The majority of my problems with Ayn Rand stem from the fact that she uses words in ways that are contrary to the way they are understood by most English speakers. When John Gault has been captured by the collectivists and is being tortured, the vast majority of people would understand the ‘selfish’ action would be to take the bribe and say to hell with your ideals. But that is not what the character does, because I assume Ayn Rand would say that John Gault values his individual freedoms MORE than any amount of money. The problem is, that is essentially ALTRUISM as most of us would understand it. He is actually sacrificing himself for the common good. The point is, that if you are smart enough, you realize that self-interest and the common good are in harmony, but unfortunately, far too many people just read self-interest as the sort of short-sighted for of greed that ultimately leads to disaster for the people who engage in it. Ayn Rand stands for ‘greed is good’ but greed is specifically taking wealth that you did not EARN. It doesn’t mean that you can’t want to be rich, it just means you should actually EARN the money you make rather than just taking it because you can. So, it is wrong to say that ‘greed is good’, but perhaps we should have a debate about what greed actually means.
