Ayn Rand Institute took Payroll Protection money

In sign of the times, Ayn Rand Institute approved for PPP loan | Reuters - Helen Coster:

July 6, 2020 - "The institute promoting the 'laissez-faire capitalism' of writer Ayn Rand, who in the novels Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead introduced her philosophy of 'objectivism' to millions of readers, was approved for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan of up to $1 million, according to data released Monday by the Trump administration. The Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the Advancement of Objectivism in Santa Ana, California, sought to preserve 35 jobs with the PPP funding, according to the data.

"The institute advocates the Russian-American writer’s philosophy and 'applies its principles to many issues and events, including ones Rand herself never discussed,' according to its website....

The institute referred Reuters to a May 15 article, in which board member Harry Binswanger and senior fellow Onkar Ghate wrote that the organization would take any relief money offered from the CARES Act. 'We will take it unapologetically, because the principle here is: justice,' they wrote, adding that 'the government has no wealth of its own…. It can only redistribute the wealth of others.'

"In Rand’s novels and works of nonfiction — which included The Virtue of Selfishness and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal — she expressed her belief in 'rational self-interest' and the goal of pursuing happiness as a person’s highest moral aim. 

"In a 1962 essay, Rand wrote of seventeenth century French businessmen: 'They knew that government "help" to business is just as disastrous as government persecution, and that the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.'"

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-ppp-ayn-rand/in-sign-of-the-times-ayn-rand-institute-approved-for-ppp-loan-idUSKBN248026

Atlas Shrugged and the literary critics

Who Is Ayn Rand?: - Lisa Duggan, Jacobin magasine:
The following is an excerpt from Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed by Lisa Duggan (University of California Press, 2019).

August 23, 2019 - ""When Atlas Shrugged made its incendiary appearance in 1957, it cracked open the apparent political consensus in favor of the welfare state to reveal intensely warring camps. The mainstream press, leading academics, and prominent literary figures didn’t just dismiss the tome; they abhorred it. [Author Ayn] Rand herself predicted to Nathaniel Branden that her novel was 'going to be the most controversial book of this century; I’m going to be hated, vilified, lied about, smeared in every possible way.' Her characteristic grandiosity notwithstanding, she was prescient.

"Atlas Shrugged was described as 'execrable claptrap,' 'grotesque eccentricity,' and a 'shrill diatribe' comparable in its godless, heartless overwrought cruelty to Nietzschean-inflected fascism. Ex-Communist ... literary critic Granville Hicks opined in the New York Times, 'It howls in the reader’s ear and beats him about the head in order to secure his attention. And then, when it has him subdued, harangues him for page upon page. It has only two moods, the melodramatic and the didactic, and in both it knows no bounds.'

"But the most notoriously devastating review came from William Buckley’s National Review. Echoing the views of many religious conservatives, ... ex-Communist ... Whittaker Chambers wrote that Atlas Shrugged substitutes 'the Sign of the Dollar, in lieu of the Sign of the Cross,' presenting the 'Randian Man' who, like 'Marxian Man,' is at 'the center of a godless world.' Chambers continued: 'Out of a lifetime of reading, I can recall no other book in which a tone of overriding arrogance was so implacably sustained. Its shrillness is without reprieve. Its dogmatism is without appeal.... From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard from painful necessity, commanding: "To a gas chamber — go!"'

"These over-the-top negative reviews combined bitter rejection of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, from the Right as well as the Left, with attacks on ... the writing style and on the tone or sheer meanness of the novel. They were met with a much smaller number of equally over-the-top positive reviews and private evaluations, deeming Atlas Shrugged 'vibrant and powerful' and Rand a writer of 'dazzling virtuosity.'

"Economist Ruth Alexander, Rand’s friend, predicted that 'Ayn Rand is destined to rank in history as the outstanding novelist and most profound philosopher of the twentieth century.' A private note to the author from famed right-wing economist Ludwig von Mises praised the book as a political achievement:

Atlas Shrugged is not merely a novel.... It is also – or may I say: first of all – a cogent analysis of the evils that plague our society, a substantiated rejection of the ideology of our self-styled “intellectuals” and a pitiless unmasking of the insincerity of the policies adopted by our governments and political parties.....

"Despite the overwhelmingly negative reviews in the mainstream press, Atlas Shrugged quickly became a word-of-mouth best seller, generating thousands of fan letters from gushing enthusiasts. Though never regarded as serious by cultural gatekeepers, the novel nonetheless became undeniably socially and politically important, sometimes compared to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Gone with the Wind, and 1984."

Read more: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/08/mean-girl-ayn-rand-culture-of-greed-lisa-duggan-excerpt
'via Blog this'

US Libertarian chair moves to Free State

There's a new Porcupine in town: Libertarian National Committee chair moves to Manchester from Arizona | Manchester Ink Link:

August 26, 2019 - "Nicholas Sarwark, Libertarian National Committee Chair, moved to the Queen City from Arizona this week with his wife and four young children. He says coming to New Hampshire has been the goal for a while.

“'When I first signed up for the Free State Project in 2002, I knew I wanted to live in the most libertarian state in the country. It’s a great place to raise a family and it’s closer to Washington DC and the Libertarian Party National Headquarters'....

"Nationally, the Libertarian presidential ticket of New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson and his running mate former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld – now running for the Republican nomination – received more than 4 million votes or 3.28 percent of the total vote. NH State Rep. Max Abramson is among those seeking the Libertarian presidential nomination in 2020....

"As chair, Sarwark has played a prominent role spreading the ideas of Libertarianism, with his appearances in Reason magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Slate, Salon, and the Los Angeles Times, as well as on “Kennedy” and “Stossel” on Fox Business, “Stossel on Reason,” the “Glenn Beck Program,” MSNBC, RT TV, NPR, and many more....

"The Sarwarks are also participants in the Free State Project (FSP), a non-partisan, non-profit organization that encourages liberty leaning people of all stripes to come to NH to grow and strengthen the liberty community in the state. Some equate it to creating a real-life 'Galt’s Gulch,' a reference from fiction author Ayn Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged, including  Rachel Goldsmith, Interim Executive Director of the Free State Project.

“'The FSP is thrilled to welcome the Sarwark family to the growing community of liberty activists in New Hampshire.  We wish Nick and Valerie the best as they settle into their new home and, we look forward to their flavor of "Liberty in our Lifetime,”' Goldsmith said....

"The Free State Project is a non-profit organization, educating the public about the benefits of limited government, and community in New Hampshire. The hope is that the 'liberty movement' finds fertile ground in NH and spreads across the country. For more information see FSP.org."

Read more: https://manchesterinklink.com/theres-a-new-porcupine-in-town-libertarian-national-committee-chair-moves-manchester-from-arizona/

'via Blog this'

Ayn Rand's literary roots

Ayn Rand, the Russian-American Victor Hugo - Econlib - Bryan Caplan:

February 3, 2005 - "Ayn Rand’s novels blend two distinct genres. She fits squarely into the tradition of the Russian philosophical novelists like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. But she is also a plot-rich Romantic in the tradition of Victor Hugo. Some standard features of the Russian approach:

1. Characters embody philosophical positions.
2. The plot explores the implications of these philosophies on the characters’ lives.
3. The conclusion of the novel vindicates the current philosophical position of the author....

"In The Brothers Karamazov, for instance, Ivan embodies idealistic atheism, Alyosha earnest Orthodox Christianity, Dmitri unreflective pragmatism, and Smerdyakov nihilism. The murder of the sons’ father tests their convictions. And (spoiler!) the revelation that Smerdyakov is the murderer ultimately discredits not only his nihilism, but Ivan’s idealistic atheism, for the latter paves the way for the former.

"If she had written only We the Living, Rand would probably now be hailed as one of the lesser 20th-century descendants of Dostoyevsky. Its characters embody idealistic Communism, cynical Communism, defiant individualism, and despairing individualism. But then she up and wrote The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged which are, by the standards of the Russian philosophical tradition, far better. The characters' philosophies are more interesting, the plot pits them against each other more effectively, and the concluding epiphanies are more compelling (especially in Atlas)....

"When you measure Rand’s against her Russian peer group, she is among the masters. But this understates her artistic achievement because she simultaneously works in another tradition: 19th-century Romanticism exemplified by Victor Hugo. Some standard features of the Romantic approach:

1. The characters are larger-than-life.
2. The plots are imaginative.
3. The plots are carefully crafted puzzles, unpredictable in advance, but cleanly logical in hindsight....

"I love Victor Hugo, and even if he’s not for you, it’s hard not to admire the craftsmanship. Dramatic situations and dramatic characters stitched seamlessly together – it’s not easy....

"When you put Ayn Rand beside Victor Hugo, however, the student is the master. Rand out-Hugos Hugo. For starters, her characters are more colorful.... The plot of Atlas Shrugged is likewise more imaginative than anything Hugo cooked up.... Her craftsmanship is better too. Hugo is full of improbable coincidences. Rand studiously avoids them....

"If you hate Rand’s style, I probably can’t talk you into enjoyment. But I suspect that the main reason many thinkers I respect don’t enjoy Rand’s fiction is that – even though they like one or both of the genres she exemplifies – they can’t bring themselves to judge her by the standards of those genres. If they did, the worst they could say about her would be 'Pretty damn good.'"

Read more: http://www.econlib.org/archives/2005/02/ayn_rand_the_ru.html
'via Blog this'

Mark Sanford loses primary to Trump pick

Mark Sanford Is a Libertarian Republican Who Took on Trump. He Just Lost His Primary. - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Eric Boehm:

June 12, 2018 - "A primary challenger backed by President Donald Trump successfully unseated incumbent Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) tonight just hours after Trump took to Twitter to attack Sanford for — of all things — the congressman's marital infidelities. First-term state Rep. Katie Arrington (R-Dorchester) defeated Sanford, earning more than 51 percent of the vote to Sanford's 46 percent....

"In an interview with Politico last weekend, Sanford suggested that a loss in his re-election bid could cause other Republicans to think twice before speaking out against the Trump administration.... 'I think it's entirely appropriate to say "I agree" when I agree and "I disagree" when I disagree,' Sanford told Politico's Alex Isenstadt. 'That's the American way. That's what our entire political system is based on, ... the fact that we can have dissent'....

"Sanford's dissent to Trump's takeover of the GOP dates back nearly two years.... Sanford has accused Trump of fanning 'the flames of intolerance,' criticized Trump's use of the word 'shit-hole' to describe some third world countries, and most recently called the president's plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports 'an experiment with stupidity.' He's also criticized Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) for not taking a hard enough line against the Trump White House.

"Trump appears to have taken notice. As voters were heading to the polls Tuesday, the president took a shot at the incumbent congressman.

Mark Sanford has been very unhelpful to me in my campaign to MAGA. He is MIA and nothing but trouble. He is better off in Argentina. I fully endorse Katie Arrington for Congress in SC, a state I love. She is tough on crime and will continue our fight to lower taxes. VOTE Katie!

"Yes, that reference to Argentina is the thrice-wedded president (who may have had an affair with a porn star) accusing Sanford of being bad at marriage, apparently without a hint of irony....

"It's true that Sanford's six-day disappearance during July 2009 — when he was ... having an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman, María Belén Chapur — changed the course of his political career.... Prior to [L'Affaire] Argentine, Sanford was regarded as a possible White House contender. Following Ron Paul's 2008 dark horse presidential run, he and [former] governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson (along with, of course, Rand Paul) were often identified as the heirs apparent to the libertarian wing of the GOP....

"Will there be a third act for Sanford? One can hope. Whatever you may think of his personal foibles, he's been a consistently principled voice for liberty and limited government. He opposes bailouts, loves Atlas Shrugged, and disdains political tribalism. And in the age of Trump, a history of adultery is hardly political suicide anymore."

Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/06/12/anti-trump-republican-mark-sanford-loses
'via Blog this'

Publisher redoes Atlas Shrugged for kids

There's now a kids' version of Ayn Rand’s "Atlas Shrugged" for your libertarian third grader — Quartzy - Oliver Staley:

November 30, 2017 - "If you feel fiction for middle schoolers is altogether lacking in its celebration of free-market principles, there’s a solution: a kid’s version of Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand’s monumental novel of Objectivist philosophy.

"In The Tuttle Twins and the Search for Atlas, a frustrated strong man leaves a circus beset by socialism, and the plucky Tuttle twins learn important lessons about production and consumption. The antagonist is a lazy clown named Kroogie, named for liberal economist Paul Krugman.

"If it sounds a bit heavy handed, its publisher, the Utah-based Libertas Institute think tank, makes no apologies about its intent to produce ideologically suitable content for kids. 'Each year, hundreds of millions of children are spoon-fed false history, bad economics, and logical fallacies. Your child is not immune,' according to the book’s website.

"The Search for Atlas was written by Connor Boyack, Libertas’s founder, and a home-schooling father of two, who says on the site he was frustrated by his inability to find material 'that teaches young children about the principles of freedom. There was nothing!' (Boyack is fan of  italics). Boyack has written six other similarly themed Tuttle Twin books, including The Road to Surfdom, a surfing-inspired riff on The Road to Serfdom, by Austrian economist F.A. Hayek."

Read more: https://quartzy.qz.com/1143704/theres-now-a-kids-version-of-ayn-rands-atlas-shrugged-for-your-libertarian-third-grader/
'via Blog this'

Order here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B072LWG7WG 

Seven management secrets of Atlas Shrugged

7 Management Secrets From 'Atlas Shrugged' That Beat Misinterpretations - Robert Tracinski, The Federalist Society:

July 25, 2017 - "Business and management is not the subject or theme of Atlas Shrugged, but it is the setting. As one of the few novelists to make a serious and sympathetic attempt to portray people who run businesses, she frequently sets up her characterization and plot points by showing us how the heroes and villains operate in the business world, how they make important decisions, and how they treat their employees. We can look at that and derive a few basic rules for how an Ayn Rand hero does business. Call it 'The Management Secrets of ‘Atlas Shrugged'....

1. Know the business from the ground up. Many of Ayn Rand’s business heroes ... worked their way up from the bottom.... Hank Rearden rose up out of the iron mines before becoming a mine owner.... The same goes for Ken Danagger, who is described as having started work in the coal mines at age 12.... At age 16, railroad heiress Dagny Taggart starts a summer job as the night operator at a rural train station. Francisco D’Anconia, heir to a vast copper fortune, spends his college years working at a dilapidated copper foundry.... This is why the heroes in Atlas Shrugged are able to start up again in Galt’s Gulch..... They can readily downshift into the roles of foremen and mechanics, and they have no compunction about walking to work swinging a lunchbox....

2. Earn respect.... Rand’s heroes are clearly inspirational leaders, but it’s not because they jet off to Davos or give TED talks about 'thinking outside the box'.... It’s because they earn the respect of their employees and business partners.... Rand’s heroes inspire their employees because they lead from the front. They never demand that anyone give more, in terms of knowledge, work, or devotion, than they give themselves....

3. Always take responsibility.... This is one of the reasons why the business heroes in Atlas Shrugged all have their businesses named after them — Rearden Steel, D’Anconia Copper, Wyatt Oil, Taggart Transcontinental — while the villains run companies with vaguely collective names like Associated Steel. Part of the point Rand was making is that behind every productive organization there is a person who created it and keeps it going. But from the characters’ perspective, they name their businesses after themselves as a way of stressing their responsibility, the idea that everything their company does is literally done in their name.... The whole method of the business villains in Atlas Shrugged is to evade responsibility, constantly whining that 'it wasn’t my fault,' or 'I can’t be blamed.' We can see this most clearly in the Taggart Tunnel disaster, which happens because, with Dagny briefly gone, a whole chain of Taggart executives from Jim on down pass the buck....

4. Deal with the best talent. If Ayn Rand’s heroes expect a lot out of themselves, they look for the same qualities in the people they hire and do business with. At the beginning of the novel, the basic plot idea is introduced to us in the form of Dagny’s struggle to find and retain talent.... Later, in Galt’s Gulch, Dagny realizes that the foreman at Andrew Stockton’s foundry is the disappeared coal tycoon Ken Danagger.... 'She glanced at Stockton with curiosity. "Aren’t you training a man who could become your most dangerous competitor?" "That’s the only sort of men I like to hire…. Any man who’s afraid of hiring the best ability he can find is a cheat who’s in a business where he doesn’t belong"'....

5. Set an innovative vision. Rand’s business heroes ... are visionaries who are looking for revolutionary new machines and the kind of innovations we would describe nowadays as 'disruptive.' There are two such disruptive innovations that embody this idea. Roughly the first third of the novel’s plot is driven by Hank Rearden’s invention of a revolutionary metal alloy that is strong[er], lighter, cheaper, and longer-lasting than steel.... By the end of Part One ... Rearden Metal is now regarded as a proven technology [and] it is time for our innovators to move on to the next big thing, ... the revolutionary motor they find abandoned at the Twentieth Century Motor Company.... The search for the motor drives the plot up through the end of Part Two and brings us into Part Three.... So the business leader’s search for innovation is at the heart of the novel and is the key driver of the plot.

6. Make every deal win-win. This is a point that very few of the casual mainstream commentators get.... If you actually read Atlas Shrugged, you notice that her heroes are very insistent on making mutually beneficial deals and never trying to get something for nothing out of their customers or business partners. They expect the other guy to pull his weight in any business deal — and they expect that they will have to provide a lot of value in return.... It is the government officials and the altruistic 'humanitarians' who keep trying to set up deals in which one side gets all the benefits and the other side takes all the losses.... Rand makes a specific point to show why these one-sided altruist set-ups have to fail. If you create a deal in which one side takes all the burdens and all the losses, you are ensuring that one of the parties to the deal will eventually be unable to fulfill its obligations and the whole thing will collapse.

7. Don’t prop up the Jim Taggarts.... This is shown in Atlas Shrugged, not by the positive example of her main protagonists, but by their biggest error. In taking heroic action intended to save the railroad and the economy, Dagny actually ends up bailing out her worthless brother, time and time again.... This isn’t about claiming credit or public glory. This is about not accepting a role as the person who always bails his boss, colleagues, or business partners out of their own mistakes, putting them in the position to make more mistakes that need more bailing out in the future ... In the current therapeutic terminology, the person who always bails a chronic drunk out of trouble is 'codependent' or an 'enabler'....

"So Rand did have a few things to say about management, after all.... Ayn Rand uses the business decisions of her heroes as a way of moving forward the plot and characterization and of expressing her big philosophical themes.... Observers of the business world can debate how well these management ideas work and which companies and CEOs truly implement them."

Read more: http://thefederalist.com/2017/07/25/7-real-management-secrets-atlas-shrugged/
'via Blog this'

The Economist: Atlas is about to shrug in Britain

In Britain, Atlas is about to shrug - Bagehot - Adrian Woolridge, The Economist:

August 24, 2017 - "In Atlas Shrugged, published 60 years ago this October, Ayn Rand asked what would happen if society’s most talented businesspeople got so fed up with being taxed, regulated and otherwise messed about by government that they went on strike. Innovation would cease. The economy would stagnate. And government, starved of easy pickings, would become more bullying.

"The world’s fifth-largest economy is in the early stages of its own experiment with driving Atlas crazy. Since the Thatcher revolution of the 1980's Britain has been one of the most open and business-friendly large economies.... But the settlement is under assault from two directions. The Conservative Party is negotiating Britain’s departure from the European Union, disrupting long-established flows of trade, talent and capital. Meanwhile, the main opposition party is led by a hard-leftist who wants to consign Thatcherism to the dustbin of history.

"Brexit is already beginning to damage Britain’s most globalised industry, finance. Most big investment banks have shifted some people and operations to the continent as a hedge.... Oliver Wyman, a consultancy, predicts that up to 75,000 finance jobs, or 7% of the total, will leave if Britain loses easy access to the single market. EY, another consultancy, puts the figure at 83,000....

"Jeremy Bernard Corbyn ... stands on the verge of power.... There is little chance that Mr Corbyn would moderate his hard-leftism in government. He has been banging the same drums for 30 years, and is surrounded by fellow-travellers such as John McDonnell, his shadow chancellor, and Seumas Milne, his chief strategist, whose biggest disagreement is over whether Stalin or Trotsky is the greater inspiration. He is supported by snarling activists in the Momentum campaigning group and the Unite trade union.... He believes that change comes through conflict rather than consensus, so will expect the markets and media to tell him he is ruining the country: that’s what the reactionary establishment does.

"The combined result of Brexit and Corbyn could be the dystopia that Rand warned about: a stagnant society driven by resentment of the successful. The flight of talent will not only have a knock-on effect on the wider economy.... It will also reduce the state’s revenues, since the top 1% of earners pay almost 30% of income tax and the top 10% pay nearly 60%. Mr Corbyn seems to think that all he need do is to ask 'the rich' to pay 'a little bit more' and everything will be fine. But why would successful people put up with higher taxes, particularly if they follow on the heels of Brexit-related uncertainty and disruption? As Luke Johnson, a serial entrepreneur, points out, the world is full of places where Britain’s Atlases would be welcome, from neighbouring countries like France, which is courting London’s bankers and tech workers, to emerging markets such as Dubai and Singapore. When Atlas shrugs, the whole of Albion suffers."

Read more: https://www.economist.com/news/britain/21727080-combination-brexit-and-jeremy-corbyn-could-lead-dystopia-ayn-rand-predicted
'via Blog this'

Atlas Shrugged at 60

60 Years of Atlas Shrugged: Celebrating Property Rights and the Spirit of the Individual - Freedom Forge Press - Val Muller:

October 10, 2017 - "Today, October 10, marks 60 years since Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged was published. For those of you who haven’t read it – it is, after all, a lengthy tome – we wanted to highlight some of the freedom aspects we love about the novel....

"In the novel, the railroad industry crashes when a combination of over-regulation, cronyism, and other government meddling cause the entire system to malfunction. In her work, government regulation essentially means the loss of private property rights. With the collective ownership that follows, no one truly bears the consequence of a decision. Instead of going out of business or losing a job, politicians can always ask 'the rich' to pay a little more of 'their fair share' i.e., raise taxes to pay for incompetent decisions – until everyone suffers the consequence in a very literal way....

"In Atlas Shrugged, the 'good guys' are pushed to their limit in suffering abuse from the government. Changing regulations make it impossible for businesses to find a stable plan for producing goods and providing jobs. And ... government regulation removes economic consequences, leading the country to make decisions that business owners would never make if they had control of their own businesses. Crop failure and energy shortages occur, and in a country once as wealthy as America is now, people fear starving or freezing over the winter....

"In Rand’s work, government outreach for power is seen as theft. Those elected to power have not done anything to earn it other than engage in demagoguery and promises to redistribute other people’s tax money in a way advantageous to a particular voting group. Elected officials are not inventors. They are not engineers. They are not enlightened philosophers. The more their policies fail, the more their constituents rely on them to 'fix' what is broken, and the more likely they are to be reelected. Rand recognizes the ultimate paradox and hypocrisy of our system: that to improve one’s chances of being re-elected, one must be inefficient....

"Men are men when they can think for themselves and be allowed to know the truth and to use reason and facts to question those in power. When ignorance takes over and reason is replaced with what Rand calls mysticism, things fall apart. Mysticism, in a nutshell, is the belief that we must deny our own desires for the 'common good,' that we must make sacrifices for someone else, that no one can truly be happy indulging in their own lives, that we must deny the use of reason to defer power to others....

"In Atlas Shrugged, the 'good guys' are the producers ... the thinkers, the ones ready to work hard and make personal sacrifices for their own success and achievement. While their hard work does positively impact others, in the form of advanced medicine, amazing and economical metals, and the like, they did not set out to do things for others. They set out to fulfill their own dreams. And this is why those in power detest them....

"[A]t the end of the novel, Rand’s producers decide to boycott society in general. They remove themselves from society. They are the last talent left in the mindless world they inhabit, and without them the politicians have no power. Without their hard work, no one has anything extra to sacrifice for others. Without them, the 'mystic' beliefs of the politicians cannot stand.

"Like Thoreau and Gandhi, Rand pushes us toward a type of civil disobedience. Once they reach a certain point, laws seem to be merely a civilized way of stealing from some – or all. We like Rand’s work because it makes us question our role in society. We have been trained to be polite, as Rand points out, trained to believe that sacrifice and selflessness makes it okay for a government to steal much of our hard-earned money and create programs we have never heard of and never benefit from. Ayn Rand pushes us to think beyond our complacency, really to use reason to question our place in the world."

Read more: http://www.freedomforgepress.com/2017/10/10/60-years-atlas-shrugged-celebrating-property-rights-spirit-individual/
'via Blog this'

Ayn Rand and altruism

What Rand Meant by Altruism | Foundation for Economic Education - Gary M. Galles:

January 31, 2017 - "February 2 is best known as Groundhog Day. But it also marks the birth of one of the most praised and criticized thinkers of the past century – Ayn Rand. Rand sold more than 30 million books. Atlas Shrugged has been ranked behind only the Bible as an influence on readers’ lives. She has also been stridently attacked for issues such as her militant atheism. But perhaps least understood has been her full-bore rejection of altruism....

"Altruism has commonly been held up as the standard for moral behavior. But Rand rejected it, asserting it was 'incompatible with freedom, with capitalism, and with individual rights,' and therefore "the basic evil behind today’s ugliest phenomena.'

"That head-on collision arises from French philosopher Auguste Comte, coiner of the term altruism. The altruists.org website says he believed 'the only moral acts were those intended to promote the happiness of others.' Comte’s Catechisme Positiviste asserts that altruism 'gives a direct sanction exclusively to our instincts of benevolence,' and, therefore, 'cannot tolerate the notion of rights, for such a notion rests on individualism.'

"In Comte’s view, any act performed for any reason beyond solely that of advancing someone else’s well-being is not morally justified. That implies taking a tax deduction for a charitable act strips it of its morality.... Something as seemingly innocuous as feeling good about doing good also fails Comte’s joyless standards. Even 'love your neighbor as yourself' fails his unlimited duty of altruism....

Rand’s 'virtue of selfishness' was a response to Comte’s demand for complete selflessness. Not only is a requirement for everyone to completely disregard themselves an unattainable ideal, it is self-contradictory. You cannot possibly sacrifice yourself fully for me, while I am also sacrificing myself fully for you. And if no one has any intrinsic value, why would the results, even if possible, be meritorious? With Comte as a starting point, more attention to people’s own well-being – more selfishness, in Rand’s terminology – is the only way to move toward recognizing value in each individual and significance in each life.

"Comte’s conception of altruism is also inconsistent with liberty, which was Ayn Rand’s focus. The duty to put others first at all times and in all circumstances denies self-ownership and the power to choose that derives from it. Everyone else maintains never-ending presumptive claims on every individual, overriding any rights they may have. In contrast, benevolence involves voluntary choices to benefit others of one’s own choosing, in ways and to the extent individuals choose for themselves.... The key distinction is between benevolence’s individual discretion, which recognizes our rights over ourselves and our resources, and altruism’s unconditional requirement to always sacrifice for others.

"An omnipresent duty of self-sacrifice also makes people vulnerable to manipulation by those who disguise power over others as 'really' a means to attain some noble goal. The desire to sacrifice for the good of others can be transformed into the requirement to sacrifice to the desires of leaders."

Read more: https://fee.org/articles/no-ayn-rand-did-not-want-us-to-be-selfish/?utm_medium=push&utm_source=push_notification
'via Blog this'

Jennifer Grossman is new CEO of Atlas Society

The Atlas Society Welcomes Jennifer Anju Grossman as its New CEO, Effective March 1st - Sherrie Gossett, Atlas Society:

March 3, 2016 - "On March 1st, The Atlas Society welcomed Jennifer Anju Grossman as its new CEO.... Grossman is a former senior vice president at Dole Food Company....

"David Kelley, founder and acting CEO of the Atlas Society, said: 'Jennifer brings our team a powerful combination of executive management, public policy, and digital media expertise. Her creativity, charisma and commitment to Objectivism will help take our efforts, and the liberty movement, to the next level.'

"Grossman has spent decades helping people to live freer, healthier lives. She launched the Dole Nutrition Institute — a research and education organization — at the behest of Dole Chairman David H. Murdock. She continued this agenda as Health Editor of Laura Ingraham's new lifestyle site, LifeZette.

"Previously Grossman served as Director of Education at the Cato Institute, and worked closely with the late philanthropist Theodore J. Forstmann to launch the Children's Scholarship Fund. A speechwriter for President George H. W. Bush, Grossman has written for both national and local publications.

"Said Grossman: 'The principles of Objectivism, the philosophy rooted in reality, reason, and individualism, has never been more needed — nor more neglected.This is the perfect moment to help the public rediscover the moral vision of Ayn Rand."

"For twenty-five years, The Atlas Society has promoted the core values of Objectivism — reason, achievement, and ethical self-interest. These values are the moral foundation for political liberty and for personal happiness.

"'At the Atlas Society,' said Jay Lapeyre, Chairman of the Board of the Atlas Society, 'we don't preach to the converted. We hired Jennifer to lead our team in bringing Ayn Rand's revolutionary vision to fresh eyes, in unconventional ways'....

"Objectivism is the philosophy founded by Ayn Rand (1905-1982), the author of Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, The Virtue of Selfishness, and other works.

Read more: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/03/prweb13242310.htm
'via Blog this'

Ayn Rand’s enduring influence

Ayn Rand’s philosophy of selfishness has a deep influence on the mindset of the right - Gene H. Bell-Villad, The Raw Story:

April 22, 2015 - "Ayn Rand (1904-82) has arisen from the dead. Over the last decade the pop philosopher and propaganda fictionist extraordinaire has moved steadily from the cultish margins to the mainstream of US conservatism....

"In a larger sense, though, Rand had never died. Sales of her books remained steadily in the six figures in the years following her demise, their underground influence an unacknowledged-if-discomforting fact of American life. A couple of reader surveys carried out in the 1990s by Book-of-the-Month Club and the Library of Congress, and by the Modern Library imprint, showed Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead near the top of the polling results, according to author Brian Doherty. And, in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown, sales of her works tripled.

"Randianism, what she called Objectivism, now exists as a mass phenomenon, a grass-roots presence, a kind of folklore. 'Who Is John Galt?', her recurring slogan from Atlas Shrugged, can be seen on placards at Tea Party rallies, on leaflets casually affixed to telephone poles or on the shopping bags of Lululemon Athletics, the Canadian sports apparel company. The firm’s CEO, Chip Wilson, is an avowed Rand fan. So are the current corporate chiefs at Exxon, Sears, the BB & T Bank in North Carolina and the funky Whole Foods chain...."

"Randthought, which I discuss in my book, On Nabokov, Ayn Rand and the Libertarian Mind, serves as a major doctrinal component within the mindset of the libertarian, the latter being the most significant American ideological development of the last 35 years....

"Rand did not invent libertarianism. The thinking, sans the name, had been around since at least the 1920s. And her contemporaries, economists such as Milton Friedman and the so-called Austrian School, gave the set of ideas academic standing and respectability. In Rand’s truculent fiction, however, an abstract theory effectively took on flesh via dashing heroes and unabashed hero worship, vivid myths and technological magic, page-turning suspense and torrid, violent sex. For every studious reader of economist Friedrich von Hayek, there are dozens, perhaps hundreds of eager devourers of Rand....

"In many respects, America is becoming — in echo of the title of a book by journalist Gary Weiss — an 'Ayn Rand Nation'."

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/ayn-rands-philosophy-of-selfishness-has-a-deep-influence-on-the-mindset-of-the-right/
'via Blog this'

Cruz quotes Ayn Rand in Congressional Record

Ted Cruz and Ayn Rand | The Democratic Daily - Hart Williams:

March 23, 2015 - "from my book Ayn Nation Under God:
"Introduction to Special Government Shutdown Edition

"As I write this, the United States of America are in the ninth day of the Federal 'government shutdown'.... A week or so ago, when Ted Cruz of Texas was making himself a household name, he had a strange 'non-filibuster filibuster' and, for twenty hours or so, he laid out his reasons for wanting to shut down the U.S. Government. The Congressional record recalls the fateful moment when Senator Cruz explained WHY this shutdown was necessary. He was going Galt. It was Wednesday, September 24, 2013:

"'We are a nation that was founded on liberty,' Senator Cruz intoned, 'Always defend liberty. You can’t go wrong with that as a mantra. In the interest of that, I would like to share a few excerpts of one of my favorite books, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.'

"And, after some filibustering that wasn’t actually a filibuster, Senator Cruz tipped his hand, quote: 'I want to point to some more excerpts from Ayn Rand that I think are relevant to the battle before this body. First, from Atlas Shrugged:’ [sic]

We are on strike, we, the men of the mind. . . . We are on strike against self-immolation. We are on strike against the creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties…[Congressional Record Vol. 159 WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2013 No. 127—Part II, page 57.] - See more at: http://thedemocraticdaily.com/2015/03/23/ted-cruz-ayn-rand/#sthash.jvtCDKY1.dpuf

"This was not enough of a plug for Senator Cruz, however, who continued: 'Let me encourage any of you who have not read Atlas Shrugged’ to go tomorrow and buy Atlas Shrugged and read it. What is interesting is in the last 3 years sales of Atlas Shrugged have exploded, because we are living in the days of Ayn Rand,' adding, 'I will share a few excerpts that are all fundamentally about liberty and the liberty that ObamaCare infringes.'

Read more: http://thedemocraticdaily.com/2015/03/23/ted-cruz-ayn-rand/
'via Blog this'

Ayn Rand at 110

Ayn Rand at 110 | Cato Institute - David Boaz:

February 2, 2015 - "In the dark year of 1943, in the depths of World War II and the Holocaust, when the United States was allied with one totalitarian power to defeat another, three remarkable women published books that could be said to have given birth to the modern libertarian movement. Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, who had written Little House on the Prairie and other stories of American rugged individualism, published a passionate historical essay called The Discovery of Freedom. Isabel Paterson, a novelist and literary critic, produced The God of the Machine, which defended individualism as the source of progress in the world.

"The other great book of 1943 was The Fountainhead, a powerful novel about architecture and integrity by Ayn Rand. The book’s individualist theme did not fit the spirit of the age, and reviewers savaged it. But it found its intended readers. Its sales started slowly, then built and built. It was still on the New York Times bestseller list two full years later. Hundreds of thousands of people read it in the 1940s, millions eventually, some of them because of the 1949 film starring Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal, and many of them were inspired enough to seek more information about Ayn Rand’s ideas. Rand went on to write an even more successful novel, Atlas Shrugged, in 1957, and to found an association of people who shared her philosophy, which she called Objectivism....

"George Gilder called Atlas Shrugged 'the most important novel of ideas since War and Peace.' Writing in the Washington Post, he explained her impact on the world of ideas and especially the world of capitalist ideas: 'Rand flung her gigantic books into the teeth of an intelligentsia still intoxicated by state power, during an era when even Dwight Eisenhower maintained tax rates of 90 percent and confessed his inability to answer Nikita Khrushchev’s assertion that capitalism was immoral because it was based on greed.'

"Rand’s books first appeared when no one seemed to support freedom and capitalism, and when even capitalism’s greatest defenders seemed to emphasize its utility, not its morality. It was often said at the time that socialism is a good idea in theory, but human beings just aren’t good enough for socialism. It was Ayn Rand who said that socialism is not good enough for human beings.

"Her books garnered millions of readers because they presented a passionate philosophical case for individual rights and capitalism, and did so through the medium of vivid, can’t-put-it-down novels. The people who read Ayn Rand and got the point didn’t just become aware of costs and benefits, incentives and trade-offs. They became passionate advocates of liberty.

"Rand was an anomaly in the 1940s and 1950s, an advocate of reason and individualism in time of irrationality and conformity. But she was a shaper of the 1960s, the age of “do your own thing” and youth rebellion; the 1970s, pejoratively described as the “Me Decade” but perhaps better understood as an age of skepticism about institutions and a turn toward self-improvement and personal happiness; and the 1980s, the decade of tax cuts and entrepreneurship.

"Throughout those decades her books continued to sell — 30 million copies over the years, and they still move off the shelves. The financial crisis and Wall Street bailouts gave Atlas Shrugged a huge push. A Facebook group titled 'Read the news today? It’s like Atlas Shrugged is happening in real life' was formed. More than 50 years after publication, the book had its best sales year ever. And sales have remained high — more than a million copies of Rand’s books were sold in 2012."

Read more: http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/ayn-rand-110
'via Blog this'

Libertarianism on verge of political breakout: TIME

Libertarianism Is on the Verge of a Political Breakout | TIME - David Boaz:

February 5, 2015 - "Rand Paul’s leadership in the Senate – on the budget, regulation, privacy, criminal justice, and foreign policy – and his likely presidential campaign are generating new attention for libertarian ideas.

"'Libertarianism is hot,' headlined the Washington Post in 2013. From an almost-forgotten part of American political culture, libertarianism has grown into a respected and much-discussed political faction and a compelling set of ideas that challenge the conventional wisdom. Tens of millions of Americans are fiscally conservative, socially tolerant, and skeptical of American military intervention.

"The growth of the libertarian movement is a product of two factors: the spread of libertarian ideas and sentiments, and the expansion of government during the Bush and Obama administrations, particularly the civil liberties abuses after 9/11 and the bailouts and out-of-control spending after the financial crisis. As one journalist noted in 2009, 'The Obama administration brought with it ambitions of a resurgence of FDR and LBJ’s active-state liberalism. And with it, Obama has revived the enduring American challenge to the state.'

"That libertarian revival manifested itself in several ways. Sales of books like Atlas Shrugged and The Road to Serfdom soared. 'Tea party' rallies against taxes, debt, bailouts, and Obamacare drew a million or more people to hundreds of protests. 'Crony capitalism' became a target for people across the political spectrum. Marijuana legalization and marriage equality made rapid progress. More people than ever told Gallup in 2013 that the federal government has too much power."

Read more: http://time.com/3695448/rand-paul-libertarianism-political-breakout/
'via Blog this'

Libertarians endow U of Maryland business centre

Libertarian donors fund new research center at UM's business school - Baltimore Sun - Carrie Wells:

October 27, 2014 - "A foundation led by the owner of the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team and the Charles Koch Foundation have pledged $6 million to create a new center that will study enterprise and markets at the University of Maryland's business school.

The center will be dubbed the Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets after a $5 million donation by Ed Snider, a Maryland alumn[us] and chairman of Comcast-Spectacor, which owns the Flyers.

"With another $1 million from the Koch Foundation, the university can hire three professors and a managing director, in addition to support staff, five doctoral candidates and four post-doctoral fellows.

"Koch and his brother David run Koch Industries, an oil, gas, and chemical conglomerate that is the country's second-largest privately held company.

"The Koch brothers are known for financially backing libertarian and free-market organizations, supporting conservative political causes, and helping to found other economic and policy think tanks like the conservative Cato Institute....

"University of Maryland officials said the center will conduct its hiring and research independently of the donors. The $5 million gift from the Snider Foundation is the second-largest in the business school's history after the $15 million naming grant from Robert H. Smith in 1997....

"Snider, who recently recovered from cancer, also is known for his libertarian views. He helped found the Ayn Rand Institute and was executive producer of the film 'Atlas Shrugged: Part I,' based on one of the libertarian author's books."

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-um-snider-center-20141027-story.html 

'via Blog this'

Was John Galt modeled on Jesus?

Ayn Rand's Libertarian Hero John Galt Was Modeled on Jesus, Christian Panelist Argues:

"[A]t at the International Students for Liberty Conference in Washington D.C. Feb. 15, 2014 ...  Christian panelist, David Kotter, argued that Ayn Rand's libertarian hero John Galt was unconsciously modeled on Jesus Christ. A follower of Rand, William R. Thomas, agreed that Galt was modeled after Christ, but argued that Rand consciously intended to do so.

"Kotter, visiting scholar at The Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics, insisted that Rand did base her character off of Jesus, although she likely did it unconsciously. .... 'Ayn Rand imbibed ideas from the character of Jesus," Kotter declared. He described Galt as 'the man who by perfect reason is the epitome of manhood, and is very similar to Jesus.'

"'In John Galt, Rand is trying to portray man as a god in an irreligious sense," Thomas, director of programs at The Atlas Society, declared.... Thomas added that 'I don't think she would have said she endorsed Jesus Christ.

"Mark Henderson, author of The Soul of Atlas: Ayn Rand, Christianity, a Quest for Common Ground, referenced Theologian John Piper to explain where Rand's philosophy can agree with Christianity. Henderson quoted ... Piper's essay 'Ayn Rand: An Appreciation and Critique,' where the theologian argued that 'all throughout scripture there are evidences of believers pursuing their own interest by pursuing God.'"

Read more: http://www.christianpost.com/news/ayn-rands-libertarian-hero-john-galt-was-modeled-on-jesus-christian-panelist-argues-114729/

'via Blog this'

Toronto 2011: Cross Country Acquires Canadian Rights to 'Atlas Shrugged: Part 1' (Exclusive) - The Hollywood Reporter

Toronto 2011: Cross Country Acquires Canadian Rights to 'Atlas Shrugged: Part 1' (Exclusive) - The Hollywood Reporter - Etan Viessing:

Sep. 9, 2011 - "Indie distributor Cross Country Entertainment has acquired the Canadian rights to Paul Johansson’s Atlas Shrugged: Part 1, the independently financed adaptation of the Ayn Rand novel.

"Vancouver-based Cross Country, which is co-run by Zanne Devine of Pacific Northwest Pictures and Michael Taylor of Multiple Media Entertainment, grabbed all rights to the $10 million picture, which was independently released stateside in April 2011.

"News of the Canadian distribution deal emerged Friday at the Toronto International Film Festival."

Read more: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/toronto-cross-country-acquires-canadian-233507
'via Blog this'

Box-office power of Rand's Atlas Shrugged baffles insiders - Chicago Sun-Times

Box-office power of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged baffles insiders - Chicago Sun-Times - Paul Bond, Apr. 21, 2011:

"The power of Ayn Rand devotees has impressed some Hollywood distribution executives, who took note of the hefty $5,640 per-theater average scored by Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 during its opening weekend.

“'Shocking,' one executive said about the healthy business the low-budget film has been doing, considering its 'awful' marketing plan.

"Awful or not, business has been brisk enough for producers Harmon Kaslow and John Aglialoro to expand from 299 theaters to 425 this weekend and to 1,000 by the end of the month. They don’t have enough film prints to fill all the orders.

“'Things have turned for us,' Kaslow said. 'When we started, exhibitors were not embracing the film like we thought they would. Now, we can pretty much go into as many theaters as we want. It’s just a matter of logistics.'...

http://www.suntimes.com/4935704-417/box-office-power-of-ayn-rands-atlas-shrugged-baffles-insiders.html

Atlas Shrugged movie boosts book to #4 on Amazon bestseller list

Atlas Shrugged Movie Boosts Book to #4 on Amazon Bestseller List - Marc E. Babej - Strategic Marketing - Forbes - Apr. 17, 2011:

"The $10 million film Atlas Shrugged Part 1 has hit the big screen in a relatively small way, with distribution on 300 screens in 80 cities.

"Expect opening weekend box office figures to be at least decent: the book has a fan base that is not only millions wide, but also runs deep in terms of passion. Atlas fans will likely flock to cinemas if only to see whether the long-awaited movie adaptation lives up to their expectations....

"all signs point to the fact that the mere existence of the movie is causing interest in the book to spike to new heights. According to Google Trends, search volume for 'Atlas Shrugged' has never been greater. Even more impressively, the book has surged to #4 on the Amazon bestseller list as of this writing."

http://blogs.forbes.com/marcbabej/2011/04/17/atlas-shrugged-movie-boosts-book-to-4-on-amazon-bestseller-list/