Watching Atlas Shrugged II today.

Then went down the rabbit hole reading about Ayn Rand. The woman was a visionary.

Her work seems prophetic of our world today. But, then again, prophesy of human behavior is easy. Just look to the past and watch it repeat itself.

I haven't read it either, and have zero desire to. I'm definitely not a Libertarian. I have no use for any of the opinions of Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum ("ayn rand's" real name), or any of her tribe, frankly...

She was an agnostic I believe; so prophet is out.

I missed that one as well. I do not feel slighted.

Haven’t and don’t feel cheated in the slightest.

I have not. Don’t plan to either

Me neither. What bothers me is the people who think it is history, not a novel

I hate reading

Had to do that in college, now Im a grown ass man.

“A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.”


Yeah- you guys are better of NOT reading her. Especially if you have already done her work the honor of dismissing it before doing so.

She is the greatest champion of Merit based rewards system and defends money as the means of exchange of good by nonviolent means.

Who is John Gault?

I read many of her political books back in the 1980s. I've also read Atlas Shrugged. I can't remember much on which I disagreed with her.

She was just a philosopher, and not a very compelling one.

Well, she hated Reagan and loved abortion...for starters.

Howard Roark the model of American ingenuity.

And that joo Albert Einstein too and for that matter any Nobel prize winning Joo too

That's why I said "much" instead of "anything." My choice of words was intentional.

Read some of her works. Respected her thoughts on may things.

But personally I am more into the works and thoughts of Voltaire.

Good call.

Diderot too!

But I cannot separate myself from sturm und drank!

Göethe rocks as does Schiller!!

Schillers "Aesthetic Education of Man" was dynamite for me

She was a visionary about some things. This creeping guilt complex/do gooder dynamic the liberals use to mask their evil and create guilt in the minds of those who oppose their ideas was one of them.

However, we are long past the point of being able to “go Galt”. These people want to control everything you do and even think. Opting out is not an option, and is also the reason secession won’t work. Her philosophy required a sufficient number of men who thought as she envisioned, and needed more fiber than the average human has.

The internet has replaced reading along with thinking.

A secessionist community based on pure meritocracy, as that founded by John Galt, would have to take place on another planet today. Can you imagine a few hundred people trying to hide out together in the Rocky Mountains, with satellites taking hi res pictures from above? Good idea, just wouldn't work in today's world. She and George Orwell pretty well summed up the world reformed by the Libtards, before most people figured it out. Too bad.

I have not read any of it, but I have read just about all of the Louis L’amour collection and I don’t plan to live in a commune. I have over 1 million acres of National Forest to hide in by myself with Ruger.

Tried reading. Really hate her writing style and was soon too bored with it to bother. I hardly ever find female authors readable.

The look and feel of hand-tooled saddle leather.

John Wesley Hardin once shot a man just for snoring.

I wanted to do that this deer season.

As I recall the book, wasn't there some kind of energy field projected over their community that made them invisible?

Yeah, in her fiction novels, she really hammers home her political message, which can become tiresome, particularly if you already agree with most of it.

The novel could have been half as long. Still worth reading especially if you believe in the Democrat way.

I read or listened to her novels, but agree they become tiresome. It’s a shame because the people who need to read them will never make it through.

'flave likes succinctness.

Sounds like her writing won't pass muster with him.

I'm gonna send you my copy of Gilgamesh and also some Hermann Hess.

Give you somethin' to do while waiting in a deer stand or at the Dr office.

I bought Atlas Shrugged (the book) last week.

I always sleep with the wiping stick out of my rifle in my bed roll with me. So when one of my camp confederates begins the snoring session a good poke in the ribs causes em to roll over and stop the racket! They are sound sleepers.

Atlas Shrugged has some good concepts in it, put its preachy, repetitive, and tiresome, and the horse is still very much dead at the end. As a read, “the fountainhead” is much more palatable, I.e. shorter, less in your face and less repetitive.

It's okay they don't bring anything to the table either. MB

Not read any

The movie was pretty low budget but many of the concepts are correct.

Bb

The typical published movie reviewer has little use for a meritocracy. They UNIVERSALLY hate everything about the Atlas Shrugged trilogy of movies.

No, you're not.

I got Gilgamesh. Should have pitched it. But my kid had to read the same gay ass chit, so I saved ourselves a few bucks. Dont need hermann hess either.

Send me something on Hermann Göring. i’m interested in henchmen not homos 😃

Why read a book when you have the ability to see into the future......

Most people are not capable of digesting the books she has written, the jerry Springer crew won't get it and they were not written for those folks.

It just kills me how many folks advertise their inability to educate themselves !

I know enough about her and her trash philosophy. I don't feel compelled to waste my time to read her books. Because I don't want to read trash doesn't mean I'm not "educated".

Start your Ayn Rand experience with Anthem. It’s much shorter and is an easy read. I believe Rush was influenced by it when they wrote 2112. We the Living is an interesting look at the Russian Revolution. The hardcore commie agitators scream for equality, but in Orwellian fashion become “more equal”than others. Life Antifa types, they hate successful people.

Read Atlas Shrugged while on my first hunting trip in Zimbabwe in 2000. It was just at the start of Mugube kicking the productive white farmers off the land. Was Ironic that I took that book with me.

That said I think she got paid by the word.

Her philosophy is pro meritocracy. Every man should earn according to his merits.

You have a problem with that? Would you be a died in the wool Marxist then?

Her philosophy is "objectivism", for which I hold no affinity.

Haven't seen the movie, but enjoyed reading her books.

This is a great thread. I liked her band when they sung Borned to be Wylde, but The Pusher, not so much.

Agreed. Fountainhead is a good read.

Don't agree with her views on religion. Long winded and preachy at times, but meritocracy based. Atlas Shrugged is eerily prophetic.

Read "Anthem" in high school as required reading.

Welcome to the club. Rand was kind of a crank, but she left a mark. Club needs to be bigger.

Books is like rifles.

Some folks are trading them away all the time.

Others get 'em and hold onto them until the sheriff comes to do the inventory for the probate process.

I tend toward the second type. Make them probate folks work for a living I say.

Is this Ayn chick related to the McNally Rands?

What kind of name is "Ayn", anyhow?

No, haven't read fiction since I had to in high school. Only read history books. I like to feel that I have learned something when I finish reading a book.

I read medical journals, studies and white papers on many topics.

Just because I don’t read Ayn Rand or Danielle Steele or have every episode of Gunsmoke memorized doesnt mean all I do is watch Jerry Springer and pick my scabs.

lol

Interesting.

Gotta stay ahead of the sawbones, eh?

Makes 'em think some when you tell them what's up, that's for sure.

I have no idea who that is

One intended to mask the stench of International Jewery.

Rosenbaum’s philosophy was pretty weak, and her childlike worldview came through in her LOLbertarian fiction as well.

"Ayn Rand" was a twisted bitch. A psychopath. Virulently anti-Christian. Sexually perverse (and an emotional basketcase). For her, greed was god. Altruism was the closest thing there was to "sin" in her sick worldview. Pure hedonism. Wealth, to her and her Objectivist followers, is a virtue. It is, perhaps, THE greatest virtue. It is all about selfishness (a term she, herself used).

And yet, near the end of her life, she collected Social Security....which her followers today still try to claim it's not hypocritical at all....

It's sad that so many "conservatives" and Christians today claim "Ayn Rand" as being so influential in their lives... but "conservatives" and Christians today have accepted so many other wicked and worldly things as well.

Ayn Rand's orbit has never strayed into my interest field. Would feel like a waste of time, would rather watch paint dry.

All I know about her so far is the way her values are portrayed in the three part movie of Atlas Shrugged. Unless the producer/director completely twisted the authors values (very possible), your portrayal is far off base.

The issue presented in the movie is not with altruism. The issue is with theft of property, proceeds, and intellect to be stolen by an aristocracy with some small portion given back to the peasants. (A system America is rapidly descending into. Accelerated hard by Obama)

Altruism is fine, as long as it is voluntary!

Did the author not pay taxes her entire life? Including payment into Social Security and Medicare? How then would it be hypocritical for her to receive back some small portion of her forced contributions?

If this is the definition of objectivist:
I am proud to be included in this group.

There are many lessons to be learned from fiction.

Even the most ardent Bible believer will tell us many portions are fiction and meant to be understood as fiction as they are there to teach a lesson. Parables??????

My portrayal was being generous, frankly. "Ayn Rand's" Objectivism goes FAR beyond that little "rationality quote". It is not hard to find information on the fullness of her "values".

Before accusing me of being a "Marxist" for pointing out her corrupt philosophy, perhaps you should endeavor to find out exactly what it was.

I made no accusations what so ever. I did ask a question. So you do not have to look up the previous post for yourself, here it is.

oh, please.

Interesting further reading here":https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ayn-rand/#Altr

As TRH stated earlier, I also can find little to disagree with.

Altruism as defined by Rand could easily equate with the "white guilt" we find in America today, and employed so successfully by the left.

We see where that form of altruism is getting us.

You seem to be trying to justify some of what you are beginning to discover about her. Just continue to study, and listen to her in her own words, and if you still find yourself in agreement with her, then so be it. But realize that her philosophy and positions share nothing with those of Christianity, nor with those of America's Founders.

You seem to be an educated person, and probably a Christian, based on your responses. I agree with your conclusion on objectivism, for both moral reasons and because some of the conclusions she draws in her academic works aren’t even fully supported by her own writings. However, it doesn’t mean that her writings are worthless, especially the fiction. As you probably know, she grew up in Russia during the Bolshevik revolution. Her family’s business was seized and she lived through Lenin’s forced indoctrination of Russian society. The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are worth reading for her observations and insights on collectivism, capitalism, the role of government, the dangers of compromise between good and evil, and the value of individual liberties. Try reading abridged versions of those books the way you would read Orwell, and you may gain at least some appreciation for their popularity.

Justification? Absolutely not!

There are many valuable philosophies in the world other than that of Christ. Many great civilizations have been built on principles other than Judeo/Christian/Islam.

Some of those societies even predate Abraham.

2 Thessalonians 3:10

For even when we were with you, this we commanded you: that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

I should say Ms. Rand's position is rather similar.

How shallow your investigation of "Ayn Rand"....

It is best to read her with her lexicon on objectivism near by.

Is there anyone here that hasn't re-read Ayn Rand more than once should have been the question.

I have that book, along with a few others of her political works.

Stophei, I've had social security taken from my paycheck for over the last 50 years. The government said it was for my benefit , but they have looted and pillaged the whole system for political gain and pork projects. Now I am old enough to collect my benefits that I earned by paying for them all these years, I will. Ayn Rand probably had to pay them also and wanted her benefits. I fault no one for wanting their ss benefits that have had to pay them all their working life. My problem with ss is a Gov't who wants to give away my benefits to someone who never paid for theirs every payday or ever earned them. What I read from Ayn Rand was simple " what do or did you bring to the table?" Productivity is the basis of a satisfying life. Being free to choose how to be productive and earn our way is what makes the US the greatest country on the planet.mb

I confess that of all the things I've read, I've never read Ayn Rand. She can't be all bate, though. She flushed ignorant bigots like Stickfight out of he swamp.

I read her for the first time in 9th grade when a friend recommended that I read Anthem. Have since read all of her books.

Back in the late 80’s while driving through a town, saw a sign that the local theater company was performing her only play and changed my plans so I could attend. The play is about a trial and was written with 2 endings based on the verdict reached by audience members that were randomly selected to be the jury. IIRC it was the first play ever written with 2 endings.

For those that have not read her works, I recommend - For The New Intellectual - it has excerpts from all of her works with an explanation of the characters and circumstances in which the dialogue is presented. In each case the excerpt is in some way a summation statement of a major theme/tenet of the book. Those from Anthem, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are especially worth reading in depth.

I read all her books - Fountainhead, Shrugged, We the Living, Anthem, Objectivist Epistemology, The Virtue of Selfishness, etc. before i was out of my teens. A bunch of her "Ayn Rand Letters." I even have a copy of her "Art of Non-fiction." (My old man was the real life Don Draper. He had all that stuff and got me into her early, though not so early as he got me into guns and shooting .)

I was wildly impressed with her when i was 16. Which i think makes total sense.