re: I will never understand why Ayn Rand is so admired by my fellow conservatives

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I will never understand why Ayn Rand is so admired by my fellow conservatives

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Mainly because she was such a breath of fresh air when juxtaposed with expanding Socialist and Communist philosophies of her time.

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Ayn Rand despised altruism

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No.
Rand despised those who intimated altruism as requirement or expectation. Her view was "poverty, ignorance, illness and other problems of that kind are not metaphysical emergencies," and self-responsibility was requisite. She had it that "one’s sole obligation toward others, in this respect, is to maintain a social system that leaves men free to achieve, to gain and to keep their values.”

She believed "by the metaphysical nature of man and of existence, man has to maintain his life by his won effort," and in instances where altruism interfered, it was immoral. In simple terms, someone who expects a helping hand must look first to the end of his own arm.

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Ayn Rand believed men were able to achieve perfection (her definition of a perfect person was one who simply used his or her mind to its fullest capacity, and one who rejected all faith), while conservatism is intensely aware of man's imperfectability. Ayn Rand was a materialist, while the conservative mindset often focuses on spiritual and moral foundations.

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Tying religious philosophy with politics is not Constitutionally conservative.

OTOH, though one could argue many things about Rand, questions of philosophical morality are not one.