I warn you up front. This post I cite below does not seem to be a joke.
It’s on a website devoted to the warped philosophy of that self-alienated sociopathic drug-addict, Ayn Rand. And it’s no spoof site, either. For it if was, I think Tibor R. Machan, who is listed as a writer, would easily have grounds for a whopping lawsuit.
The Scourge of Public Libraries
To really get down to principles, argue against the best aspects of statism. My favorite is public libraries.
And:
Public libraries, as institutions that destroy value, destroy in some small way our ability to live our lives to the fullest. They represent houses of death and should be spat upon and cursed in the most creative language possible.
And:
Public libraries are a scourge because they masquerade as a benevolent government program, a program that seemingly only the most extreme radical could oppose.
Or an Objectivist imbecile, maybe.
Did this ideologically-blind eejit ever wonder how public libraries came about? Does he understand why they are community (“taxpayer”) supported and not private “institutions” such as the Blockbuster he so lovingly cites as a counter-example in his insane post?
No, of course not. As the saying goes, “When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
And to someone in the psychotic grip of the received “wisdom” of Ayn Rand, every aspect of the public good begins to look like a collectivist plot cleverly designed to undermine self-reliance and freedom.
Here is uber-capitalist Andrew Carnegie — who advocated the rich should donate libraries to communities! — on why public libraries should be community-funded:
The result of my own study of the question, What is the best gift which can be given to a community? is that a free library occupies the first place, provided the community will accept and maintain it as a public institution, as much a part of the city property as its public schools, and, indeed, an adjunct to these. It is, no doubt, possible that my own personal experience may have led me to value a free library beyond all other forms of beneficence. When I was a working-boy in Pittsburg, Colonel Anderson of Allegheny – a name I can never speak without feelings of devotional gratitude – opened his little library of four hundred books to boys. Every Saturday afternoon he was in attendance at his house to exchange books. No one but he who has felt it can ever know the intense longing with which the arrival of Saturday was awaited, that a new book might be had. My brother and Mr. Phipps, who bave been my principal business partners through life, shared with me Colonel Anderson’s precious generosity, and it was when reveling in the treasures which he opened to us that I resolved, if ever wealth came to me, that it should be used to establish free libraries, that other poor boys might receive opportunities similar to those for which we were indebted to that noble man.
Great Britain has been foremost in appreciating the value of free libraries for its people. Parliament passed an act permitting towns and cities to establish and maintain these as municipal institutions; whenever the people of any town or city voted to accept the provisions of the act, the authorities were authorized to tax the community to the extent of one penny in the pound valuation. Most of the towns already have free libraries under this act. Many of these are the gifts of rich men, whose funds have been used for the building, and in some cases for the books also, the communities being required to maintain and to develop the libraries. And to this feature I attribute most of their usefulness. An endowed institution is liable to become the prey of a clique. The public ceases to take interest in it, or, rather, never acquires interest in it. The rule has been violated which requires the recipients to help themselves. Everything has been done for the community instead of its being only helped to help itself, and good results rarely ensue.
Boldface emphasis added by me.
Those are Andrew Carnegie’s own words, from his own book, The Gospel of Wealth.
Which any Objectivist moron can read for free at the non-profit Internet Archive. If they ever want to look outside of the masturbatory echo chamber of Objectivism — a twisted philosophy that none of them could ever conceive on their own, as they repeatedly submit evidence of their lack of ability to actually think — and, most importantly, think for themselves. Seeing themselves all as John Galts, they fail to realize others see them for what they actually are: cheap sub-Peter Keatings.
And one other thing, you Dollar Uber Alles Objectivist idiot: Ayn Rand met her future husband Frank O’Connor in a public library!
Posted by mikecane 
The eBook Test 