Yeah... I think there were a few screws loose in her head.

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That information is classified and to be given only on a need-to-know basis...

And I do not need to know.

I've watched some interviews of her and she always seems juuust a bit off. It just makes me juuust that much discouraged that a few of my beliefs coincide with hers.

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My enduring personal, original quote: Many mistake what should rightly be called "passivism" for pacifism. Pacifism and passivism are COMPLETELY different.
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"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." --President George W. Bush.
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Everything about the War on Terro(ism) is aggravating.

I may be wrong about this, but I think your definition of altruism, and Ayn's definition, differ from one another. She defined altruism as a completely unselfish action, whereas most people define it just as doing something helpful, or nice, for another because it makes you feel good, or is conducive to something you value. What would be an example of voluntary altruism?

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"The greatest epochs of our life come when we gain the courage to rechristen our evils as what is best in us." -Nietzsche

Doing something because "it's the right thing to do" or out of compassion which doesn't always carry enough warm fuzzies to make it worth your donation.

My definition of altruism is "sacrificing yourself for the good of others." Ayn would agree with this definition. In fact, the reason that she thinks that altruism is evil is due to the presence of sacrifice. She seemed to think that sacrifice involed the idea of going backwards and removing benefits from the system. She thought that people who are hooked on to the idea of sacrifice will create a society in which there is a sort of suicide of policy. When the individual notion of sacrifice is applied to the society, all that is left is the sacrifice because a society cannot sacrifice itself and make itself better at the same time. Many freedoms are lost, and pain and suffering becomes the norm in the presence of good-feeling propaganda that doesn't solve any problems, but rather only serves to create a public that is more and more willing to sacrifice more and more until there is nothing left to give up at which point a societal suicide results.

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My enduring personal, original quote: Many mistake what should rightly be called "passivism" for pacifism. Pacifism and passivism are COMPLETELY different.
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"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." --President George W. Bush.
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Everything about the War on Terro(ism) is aggravating.

Hmm. That's interesting. My interpretation of her philosophy, or her idea of altruism, is that there is no such thing as a truly voluntary altruistic action because all of our actions are, in some way, a benefit to ourselves, or we would not do it otherwise. Even when that act may appear to be truly selfless. For example, someone once said "A person is twice as likely to jump the water to save a drowning man if another person is there to witness the deed." Know what I mean?

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"The greatest epochs of our life come when we gain the courage to rechristen our evils as what is best in us." -Nietzsche

But there is still that half of the population that would jump in even if nobody would ever know if they didn't and all they could expect out of it is a lawsuit if something went wrong.

Those are the people Rand could not understand nor tolerate.

Is there? Perhaps you're right.

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"The greatest epochs of our life come when we gain the courage to rechristen our evils as what is best in us." -Nietzsche

George Carlin made a funny joke about that I think. Actually, I'm not sure if it was intended to be a joke or not. He basically said we have to work two jobs now and then they want us to volunteer to work for free.

I have nothing against voluntary altruism.

If you rationalize enough, you can make even those people "selfish". They most likely do it because it makes them feel good or because it keeps them from feeling guilty (unusual, since this is usually an afterthought), or even due to instinct.

I just think stretching "selfishness" that far is a bit too much. People do die to help others, presumably for believing there is a greater good than themselves or that they would feel very guilty if they did not... I can't call that "selfish".

There was a study a while back suggesting altruism has some kind of biological origin. Seems connected somewhat to empathy.
They've found that people who act altruistically are more able to accurately detect fear in a person by looking. By contrast those who hurt others for gain may lack the ability to make this distinction.
Apparently noticing fear in a person triggers merc and compassion in most normal human beings, causing them to give up some gain for the benefit of another.

Also keep in mind that "group evolution" is returning to mainstream science as a theory. Shermer talks about it quite a bit in his book. People may very well, though not equally, pass on things like altruism because ultimately altruism does preserve the group and thus the offspring. Since it gains respect in most communities it may also lead to reproductive success for the individual and the protection of those individuals by members of the group who see their value.

Altruism is part of the human nature as is collectivism. Rand denied their place in human nature so that she could see only one side of the coin.

__________________
That information is classified and to be given only on a need-to-know basis...

And I do not need to know.