand’s birthday), the Governor would issue a proclamation commemorating “her philosophy of man as a heroic being.”  February 2 being also Groundhog Day, of course, possibly there could be some interweaving of the two holiday themes, maybe Alan Greenspan outside at dawn in a top hat to predict whether we will experience six more weeks of remorseless capitalism.

So whose idea is this bill?  It was filed “by request,” which is legislator shorthand for “I don’t know anything about this bill and I aim to keep it that way,” so no help there.  It appears to be the work of the Objectivist Party, a minor coterie of Rand admirers with branches in 30 states, including Massachusetts.    

If it seems to you that for Ayn Rand fans to devote their time to getting government recognition for her birthday means that they’re entirely confused about the essence of her philosophy, perhaps you should think again.  She despised government only to the point where it would interfere with her self-interest.  For example, she urged her followers to accept both those entitlement giants — Social Security and Medicare — on the grounds that, as she so charmingly put it, she and the other  

victims do not have to add self-inflicted martyrdom to the injury done to them by others; they do not have to let the looters profit doubly, by letting them distribute the money exclusively to the parasites who clamored for it. Whenever the welfare-state laws offer them some small restitution, the victims should take it . . . .

It seems to me that we have Ayn Rand Days all the time. On Monday, for example, the Patrick administration agreed to postpone $10 million in cuts to elderly and disabled state residents. That might sound like compassion (or cruelty deferred), but consider that it’s half of what we paid millionaire movie stars during one year.  So I’d have to call Monday an Ayn Rand Day.

And how about the Monday before that?  Our Lieutenant Governor offered the press an opportunity to watch him beat that dead horse of “waste, fraud and abuse,” one more time, this time with particular focus on recipients of public benefits.  Undoubtedly his action is anticipating Republican efforts to portray the administration as overly indulgent of these “looters,” and undoubtedly he is right that those efforts are underway. But it’s no less dreary to watch.

If we stopping having Ayn Rand Days on such a regular basis, I might get behind a celebration of her birthday once a year.  

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