In reading Ayn Rand’s essay “The New Fascism: Rule by Consensus,” she has what I found to be a perfect and succinct description of the current state of our government and economy.
A mixed economy is rule by pressure groups. It is an amoral, institutionalized civil war of special interests and lobbies, all fighting to seize a momentary control of the legislative machinery, to extort some special privilege at one another’s expense by an act of government–i.e.
Swapping back to Ayn Rand’s “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal” for a bit, and came across this quote on upholding freedom.
Here are this past week’s episodes of the podcasts I try to listen to in order further my understanding of the principles of Objectivism and how to apply them to everyday life.
Philosophy in Action with Dr. Diana Hsieh
Yaron Brook on Leonard Peikoff’s Podcast – Episode 288
Now that I have finished reading “Locavore’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000 Mile Diet” I am back to “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal” and quickly came across this quote. The essay was written nearly 50 years ago, but it is still valid today.
The next time you hear a discussion of Medicare, give some thought to the future-particularly to the future of your children, who will live at a time when the best brains available will no longer choose to go into medicine.
I have
I am still reading Ayn Rand’s “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal,” this time her essay on the art of the smear. Once again I am struck at how situations she pointed out nearly 50 years ago are still present in our society today. I am unsure whether this is hopeful, if the same things are still being done then maybe we haven’t gone as far down this road as I might fear, or not.
This particular quote is referring to an interview given by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller
In her essay “The Pull Peddlers” which is part of “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal,” Ayn Rand discusses the phenomena of lobbying. This is a very interesting essay and as applicable today as when it was written more than 50 years ago.
The first quote I want to share is her definition of lobbying:
“Lobbying” is the activity of attempting to influence legislation by privately influencing the legislators. It is the result and creation of a mixed economy–of
I was asked on Twitter the other day to explain the difference between Objectivism and raw greed. Twitter is not really a good platform to answer such a question, but my attempt was two tweets:
short and incomplete answer: time frame. Objectivism=long range, lifetime view; “pure greed”=short range, spur of the moment
And rationality (Objectivism) vs irrationality (raw greed).
I thought I would make an attempt here to provide a more complete answer given my current state of knowledge.
Yet another quote from Ayn Rand’s “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal,” also from Alan Greenspan’s essay “The Assault on Integrity,” I cannot help but think of Mayor Bloomberg and his various attempts at “protecting” consumers, whether it be from saturated fats, sugary drinks (some of them any way), or lack of exercise (by passing a law “encouraging” the use of stairs).
The hallmark of collectivists is their deep-rooted distrust of freedom
On my return flight from vacation, I had time to read more in Ayn Rand’s “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal,” and I was amazed how much of my Kindle copy I ended up highlighting in the chapters I read, so expect a fair number of quotes to come.
This first is from the essay “Notes on the History of American Free Enterprise” by Ayn Rand, and references something I see a lot of among my conspiracy theory loving friends on Facebook, especially in regards to oil companies and