WSJ article on Atlas Shrugged, a novel Ron Paul wants us to read...
despite his strong reservations by which I believe he meant that Ayn Rand was not a religious person and she was an advocate of a woman's right to determine whether to continue or terminate her own pregnancy.
The focus of the article in the WSJ is that the circumstance in Ayn Rand's novel parallels the one we are experiencing in reality now and the collapse of the society in the novel occurs for the same reason our society is on the verge of collapse now.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123698976776126461.html
The novel is a mystery in which there are no loose ends. You enjoy it even more the second time you read it, especially if you have read her essays in between. She published a journal entitled The Objectivist Newsletter and many articles in it were made into The Virtue of Selfishness and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. An essay in For The New Intellectual reviews the history of mankind from a philosophical perspective.
Galileo saw four of Jupiter's moons, realized that the Earth was not the center of the Universe as Church dogma believed, but the Church fathers refused to look through his telescope calling it an instrument of the Devil, thus shutting off their own minds from the rational evidence which would have set them free.
Ayn Rand's novel, newsletter and essays provide the rational, comprehensive, integrated view of existence needed for Man to live on this Earth. Ron Paul is to be commended for having the wisdom to encourage his supporters to read the ideas of Ayn Rand.
In The Objectivist Newsletter Ayn Rand wrote book reviews about the works of several authors which included Ludwig von Mises who was an advocate of the free market and a leading exponent of the Austrian School of Economics. www.mises.org www.cafehayek.com
As you may know Ron Paul has been reading works of the Austrian economists and appreciates that in a free society there should be a separation between the government and the marketplace when it comes to production, trade and distribution of goods and services. The government's role is to see to it that no initiation of force or fraud occurs not to dictate content of contracts, tax and regulate.
Keep reading.
Wm
Have any of you read Taylor Caldwell's books?
Amazingly accurate/prophetic! Read "Captains and the Kings" and "Ceremony of the Innocents".
No
I was sorry to read this quote from her:
"There is no solid satisfaction in any career for a woman like myself. There is no home, no true freedom, no hope, no joy, no expectation for tomorrow, no contentment. I would rather cook a meal for a man and bring him his slippers and feel myself in the protection of his arms than have all the citations and awards and honors I have received worldwide, including the Ribbon of Legion of Honor and my property and my bank accounts. They mean nothing to me. And I am only one among the millions of sad women like myself." - "Ask Them Yourself"
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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The Foutainhead is an
The Foutainhead is an amazing read...and to be honest, I neverrrrr saw Howard Roark as a communist at all...for heavens sake, that entire book is all about showcasing the ability of the individual.
Read the article for what purpose?
To show us Atlas Shrugged book sales are at an all time high?
Ayn Rand would have blasted Ron Paul for staying with the GOP. She blasted Barry Goldwater for bringing the religious right (former LBJ Democrats/ neocons) inviting them into the GOP with his "Conscience of a Conservative", which she said, "Conservative is not a phiosophy and has no conscience, it is a collective."
Who is John Galt? John Galt is the creative human, the one who invented the wheel, the one who can see the flame. having nothing but it's shadow to observe, the one who makes bridges out of fences, the one who produces enough mothers milk to feed more than their own, the ones with green thumbs, the people who have the ability to make mountains of gold out of piles of crap... the ones who are of "we the living", who dare to think for themselves, provide for themselves, LOVE themselves for they have a nature compatible with the law of nature, the world makes sense, it inspires, it gives as no man can give to the John Galts, and I think of Ralph Nader as being a John Galt of politics, he has never joined any party, but allows parties to be his capital. He stands for what he believes and collectives form in his wake, he leaves all collectives he starts. He has taken on the corporations and government, with the single idea, "A human has the right to protect themselves from corporations and government" collectives. In 1996, Nader announced there was no difference between parties, and MSM laughed (not because truth is funny, as it is, but) because they had succeeded in destroying Nader's "capital". Who is Ralph Nader? He created a machine, a non-profit army of citizens who could have taken back America, but when Barry Goldwater invited the religious right into the GOP, forming a neocon block, Nixon took Nader's non-profits and made them bigger government, was the beginning of the end of Nader, as Galts machine sat in the old corporate garage. No one has sued the government more than Nader who today, may as well be in the closet Ayn Rand has Joh Galt in the last pages of Atlas Shrugged.
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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Rand isn't Paul, nor is Paul Rand!
Ron Paul is a doctor and politician. Rand, a novelist and philosopher.
Paul interviews and concedes with both socialist Bill Maher, to espouse Libertarian pacifism and get votes, but also with Jim Cramer to denounce the fed, and get votes.
Paul didn't condemn Bill Maher on his show for being a socialist! He'd never been invited back. Ayn Rand, I think, would have immediately!
Nor did Ron Paul start criticizing Cramer for not espousing the Gold standard, or Austrian theory. Ron Paul, the politician, tries to agree with what he can, so that he can spread all of his philosophy. The Doctor first did no harm.
Rand, though, seemed to focus on the differences, like a scientist, then criticized, and if the person (and there were many!) didn't agree, she wrote them off as irrational. She seemed to feel, that "there is no compromize between food and poison" regarding people, as well as ideas. She considered advocates of even a little evil philosophy evils to be denounced, because it poisoned her philosophic pure truth.
They were different people, with different missions.
and socalized medicine - John Galt must have been all about that
What are you talking about Granger? Nader's cool...but I don't see it. I suppose this is for a different thread though.
I'm talking about how MSM propeganda on the left and right
MSM is a collective, and this collective went after Nader, a man, as they are now going after all men.
Corporations call citizens "consumers". Nader attacked with "consumer rights".
Medicine by it's nature is social. "Dr heal thyself" does not work in a society that is not composed of drs.
The only party I joined was the Libertarina Party, under the influence of NRML ads in Playboy magazine. I had read Ayn Rand before I could vote becuse my father was an Objectivist.
When I met Nader in 1992, I was not interested in meeting Nader because i had "bought" all the right wing, "socialist" stuff about Nader. But talking to Nader, I got an entire different picture. I met him because I witnessed, as a precinct inspector, fraud in the 1992 election, and I had no place to go...there was no place to go as the state had set it's election system up with gates to stop democracy... Nader was tuned in and he wrote a book, "Crashing the party", which Ron Paul supporters should read if taking "back" the GOP is what they really want to do. The Green Party was courting Nader, so I expected him to tell me to join the Green Party, like Ron Paul advises us to join the GOP... well Nader tells me to re-register, decline to state party and work as an independent. I have ever since. He never joined the Green party, which is why they did not support him in 2004.
John Galt naver joined any collective, nor has Nader. John Galt created an engine that would save the world,, and if you read Ayn Rand, you will see allot of socialism... John Galt's machine was to save the world...how altrusitic, eh? And Howard Roark, sits out on a ledge, overlooking the querry, he can SEE buoldings in the raw materials, building that are sustainable for low income, at a small cost for government...
MSM had their take on Ayn Rand, and I have my own take. My favorite book RE" "Letters of Ayn Rand" Leonard Peikoff. Ayn Rand called Kennedy a fascist.. and she would have called Bush and Ron paul fascists. She would have seen Ron Paul as weak. She divided men into four categories.
The man who is a winner and knows he is a winner
The man who is a winner but thinks he's a loser
The man who is a loser but thinks he's a winner
the man who is a loser and knows he's a loser.
She claimed this was the basis of her charactors
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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Rand had no problems with
Rand had no problems with philanthropy, voluntary charity, but defined altruism as the sacrificing of ones own life or interests for the sake of anothers. Her characters such as Galt and Roark refused to allow themselves to be sacrificed for the sake of the world but that doesn't mean they didn't want to help people and be charitable. Rand would have seen Ron Paul as a fascist and weak huh? Wow you have an amazing power of intuition.
What a twist
What did John Galt Howard, Roake or Ralph Nader sacrifice to build their dreams?
Ayn Rand Institute agrees with me: http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=objectivism_...
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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Just taking Galt as an
Just taking Galt as an example. He chose to live by his own terms. He refused to be forced to live for the sake of others. He hid his invention from the world even though he knew the benefits it would provide. He didn't sacrifice himself by protecting his invention, he protected himself.
So did Nader
Nader lives by his own terms. corporations began calling us consumers, Nader claimed consumer rights, IOW Corporations soughtto enslave men and Nader gave them tools to set themselves free, as he did. Galt SOLD his invention to a corporation that took it and hid it for Galt's Gultch.. Nader created a civilian force to stop corporations from taking government by PRODUCING collectives, not joining them. Nader did not sacrifice himself, and why the documentary about him is called, "Unreasonable Man", for a Bernard Shaw quote:
" "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
-George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903)
"Maxims for Revolutionists
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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I think we're in agreement
I think we're in agreement for the most part but Galt didn't sell his invention to any corporation. He threw it away and removed it and himself from a society that would have sought to force him to give it as a sacrifice for the common good.
From what I recall
He had two inventions.. one was the engine that the corporations took and the second was in his closet, by which he escaped.
To me, MSM, Wall Street with Alan Greenspan, hi-jacked Ayn Rand and they work to convinve people that Ayn Rand was all for the elite corporations, the plutarchs... oligarchs, but that is not what I see. I see it as an artist, that people are creative and this creativity is CAPITAL. Nader's creativity has been his capital.
Sacrifice is not what Galt or Nader do. John Galt LEARNED from his mistake, and why he hid his second invention..
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
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Anybody know the story about her
and Philip Rothschild? What I have read is that she was his mistress, and that "Atlas Shrugged" was commissioned by him to be the playbook for what we see happening. If this is true, it is not so much that the book "parallels" our situation as that our book laid plans for it...
But then I watch her interviews and such, and it seems she is genuinely trying to get her message out. Could it be she was one of them and turned? Is the whole Rothschild connection just smear work? Anybody know the truth?
Truth exists, and it deserves to be cherished.
If you really want to know her life story:
See if you can find the book written by Barbara Brandon, The Passion of Ayn Rand. It's two inches thick, but story was like reading a mystery novel. As far as a mistress, she was having a known affair with one of her students if I remember right. She came to the US from Russia and her first name may have been Alice, but she changed it to Rand (Remington-Rand as in typewriter) She knew Greenspan in the early days. It took her 15 - 20 years to write book and wouldn't let anyone make a movie because they wouldn't do it to her standards. And, that's the trivia for today.
BETTER LINK WITH INFO:
http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_ayn_ra...
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I heard that too - FROM SOMEONE WHO REFUSED TO READ IT
This person was super Catholic and refused to read Atlas Shrugged at my suggestion because they had heard this same rumor - only spiced up some more with witchcraft, and orgies, connections to the devil, etc. I was at a loss, I really didn't know how to respond to all of that. Finally this same person contacted me back and said that she had checked into it (rather extensively I would think) and it was a load of crap. She read the book and LOVES IT!
I don't think so -
Is there any connection to the Rothschilds?
From her background in Russia, her striving to make become successfull in the US, and some notes I read from her earlier works, and her nearly impeccable life-long consistency, I can't help but think she learned her philosophy at an early age.
Listening to Griffin, I see he believes his cabal wants to use Hagalian division to attain power. Rand was as ardent and principled as a fundamentalist zealot.
She no doubt wanted to be a rich aristocrat, but only by earning it.
I Was At Chapters Today...
... noticed that Rand's novel 'The Fountainhead' was under a section called "20 books to read before you are 20". Thought that was cool. Even managed to persuade my wife to pick up a copy from the library to read!