How Bad Writing Destroyed the World : Ayn Rand and the Literary Origins of the Financial Crisis by Adam Weiner EPUB, PDF, FB2
9781501313110 English 1501313118 How Bad Writing Destroyed the World is the story of how bad writers brought their novels to extra-literary life with devastating consequences for real people. In tracing the surprising literary contributions to the origins of the financial crisis of 2008-2009, it pays special attention to the destructive ethics of selfishness propagated by the novels of Ayn Rand and Nikolai Chernyshevsky, as well as the attempts to counter this ideology by writers such as Fyodor Dostoevsky and Vladimir Nabokov.A congressional investigation into the financial crisis placed the blame squarely on Alan Greenspan and his deregulatory policies of the 1990s and early 2000s. Greenspan, a disciple of Ayn Rand, had been trying to put Rand's Objectivism, as presented in her novel Atlas Shrugged , into practice. The main thrust of Objectivism-the idea that the best society is one built upon the rational (and unregulated) pursuit of self-interest-Rand borrowed from Nikolai Chernyshevsky, particularly his novel What's to be Done? (1863). This novel, which presents the philosophy of Rational Egoism, was enormously popular and influential when Rand was growing up in Russia. In tracing these and other connections, How Bad Writing Destroyed the World combines literary history with intellectual history to present a controversial argument about the harm caused by hawking the "virtues of selfishness" in literature., Literature can be used to disseminate ideas with devastating real-life consequences. In How Bad Writing Destroyed the World , Adam Weiner spans decades and continents to reveal the surprising connections between the 2008-2009 financial crisis and a relatively unknown nineteenth-century Russian author. A congressional investigation placed the blame for the financial crisis on Alan Greenspan and his deregulatory policies-his attempts, in essence, to put Ayn Rand's Objectivism into practice. Though developed most famously in Rand's Atlas Shrugged , Objectivism sprouted from the Rational Egoism of Nikolai Chernyshevsky's What Is to be Done? (1863), an enormously influential Russian novel decried by the likes of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Vladimir Nabokov for its destructive radical ethics. In tracing the origins of Greenspan's ruinous ideology, How Bad Writing Destroyed the World combines literary and intellectual history to uncover the danger of hawking "the virtues of selfishness," even in fiction., Literature can be used to disseminate ideas with devastating real-life consequences. In How Bad Writing Destroyed the World , Adam Weiner spans decades and continents to reveal the surprising connections between the 2008-2009 financial crisis and a relatively unknown nineteenth-century Russian author. A congressional investigation placed the blame for the financial crisis on Alan Greenspan and his deregulatory policies-his attempts, in essence, to put Ayn Rand's Objectivism into practice. Though developed most famously in Rand's Atlas Shrugged , Objectivism sprouted from the Rational Egoism of Nikolai Chernyshevsky's What Is to be Done? (1863), an enormously influential Russian novel decried by the likes of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Vladimir Nabokov for its destructive radical ethics. In tracing the origins of Greenspan's ruinous ideology, How Bad Writing Destroyed the World combines literary and intellectual history to uncover the danger of hawking "the virtues of selfishness," even in fiction., Literature serves as fertile soil for ideas that can have devastating real-life consequences. In How Bad Writing Destroyed the World , Adam Weiner spans decades and countries to reveal the surprising connections between the 2008-2009 financial crisis and a relatively unknown nineteenth-century Russian author. A congressional investigation placed the blame for the financial crisis squarely on Alan Greenspan and his deregulatory policies-his attempts, in essence, to put Ayn Rand's Objectivism into practice. Though developed most famously in Rand's Atlas Shrugged , Objectivism sprouted from the Rational Egoism of Nikolai Chernyshevsky's What's to be Done? (1863), an enormously influential (and controversial) Russian novel decried by the likes of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Vladimir Nabokov for its destructive conservative ethics. In tracing the origins of Greenspan's ruinous ideology, How Bad Writing Destroyed the World combines literary and intellectual history to uncover the danger of hawking "the virtues of selfishness," even in fiction.
9781501313110 English 1501313118 How Bad Writing Destroyed the World is the story of how bad writers brought their novels to extra-literary life with devastating consequences for real people. In tracing the surprising literary contributions to the origins of the financial crisis of 2008-2009, it pays special attention to the destructive ethics of selfishness propagated by the novels of Ayn Rand and Nikolai Chernyshevsky, as well as the attempts to counter this ideology by writers such as Fyodor Dostoevsky and Vladimir Nabokov.A congressional investigation into the financial crisis placed the blame squarely on Alan Greenspan and his deregulatory policies of the 1990s and early 2000s. Greenspan, a disciple of Ayn Rand, had been trying to put Rand's Objectivism, as presented in her novel Atlas Shrugged , into practice. The main thrust of Objectivism-the idea that the best society is one built upon the rational (and unregulated) pursuit of self-interest-Rand borrowed from Nikolai Chernyshevsky, particularly his novel What's to be Done? (1863). This novel, which presents the philosophy of Rational Egoism, was enormously popular and influential when Rand was growing up in Russia. In tracing these and other connections, How Bad Writing Destroyed the World combines literary history with intellectual history to present a controversial argument about the harm caused by hawking the "virtues of selfishness" in literature., Literature can be used to disseminate ideas with devastating real-life consequences. In How Bad Writing Destroyed the World , Adam Weiner spans decades and continents to reveal the surprising connections between the 2008-2009 financial crisis and a relatively unknown nineteenth-century Russian author. A congressional investigation placed the blame for the financial crisis on Alan Greenspan and his deregulatory policies-his attempts, in essence, to put Ayn Rand's Objectivism into practice. Though developed most famously in Rand's Atlas Shrugged , Objectivism sprouted from the Rational Egoism of Nikolai Chernyshevsky's What Is to be Done? (1863), an enormously influential Russian novel decried by the likes of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Vladimir Nabokov for its destructive radical ethics. In tracing the origins of Greenspan's ruinous ideology, How Bad Writing Destroyed the World combines literary and intellectual history to uncover the danger of hawking "the virtues of selfishness," even in fiction., Literature can be used to disseminate ideas with devastating real-life consequences. In How Bad Writing Destroyed the World , Adam Weiner spans decades and continents to reveal the surprising connections between the 2008-2009 financial crisis and a relatively unknown nineteenth-century Russian author. A congressional investigation placed the blame for the financial crisis on Alan Greenspan and his deregulatory policies-his attempts, in essence, to put Ayn Rand's Objectivism into practice. Though developed most famously in Rand's Atlas Shrugged , Objectivism sprouted from the Rational Egoism of Nikolai Chernyshevsky's What Is to be Done? (1863), an enormously influential Russian novel decried by the likes of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Vladimir Nabokov for its destructive radical ethics. In tracing the origins of Greenspan's ruinous ideology, How Bad Writing Destroyed the World combines literary and intellectual history to uncover the danger of hawking "the virtues of selfishness," even in fiction., Literature serves as fertile soil for ideas that can have devastating real-life consequences. In How Bad Writing Destroyed the World , Adam Weiner spans decades and countries to reveal the surprising connections between the 2008-2009 financial crisis and a relatively unknown nineteenth-century Russian author. A congressional investigation placed the blame for the financial crisis squarely on Alan Greenspan and his deregulatory policies-his attempts, in essence, to put Ayn Rand's Objectivism into practice. Though developed most famously in Rand's Atlas Shrugged , Objectivism sprouted from the Rational Egoism of Nikolai Chernyshevsky's What's to be Done? (1863), an enormously influential (and controversial) Russian novel decried by the likes of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Vladimir Nabokov for its destructive conservative ethics. In tracing the origins of Greenspan's ruinous ideology, How Bad Writing Destroyed the World combines literary and intellectual history to uncover the danger of hawking "the virtues of selfishness," even in fiction.