A voice from the past., page 2
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reply posted on 8-2-2009 @ 09:54 AM by loam
reply to post by seawolf197



Yes. I'm struck by how her arguments are as relevant today as they were more than 50 years ago.

Here are just some of her points relevant to the current financial crisis:




...You are moving toward disaster, until and unless, all the welfare state conceptions have been reversed and rejected...It is precisely these trends which are bringing the world to disaster, because we are now moving towards complete collectivism, or socialism- a system under which everybody is enslaved to everybody...

...I am for the separation of State and Economics...

...it sprang up from the same source as the abuses, if by abuses you mean the legislation which originally had been established to help industries, which was already a breach of free enterprise...

...capitalists with government help are the worst of all economic phenomena...

...You know that both parties today are for socialism in effect...for control...

...all depressions are caused by government interference and the cure is always offered- so far- to take more of the poison that caused the disaster...





Fascinating, isn't it?

[edit on 8-2-2009 by loam]


reply posted on 8-2-2009 @ 01:02 PM by ZindoDoone
reply to post by John Matrix



The point is that in her writings, she seemed to disavow her beliefs. She was vilified by some (as you saw in the interview) and praised by the elite. Kind of a discordant theme with her beliefs! She was at opposite ends of the spectrum in what she said and what she wrote.

Zindo



reply posted on 8-2-2009 @ 02:34 PM by Oolon
Originally posted by TheRealDonPedros
reply to
post by David9176



I find her to be cold and detached. Her whole philosophy extends around the individual, and the individuals rights to "happiness" as a moral purpose.

Don't fall for it, remember that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions".

[edit on 8-2-2009 by TheRealDonPedros]

[edit on 8-2-2009 by TheRealDonPedros]



That is what I thought. the philosophy I find interesting, but very very cold and possibly selfish. If some of what she said could be applied to our lives I think it could help, but based on some of the other post, Allan Greenspan ?....... could it be the "intelectuals" have already be following her???

Heck, I never even heard of her before. I did notice that Mike Wallace actually let her talk. Imagine an interview like that today? Like the Peter Schiff interviews.....

By the way, "the road to hell" comment, are you a Bruce Dickinson fan or is that a major quote from one of the MANY books I have not read?


reply posted on 8-2-2009 @ 02:46 PM by Atomic
I'm sure most fans of Rand know...but the creepy video game Bioshock is based on Rand's ideas.

radicalsforhappiness.blogspot.com...

Her words are motivating. But humans are usually not run by compassion and logic, they are run by the ego...so I fear unchecked individualism going too far.


Mike Wallace smoking away while interviewing...didn't he and 60 Minutes play a big part in taking down big tobacco? Ironic.


reply posted on 8-2-2009 @ 03:57 PM by Skyfloating
reply to post by loam



yeah, teach them youngsters

Even today she'd be way ahead of her time and shocking to most.


[edit on 8-2-2009 by Skyfloating]



reply posted on 8-2-2009 @ 04:00 PM by j2000
Seems some of you are having a hard time with the "Compassion" part of all this.
Let me give you an example that happened to me yesterday when I was traveling. This would be based on her view.

I pulled off the Highway to get some gas and coffee west of OKC.
I was gasing up and notice a man going from one car to another speaking with them and on to the next. Didn't think much of it. Then he was speaking with the person next to me. I caught just the part when he said "I don't want money, just some gas".
Well I've been around LA enough to know that they thought he was just a beggar. He was not even going to approach me, and was walking back up to the building.
I "choose" to ask him what he needed. I asked him a few questions and found out a few things.
He was working a construction crew out west and was sending all his money home to his wife for the family.
The contractor replaced him and several others with some illegal's from our buddy's to the south.

He had a Chevy Tahoe with OK plates and offered his Driv. Lic to show he was not a complete bum.
He just wanted enough gas to get home, about 85 miles from where we were.
I chose to give him 20 gallons of gas so he would have some when he arived home. He had to push his truck to the pump because it was out.
After we had left, I was getting on the on ramp and a guy was on the side of the road, clean cut, dress shirt, etc, with a small bag.
"I" decided not to stop. I had just helped someone else and I could not do this all day as I had to make a certain point in travel.
It all works fine, I helped the one with the gas when no one else would not.
Three cars behind me, someone picked up the other fellow and so his need was met.
If I were to do it the way we run our country, someone from the Govt. would have put a gun to everyone's head in the gas station and collected one dollar each, wait make that ten dollars each.
Then the Govt. person would have filled up the one mans tank, and bought a taxi cab for the one on the side of the road.

Now do you get the difference. What they are doing to us now is exactly like this. Someone will take care of the one's that need it.


sorry for all the typo's






[edit on 8-2-2009 by j2000]


reply posted on 8-2-2009 @ 04:03 PM by DreamingsFree
reply to post by loam



Most of the quotes you pulled were the same ones I wrote down as she spoke. "Separation of State and economics" - that's an eye-opener. Imagine the corporate world cut off from welfare! The idea of how they would scream and freak out brings a smile to my face.


reply posted on 8-2-2009 @ 08:23 PM by Leo Strauss
Originally posted by LiquidSun
Funny I would see this today. My 16 year old brother sent me several similar videos a few days ago, with Mike Wallace interviewing Aldous Huxley.

This man also had a pretty good idea of how things were going to go in this country.


Thank you so much for juxtaposing Mr. Huxley with Ayn Rand. I would say Aldous Huxley has prophesied much more correctly the future of our democracy than Ayn Rand could even have imagined.

Advertising, drugs, propaganda(media) being used by the oligarchy to manipulate the masses into a complete and utter capitulation of individual rights and freedom based on the powerful force in human nature of greed and a craven obsessive desire for control. Hitler modeled his propaganda campaign from American advertising. This is well documented.

The first topic Mr. Huxley mentions is overpopulation. It is the elephant in the living room that humanity cannot seem to confront. Resource wars etc. Aldous Huxley was a genius and an intellectual soothsayer of the highest order.

I would venture to say his vision has been realized in the US today and that saddens me deeply.

Again thank you so much for presenting a decent man who did his best to protect freedom and democracy from tyranny!

Also I would like to comment on the early days of television. I am amazed that thinkers of this magnitude were given an open forum to discuss their views. However it is easy to see how Mike Wallace was directing this conversation towards the Soviet Union's sins and not recognizing our own faults.


reply posted on 8-2-2009 @ 09:27 PM by TheRealDonPedros
reply to post by Leo Strauss



Although "Brave New World" was one of my favourite and probably the most influential books I have ever read, Aldous Huxley suffered from the same elitist attitude that Rand was afflicted with. Its a by-product of them being smarter than most around them but considering the amount of people they influenced (good or bad) its part and parcel with what made there works great.

As a recreational entheogen user I disagree with Huxley's view that entheogens were only for the educated "elite", and should be kept from the masses. Most people don't know this but his wife administered LSD to him on his deathbed (twice, the second time he scrawled out a barely legible request due to his weak state robbing him of his voice), this was a man obsessed with the potential of entheogens, yet he wanted it only for himself.

Somewhat of a thread derailment but the alternate views on Rand and Huxley should be part of the package in terms of "where have their ideas gotten us".

Peace



[edit on 8-2-2009 by TheRealDonPedros]
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