Another quote from Ayn Rand’s speech “Apollo and Dionysus” that I linked to on Monday.  This one deals with, in short, Ayn Rand’s view on America’s role in fighting for freedom around the world.   This seemed a particularly relevant given the current concern over intervening in various areas around the world.

One thing that was not covered in this brief answer that would be extremely important, is what exactly is “freedom.”  As I pointed out in an earlier post, it definitely isn’t simply democracy.  In light of this, I would ask whether any of the hot spots around the globe actually are instances where people are fighting for “freedom” as opposed to fighting to be able to impose their own whims while violating the rights of others?

And when it comes to this country, here is where we should fight them [communism and fascism].  But as to any fight for freedom abroad I believe: let us send all military equipment we can spare without sacrifice to any fight for freedom, whether it is of the fascist kind or the communist kind, which are of course two variants of the same thing.   Don’t ever let us dare take American lives to sacrifice them to somebody else’s freedom.  Or to sacrifice them in any form.