http://www.takimag.com/site/article/ayn_vs_the_randians/

The 50th anniversary of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is being celebrated by her partisans, and they are many – myself among them. Rand’s novel of what happens when “the men of the mind” go on strike is the second most widely-read text in the US, just below the Bible. To the dismay of her more enthusiastic admirers, this popularity doesn’t indicate total agreement with her “Objectivist” philosophy so much as it is a tribute to the author’s talent for telling a rip-roaring fasten-your-seatbelts story.

ALL?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois#Features_of_Confederacy

I’ve got to work on this nontolerance of idiocy…

but in any event, the other replies to tpx is sufficient. Also will note that the Texcoco part of the Triple Alliance and elements of the Inca were *very* altruistic and could count on a certain reliability from their subject nations, so not even this example stands too well on its own.

The whole “They were just as bad as we were, so what’s the loss?” attitude, I believe I will leave for others to disparage.

nah, I’ll go ahead. Please stop using Aztecs and Incans as the be all and end all of all Native American thought, practices, and evilness okay?

Not to say that they were significantly different in mentality than any other culture like that, but…well…

1) The Aztecs Empire wasn’t entirely governed by the Aztecs. The official name of the empire was The Triple Alliance, formed from three city-states. One of the founders, the leader of Texcoco was Nezahaulcoyotl, is one coolest native americans of history, and was well beloved by his people as a poet-king. If Cortez came just a few decades earlier, it would have been pretty interesting…

2) Pachacuti, the founder of the incan empire was also really interesting himself. His ideas about the formation of his state was really Stalinist, but also fairly interesting.

In any event, reducing the Aztec and Incan to a byword of human sacrifice, is kinda sad. I understand one would want to do it, but MesoAmerican and Andean cultures were genuinely interesting, and at various times in the world, probably could be said to be among the most civilized. This is really not to criticise anyone, but only to inform.

that Rand thinks it was justified to kill them all so long as this led to “progress”. That’s why she was cold and evil.

Native Americans refers to all of the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. Most Native North Americans practiced justifiable warfare against each other. Probably all did. I do not know if they considered it progress.

Aztecs justified their use of mass human sacrifice. The Incas had no problem with enslaving other indigenous peoples.

Funny story. I was at a farmers market and chatting with a woman in line and she said something like if only we could adopt Native American ways there would be peace and harmony. I pointed out the Aztec human sacrifice civilization and she never spoke to me again.

Native Americans were susceptible to the failings of human behavior like every other people.