So far I watched only part 2. I have never heard of this woman.

Spooky? HUGE UNDERSTATEMENT

Amazing stuff. It sounds just a bit familiar to what Ron Paul often talks about.


She is dead right IMO.

Both parties are socialistic.

Great find loam...thanks for posting!

S & F

This is very good stuff. I didn't know there was an "objective' philosophy. I often tell myself to be objective, especially with politics. As a matter of fact, I often state that in my posts and encourage others to do the same. So often I see people who have fallen into the trap of accusing/defending Republicans and Democrats. When you step outside and see them together, they are really one in the same.

Thanks for posting all the videos. I haven't watched them all yet but i'm in the process of doing so.

Watch the videos people...you are missing out!

Wow...in the GOP video...she makes conservatives look like fools because in reality they aren't really conservatives at all, at least based on the constitution.

Eye-opening. It's amazing that someone was stating this back in the 50's. I'm guessing many people thought she was nuts as they do Ron Paul.

BTW...thanks for posting that video of RP. That explains why I was making the connection.

Why do people always seem to pass up the good threads?

This is must see stuff IMO.

Her argument is antiquated because there wasn't the stronger integration of industry and government there is today. The military-industrial complex and National Security State had yet to reach its pinnacle of (dark) influence (which I believe it achieved with 9/11) in 1959. Absolute and total laissez faire is a fantasy anyway. If she were a character on the former (sci-fi) TV series ANDROMEDA, she would surely be a Nietzschean (not human).

And she believed, like the vast majority of people today, that economies will always, eternally be based completely on money rather than resources. I'm wagering it will be quite the opposite; at least eventually. Truth is we have the ability to provide (only) the most essential care and necessities for everyone without becoming anything resembling a Stalinistic dull-drab factory society with monolithic government.

I agree with some of what Ayn Rand says. I really like her anti-monopoly stance (in the 3rd part). I believe in a REAL free market, and back in '59, people could still dream of it while having a rational enough basis.

Some things to consider about Ayn Rand (sorry about taking this thread in a different direction but I really despise this lady).

*all this info is availiable online. GOOGLE*

Paraphrased from: Nathaniel Branden's "My Years with Ayn Rand" and Barbara Branden's "The Passion of Ayn Rand".


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She despised "average" people, whom she regarded as ugly and stupid and irrational, while viewing herself in exalted terms as the greatest writer in history and the greatest philosopher since Aristotle.

She was concerned with no one's needs or wants or suffering except her own. She was able to claim in print that no one had ever helped her, when in fact she had benefited for years from the charity and goodwill of relatives and business associates and friends.

She exploited young, emotionally vulnerable people and frequently sabotaged their self-image with her vindictive cruelty. She claimed to love her husband but carried on an affair with a younger man right in front of him, a situation that drove her husband to alcoholism.

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A common theme for "Objectivists" is sociopathic and narcissistic tendencies and she had them in spades.

Peace

"Run for your life from anyone who tells you that money is evil" - Ayn Rand

Absolutely must viewing/reading.

It’s going to take more than a once through to absorb all she has to say, to mull it over and come to my own conclusions.

I’ll have to find a way to get a hold of her books also, but until then I’ll go back to the videos and say thank you for posting these videos.

peace

I have always been able to see her point of view as having some validity in terms of individual freedom to exercise one's own free will. The founding fathers of America, I believe, wanted every person to have an opportunity to pursue "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" in his or her own way without state shackles holding the person back contingent upon persons not interfering with the rights of others. In its purest form, this is the ideal of America.

Having said that, I am repulsed by what can only be called a depraved lack of compassion in Rand's philosophy. Selfishness promotes greed. Greed is one of the sickest downfalls of society (we can see it all around us today).

I urge everyone to read at least one of the books by the current Dalai Lama and think about the positive effects of compassion versus selfishness and greed. I understand Rand's position of every man for himself, sink or swim. She, apparently, went through tremendous hardship fending for herself and struggling to make it on her own, so I see where she is coming from, but her over-arching mistake is being devoid of compassion.

I am not for a welfare state or anything resembling Soviet style government controls. If these United States would simply get back to the original U.S. Constitution and combine that with compassion for family and neighbors, we could rid ourselves of many unnecessary layers of excesses. Ask yourself what Jefferson, Franklin, Washington and the others really envisioned for this country. It would not be a system like we have now wherein people are taxed to death, the Fed owns everything, credit card debt shackles the middle class, education costs a fortune, you cannot be a freelancer or start your own business without being so heavily taxed you can't get off the ground, and so forth and so on.

That's just my two cents worth.

Very informative and intriguing post. This has prompted me to look into her books.

Thank-you for this, great find!

In the beginning years of America, and well into the 19th century, there were barn raisings. Young families starting their homesteads would need a barn and the neighboring farmers would all join in and build the barn with free labor. This was done for practical reasons but also out of a sense of compassion. Under the philosophy of Rand, no one would help build the barn unless he got a tangible profit out of it (a profit young families could not afford to pay). In that example, compassion helps make a society strong.

On another note, if Ben Franklin were starting out today as a young man and wanted to freelance to earn a living (just as he did in the 1700s), he would be subject to a burdensome and unconstitutional self-employment tax. Ask any freelancer (a sole proprieter attempting to make it just on his own) what the worst thing about freelancing is and I'll bet you he or she says the worst thing is the heavy self-employment tax.

If the Republicans were really as conservative as they say they are, they would get busy abolishing the self-employment tax, also the unconstitutional inheritance tax, and tax the living daylights out of the huge corporations instead. We live in a country where everyone is expected to be a wage slave to a big corporation that rules lives. It is like a prison sentence in that you get a few hours of "freedom" after your work day and a couple weeks freedom called "vacation" but other than that you are a wage slave. It is this form of slavery that is ruining the world. The founding fathers would be appalled.
Franklin would say no to the self-employment tax because it is the very reason people sought to escape the taxation of England.

Someday I hope people will wake up and realize that they should not owe their lives to big corporations in order to have food, clothing and shelter.

Congress should abolish any taxes or penalties that are blocking the way of freelancers and if anything, laws should be in place prohibiting companies from becoming slave masters. As a freelancer, in whatever skill you develop, you are in control of what jobs you accept and at what rate and you are in control of how much you work and how much time off you take. So, with control over your part of the trade, you are not a slave, but it is very difficult to succeed because of the evil self-employment tax.

Holy cow!

Great post OP.

She says: "Depressions are caused by Government interference, and their solution is more of the poison that caused it."

Can you say Government Bailout? Pumping more and more money in to the economic problems we face today is exactly what she is talking about. Welcome to Hyperinflation.

The dollar is a cooked goose. Logic and reasoning.

Don't force me to give up my hard earnings, and decide how to spend it. Interesting indeed.

S&F