Wednesday 21 March 2012

Bob Dylan and Ayn Rand



The Cinch Review reports on a piece published in Bob Dylan fan magazine Isis by Ronnie Keohane.

The piece focuses on where the words spoken by radio preacher come from.

See below extract from the Cinch Review (http://www.cinchreview.com/bob-dylan-and-ayn-rand/6226/)

The only power the government has is to crack down on criminals. When there aren’t enough criminals, you make them. You make so many things a crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? You pass laws that can’t be observed or enforced or even objectively interpreted. You create a nation of lawbreakers and then you cash in on the guilt. That’s the system, that’s the game. Once you understand that you’ll sleep a lot easier.
Ronnie Keohane spotted a passage in Chapter III of Part II of Ayn Rand’s weighty opus Atlas Shrugged which is, well, rather similar. A character named Dr. Ferris is speaking to a character named Hank Reardon, and says this:
The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor even objectively interpreted—and you create a nation of law-breakers—and then you cash in on guilt. Now, that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.



2 comments:

  1. Dylan, as far as I'm concerned, is the closest anybody has come to Atlas Shrugged composer Richard Halley. I'm an expert on both Dylan and Rand, my two favorite and people that have ever existed, and finding this connection is no surprise. Dylan has been misrepresented and misunderstood through the whole of his career. If you want to understand where he really is coming from take a good look at Rand's philosophy: Objectivism. You'll see Dylan and the whole world as you never did before.

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  2. Interesting. I understand Objectivism very well. Clearly as most people have misunderstood Ayn Rand, I may have not understood Dylan. Perhaps you might give me one or two concrete examples of Dylan with regards to your comments, as a starting point before I go deeper into it myself.
    Best thoughts
    C

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