Ayn Rand and/or Atlas Shrugged Quotes to ponder

[Ghost Bear]

Gotta say--as much as I appreciated the Francisco d'Anconia speech, I loathed the tiresome repetition of the John Galt speech.

Yes... the previous two times that I read the book, I skipped over most of John Galt's speech. This time, I have promised myself to read through the entire speech. But it isn't easy... I'm on my fourth day of reading just the speech (I don't have a lot of time each day to read, unfortunately, but still, it's taking a long time...)

[oldno7]

 From John Galt, being held against his will(pg. 1102)

 "That's not true, said Mr. Thompson brightly.
If you had a broken leg, you'd pay a doctor to set it."
"Not if he was the one who broke it." replied Galt

[mountaineer]

Anyone on Facebook might be interested in joining https://www.facebook.com/AtlasSociety

They posted this today: Fear of Independence Drives the Blind Stampede to Worship at the Altar of "The Current Thing" -- Whatever it Is! with a link to the article A Self-Help Guide to Living in a Free Society.

 I've also joined this FB group: Ayn Rand and Christianity.

[Lando Lincoln]

@mountaineer Thanks for the links.

[mountaineer]

Interesting thoughts from the fellow at the Ayn Rand and Christianity Facebook page. I hadn't come across the anti-Rand sentiment he describes.

Cody Libolt Media
35m  ·
Jesus Christ AND Ayn Rand?
By Jacob Brunton

The media is abuzz about a “schism” in the Republican Party, a “crisis of values” among Conservatives. But, the media — and unfortunately those responding to it — are all too superficial to see that this is more than a political schism; much more.

The political aspect is just a faint echo — a tremor, which serves as a precursor to the massive coming earthquake.
It is not a political crisis, but a philosophical one.

It is not a crisis of conflicting opinions among groups. It is a crisis of conflicting worldviews within individuals.
It is a crisis in the deepest part of one’s soul; a crisis of cognitive dissonance run rampant in the minds of men, a war between ideals — and the opposing ideals are not what the headlines would lead you to believe:

  “Take a Stand Against Rand” says Christian author, Marvin Olasky in World Magazine.
  “Ayn Rand or Jesus Christ? Conservatives can’t have it both ways” says Mike Lux of the Huffington Post.
  “You Can’t Reconcile Ayn Rand and Jesus” says CNN Contributor and Professor of Religion at Boston University, Stephan Plethero in a USA Today Forum.
  “Christians Must Choose: Ayn Rand or Jesus” reads a headline for the American Values Network.

There is a choice to be made, but it isn’t between Jesus Christ and Ayn Rand. It’s between reason and irrationality; between reality and fantasy; between the objective and the subjective; between truth and fairytales.

And it is a choice that primarily needs to be made by Christians.

The political and religious commentators above are quick to blindly pit Christianity against the philosophy of Ayn Rand and then proceed to wholly denounce one in favor of the other as if the two are some random opposing sports teams behind which the masses are to gather according their personal and subjective preferences.

They drop, or entirely ignore, the context and the nature of what is being discussed. These are not sports teams — they are worldviews; ideas about reality. And the context is not a popularity contest — it is reality.

We are in reality and we are speaking of different views of that reality. Any given aspect of a view of reality will either be accurate or not: true or false. And this, the accuracy of a worldview (or aspects of it) is what matters in the context of reality.

The question to be asked first is not: Are the worldviews of Christianity and Objectivism (Ayn Rand’s philosophy) compatible?
Rather it is: What is true?

Or, more specific to the context of this discussion: Is there any truth in Christianity or in Objectivism? And here is where the Christian must make the crucial choice mentioned above: will he be an advocate of reason, rationality, and objective truth by objectively assessing the truthfulness of his conceptions of Christianity (and willingly rejecting that which is found to be untrue), or will he be an advocate of irrationality, fantasy, and subjective fairytales by insisting that Christianity is true without any objective reason for believing so — that it’s true merely because he wants it to be.

This — devotion to truth, regardless of the implications — is the foundational and indispensible first step that any man who wishes to be worthy of the title of “Man” must take.

Apart from this first step, every thought and crafty sentence, every argument and concept of “proof”, every illusion of truth in one’s head is just that: an illusion — a fleeting and floating cloud of subjective, emotionally charged nothingness.

And, therefore, apart from this step, every critique of other worldviews and every bit of “intellectual” commentary is massively pointless and absurd — akin to a child babbling about his dreams to a board of directors in a business meeting.

Such is the majority of content of the articles above.

However, once one has taken that first step and decided to live for and love the truth no matter where it may lead, then — and only then — is he fit (assuming he is armed with a proper epistemology) to evaluate the truthfulness, not only of various conceptions of Christianity, but of all ideas, period.

Then, he is fit to discover all of the truth — no matter where it came from and no matter where it leads.

Then, he will be capable of rising above the stupid and trite ‘sports game’ demonstrated in the above articles and throughout the media, in order to see what is and is not true in the philosophy of Ayn Rand, and to properly integrate it with all other truth which he has discovered, particularly truth about Christianity.

Then, rather than emulate the intellectual cowardice of the Seminary professor who told Dr. John Piper that “[Ayn Rand’s writing] is incredibly dangerous”, he will be able to emulate Paul’s description of an intellectual hero — a ‘spiritual man who appraises all things’ (1 Cor 2:15) because he will have an objective standard against which to appraise all things.

Then, he will be equipped to say with Paul “we destroy speculations and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ “(2 Cor. 10:5) because he will no longer be running from speculations and lofty opinions or retreating to his own personal fantasy-land which he calls “truth”.

This is what is desperately needed on the part of Christians today (and on the part of every man in general).  This is not the only step which needs to be taken, but it is the first. This is what I have done, and am eager to continually do.

And this first step — together with the path to which it leads — is why I can very comfortably and confidently say that I love Jesus Christ and I love Ayn Rand — and, I love myself.

This is the foundational reason that, in spite of massively popular contrary opinions, I can very seriously — and with full conviction — call myself a Christian egoist.

https://www.facebook.com/cody.libolt/

[mountaineer]

This looks interesting - a new book Critical Essays on Ayn Rand's the Fountainhead, by Emre Gurgen.
 Info at Amazon

[mountaineer]

Posted at The Atlas Society Facebook page:

[Hoodat]

Interesting thoughts from the fellow at the Ayn Rand and Christianity Facebook page. I hadn't come across the anti-Rand sentiment he describes.

.  .  .  “You Can’t Reconcile Ayn Rand and Jesus” says CNN Contributor and Professor of Religion at Boston University, Stephan Plethero in a USA Today Forum.  .  .

So what?  You can't reconcile Stephan Plethero and Jesus either.

btw, if you need to find a Boston University professor willing to prove the existence of G-d, you will have to search the Physics Dept.

Rand was a true atheist which is extremely rare among those purporting to be atheists but are really just denying G-d's existence because they are angry He didn't do things the way they would have done them.  Rand views the world without G-d in it.  But that does not detract from the points she is making about those who live to force control over other people's lives.

[Lando Lincoln]

"When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt, but protects the corrupt from you - you know your nation is doomed."
- Ayn Rand

Worth repeating.

[Bigun]

Worth repeating.

  Thanks for the reminder @Lando Lincoln

[Maj. Bill Martin]

The only true point of conflict I see between Rand and Jesus is in her personal rejection of what she labels as "altruism", which includes individuals voluntarily choosing to do good deeds just to help others.  I think she got a little wonky on that sometimes in terms of discussing charity.

But when people say "Jesus was a socialist", that's nuts.  Jesus never advocated that Pilate, or Herod, or Tiberius raise taxes on people in order to redistribute their wealth by force of law.  There's no "tax the rich" speech anywhere in the New Testament.  And that's how socialists do it.  In fact, if you have government doing that, then a bunch of Jesus' teachings become irrelevant.

Jesus advocated private charity -- voluntary giving -- which is perfectly compatible with capitalism/libertarianism.  What isn't compatible with His teaching is the government taking everyone's money and then redistributing it as those in power see fit.

[Kamaji]

The only true point of conflict I see between Rand and Jesus is in her personal rejection of what she labels as "altruism", which includes individuals voluntarily choosing to do good deeds just to help others.  I think she got a little wonky on that sometimes in terms of discussing charity.

But when people say "Jesus was a socialist", that's nuts.  Jesus never advocated that Pilate, or Herod, or Tiberius raise taxes on people in order to redistribute their wealth by force of law.  There's no "tax the rich" speech anywhere in the New Testament.  And that's how socialists do it.  In fact, if you have government doing that, then a bunch of Jesus' teachings become irrelevant.

Jesus advocated private charity -- voluntary giving -- which is perfectly compatible with capitalism/libertarianism.  What isn't compatible with His teaching is the government taking everyone's money and then redistributing it as those in power see fit.

[Gefn]

Ayn Rand was all the rage when I was in college.

I have to bookmark this thread.

[mountaineer]

I didn't know about Ayn Rand when I was in my 20s, but an event like this would have appealed to me:

Join The Atlas Society for our inaugural student conference in Music City this summer!

The Galt’s Gulch Summit will deepen young people’s understanding of Ayn Rand's ideas, and equip them with the philosophical tools necessary to think critically, act independently, set meaningful personal goals, find win-win relationships, and defend their rational self-interest. The summit will be held at the Nashville Marriott on Vanderbilt Campus – and kicks off the afternoon of Thursday, July 27th, and ends the afternoon of Saturday, July 29th.  ...

If you’re looking for a weekend getaway with other people your age who are interested in ideas – then Galt’s Gulch Summit is for you! Spots are limited to 50 young adult attendees (ages 18 – 27 ) – so don’t wait, you can secure your spot for a nominal fee: young adult discounted tickets are just $50!   ...

https://www.atlassociety.org/galtsgulchsummit2023?fbclid=IwAR3agyVr6W5faHG22MiFo0UrfuSpZgDoe_XMAiBhko0PR7AcC4Gz45WH_8Y

[Cyber Liberty]

[mountaineer]

Ayn Rand’s Thoughts on the Middle East and Israel
Edward Hudgins
October 9, 2023

... We can turn to Ayn Rand for insights about why such an economically successful state as Israel with an open society is so hated by its neighbors.

1. EAST-WEST CONFLICT AND ISRAEL

In 1974, Ayn Rand was asked about American Middle East policy in the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli War of the previous year. That was the fourth war since the modern state of Israel was established in 1948. It was the fourth time that the little country had had to fight for its existence. There have been many attacks in the half-century since then, culminated in the current Hamas attack.

While Rand did not advocate sending American troops into the conflict, she did argue that America should “Give all the help possible to Israel.” She stated specifically that “the help Israel needs is technology and military weapons—and they need them desperately. Why should we help Israel?” She explained that at that time, Israel was “fighting not just the Arabs but Soviet Russia, who is sending the Arabs armaments.” ...

2.     PREMODERN VS. MODERN ARAB-ISRAELI CULTURE CLASH

“The Arabs are one of the least developed cultures,” Rand argued. “They are typically nomads. Their culture is primitive, and they resent Israel because it's the sole beachhead of modern science and civilization on their continent.” ...

https://www.atlassociety.org/post/ayn-rands-thoughts-on-the-middle-east-and-israel

[mountaineer]

Atlas Society has put out a trailer for the book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUn6JJsJroA

[Lando Lincoln]

Atlas Society has put out a trailer for the book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUn6JJsJroA

Interesting. I like the animation. It seems like a perfect way to dramatize the entire book, maybe as a series.

Thanks for posting.

[mountaineer]

We are, I fear, in the dystopia Rand imagined.

Jeremy Kauffman 🦔
@jeremykauffman
I would like to apologize for saying Ayn Rand's villains were excessive as a young man.
8:10 AM · Oct 6, 2024

[Lando Lincoln]

Jeremy Kauffman 🦔
@jeremykauffman
I would like to apologize for saying Ayn Rand's villains were excessive as a young man.
8:10 AM · Oct 6, 2024

It is shocking how quickly it is happening.