The tea party movement gets its philosophical underpinnings from Ayn Rand, who wrote some unreadable political tomes disguised as third rate fiction back in the 40’s and 50’s. She saw the excesses of the Russian Communist rise to power in its early days when she was young and decided upon coming to America that all collective action is bad. Thecentral idea is that somehow capitalists are sorts of gods, who are dependent on no one and that those who are not are simply leeches. It’s a cold and calculated logic flowing from self-centeredness and a refusal to acknowledge the connection everyone has to everyone else.
There is a kind of hero worship at the heart of it all. That there is a super human out there, worthy of adulation because they found a way to turn an idea into gold… or, like most capitalists (Edison anyone?) turn other people’s ideas into gold and stomp on the competition.
Let’s face it – Capitalism wastes resources through its constant dog-eat-dog competition. Competition is great, within creative guidelines, but when there are no rules, people get hurt. Capitalists don’t care. They simply want to rule every part of every possible world they can dream up. Yet they can’t even rule their own greed.
It begs the theological question – can God create a mountain He cannot climb? It’s a trick question, since either answer proves that God is not omnipotent. Which leads logically to the conclusion that omnipotence is not an actual state of being, but a fantasy.
Swatting At Flies 