Francisco d'Anconia's 'Money Speech' from Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand

[vonGleichenT]

very nice!

[pvisserandorra]

What about the future generation, who have no money and thus no voice. What will the future generations create in honesty? What resources will be left for them to profit from. Why will they not exploit without the consequence of future generations?

[redshark618]

This book is one of the worst books of all time, up there with Dianetics in its absurdity. Anyone who is not a 15-year-old who loves this book should be ashamed.

[AnubisEye009]

@redshark618 I'm not.

[TurnAGundam]

@redshark618 Moocher scum.

[redshark618]

@TurnAGundam Do your best to keep your beliefs to yourself and you'll not alienate others. And I promise you the day will come when you'll look back on your Rand days and wonder how you ever believed this stuff. Let me guess, you're about 16-18 years old, right? Trust me when I tell you it's a phase.

[TurnAGundam]

@redshark618 While I apologize for letting myself get carried away, it is by no means a phase. I will serve this cause with all the loyalty I can possibly muster, now and forevermore.  There is nothing that will dissuade me. Also, I'm 22. >:(

[redshark618]

@TurnAGundam Don't you think I believed that too? I can assure you I did.

[TurnAGundam]

@redshark618 So what dissuaded you? 0_o

[redshark618]

@TurnAGundam After a while I realized that the world is not how Rand describes it. The world is not black and white, like she so desperately wants it to be.  There aren't supremely good or evil people. We all have our good intentions and our flaws, and to divide the two into some kinds of classes would be to cut through the heart of every man. (that's Tolstoy btw)

[TurnAGundam]

@redshark618 Who's to say both are wrong? Surely, there ARE supremely good and evil people as well as the others you and Tolstoy described? Ayn Rand is not my entire belief system, she is a foundation, along with Robert A. Heinlein, George S. Patton, Patrick Henry, and the samurai class itself (mostly men like Date Masamune, Uesugi Kenshin, Takeda Shingen, and Sanada Yukimura). Admittedly, they seem somewhat contradictory, but I'm trying to add a sort of equilibrium to my life.

[redshark618]

@TurnAGundam "I will serve this cause with all the loyalty I can possibly muster. There is nothing that will dissuade me."

Sounds like nothing less than an entire belief system to me..

As for supremely good and evil people, you must remember that no individual truly desires to be evil. Even Hitler and Stalin were working toward an ideal, albeit a perverted one. They truly thought they were doing the world a service. I don't think either thought himself to be the incarnation of evil.

[fntime]

@redshark618 I agree, man has flaws, but what he aspires

to is what separates 'good or evil people'

Suggestion, check out Nietzsche's Slave Morality,

'good or evil people', you seem to identify with the

Slave Morality, which is just another mind 'program'.

Rand has flaws that her supporters often overlook,

but your comments don't either explain or expose.

Good luck!

[joesmoe71]

@redshark618 Well I guess it's a good thing nobody is forcing you to read it, pity for you that you don't and never will have a say in whether anyone else does.

[redshark618]

@joesmoe71 Well, honestly this book has some value to me.  It lets me know who to avoid. The one who shouts the loudest about Rand is usually the one who also has a superiority complex and a meager education.

[joesmoe71]

@redshark618 You throw these petty insults around like you're somehow going to hurt people that don't agree with you on Rand, but I think 99% of the people you're trying to bully don't even bother replying to you here, because frankly they don't need or want the approval of people like you, and personally I'm done with you.

You stink of insecurity and fear with your insults and it's quite pathetic, like a small dog locked in a car, biting the window at passing strangers. Good luck to you.

[redshark618]

@joesmoe71 lol you replied to that comment..

[Kalvin40]

I'd prefer it if it was stated in a more solemn tone...

[reardenmedals]

The A/S movie would have benefited drastically if they would have included this speech - or even a part of it.

[mrrobotica]

@reardenmedals This speech is from Part II of the novel.

[jamesellis33]

Wow that was a long speech. Its different when its you reading it. Something I wonder is saying this to the parasites of no minds is a waste. In real life this would have never occurred he was so articulate and to waste such words on people that most would must likely tune out the first few sentences is an injustice to himself. I obviously know this speech was more for our benefit, that the actual characters. I real life being so articulate would evoke violence from the resentful persons. yup xD

[mrrobotica]

@jamesellis33 The speech was entirely for Rearden. That was made quite clear.

[joesmoe71]

Thanks for posting this, it should be required reading/listening in every classroom across America

[redshark618]

@joesmoe71 No it shouldn't. Teaching children what to think is not the same as teaching them how to think. I believed in this book, too, when I was 15.

[joesmoe71]

@redshark618 It's a novel not a bible, I'm 40 and I've never "believed" in this book, just had a great amount of respect for the author's viewpoints and independance of thought, even though there's much I don't agree with her about. For some reason the left finds that threatening

.

Now believing that we can magically continue to consume more than we produce forever, THAT takes a leap in faith, and that there's such a thing as "charity" extorted at the ends of a government's guns.

[joesmoe71]

@redshark618 BTW, not assuming you do, but do you find schools mandating children watch and read "An Inconvenient Truth", "Fahrenheit 9/11", and "Heather Has Two Mommies" exceptable? When I was a kid I was made to read a book which made a hero out of a kid whom turned in his own father for "hoardering" food for his family during an economic collapse, I can't remember the title and even though I was a lib back then I was appalled, was that ok but not giving me an alterative viewpoint like Rand's?

[superwawisuperstars]

Money wont buy you intelligence? Go have "looters" dig out your mines.

[TheDrCN]

@superwawisuperstars I'm not quite sure what you are saying here. Money isn't the source of intelligence. Intelligence is the source of money. I'm not sure how looters' inability to accomplish anything useful disproves this.

[ShrugMeSilly245]

‎"Blood, whips and guns--or dollars. Take your choice."

[ruexcited]

"When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed." Ayn Rand

[mkloppel]

Best audio book. Best novel. Greatest philosopher. Ever.

[RCT3Enthusiast]

I am John Galt

[VeritasPanther]

@RCT3Enthusiast

So am I. :D

[mrrobotica]

@RCT3Enthusiast I really don't like that kind of statement. It seems overly boastful. It's certainly possible to be morally perfect in that you place reason as supreme in all aspects of life and constantly practice as such but to be John Galt is much more than that. The only person I think even approaches him is Ayn Rand.

[RCT3Enthusiast]

@mrrobotica No doubt, alas, we can always try :)

[TurnAGundam]

@RCT3Enthusiast In John Galt we trust. :D