With some Republicans anxious to attack universities for being too liberal and brainwashing young minds, (Rand Paul joins Leadership Institute), I thought it would be good to link to this story about the University of Kentucky.
It seems a 10-year, $2.5 million donation to the University of Kentucky's Gatton College of Business and Economics had an interesting requirement:
an Ayn Rand reading room and studying Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead
Adam Lee had this to day last year (10 insane things I learned about the world reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged):
Over the past year, I’ve been reading and reviewing Ayn Rand’s massive paean to capitalism, Atlas Shrugged. If you’re not familiar with the novel, it depicts a world where corporate CEOs and one-percenters are the selfless heroes upon which our society depends, and basically everyone else — journalists, legislators, government employees, the poor — are the villains trying to drag the rich down out of spite, when we should be kissing their rings in gratitude that they allow us to exist....
Atlas Shrugged is a work of fiction, but as far as many prominent conservatives are concerned, it’s sacred scripture. Alan Greenspan was a member of Rand’s inner circle, and opposed regulation of financial markets because he believed her dictum that the greed of businessmen was always the public’s best protection. Paul Ryan said that he required his campaign staffers to read the book, while Glenn Beck has announced grandiose plans to build his own real-life “Galt’s Gulch,” the hidden refuge where the book’s capitalist heroes go to watch civilization collapse without them.
It seems the wealthy want to ensure that the lessons from the age of Rockefeller, Mellon and Carnegie taught to college students is simply: capitalism is free of evil and should be worshiped like the Greek god Zeus, or else thunder and lightning will descend from the sky.
One thing Rockefeller, Mellon and Carnegie did teach the current wealthiest men in the US today: even presidential elections can be bought.
If only the wealthiest would spend 1/4 the energy they currently spend to enrich themselves on actually making the world better for everyone. Instead, they just shrug.