Ayn Rand and Hamas

I’ve been reading The Fountainhead and I’ve got about 40 pages to go.

I’m far from an expert on Ayn Rand and not a member of the Ayn Rand Institute, so what follows may be wishful thinking.

That being said, it’s my blog…

Towards the end of the Fountainhead, the villian, Ellsworth Toohey delivers a powerful monologue about how to gain control in the world.

It comes down to breaking the souls of others.

And how do you do that?

By destroying objective excellence, by standing for collectivism, for “grand ideals” such as altruism, and manipulating others into not believing in their own capabilities.

He explains that it’s possible to gain power over others my making them doubt themselves and stop thinking for themselves.

As I read this, I kept thinking to myself, “this is the Hamas playbook.”

They deliberately hide behind civilians, call for the genocide of Jews, justify rape as “resistance”, methodically inflate casualty numbers, and, as the elected government of Gaza, do absolutely nothing to improve the lives of their population…and then, they make vulnerable Westerners, who feel empty because they are looking for purpose, feel like they must be on the side of Hamas in the name of “justice.”

You want justice? You want the dying to stop? Tell Hamas to surrender.

I would like to think that Rand would see right through Hamas’ charade and view them as the Ellsworth Toohey of today, looking only for power and breaking the weak souls of entitled Westerners to get it.