Reason Foundation Co-Founder Manny Klausner on Ayn Rand

[felpaluche]

Amazing story.

[JoeJC]

Fantastic story.

[Panpiper]

Ayn Rand and the book, Atlas Shrugged, was my own catalyst for waking up to reality. I was a typically ignorant, self professed socialist at the age of 19 and had made some sort of political remark to my much older and wiser girlfriend of 25, to which her reply was to ask if I would be willing to read a book she would suggest. I was head over heels in love with this woman and of course agreed. She pulled Atlas Shrugged of her shelf and handed it to me.

My life changed.

[DeraJa]

Rand is insane.

[truenorthstrongfree]

Reprint that November 1973 issue!!

[AJinFM]

I could listen to Manny Klausner all day. Thanks Reason. Thanks Manny.

[carolyncriss]

Love it. Keep 'em coming.

[NickDiPerna]

Excellent story!

[carshooter]

An editorial publication such as Reason is free to write and publish articles on anyone without a person's consent. It goes right to the first amendment of the US Constitution. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

There is a big difference between that and commercial use (where one would need to obtain a person's permission). Commercial use of a person's likeness is usually considered an endorsement of the product being promoted (as in endorsing a brand of soap or a car).

[averagejoe040]

Ayn Rand could take Obama in an ECW match.

Too bad she's gone. She'd kick his Marxist ass.

[highonhayek]

LOL that's a great story :D

[ian2470147]

Goddamn, why are they talking about Rand so much. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like some of her writing (mainly her non-fiction, never cared for her novels), but jeez.

[martinaoe2]

Opps thumbed you up by mistake. I love this series.!

[haypenny]

Honey - she's essentially the founder of the Libertarian movement and an extremely important thinker and champion of freedom. Reason has done a few videos in a series on Rand recently due to the anniversary of 'Atlas Shrugged'.

[ian2470147]

The founder of Libertarianism? Not really. Objectivism yes (obviously) but not Libertarianism. Hell, Adam Smith and Thomas Paine supported Libertarian ideals (back then it was called Liberalism though) a good 150 years before Rand.

Again, I acknowledge he importance, and I do like her a fair bit, but it just seems like everything in Reason has been on Rand lately.

[haypenny]

Yes, I should have said modern libertarianism. Anyway, I didn't mean to infer that she's the only inspiration for the movement. And Reason is commemorating 'Atlas' I believe. Take Care.

[ian2470147]

Oh, is it an anniversary type thing? That makes sense then.

[eksortso]

It's a timely tribute thing. They're doing videos about Rand all this month. Many 20th-century libertarians were influenced by Rand, and since Atlas Shrugged is selling so well lately and since there are two new biographies about the woman, why not make the most of it?

[RatkoUSA]

Absolutely correct, the liberalism of the founders is the libertarianism of today. The Founders were not authoritarian statists, the very opposite.

Nonetheless, you can never get too much Atlas.

[Hakaanu]

@RatkoUSA

Not correct for all the founders. That's the problem when you lump 5 dozen individual politicians into one homogeneous blob. The Federalists and their ideas were very important to many of the founders, most of whom were from New England. Hamilton wanted to reduce the states to "mere administrative units" and have a large standing army that was used to further the interests of the United States. Washington largely agreed with some of the federalists ideals, but certainly not all.

[soundmoneyfan]

Awesome stuff.

[davidngo4415]

Rand is in the right on this one.  They had no right to profit over Rand's image without her consent.

[politEgoEgonomics]

Mr.davidngo4415 is right on this one, too. ):and doesn't merit all of the thumbs down:(

If one stops to analyse this scenario correctly, it comes down to cause and effect.

*Reason magazine* had everything to gain by hijacking Miss Rand's name and image for a cause that She emphatically stated as incompatible with Her Philosophy of Objectivism. This is the unfortunate anti-intellectual trap that this faction uses to gain popularity...

...and also why the Galt's Gulch refuge is closed to them.

[arbide2]

This for me is the fundamental difference between the left, right and libertarian; libertarians use logic and reason instead of blind ideological faith. Yes people Ayn Rand was not perfect but deeply flawed.

[UrbyKris]

@arbide2 Right... it's nice to scream what you hear from you herd but can you clarify that position? And she didn't folow blind ideological faith, she has stated in her books that she is against just that.

[UrbyKris]

@UrbyKris

your herd*

[xkeltoix]

if they went door to door with atlas shrugged, the world would become radical socialists

[skibiskit]

Wow that would have been an interesting case. It is quite a shock though that Ayn Rand would behave in such a way over this. Maybe she had nothing to do with it? Maybe the lawyer was fake? Maybe he was real but decided to take it upon himself to make such demands without Ayn Rand's consent? I don't know it just seems odd.

[conductus]

Great interview! I, too, loved the "Rand vs Reason" possibility. It would be interesting if Reason would/could re-print that issue for re-sale.

[MooseOfReason]

"Rand v. Reason."

Lol, yeah, that would be awesome.