Few authors have ever achieved the popularity that the novelist and essayist Ayn Rand (1905-1982) did.
With the publication of The Fountainhead in 1943 and Atlas Shrugged in 1957, Rand became a f...
Few authors have ever achieved the popularity that the novelist and essayist Ayn Rand (1905-1982) did.
With the publication of The Fountainhead in 1943 and Atlas Shrugged in 1957, Rand became a full-blown cultural phenomenon, selling millions of books and inspiring countless readers—ranging from former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner to actress Angelina Jolie—with her moral defense of capitalism.
A refugee from Soviet Russia, Rand argued that capitalism was the best way of organizing society not simply because it was more efficient than communism but because it allowed the individual to fill his or her potential. A self-declared "radical for capitalism," Rand emphatically rejected collectivism of all stripes and embraced "man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."
Decades after her death, Rand's work is hotter than ever. In an age of massive government intervention into every aspect of the economy and personal lives, sales of her books are way up and a movie version of Atlas Shrugged is in the works. References to Rand are everywhere from Mad Men to The Colbert Report to The Simpsons and there's even a new critical appreciation, as evidenced by two new biographies, Ayn Rand And The World She Made and Goddess of The Market: Ayn Rand And The American Right.
Approximately four minutes long and produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie, "Rand-O-Rama" analyzes the 21st-century Rand renaissance.
It is part of the Reason.tv series Radicals For Capitalism: Celebrating the Ideas of Ayn Rand. Go here for more information, other videos, and related materials. http://reason.org/rand
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Please educate me. Why is marijuana illegal? If we are reasonable animals, then there should be some reason why we have spent 70 years and trillions of dollars on marijuana prohibition. and the reason is? I am waiting...
you must be fucking kidding me. The USSR 'valued human excellence' as much as the Nazis valued the achievements of Jewish culture. And they showed their appreciation in pretty much the same way - killing not only everybody who opposed, but also those who could potentialy oppose , with guns, concentration camps, starvation etc.
More than 50 years ago Ayn Rand was denounced for predicting the logical consequences of this country's proceeding along an altruist, collectivist path. Now that she has been shown to have been so amazingly prescient, you might think her critics would give her some credit. But no. I do not even attempt to argue with statists anymore. It just is not worth my time. Those who believe that we owe our lives to the State will NEVER understand Rand.
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Ayn Rand's views are gaining ground, as any true ideas must eventualy in spite of the enormous lashout from stagnating minds who are afraid of change
I believe that is a confession on your part and not a general truth of human nature.