Ayn Rand – Individual Rights
Tag Archive: Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
…there is no such entity as ‘the public’ – since the public is merely a number of individuals – the idea that ‘the public interest’ supersedes private interests and rights can have but one meaning: that the interests and rights of some individuals take precedence over the interests and rights of others. “
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John Galt Full Speech – Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand
Published on Dec 20, 2013
” John Galt’s Speech from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand Institute site – http://www.AynRand.org “
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Mark Cuban: Net Neutrality Regulations Parallel ‘Ayn Rand Books’
” First Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, compared net neutrality to “Obamacare for the Internet,” and now outspoken businessman Mark Cuban has tweeted that President Barack Obama’s proposed policy is something “straight out of Ayn Rand.”
Cuban, owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and numerous entertainment outlets, tweeted a series of comments about net neutrality on November 13. (Tweets are below.) The tweets centered on comparing net neutrality to the extreme overreaches of government authority depicted by pro-capitalist author and philosopher Ayn Rand in such novels as “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.”
In one of his tweets, Cuban wrote, “If Ayn Rand were an up and coming author today, she wouldn’t write about steel or railroads, it would be net neutrality.” “
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Atlas Shrugged: The Movie
We are all John Galt now … Here is a link to the official movie site and here is a link to theaters hosting the premiere
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Part 1 From Victor Wendl At Seeking Alpha
” Ayn Rand wrote an influential book, Atlas Shrugged, in the ’50s that seems to resurface in popularity with each new wave of government intrusion on the lives of our overregulated, overtaxed citizens. The book describes a world that was on a slow but steady path toward ever more central planning by meddling bureaucrats interfering with the entrepreneurial class who relied on one another for their production of output. As the pages of the book are turned, this “road to serfdom” (a phrase I borrow from Friedrich Hayek) reaches a peak with the last of a small subset of productive entrepreneurs dropping out of their respective professions and sealing themselves off in a secret location created by John Galt. Their isolation from government interference in Galt’s secret hideaway was designed to allow this subset of creative, hard-working individuals to pursue their dreams and live in a rational way, trading value for value with one another. The vision of Galt in his hidden refuge is consistent with the Ayn Rand objectivist philosophy that she advocated her entire life as an immigrant to America from the Soviet Union.
Rand never wrote a sequel to Atlas Shrugged, but I wonder where she would pick up after the first novel ends. We’re left with John Galt and his band of entrepreneurial cohorts waiting to eventually reenter the failed utopia created by central planners. Taking a peek out of his libertarian lair, I wonder what Galt would think of America today. Some of the current dismal economic statistics seem consistent with the world Ayn Rand created in her fictional novel. The latest Census Bureau figures show a larger percentage of people receive some form of means-tested public assistance than work full-time. Would this be a rock-bottom entry point where Galt and his band of entrepreneurial cohorts can once again return to the world and begin rebuilding America based on principles of limited government and free markets? Not quite yet. One last worn-out shoe has yet to drop: the U.S. stock market.
Unlike the beaten-down real economy, activity on Wall Street continues to flourish. Large banks and their institutional clients have benefited from the artificial stimulation promulgated by the Federal Reserve. By keeping interest rates near zero percent for the last five years, middle-income families receive next to nothing off their life savings, while institutional clients can borrow money at bargain rates from large banks. In a classic example of crony capitalism, banks have rewarded their institutional clients with cheap loans, enabling them to use borrowed money and speculate on stocks, driving valuations to levels not seen since before the bank bailout in 2008. The governor of the Bank of England recently commented that “banks operated in a privileged heads-I-win-tails-you-lose bubble.“[i] I believe Galt would be disgusted at this unintended consequence of government intervention that is driving a wedge between the elite on Wall Street and the average American struggling to make ends meet on a beleaguered Main Street. If Galt were a stock investor, would he trade in some of his gold for fiat currency, cozying up to this collection of institutions buying large-cap stocks on margin? At these nosebleed valuation levels, Galt would probably “flip the bird” at Mr. Market before sliding back into his hidden sanctuary until greener pastures emerged in the equity investment arena. Galt strikes me as the kind of independent investor that would keep his libertarian powder dry until the current statist experiment ran its complete course, waiting patiently to scoop up the right kind of stocks at a great price. Assuming the skeleton infrastructure of an organized stock exchange still remained on the day of Galt’s return to the investment arena, what stocks would he select from the rubble left on the corner of Broad and Wall? A review of the character’s profile might give us a few clues. Let’s go through a few stock categories I believe John Galt would avoid. Buying large company stocks would probably be out of the question for Galt. In the recent past, these stocks were the economic football the large institutions speculated on with borrowed money. As already mentioned, savers deposited hard-earned money in their bank accounts and received close to a zero percent interest rate, while money was loaned out in a speculative frenzy to the bank’s institutional buddies. Adding insult to injury, not only do retirees earn about the same interest rate as preppers get off of canned goods stored in their bomb shelters, their principal is being debased from continuous quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve. The stench coming off this large-cap football used by highly leveraged institutions in stock speculation would be too much for Galt to muster a bid order. “
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Time Offers Readers The Opportunity To Vote For First Woman On The Dollar Bill
” Eleanor Roosevelt? Harriet Tubman? Beyoncé? Cast your vote in the poll below.
Is it time to put a woman on our paper currency? President Obama went on record today saying it’s a “pretty good idea.” During a speech in Kansas City, Obama said he received a letter from a young girl asking why there aren’t any women on American paper money. (Dollar coins with Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea are still in circulation, but they are no longer being minted, and Martha Washington appeared on a paper note in the 19th century.)
Well, if Congress is taking suggestions… who do you think should get the honor? Take our poll: “
Two things strike us about this poll … firstly that Ayn Rand Is the runaway leader but even more-so the fact that Time Inc included her in the first place . Ayn Rand rocks … Go cast your ballot . We don’t imagine that these are the results that either Obama or Time had in mind .
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Ayn Rand
” When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, ‘Who is destroying the world?’ You are.”
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Atlas Shrugged The Movie
” The countdown has begun. Atlas Shrugged: Who is John Galt? hits theaters in 44 days. Help spread the word – Like and Share this post.”
” “Who is John Galt?” Teaser Trailer featuring sand art by Joe Castillo.”
Sign up for the Atlas Shrugged movie newsletter:http://www.WhoIsJohnGalt.com
Official Atlas Shrugged Movie Forum:http://www.GaltsGulchOnline.com
Official Atlas Shrugged Movie Site:http://www.AtlasShruggedMovie.com
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Congress Brings Socialism To America With This Proposed Law
” Sadly today I am reporting to you yet another development that seems as if we are all living within the pages of Ayn Rand’s seminal work Atlas Shrugged.
You may recall from the book that John Galt, the enigmatic protagonist, started off as a young engineer at the Twentieth Century Motor Company.
When the owner of the company died, the heirs decided to run the business according to the new enlightened principles of the time.
Primarily, they let all the workers vote on how the factory was supposed to be run and how much everyone should be compensated.
And it was soon decided that “everybody in the factory would work according to his ability, but would be paid according to his needs.”
Naturally, bright hard-working employees soon left; they found themselves working around the clock for the benefit of others who felt entitled to contribute as little as possible.
John Galt was among the first out the door.
And not long after, the once successful company went bust. No surprise.
Unfortunately this is no longer fiction. Because in the Land of the Free, the United States Congress is striving to make Atlas Shrugged a reality.
Their latest brainchild is to set up a new government bank, stuff it full of taxpayer funds, and loan the money to American workers for the exclusive purpose to help them form collectives and buy the companies they work for.
It’s called the United States Employee Ownership Bank Act.
And, straight from the bill, they aim to provide “loan guarantees, direct loans, and technical assistance to employees to buy their own companies. . .”
Read the rest at Zero Hedge
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Ayn Rand
” America’s abundance was created not by public sacrifices to “the common good,” but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America’s industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance — and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way.”
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The First Installment Of A Colossal E-Discussion On The Work Of Ayn Rand. Former British Ambassador And Contributing Editor To The Commentator, Charles Crawford Takes On Associate Editor Of Pieria.co.uk And Former Senior Banking Professional, Frances Coppola
” Frances Coppola’s piece The Death of John Galt took issue with some of the key moral claims of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and prompted some Twitter exchanges with Charles Crawford. They have agreed to look at these issues in an e-discussion. Here is the first installment.
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Introductions
CC: I was a British diplomat for nearly thirty years, mostly in central and eastern Europe as Soviet communism ended and the region moved towards modern pluralism. In 2007 I left the FCO and started a new private career as a communication consultant (specialist negotiation technique and public speaking). I first read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead some ten years ago, and have read them several times.
FC: I spent seventeen years working for banks at increasingly senior levels, much of it as an independent consultant managing projects and designing IT and business systems. I stepped off the escalator in 2002, opting to concentrate on my first love, music. I’m now a freelance writer and speaker on matters financial and economic in addition to my singing and teaching.
I encountered Ayn Rand’s writing two years ago following a bruising Twitter exchange with some American libertarians. I read The Virtue of Selfishness first, followed by the novels. The character of John Galt particularly fascinates me.
What do you basically like and dislike about Ayn Rand’s novels?
CC: They tackle big themes unashamedly. It’s hard to think of any great English-language novels that really explore Communism and collectivist thinking; given the malevolent challenge posed by communism for the past century or so, that is a startling omission. I also enjoy their Russian-ness, a factor often overlooked by Ayn Rand’s critics.
I like what I take to be the core idea of these two books, namely that free exchanges of ideas and effort (in other words honest contracts) are the moral and operational motor of any society worth living in. This compels us to question social arrangements that use force or the threat of force to achieve results.
It’s no surprise that Rand’s books keep selling: our dispersed IT-driven world needs horizontal networked human cooperation based on intelligent contracting, not hierarchical structures based on threats and force.
Dislikes? All the usual ones. Characters that represent different intellectual positions rather than ‘real’ people, and therefore are not credible or just weird. Some gruesome heavy passages, where the ponderous intellectualism is too self-conscious or too dotty for its own good.
There is a nasty tone now and then of contempt for human weakness including physical and mental disability. This is part of the main philosophical problem with Rand’s worldview: her unwavering focus on the moral supremacy of free trade between individuals doesn’t (and can’t) account satisfactorily for relationships where that is impossible, above all family love and children.
Rand and her husband had no children. Hence debate rumbles on about whether in her world it is ‘selfish’ to have children (or indeed not to have them).
FC: I read these books because they are important. Their moral and political philosophy is a significant counter to state communism and theocracy. Along with Hayek’s “The Road to Serfdom”, these books caught the imagination of a whole generation.
We could regard them as the Bible of the “neoliberal generation” – the people, like me, who lived through the end of communism, the painful breakup of monolithic state and quasi-state institutions and the creation of the modern market state. Because of what they say about the beliefs and values of this generation, these books are fascinating.
But I find them fascinating in a sort of horrifying way. I struggle to find anything that I “like” about them. Rand’s moral philosophy runs directly counter to my own beliefs, and the characters of whom she most approves are those I like the least.
John Galt, her “hero”, is one of the most unpleasant characters I have ever encountered in a book. His self-centredness amounts to narcissism.
Harold Roark in The Fountainhead is perhaps more likeable, but he too has an overdeveloped sense of his own importance. Rand’s “virtue of selfishness” could perhaps be defined as the primacy of self-love. This might make for effective trade, but it doesn’t create nice people.
Rand was very much a child of her time: her writing is defined to a large extent by the experiences of her early life. She did not succeed in defining a new paradigm. She rejected the old, but simply re-created it in a different form.
The dictatorship of the men of mind is no better than – indeed no different from – the dictatorship of the proletariat. Orwell understood the self-perpetuating nature of dictatorship far better – and was a better writer. Rand really can’t be described as a good writer. Her books are poorly constructed, badly written and over-long; John Galt’s speech is a sure cure for insomnia.
Rand’s books are interesting for their moral philosophy and their politics, not for their literary merit.”
Part one continues here at The Commentator and part two is here . Enjoy
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Ayn Rand – The Early Years
Published on Jan 13, 2014
” Liberty champion Ayn Rand is interviewed by James Day about her formative years. http://www.LibertyPen.com “
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Ayn Rand
” America’s abundance was created not by public sacrifices to “the common good,” but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America’s industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance — and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way.”
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Unintended Consequences And Atlas Shrugged
Published on May 2, 2012
” John Hospers was professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Southern California. He was also the first Libertarian Party Presidential candidate in 1972.
In this lecture from an International Society of Individual Liberty conference in 1996, Hospers compares John Ross’s novel Unintended Consequences with Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. Hospers was a personal friend of Rand during her lifetime. He passed away in 2011.
Download the .mp3 of this lecture here: http://bit.ly/KvAzAh “
“Unintended Consequences” is a book that is as powerful in it’s own right as is Atlas Shrugged and is much over-looked or perhaps more accurately , derided as cheap fiction . Such couldn’t be further from the truth and it is very refreshing to witness someone of Professor Hospers intellect and reputation giving the book it’s due . If you are not familiar with “Unintended Consequences” you should find a copy today .
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Some Thoughts On Thanksgiving, From Ayn Rand
” On Thanksgiving Day, I’d like to share two selections from Ayn Rand’s writings. First, her description of the holiday’s significance (from an article called “Cashing In on Hunger” published in the Ayn Rand Letter):
Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday. In spite of its religious form (giving thanks to God for a good harvest), its essential, secular meaning is a celebration of successful production. It is a producers’ holiday. The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production. Abundance is (or was and ought to be) America’s pride—just as it is the pride of American parents that their children need never know starvation.”
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Going Galt-Labor Force Participation Rates Decline Across Age Groups
” A phenomena of the Obama economy is that labor force participation rates have been declining. In October 2013, a staggering 1 million people dropped out of the labor force. according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve data (above). It wasn’t due to the government shutdown, because they were still counted as employed in the data. The St. Louis Federal Reserve seems totally stumped at the what is happening in the U.S. economy.
Has it occurred to the brilliant “economists” at the St. Louis Federal Reserve that key provisions of Obama Care went into effect October 1? Have they considered the impact of Obama Care and zero percent interest rates on working and saving behavior?
Several theories abound, anything from a rise in stay at home mothers (reverse feminism), more students staying in school, and other hypothesis. However, what no one at the Federal Reserve wants to admit is this: John Galtism is alive and well in the U.S. economy. They are measuring the John Galt effect.
John Galt was a figure in the Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Shrugged who represented the social protest against socialism. It is a failure to participate in a regime that requires one to work for the betterment of others over the betterment of self. The only way to protest Obama Care is to minimize one’s participation in the economy that is so ordered. In the absence of sane policy responses, such as repealing the monstrosity known as Obama Care, the only recourse is to withdraw from the economy.
It isn’t a strike as such. It is simply a failure to comply, or a failure to launch. Even the website for Obama Care doesn’t want to participate. Why are we, as a nation, engaged in this madness? “
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Big Government Doesn’t Work … Never Has , Never Will
” People shouldn’t be surprised about the botched roll-out of Obamacare and all the damaging effects of the law that are now generating headlines. Over the decades, federal efforts to subsidize and manipulate the economy have failed over and over again.
That lesson has been driven home to me in researching Downsizing Government. Farm policies, for example, have been an ongoing boondoggle for more than eight decades. President Herbert Hoover’s Federal Farm Board blew $500 million trying to stabilize crop markets, but it did the opposite by inducing overproduction and depressing prices. Every farm bill since then—including the one moving through Congress right now—has been based on two very dumb ideas: that farm businesses need welfare and that agriculture needs government central planning.
I recently came across “The Sickness of Government,” (PDF) a 1969 essay by famed management theorist Peter Drucker. It is strikingly relevant to the problems we see in Washington today from Obamacare, to farm programs, to IRS abuse, to NSA spying. Unlike, say, Ayn Rand–who at the time was writing about government from the standpoint of individual freedom–Drucker was writing from the practical perspective that Big Government simply wasn’t working.
“Modern government has become ungovernable. There is no government today that can still claim control of its bureaucracy and of its various agencies. Government agencies are all becoming autonomous, ends in themselves, and directed by their own desire for power, their own narrow vision rather than by national policy.” “
In simple terms , big government runs contrary to human nature . Competition , ambition and self-interest are the motors of the human spirit and government is the antithesis of all . Big government , by it’s very nature , contradicts the natural order of things as it attempts to do FOR the individual that which should be done BY the individual .
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Boring, But Bad — The Problem Of The Federal Reserve
” I’ve always avoided reporting on the Federal Reserve. I know it’s more important than much of the stuff I cover, but it’s so boring. How can I succeed on TV reporting on the Fed? Fed chairs even work at being dull.
Alan Greenspan said he tried to be obscure because he didn’t want to spook markets. He called his obfuscation “Fedspeak.” It’s a far cry from the clarity of his language — and principles — when he was young and a disciple of libertarian Ayn Rand.
Outgoing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his likely successor, Janet Yellen, are almost as boring.
But we should watch what they do. The Fed can destroy your savings and your future. The current crew of Fed bureaucrats has raised the Fed’s balance sheet to a stunning 4 trillion dollars.
As Sen. Rand Paul‘s father, retired congressman Ron Paul, put it, “No secret cabal of government officials should have the authority to create money out of thin air.” “
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Ayn Rand
” When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion — when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing — when you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors — when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you — when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice — you may know that your society is doomed.”
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You Can Help Kickstart The Movie Here
” Atlas Shrugged tells the compelling story of a country whose economic system is on the brink of collapse. Who is John Galt?
Ayn Rand is widely considered one of the most influential and controversial authors of the 20th Century. Rand’s magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, was published in 1957. Thirty-five years later, a Library of Congress survey reported that Atlas Shrugged was the second most influential novel ever written – second only to the Bible.
For decades, her books have inspired millions while at the same time sparking vigorous debate in social, and at times, political circles.
What has made Atlas Shrugged withstand the test of time, and continue to sell hundreds of thousands of books every year, is just how relevant people find the message of the book to what they’re experiencing today. Amazingly, it is incredible word-of-mouth alone that continues to drive sales.
A message from Producer John Aglialoro
“I purchased the rights to Atlas Shrugged back in 1992 because Atlas Shrugged touched my life – in more ways than I can count. If you too have been touched by Rand’s work, if you feel an impact has made on your life as a direct result of reading her works, this is your moment to say ‘thank you’ and help spread the message of Atlas.” – John Aglialoro, Producer
How to contribute to Atlas Shrugged?
To become one of our backers, just click on the big green button to the right of our video. Kickstarter will ask you for your pledge, which reward you want, and how you want to sign up. Signing up is easy; you can even do it through Facebook.
Galt’s Gulch Online
Join us in Galt’s Gulch Online to connect with other like-minded individuals. The Producers of the films hang out in the Gulch often.
Special Thanks
Special Thanks to: Glenn Beck, John Stossel, Sean Hannity, Judge Andrew Napolitano,Penn Jilette, Matt Kibbe, Phil Valentine, Jonathan Hoenig
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Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest Information
Eligibility: 12th Graders, College Undergraduates, and Graduate Students Entry Deadline: September 17, 2013
FIRST PRIZE: $10,000
3 SECOND PRIZES: $2,000
5 THIRD PRIZES: $1,000
25 FINALISTS: $100
50 SEMIFINALISTS: $50Topics
Select ONE of the following three topics:
- Atlas Shrugged contains both businessmen who are heroes, such as Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart, and businessmen who are villains, such as Orren Boyle and James Taggart. What are the differences between these types of businessmen? Is the story a celebration of business? How does this issue relate to the wider themes in the novel?
- Hank Rearden says that the killer tenet which destroys a man is the soul-body dichotomy—that this wrong idea has been the source of his life’s pain. What do you think this dichotomy is? How has it wreaked havoc in Hank’s life?
- What is the meaning of money to Francisco? To James Taggart?
Judging
Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest
The winning applicant will be judged on both style and content. Judges will look for writing that is clear, articulate and logically organized. Winning essays must demonstrate an outstanding grasp of the philosophic meaning of Atlas Shrugged. Essay submissions are evaluated in a fair and unbiased four-round judging process. Judges are individually selected by the Ayn Rand Institute based on a demonstrated knowledge and understanding of Ayn Rand’s works. To ensure the anonymity of our participants, essay cover sheets are removed after the first round. Winners’ names are unknown to judges until after essays have been ranked and the contest results finalized. The Ayn Rand Institute checks essays with Ithenticate plagiarism detection software.
Rules
- No application is required. The Contest is open to students worldwide, except where void or prohibited by law.
- Entrant must be a 12th Grader, College Undergraduate, or Graduate Student. To avoid disqualification, mailed in essays must include a stapled cover sheet with the following information:
- your name and address;
- your e-mail address (if available);
- the name and address of your school;
- topic selected (#1, 2 or 3 from list above);
- your current grade level; and
- (optional) the name of the teacher who assigned the essay, if you are completing it for classroom credit.
- Essay must be no fewer than 800 and no more than 1,600 words in length, and double-spaced.
- One entry per student. No purchase necessary to win. Essay must be postmarked no later than September 17, 2013, no later than 11:59 PM, Pacific Standard time.The Ayn Rand Institute has the right to provide contest deadline extensions when deemed appropriate.
- Essay must be solely the work of the entrant. Plagiarism will result in disqualification. Essays must not infringe on any third party rights or intellectual property of any person, company, or organization. By submitting an essay to this Contest, the entrant agrees to indemnify the Ayn Rand Institute for any claim, demand, judgment, or other allegation arising from possible violation of someone’s trademark, copyright, or other legally protected interest in any way in the entrant’s essay.
- Decisions of the judges are final. Employees of the Ayn Rand Institute, its board of directors and their immediate family members are not eligible for this contest. Past first-place winners are not eligible for this contest.
- All entries become the property of the Ayn Rand Institute and will not be returned.
- Winners, finalists, semifinalists and all other participants will be notified via e-mail by November 28, 2013.
- Winners are responsible to provide their mailing addresses and other necessary information under the law in order to receive any prizes. Contest winners agree to allow the Ayn Rand Institute to post their names on any of ARI’s affiliated websites. The winning first place essay may be posted in its entirety on any of these websites with full credit given to the author. Winners will be solely responsible for any federal, state or local taxes.
To Enter
Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest
Or mail your essay with stapled cover sheet to:
The Ayn Rand Institute
P.O. Box 57044
Irvine, CA 92619-7044Please do not submit duplicate essays!
If submitting your essay electronically, you will be sent an email confirming our receipt. If you have not received an e-mail notification within 24 hours, please e-mailinfo@aynrandnovels.com. If you are submitting by mail, please paperclip a stamped, self-addressed postcard to the your essay and we will return it to you.
To learn more about Atlas Shrugged, go to: http://atlasshrugged.com
Comments or Questions
Comments or questions about the essay contests are welcome. Please write toinfo@aynrandnovels.com.
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