• • • Greenspan’s folly 
Darrin W. Snyder Belousek, America Atlas Shrugged  The Virtue of Selfishness  Capitalism  Egoism  As explained in her book The Virtue of Selfishness (1964), Rand believed that the individual exists solely for her own happiness and thus that rational self-interest is the only objective basis for moral action. There are no moral constraints on the selfish pursuit of personal happiness, except force and fraud. And there is no moral duty to sacrifice individual advantage for any greater good, because there simply is no greater good than personal happiness (“egoism”). In the view of the objectivist philosophy, the only moral economic system is laissez-faire capitalism, which gives free rein to the selfish pursuit of individual profit. Accordingly, government should be minimal, limited to national defense, property protection and criminal prosecution.     Share on Facebook

• • Wobbly wind sector sets sights on stimulus 
Colin Sullivan, New York Times Ayn Rand Institute  Capitalism  Yaron Brook  To Yaron Brook, president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, the stimulus is the latest example of government meddling in free markets to subsidize uncompetitive energy sources. Brook said the government, in setting up the grants [for renewal energy], would distort energy markets by favoring wind, solar and other renewable sources. He compared the policy shift under the Obama administration to lawmakers' subsidizing of mortgages, which led to "enormous unintended consequences."     Share on Facebook

• • • Privileged threaten to ‘go Galt’ 
Sheila Suess Kennedy, Indianapolis Star Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  What is ironic [...] about these publicized threats to "go Galt" -- which in this case means to cut back on work in order to keep one's taxable income under $250,000 -- is that they are being made by folks who have a lot more in common with Rand's "looters" than with John Galt. These threats are coming from people who have prospered by doing all the things Rand (and Galt) hated. They are people who were born into privilege, people whose companies benefitted from favorable tax breaks, lax regulation and the ability to hire lobbyists to skew the system in their favor, rather than through the production of anything of value. They look more like the novel's James Taggert, the slimy, politically connected, perpetually whining brother of heroine Dagny Taggert.     Share on Facebook

• • • Shouldering the burden 
Alex Conley, Daily Emerald (U of OR, Eugene) Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  I had always been wary of Objectivism as a philosophy because, as inept as operating under blind faith is, a belief system that is essentially the polar opposite is, in my opinion, just as harmful. Reason can be used to justify unconscionable acts just as easily as faith, such as when hardliner bioethicists have advocated the murder of people suffering from Down's syndrome or other debilitating diseases because they are a burden on society and the resources spent caring for them could be better utilized for a "whole" individual. This put-upon behavior the upper echelon has so readily adopted is absurd. If this is the kind of thing Objectivism advocates, it's not just a misguided philosophy, it's an idiotic one. If those who favor "Going Galt" are to be believed, it is far more fair and, in fact, smart, to expect those of lesser income to shoulder higher taxes, while 10 percent of this nation (which holds two-thirds of the entire national wealth) expects a tax break.     Share on Facebook

• • Childe Byron’s journey 
Paul Nurse, National Post (Toronto) Atlas Shrugged  The Fountainhead  A direct link can be established between the Byronic creations of Harold, Conrad and Manfred through Nietzsche, Albert Camus' radical individualists and down to Ayn Rand's self-asserting protagonists Howard Roark and John Galt.     Share on Facebook

• How about nationalizing the Federal Reserve? 
Bill Hare, OpEdNews Remember those days of not that long ago when Allen Greenspan was chairman of the Federal Reserve? Recall that the well known student of Ayn Rand objectivism was called The Bubble King?     Share on Facebook

• • • Another view of writer Ayn Rand 
Durren Anderson, News-Journal (Longview, TX) Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Egoism  Personal life  Ayn Rand, who immigrated to this country from Russia in 1926, was an avowed atheist who believed that selfishness (egoism) was the highest virtue that a human being could possess. All else in her philosophy flows from this core principle. It stands to reason then, that in her view, altruism was the greatest blight humanity has ever known. When such ideas are superimposed onto a society and its policies, the result is the blind individualism, ruthlessness and indifference to human suffering exemplified in Rand's novels and essays. Though understandably bitter that her father's successful business was confiscated by the leadership in Soviet Russia, Rand seems to have rejected one extreme ideology in favor of another.     Share on Facebook

• Classic of the week: Murders in the Rue Morgue 
Alek Bock, The Examiner Along with Ayn Rand books, classic novels and stories in general are seeing a pretty high spike in sales.     Share on Facebook

• • • Obama Is GM’s New chairman of the board 
Jeff Harding, Noozhawk (Santa Barbara, CA) Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Please spare me the lecture about [Ayn Rand’s] shortcomings or her writing style. Fifty years after it was first published, she still sells 200,000 copies a year [of Atlas Shrugged]. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the novel, its premise is that the world needs entrepreneurs, their brains, their drive and capitalism to create wealth and make a better life for all of us. In the novel, increasing state control of the economy causes these doers to go on strike and let the world collapse until they can come back on their own terms. They see that being controlled by the state is just another version of slavery.     Share on Facebook

• Shrugging at socialism? 
P.R. Stewart, Denver Post Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Letter to the editor in response to "Shrug, Atlas, Shrug," by Ed Quillen.Ayn Rand’s great book is now being heavily discussed due to the similarities in our current situation to that of the book where a socialistic overbearing government re-distributes the wealth and opportunities for earning such.     Share on Facebook

• Shrugging at socialism? 
Brenda Hoskins, Denver Post Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Letter to the editor in response to "Shrug, Atlas, Shrug," by Ed Quillen.Apparently, Ed Quillen thinks society will do just fine without the Galts of the world. Good riddance, someone will take their place, he says. He’s right. After the original Galts flee, the egalitarian and overbearing government has to burden someone, so it burdens the next in line, the semi-Galts.     Share on Facebook

• Shrugging at socialism? 
John Zaugg, Denver Post Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Letter to the editor in response to "Shrug, Atlas, Shrug," by Ed Quillen.According to Ed Quillen, we should just lay back, shrug, and live on the welfare benefits provided by a socialist government? That, Mr. Quillen is not what made America great and that is not what Ayn Rand was saying, but it is what happens when we live as parasites on benevolent, socialist government.     Share on Facebook

• Generation why? 
James W. Mulholland, Denver Post Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Letter to the editor.Thank you for the fine columns by Generation Y authors T.J. Wihera and Michael Koenigs. They have a clear vision of the economic mess their elders are handing them. May I recommend to them and their peers a course of personal study that includes Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,” (see the March 15 column by John Andrews, “When will Atlas shrug?”), the works of Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, and the Austrian School of Economics. If they don’t take it to heart, the baby boomers will destroy their future.     Share on Facebook

• • Ayn Rand’s prophecy right on the money 
John Miller, Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Letter to the editor.Written more than 50 years ago, [Atlas Shrugged] is so relevant today.     Share on Facebook

• • Power-lust 
Dan Mariano, Manila Times Recall the words of the Russian-American philosopher Ayn Rand who once said: “Power-lust is a weed that grows only in the vacant lot of an empty mind.”     Share on Facebook

• • • Why Ayn Rand persists in business 
David R. Butcher, ThomasNet Ayn Rand Institute  Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  The Fountainhead  Capitalism  Egoism  Personal life  Yaron Brook  Russian-born novelist Ayn Rand died over a quarter century ago, yet her books and her Objectivist philosophy are debated in business circles regularly, particularly in tumultuous economies. Reviled by some people and glorified by others, Ayn Rand's 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged has been growing in popularity, with annual sales reaching all-time highs 50 years after publication.     Share on Facebook

• • Radicals for Capitalism 
Dan Clore, Nolan Chart Review of Brian Doherty’s book, Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement.Ayn Rand and her Objectivism always make for entertaining reading, what with the bountiful irony of a purported ideology of freedom that starts on grounds that cannot be taken seriously by anyone with a minimal knowledge of science and philosophy, goes on to create a self-sealing belief system that simply discounts any inconvenient empirical facts while considering anyone who dares to disagree as not just mistaken but eeeevil, and ends with a dogmatic personal authoritarianism that wreaks as much havoc in the lives of its robotized, Randroid followers as any political authoritarianism could hope to.     Share on Facebook

• Witness the perils of gay marriage 
Dan Charland, Burlington Free Press (VT) As Ayn Rand was fond of saying, "A is A." When our government declares that "A is B," we are ruined.     Share on Facebook

• Obama should know better 
Jay Robbins, Providence Journal (RI) Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Letter to the editor.This is getting so ridiculous that it reminds me of government intervention and capriciousness as depicted in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.     Share on Facebook

• • The 21st century ‘green scare’ 
Kelse Moen, The Emory Wheel (Emory U, Atlanta, GA) Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  It probably wasn’t the type of stimulus President Obama intended. But since his new economic “recovery” plans have been unveiled, one sector of the economy has received a well-deserved shot in the arm: the Ayn Rand estate. Yes, in the first few months of 2009, sales of Rand’s classic novel Atlas Shrugged have tripled compared to the same months in years past. Written in 1957, Atlas Shrugged is the story of the global economy spiraling out of control. The productive capitalists know how to solve the problem (“leave us alone to do our work”) — but the politicians won’t listen, and instead pile on more and more regulations that only worsen the problem. Eventually, the whole system collapses under its own weight. You shouldn’t need me to explain why people in 2009 want to read this book.     Share on Facebook