Paul Ryan: Ayn Rand to Thomas Aquinas?

Thomas Aquinas (Gentile da Fabriano)

Wikipedia reports that Ayn Rand was a major influence on Paul Ryan's political career.  At an Atlas Society meeting in 2005, Ryan stated that Rand's thinking was "by and large" the reason he "got involved in public service."  Rand was so much of an influence on Ryan that her works became required reading for all of his staff and

interns.

Rand was born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum in 1905.  She spent her formative years in Russia and did not move to the United States until 1926.  Wikipedia explains that "Rand advocated reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge and rejected all forms of faith and religion."  Her most famous novel, Atlas Shrugged, is named

after the Titan who was said to have literally carried the world's burdens on his shoulders.  The shrugging of Atlas implies a deliberate rejection of such heroic self-sacrifice.  This was Rand's way of encouraging those who willingly suffer at the hands of evil to shake off that role and adopt "the trait of rational self-interest."

This Objectivist philosophy does not sit well with many of today's Catholic leaders.  In 2012, Ryan seemed to radically shift his stance on Rand and told National Review the following:  I reject her philosophy.  It's an atheist philosophy.  It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview.  If somebody is going to try to paste a person's view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas…

This "seven-year switch" from Rand to Aquinas not only represents a leap of faith, but a quantum leap from the "side" of atheism to that of Roman Catholic sainthood.  So which is it?  Will the real Paul Ryan please stand up and be counted...

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ryan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/297023/ryan-shrugged-robert-costa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Aquinas

Copyright August 11, 2012 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved