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[Bromor Neckbeard]

The whole "rape is just peachy, as long as the rapist is rich, tall, rich, handsome, and rich" aspect to both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, as well as the insularity of the Objectivist movement ("great literature is exactly what is on the approved list and nothing else"), has pretty much turned me entirely off anything Objectivist-affiliated, and brings me no end of trouble with fellow small-L libertarians.

Rather than reading Rand, if you want something along those lines that's not utterly psychologically repulsive, you're really better off reading Nietzsche.  He's where Rand got most of her ideas in the first place.  He's too dense for me, personally, but he's far less toxic than Rand.

I can second The Gulag Archipelago and Mao:  The Unknown Story, though.

[Little]

As yggiz said, revolution is for extreme situations, not for being jealous of others who happen to be born into a better family. The day when the government openly carts people they don't like off in black vans will be the day I start drinking whiskey and saving the bottles. Just because people are rich doesn't mean you have to depose them out of envy.

Besides, another good point raised by yggiz, revolutions tend to go horribly wrong somehow. You have to be in it for something that is relatively pure of hate, because bringing hate together with revolution ideas and winning is running down the road of something worse then what you were freeing the people from.

Look at the Reign of Terror(1794) in France. That started out decently.

[mainiac]

Is it nothing but jealously to object to the injustice?

Don't get me wrong, I think capitalism is worthwhile in the balance.  But labeling it's opponents as purely driven by emotion is exactly the sort of pejorative logic that creates the ideologies of permanent revolution and counter revolution.  Once we eschew understanding those we disagree with, there's nothing left but to beat each other with sticks.

[beorn080]

If you want classless greed pick up a newspaper. Read about robberies and gang shootings and all that. As much as an excuse for class warfare that the AIG guys or Paris Hilton is, they aren't leaving anyone bleeding to death in a gutter.

Revolution is not idle talk. Crazy extremists call for it in the developed nations, sure. Crazy Facists, Anarchists, and Communists. Crazy will be crazy no matter who is in charge. The Left gets into a tizzy claiming the Right in America is sewing the seeds of it with all their gun talk and criticism of Obama. They think that Rush Limbaugh, Fred Phelps, the KKK, the Vatican, Fox News, any church without gay or women ministers and believe in the devil, anything that espouses personal responsibility, limited government, and things that scare Europeans are all the same beast. Just because they believe it, doesn't make it true. I am no racist, I do not murder gays, I won't force quadriplegics to go to work. Just like not all Left wingers favor nationalization of industries, disabling the military or police, or abortion-on-demand. Glenn Beck, right wing radio guy, believes that disenfranchisement of citizenry of all types, Left, Right, Bi, and Non Partisan will lead to revolution. He's just a glass half empty sort of guy about this subject.

You want to see a real nut who I would love to see his civil rights get trampled on over and over again. Google Alex Jones, Google FEMA Camps, check out prisonplanet.com. I am not worried about this 9/11 Truther starting the revolution, he's too busy making money off of the racket. I am worried about the posters to his websites, and the callers whenever he is featured on Coast-to-Coast AM, the late night conspiracy theory radio program. I don't think the Left or the Right would be glad for enough of these guys to get together with stuff that explodes.

Great Thread
Full disclosure: I am a social conservative, believe in the free market. I am a Kounter-Revolutionary 4 life after reading about the Archipelago. I'll be going to the camps eventually, lol

No, AIG and Fannie and Freddie Mac and all the other corrupt banks and other money movers don't directly kill people. They merely destroy people's mortgage's, causing people to lose their homes, wipe out savings and retirement funds, causing those people to work harder to earn back their hard earned money, while the executives who ruined the companies get bonuses paid with MY tax dollars.

I don't have a problem with stupid rich people specifically. If I had Hilton money or some other trust fund type deal, I probably would purchase stupid stuff and forget to wear underwear whilst clubbing in a kilt. They are relatively harmless simply because they are too stupid to use their money destructively, and thats ok.

My problem is with rich people who deliberately run the system into the ground while using the newly gained assets to leverage their own money in unsustainable ways, then get out when they know the market can't deal with it anymore. That goes for the gas companies that "slowly" went from 1.10 in 2002 for a gallon of gas, up to 4.00 a gallon in 08, back down to 1.50 in under 4 months into 09, to the mortgage companies that gave incredibly stupid mortgages out and ruined the value of ALL real estate, to the bankers who lie about their bottom lines, to congressmen who let bonuses get paid and use the outrage to cover up their other schemes, to anyone else who uses other people's money to make their own money and leave everyone else broke. Those people deserve to have all their assets seized and handed a card board box in Anchorage, AL.

To recap, stupid rich celebrities = funny and relatively harmless.
Smart rich executives who get greedy = evil bastard and potential homeless guy in the frozen armpit of America. (As opposed to the humid dank armpit of America, New Jersey, my home state.)