Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Ode to Joy vs. Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand wasn't content to dislike altruism and socialism, she also hated certain kinds of art - she was fine with modern architecture but she hated all other forms of modern art.

She also hated most classical music including Beethoven, whom she claimed had a "malevolent theory of the universe" which, according to her, was:
...his message is malevolent universe: man's heroic fight against destiny, and man's defeat. That's the opposite of my sense of life.
Rand did not believe in an afterlife, so what does she think death is? Victory? Or did she think one day scientists would put an end to death? But since they hadn't done it as of the 1970s when Rand said this, how could she blame anyone for having a sense of life that includes the heroic but doomed struggle against death?

The Ode to Joy scene from "Immortal Beloved"