The “two vicious doctrines” that Rand talks about, the tribal premise and altruism, here basically seem to be the same doctrine: that people sometimes put others, or the members of their tribe, above themselves. Why are they “vicious?” Because she assumes that they always are taken to great extremes, and that those who follow them only subjugate themselves to others and never strive for self-interest. This extremist way of thinking is typical of Ayn Rand; but it is doubtful if any nonobjectivists actually follow it. Also: Rand defines altruism as being wholly self-sacrificial (when, as usually thought, it includes pleasure for the altruist and is therefore partly based on self-interest). And she defines all self-sacrifice as vicious (without empirically proving that it really is). Her statement, therefore, that altruism is vicious is actually a definitional, tautological, fanatically religious proposition that is not related to reality.
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