The Works of Ayn Rand

[TheUnboundOne]

Dear Forum Members,

Since Backwoods Home editor Dave Duffy, as well as writer Claire Wolfe and I think even Dorothy Ainsworth, have cited her works, I just have to ask:

Are there any other fans of the works of Ayn Rand on the Forum?

Which of her works do you like the best and why? Which did you start out reading? Where do you agree or disagree with her works?

[Deberosa]

I read Atlas Shrugged over 25 years ago and then reread most of it about 4 years ago. Tried the Fountainhead but just couldn't get into it.

I would have to say this is one of the most influential books on my thinking on things. What would it really be like if the you were not weighed down just because you were smarter, more successful at something, etc. She is proposing a drastic culture shift.

NOW BEFORE ANYONE GOES GUNNY BAGS THE FOLLOWING IS RHETORICAL ONLY!!!!

For instance - let's take Walmart. A smart guy found a way to build an empire and how many people are jealous, want to pick it apart. If they sell stuff they whine that Walmart beats them up on price. If they work there they say they get poor or no benefits. If they buy there, well they say they won't because of some belief or another but buy there anyhow. ;-)

I admire that entreprenurial spirit - it's not something to complain about - but take action however! Build a bigger walmart yourself or build a market for your goods somewhere else (that's what a local hardware store did here and was very successful). Walmart offers cheap - offer quality, or service. If you don't want cheap then support quality but you can't get quality for cheap unless you "break" the man behind the idea! Or if you can you've got a competitive edge.

We complain about China but we are enabling China - again rather than compete we cry foul, the government should do something.... Offer quality and find efficiencies - roll up your sleeves!

We have bought houses that we can't afford by getting low payments up front and "figuring" it will work out in the future but when it doesn't we want the government to bail us out and protect us from evil mortgage companies.

Closer to my experience is the farming out of programming to India. Great idea, right? Well when they finally figured out that the systems created were buggy, didn't fit requirements because of the communication gap and generally sub standard, the best companies are going back to SKILLED programmers. No, you can't just sling code without documentation and testing anymore but you produce a higher quality than can be imported and you will get a job, I managed just fine.

And then their is Microsoft, another "evil" empire. Generally the public considers any individual who is smart and successful to be such a target. They need to be brought down - crippled so others get a chance.

Ann Rand touched on all of these ideas and so many more but basically each person/company must be responsible for their own success/failure and of course in the book the strategy was to cripple those "too successful" until the point they just decided to quit.

What if Microsoft "quit"? What if Walmart "quit"? How many haven't bothered starting because of the hassle around success? Not from open competition but from lawsuits and regulations meant to cripple the leader. No wonder we produce next to nothing anymore in this country.

I think Ann was far ahead of her time. Re-reading the book 25 yeras apart was so revealing. How many industries had gone by the wayside since I first read the book. How large has government and regulations grown in that amount of time....


Anyhow that's the kinds of things I think about when I think of her books.

[TheUnboundOne]

Dear Deborosa,

Howdy, Deborosa!

Ayn Rand indeed was forward-looking and what she and you say about how everyone is out to get the men and women of ability is correct.

I'm not sure anymore, though, that the examples you mentioned are the best examples to cite. *Not only are they both starting to make some of the same dumb mistakes that knocked their competitors out, but they also both donate extensively to Mystical/Altruist/Statist/Collectivist causes as well, most notably gummint skoolz. *

If they aren't careful, they may end up like The Twentieth Century Motor Company in Atlas Shrugged, the company that ran on the Marxist principle of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

[TheUnboundOne]

Dear Deborosa,

I meant to add regarding China and India: While it is true that Red China is a master at duplicating (read: stealing and pirating) technology of the West, it does not have a leg up on innovation. That requires free people with free minds, something they will never have with their present system.

India also has many big problems that keep it from being all it could be. Not simply is there a language barrier (a minor one to my experience,) but superstitiously allowing cattle and monkeys to have first dibs on food while humans starve to death in the streets is a colossal waste of resources and lives. Moreover, their own Socialist system is rife with waste and corruption that syphons capital and talent away from better business ventures. Heck, as this story below shows, even they have outsourced customer service elsewhere, so India is obviously not a totally business-friendly environment for such firms providing the service:

Major Players in Outsourcing
http://www.offshoringmanagement.com/OffshoringPlayers.htm

[Deberosa]

Ah, yes, I agree with you but where is the pressure for these companies to support government entities? What happens if they don't "give enough"? Around here there are countless government agencies poised with their hands out to the Gates Foundation for whatever they can get. I've seen that from the inside and I am glad to be out of it! And who ends up paying for it? It is actually the scenarios that Rand talked about many years ago.

Another thought I had about that is that one difference between some of the companies of today and the ones in Atlas Shrugged is also the ethics. Look at Enron, and the mortgage investment companies! These characters were of strong ethics which is not always the case of CEO's today.

It's just a book of fiction but it certainly gets you thinking and it gets me motivated. You are in charge of your own success! The first time I read that book I was hitting the glass ceiling for women in a "man's" profession. Rather than feeling sorry I kept working - very hard for a very long time till I broke that glass. The second time I read it - I was facing that "age" thing - my profession is for the young - or for the foreigner. Right after reading the book again I started switching careers again instead of trudging in place hating my job. So it's been a very influential book for me.

[Deberosa]

As for your second post.... YEP. :)

[TheUnboundOne]

Dear Deborosa,

You wrote:

Ah, yes, I agree with you but where is the pressure for these companies to support government entities? What happens if they don't "give enough"? Around here there are countless government agencies poised with their hands out to the Gates Foundation for whatever they can get. I've seen that from the inside and I am glad to be out of it! And who ends up paying for it? It is actually the scenarios that Rand talked about many years ago.



Well, if Bill Gates doesn't really support all that his charities support, he needs to cowboy up and say "no."

Too many of us have forgotten the lesson of Flight 93: it is that, even in the face of certain death, there is still a choice.

[idris]

[quote author=TheUnboundOne link=board=per-books-poetry-fiction;num=1206644399;start=0#2 date=04/02/08 at 21:05:34]


''Ayn Rand indeed was forward-looking and what she and you say about how everyone is out to get the men and women of ability is correct.''


I knew this without reading Ayn Rand, tho I did try to read Atlas Shrugged, back in the 70s.
This is probably why I'd just rather bug out and leave these nasty folk to their nasty ways. However, there is more to me than that, so I keep returning to the struggle.

[TheUnboundOne]

Dear Idris,

I knew this without reading Ayn Rand, tho I did try to read Atlas Shrugged, back in the 70s.
This is probably why I'd just rather bug out and leave these nasty folk to their nasty ways. However, there is more to me than that, so I keep returning to the struggle.

Howdy, Idris! I know what it's like. Galt's Gulch has to be wherever you find it or wherever you can set it up undisturbed for a little while. Shrugging off the world and going underground entirely and permanently would be nearly impossible.

Perhaps another way to have a Galt's Gulch is to create an entire counterculture, that runs in the midst of the present one, yet keeps out the worst aspects of the present culture. It would have its own struggles, to be sure, but it would be yet another means of changing the world to favor the thinking and productive individuals of the world.