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  • AYN RAND???

    Filed at 3:49 pm under by dcobranchi

    Why would BB&T (my local bank, BTW) be pushing “Atlas Shrugged” on college students? Is the CEO a secret Randian?

    I’m pretty sure Rand would have been aghast at the bailouts that the big banks have been clamoring for. Be careful what you wish for…

    9 Responses to “AYN RAND???”


    Comment by
    Rational Jenn
    March 23rd, 2008
    at 4:23 pm

    John Allison is an Objectivist, and has spoken at several Objectivist events to my knowledge. Not sure it’s a secret, really.

    As far as “pushing” Atlas Shrugged, this is nothing more than a business arrangement. The schools do not have to accept the funding if they do not want to teach Atlas Shrugged. No pushing or shoving required. The purpose of the funding is to establish a class where the students are presented with a moral defense of capitalism, something that no one else besides Ayn Rand has done as successfully and thoroughly.

    And yes, she would have deplored the bank bailout. It is, of course, absolutely morally wrong to use other people’s money to pay for the mistakes and misjudgments of others. As far as I know, BB&T has not accepted any bailout money. Allison has stood out as one of the few bank CEOs who refuses to be involved financially in cases of eminent domain, so I know that he runs his business based on the principles he values.


    Comment by
    COD
    March 23rd, 2008
    at 4:32 pm

    BB&T is our bank, via buyout.


    Comment by
    Daryl Cobranchi
    March 23rd, 2008
    at 4:40 pm

    Allison will take bailout money in a heartbeat if BB&T gets into trouble. To do otherwise would be a breach of his fiduciary responsibility to the owners.

    His industry. His guilt.


    Comment by
    JJ Ross
    March 23rd, 2008
    at 4:44 pm

    Greenspan’s influence is still being felt, maybe?

    To Rational Jenn — our public school wars are destructive enough without ideologies bidding to have their chosen moral system taught in the compulsory “public” schools, even when it’s not something as ironic as Rand’s moral arguments are in that system and ESPECIALLY when it is — see Gideons for the Gifted (and Greedy?) Giving Out Ayn Rand at School


    Comment by
    Toni
    March 24th, 2008
    at 7:15 am

    “compassionate capitalism”, cough, cough… how is that for an appropriate oxymoron to describe the banking bailout?

    By the way, BBT is our mortgage banker, another buy-out…


    Comment by
    Toni
    March 24th, 2008
    at 7:22 am

    Another note… the business ‘interference’ with what is taught at universities is just another form of outcome-based education, no?

    The goal of corporate America: preschool thru college ‘job training’, and to heck with a real education…?


    Comment by
    COD
    March 24th, 2008
    at 10:40 am

    My degree program at Purdue was partially underwritten and the curriculum was developed in conjunction with the Big 3 automakers. We were being trained to be shirt supervisors.

    Of course, I didn’t really understand that at the time.


    Comment by
    Toni
    March 24th, 2008
    at 12:55 pm

    “We were being trained to be shirt supervisors. . . . Of course, I didn’t really understand that at the time.”

    Things get clearer with time and perspective, n’est pas? Same for me.

    A cool million to teach Ayn Rand and get a Reading Room named after her on a NC university campus is little different, really, than naming rights and product placement in middle schools and high schools, etc,… It is the insidious creep of corporate greed reaching into young people’s lives any way ‘they’ can manage.


    Comment by
    Renee Katz
    March 26th, 2008
    at 5:58 pm

    Yes, corporate greed! The Great Satan! And he’s after our babies! WooooOoooOOOoohhh!