Ever wonder how the nonprofit Ayn Rand Institute is doing in these economically challenging times? The answer is: Better than ever, thank you very much.
Category: Culture
The New York Times Profiles Objectivist CEO John Allison
AÂ mostly favorable and long (6 pages) profile of Objectivist and former BB&T CEO (current Chairman)Â John Allison from Sunday’s New York Times:Â
Over much of the last four decades, John A. Allison IV built BB&T from a local bank in North Carolina into a regional powerhouse that has weathered the economic crisis far better than many of its troubled rivals â?? largely by avoiding financial gimmickry.
And in his spare time, Mr. Allison travels the country making speeches about his bankâ??s distinctive philosophy.
Speaking at a recent convention in Boston to a group of like-minded business people and students, Mr. Allison tells a story: A boy is playing in a sandbox, only to have his truck taken by another child. A fight ensues, and the boyâ??s mother tells him to stop being selfish and to share.
â??You learned in that sandbox at some really deep level that itâ??s bad to be selfish,â? says Mr. Allison, adding that the mother has taught a horrible lesson. â??To say man is bad because he is selfish is to say itâ??s bad because heâ??s alive.â?
If Mr. Allisonâ??s speech sounds vaguely familiar, itâ??s because itâ??s based on the philosophy of Ayn Rand, who celebrated the virtues of reason, self-interest and laissez-faire capitalism while maintaining that altruism is a destructive force. In Ms. Randâ??s world, nothing is more heroic â?? and sexy â?? than a hard-working businessman free to pursue his wealth. And nothing is worse than a pesky bureaucrat trying to restrict business and redistribute wealth.
– Intro to “Give BB&T Liberty, But Not A Bailout”, The New York Times, August 2
Doctors on strike for freedom in medicine
From Atlasphere member Gregory Garamoni:
Doctors Support Proposed Florida Amendment to Protect Rights of Doctors and Patients
Doctors on Strike for Freedom in Medicine today applauded the Florida State legislators who proposed an amendment to the State Constitution that would thwart Washingtonâ??s plans to impose socialized medicine.
Dr. Gregory L. Garamoni, Founder of Doctors on Strike for Freedom in Medicine
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) â?? Jul 29, 2009 â?? Doctors on Strike for Freedom in Medicine, a private organization that champions individual rights and freedom in medicine, today applauded the several Florida State legislators who on Monday proposed an amendment to the State Constitution intended to stop the federal government from taking over medicine.
â??Washington politicians are poised to inject a massive, lethal dose of statism into the heart of healthcare–one that would violate the rights of doctors and patients to make personal, private, and independent healthcare decisions,â? said Dr. Gregory Garamoni, founder of Doctors on Strike. â??This ‘statist medicine’ would induce grave waves of arrhythmia – inflation, price controls, lower quality, doctor shortages, waiting periods, and rationing.â?
â??Doctors, patients, and law makers must stand together now to bring a halt to this leftist-led, lemming-like leap into healthcare hell,â? Garamoni said. â??We urge legislators all over the country to follow Floridaâ??s lead by creating political firewalls in every state to protect us from any further federal infringement on statesâ?? rights and individual liberty. â?
State Senator Carey Baker (R-Eustis) and State Representative Scott Plakon (R-Longwood) filed legislation (HJR 37- Health Care Services) on Monday to amend Florida’s Constitution â??to prohibit laws or rules from compelling any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in any health care system; permit person or employer to purchase lawful health care services directly from health care provider; permit health care provider to accept direct payment from person or employer for lawful health care services; exempt persons, employers, and health care providers from penalties and fines for paying or accepting direct payment for lawful health care services; permit purchase or sale of health insurance in private health care systems; and specifies what amendment does not affect or prohibit.â?
“Today, we’re drawing the line in the sand. It is bad enough that our federal government wants to choose your doctor and ration your treatment,” Senator Baker said. “But to do so virtually in secret and in such a rush proves that the goal is not to get better health care but to get socialized health care.”
â??The federal government and its bureaucracies dictating who, when and what kind of treatment you receive is not reform at all,â? said Representative Plakon. â??We believe this unprecedented power-grab by President Obama and Congress is clearly not in the best interests of the citizens of Florida.â?
â??The proposed constitutional amendment may be the only way left to prevent the destruction of the independent practice of medicine that has served us so well for so many centuries,â? said Dr. Garamoni.
# # #
Doctors on Strike for Freedom in Medicine has the mission of preserving, protecting, and promoting freedom in healthcare. Our organizationâ??s most pressing goal is to defeat HR3200 and other statist healthcare reform proposals now circulating in Washington. To this end, we are actively encouraging doctors and patients to put intense political pressure on legislators during their deliberations on healthcare reform. We supply doctors and patients with the intellectual and political ammunition to do this. We are calling on doctors to be prepared to go on strike against more government-run healthcare. We want doctors to let the country know – now – that if the President signs any legislation that establishes another government healthcare plan, they will “go on strike”: Doctors will refuse to participate in any new government healthcare plan, and they will resign from all government healthcare programs, including, but not limited to Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE.
Good new speech by Daniel Hannan in Colorado
We’ve noted before that British politician Daniel Hannan is not only an articulate defender of freedom, but also an Ayn Rand fan. Recently the Independence Institute brought him to the U.S., where he gave the following short speech.
Thanks to Robert Bidinotto for the tip.
Free market economist Peter Schiff may run for U.S. Senate
From Atlasphere founding editor Andrew Schwartz:
Peter Schiff, an economist known for predicting the current financial crisis, and a liberty-minded individual who lists Ayn Rand’s Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal on his recommended reading page, has announced that, pending sufficient support from other liberty-minded individuals around the country, he will run for senate.
He says his polling indicates that he has a real shot of winning against incumbent Democrat Chris Dodd – if he can win the Republican primary.
Schiff is a remarkably clear explicator of economic ideas, and an inspiring personality who does well in front of crowds [note, video’s a bit dicey and includes some not-so-great stuff interspersed with Schiff talking to the crowd, but I think it’s the only video there is showcasing this particular natural talent of his]), and well in popular media outlets [excellent, excellent video btw].
He says his polling indicates that he has a real shot of winning against incumbent Democrat Chris Dodd.
To make donations to his campaign (which will be returned if he decides he hasn’t enough support to run), visit schiffforsenate.com.
UPDATE: I just made a donation myself. Schiff has impressed me for a long time with the clarity of his thinking. If you’ve not seen the videos of economists laughing in his face when he predicted the financial crisis, they’re a must-see.
Atlas Shrugged on floor displays at largest bookstores
Great news:
Washington, D.C., June 29, 2009– Shortly after Independence Day, new free-standing floor displays of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, first published 52 years ago, will be placed in more than 850 bookstores across the United States. Borders will display the novel’s trade edition at 520 of its stores and Waldenbooks will feature the mass market paperback edition at 336 of its stores. Thousands of copies of Atlas Shrugged will be on display.
Barnes & Noble also had copies of Atlas Shrugged for sale in special floor displays in most of its bookstores from late
May into early June.
According to Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, â??This is the most prominent and widespread display for this novel in all of its publishing history. It is particularly remarkable because it comes more than a half century after its initial publication. â??The fact that the largest bookstore chains in America have chosen to make such a prominent display of Atlas Shrugged is a testimony to the current and growing interest in Ayn Rand’s novels and ideas, and an encouraging sign for America’s future.
â??As Americans confront the scary growth of government control over their lives and the economy, they need, more than ever, to learn about Ayn Rand’s conception of a new morality of rational self-interest and her unprecedented defense of freedom and individual rights.â?
Amity Shlaes: Ayn Rand's Atlas Is Shrugging with a Growing Load
Writing for Bloomberg, Amity Shlaes has an interesting article about Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged. It begins:
Imagine a novel of more than a thousand pages, published half a century ago. The author doesnâ??t have a talk-radio show and has been dead for 27 years.
As for the storyline, it is beyond dated: Humorless executives fight with humorless public officials over an industry that is, today, almost irrelevant to the U.S. economy – – railroads. The prose itself is a disconcerting mixture of philosophy, industrial policy, and bodice-ripping: â??The wind blew her hair to blend with his. She knew why he had wanted to walk through the mountains tonight.â?
In short, you would think â??Atlas Shruggedâ? might be long forgotten.
Instead, Ayn Randâ??s novel is remembered more than ever. This year the book is selling at a faster rate than last year. Last year, sales were about 200,000, higher than any year before that, including 1957, when the book was published.
Some assumed the libertarian philosopher would fall from view when the Berlin Wall fell. Or that at least there would be a sense of mission accomplished. One Rand fan, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, wrote in his memoir that he regretted Rand hadnâ??t lived until 1989 or 1990. Sheâ??d missed the collapse of communism that she had so often predicted.
But â??Atlas Shruggedâ? is becoming a political â??Harry Potterâ? because Rand shone a spotlight on a problem that still exists: Not pre-1989 Soviet communism, but 2009-style state capitalism. Rand depicted government and companies colluding in the name of economic rescue at the expense of the entrepreneur. That entrepreneur is like the titan Atlas who carries the rest of the world on his shoulders — until he doesnâ??t.
See the full article for much more.
Thanks to Greg Feirman for the tip. Greg also says Shlaes’s book The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (2007) is a good read, for anyone interested in the topic.
Glenn Beck ups the ante on 'Going Galt': What if a million people stopped paying their taxes in protest?
Beck doesn’t (that I recall) explicitly mention “Going Galt” in this clip, but it certainly seems like an apt metaphor for what he’s advocating not advocating.
Simpsons parody of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead
Thanks to Don Hauptman for the heads-up. Summary for the episode:
THE SIMPSONS
“4 Great Women & A Manicure” – 8 \ 7c
— “THE SIMPSONS” — (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT)
MARGE AND LISA TELL TALES ABOUT FAMOUS WOMEN IN HISTORY AND MAGGIE BREAKS HER SILENCE ON AN ALL-NEW “THE SIMPSONS” SUNDAY, MAY 10, ON FOX
Jodie Foster Guest-Voices
Marge and Lisa visit the nail salon where they engage in a spirited debate as to whether a woman can be smart, powerful and beautiful all at the same time. To prove their point, they spin four tales of famous women featuring famous Springfield faces: Selma as Queen Elizabeth I, Lisa as Snow White, Marge as Lady Macbeth and Maggie (guest voice Jodie Foster) as the idealistic architect protagonist from Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead” in the “Four Great Women and a Manicure” episode of THE SIMPSONS airing Sunday, May 10 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (SI-2009) (TV-PG; D) CC-HDTV 720p-Dolby Digital 5.1
BusinessWeek: The Economy Needs Ayn Rand
BusinessWeek‘s “Debate Room” published a for-and-against piece on the topic: “Author Ayn Randâ??s philosophy of rational self-interest is more relevant todayâ??amid the flurry of government bailoutsâ??than ever. Pro or con?”
Onkar Ghate takes the affirmative position, which begins:
If Ayn Randâ??s philosophy of rational self-interest is irrelevant today, then so is the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration gave sanction to selfishness: to the moral right to live your own life, to exercise your liberty, to pursue your happiness. No more taking orders from king or society. Each was free to live for himself.
Christina Patterson takes the negative position, which begins:
Youâ??d think it was a joke, when the global economy was collapsing because of greed, that anyone might turn seriously to the purple prose of crypto-fascist Ayn Rand and think it was the answer to anything. How could her so-called philosophy of â??rational self-interestâ?â??in other words, a crude kind of dog-eat-dog laissez-faire capitalismâ??seem like the route out of this obstacle-strewn labyrinth into which weâ??re all now locked?
See the full piece for more.
(Thanks to Top Gun‘s Greg Feirman for the tip!)