Atlas Shrugged promotes a philosophy of reason, embodied in the strike of the men of the mind. That doesn’t mean suppressing emotions; it means knowing how thought and feeling, head and heart, work together in a good life.
Atlas Shrugged is more than a political thriller. It’s a love story. What is love? Is it selfish or selfless? (Featuring clips from Atlas
Atlas Shrugged is more than a political thriller. It’s a love story. What is love? Is it selfish or selfless? (Featuring clips from Atlas Shrugged Part III .)
Atlas Shrugged Part III, the concluding installment of the film trilogy of Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel, is now in theaters. Its producers are on
ATLAS SUMMIT 2014 -- Why did John Galt say: “I was an inventor. I was one of a profession that came last in human history and will be first
Salon.com hates Ayn Rand and Objectivism. The latest evidence is a gratuitous jab, tarring AWriter Sean McElweeyn Rand a conservative and..
The central plot device in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is the strike of the producers led by John Galt. And the essential purpose of the
1967: Ayn Rand is interviewed on WKCR, a Columbia University student-run radio station. She is asked about the reason for hostility and the "deep antagonism" that some critics of capitalism express toward it.
Ayn Rand answers questions from students about the difference between Objectivism and Nietzscheism.
In the 1970s, I attended courses taught by Leonard Peikoff and Alan Blumenthal. Ayn Rand was often present and I got to know her a bit...
GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says that Republicans “have often lost sight of the fact that our average voter is not John Galt.
Two scenes from Atlas Shrugged Part 1 illustrate Ayn Rand’s principle that when people engage in voluntary trade, exchanging value for value, they are treating each other not “as masters or slaves, but as independent equals”—the highest form of human respect.
In a dramatic scene from Atlas Shrugged Part 2 , Hank Rearden tells a pragmatic young bureaucrat, “Try pouring a ton of steel without rigid principles.” His remark expresses Ayn Rand’s profound insight about the role of principles in human life, from science and technology to ethics and politics.
This scene, in which Dagny Taggart confronts her brother James about the need to upgrade a rail line, illustrates the difference between her rationality and his second-hand thinking. Dagny is focused on facts as she deals with the reality of a train wreck; James is focused on the opinions of other people.
In the famous “money speech,” Francisco d’Anconia responds to of the Biblical statement "money is the root of all evil" by explaining the real essence of money. Money is a medium of exchange, the means by which people trade value for value. And it represents the fact that wealth must be created by production.
Early in Atlas Shrugged Part 1 , Hank Rearden has two conversations that illustrate the conflict between makers and takers. Hank made his wealth by creating value in his business. His dependent brother Phillip is a taker, self-righteously asking for charity; as are the politicians and crony capitalists who seize wealth by force.
When Hank Rearden is put on trial for violating a government regulation imposed on his business, he invokes the principle that individuals are ends in themselves, with the moral right to pursue their own lives and well-being—including the right to run his by business by the judgment of his own mind and to keep the fruits of his labor.
When the “Equalization of Opportunity” bill forces Hank Rearden to sell off most of his companies, we see why property rights are essential human rights. Together with rights of contract, they allow everyone, including successful producers like Hank, to make rational, long-range plans.
Karl Marx’s principle "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" is not a moral ideal, as many people have believed. It is flagrantly unjust, a prescription for chaining the individual to the collective and forcing the sacrifice of all to all.
When Hank Rearden is put on trial for violating a government regulation imposed on his business, he invokes the principle that individuals are ends in themselves, with the moral right to pursue their own lives and well-being—including the right to run his by business by the judgment of his own mind and to keep the fruits of his labor.
