PAUL RYAN, AYN RAND, CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING – DO THEY GO TOGETHER?

   Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan has said that he is an admirer of the economic philosophy of Ayn Rand, and the “neo republican” party openly campaigns, without embarrassment, using the Rand “me first” world view. Senator Rand Paul effectively set the tone at the Republican convention with his ‘ode to individualism’ speech. 

    It’s sad, but former Republican moderate, Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has flipped; he echos Ayn Rand’s philosophy every day. For example his 47% video separates the “looters”from the “producers.” The hero in Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, John Galt couldn’t have said it better. 

    Here’s an example of the Ayn Rand philosophy from the book Atlas Shrugged. The motto and mantra for a gathering of people who agree that the goal of each and every person is their own self interest is

stated over the door of the main structure of their get-a-way place.

I SWEAR BY MY LIFE AND MY LOVE OF IT THAT I WILL NEVER LIVE FOR THE SAKE OF ANOTHER MAN NOR ASK ANOTHER MAN TO LIVE FOR MINE (Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, A Dutton Book, New York 1992, p. 731.)

    Besides being a follower of Ayn Rand’s views on economics, Paul Ryan says he is a Roman Catholic and that his ideas are in conformity with Catholic Social Teaching. How can Ryan make this claim? According to the Gospels Jesus said,

IF ANYONE WISHES TO COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF TAKE UP HIS CROSS DAILY AND FOLLOW ME. FOR WHOEVER WISHES TO SAVE HIS LIFE WILL LOOSE IT, BUT WHOEVER LOSES HIS LIFE HIS LIFE FOR MY SAKE WILL SAVE IT.

(Luke C. 9 v. 24)

But who is Jesus?

 LORD, WHEN DID WE SEE YOU HUNGRY AND FEED YOU, OR

THIRSTY AND GIVE YOU A DRINK?

WHEN DID WE SEE YOU A STRANGER AND WELCOME YOU, OR NAKED AND CLOTHE YOU?

WHEN DID WE SEE YOU IN PRISON AND VISIT YOU?

         

THE LORD WILL SAY IN REPLY, “AMEN, I SAY TO YOU, WHATEVER YOU DID FOR THE THESE LEAST OF THESE BROTHERS OF MINE, YOU DID FOR ME. (Matt. C. 25 vs. 37 – 40) .

    Ayn Rand’s economic philosophy opposes unions, yet John Paul II says they are indispensible.

THE EXPERIENCE OF HISTORY TEACHES THAT ORGANIZATIONS OF THIS KIND (LABOR UNIONS) ARE AN INDISPENSIBLE ELEMENT OF SOCIAL JUSTICE … THEY ARE INDEED A MOUTHPIECE FOR JUSTICE…(John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, Section 20, “Importance of Unions”)

    Thanks to Sr. Simone Campbell and the Nuns on the bus for pointing out that Paul Ryan distorts Catholic Social teaching in that he ignores solidarity, a principle emphasized in the Gospels and by Pope John Paul II.