Rand Rolls Over in Her Grave

If it were not for Ayn Rand we might have become a Communist state 50 years ago. Unfortunately...all she did was slow it down long enough for the next generation to grow up and forget everything she tried to teach us. We have arrived at a moment which perfectly fits Marx's definition of Communism....the U.S. government forcibly confiscates earned wealth for redistribution on the basis of need. Marx: "From each according to his ability to each according to his need."

Government intercession in the interests of EQUALITY have brought us to this dismal moment in history when America is not only rolling in Communism, when not a swinging dick in congress has the balls to stand up and call it what it is, when the African American and feminist doctrines literally ENDORSE it, but, saddest of all....those responsible for it cannot even see the folly of what they have done. In time, the Communist nation we have created will fall as all other Communist states have/do, because it is not a sound principle of government and that is because it fails to provide adequate incentive for exceptional effort. Superlative people cannot exist in a society determined to bring about equality at the cost of liberty. It makes me wretch.

Rand was a woman of power beyond the wildest speculation of today's thin-witted feminist. Her name belongs beside Aristotle's, Plato's and Nietzsche's as one of humanity's greatest thinkers. Sadly, she was also among history's worst writers. Only the power of her ideas rescued her from literary oblivion. Thank god "Atlas Shrugged" was as long as it was. Reading through its tedious over-dramatized dialogue and narrative, one becomes lost in the boredom of it all, but because it is so long and because the characters are so compelling, one remains and by doing so, one hears the same ideas time after time after time, until....at last....they get through...and when they finally do...one's life and point of view are changed forever.

Rand was like a shark. She went where she did by instinct. The world became fascinated by the wake she left behind and she was called upon to explain the part of her they saw...the wake she left behind. She didn't understand it. She couldn't explain it, but she tried. The result was a confusing tapestry of interdependent philosophy just close enough to practical to suggest she must have had a plan and just mystical enough to befuddle anyone trying to understand her.

It's easier for me to explain what Ayn Rand thought than it was for her, because I understand it. She didn't.

Rand did not define "Objectivism" quite the way she thought about it. She had already collapsed into confusion about her own thinking by the time she gave her notions a name. (OF COURSE, this is just my take on it) But by then every word that fell from her mouth was being regarded by her followers as saintly. Even though she failed miserably in explaining "objectivism" it was a wonderful name for her thinking. By my own definition it means: The search for truth regardless of how it might paint the searcher.

"Objectivism is about being objective even when it costs you. It's about the elevation of reason above self-interest. Ayn's devotion to self-interest prevented her from putting it that way, but what she never considered is that the survival of Man can only be accomplished through the application of 'reason' and, therefore, service to the estate of reason IS self-interest. That opinion is based on the following observation:

No human being can ever know anything more than that which takes place within his/her own stream of consciousness. That is to say things may be happening on Mars right now that are a part of reality, but if you never perceive them in any way, they will never be a part of the ONLY Universe you ever know. Through that filter reality can be seen as having begun on the day you were born and ending on the day you die. This makes YOU master of the universe. This principle is, not coincidentally, the foundation of all the seminars I have ever given on the subject of self-confidence, and they have been many. It is utterly conceited to anyone who cannot grasp the thought, but self-interest is the beginning of all contributions a person can make to the humanity around him/her. "Reason", therefore, must first serve the self for the self is the beginning of all realities. Put another way: a tree falling in the forest may make a sound in someone else's Universe, but if it is never heard by you....it never existed in the only Universe YOU will ever know anything about.

ON RELIGION: There is no ghost in charge of the Universe. But the alternative to deities leaves Man to face death without hope and that is a blinding monster. It is easier and more comfortable to let it rest with God. People believe whatever is necessary to justify their own comfort. They are, essentially, sheep with no plan larger than grazing through life, managing the torture imposed by intellect with a superstitious fable. When Objectivism is applied, one thing is clear. Nothing has ever happened to suggest the notion of deities is anything more than fanciful imagination.

There is a deadly circle societies can follow which is defined by a singular fact about human nature. In any random group of people the overwhelming majority will choose sloth and easy living before they will choose to be at the mercy of a system which requires them to benefit only in proportion to their contribution. EQUALITY robs from those who achieve to benefit those who do not. It relegates the notion of superiority to the woodpile of social discontent. Without the possibility of superiority in place there are no incentives to achieve the great things, which created the America we once knew. Would Alexander Bell have made his contribution without enormous wealth as an incentive? Would Edison have made his contribution? Would Henry Ford? Would Carnegie? Each of these men and many more were driven by the possibility of great rewards that would separate them from the "have-nots". The result was the great empire called The United States of America.

But in the time of these men the voting rolls consisted chiefly of white males who were committed to those principles, many of whom still had living relatives who came to America expressly to participate in just such an undertaking. I will not quarrel about why the voting rolls swelled to include the African American contingent of citizens and to embrace the female half of the population, or why, despite the small percentage of Americans who now vote, polls are controlled by special interests who send emissaries to churches throughout the south virtually instructing preachers to instruct their church membership for whom to vote. I will not comment on the disgusting platform of those politicians who promise equality (a Communist value) and are voted into office by a naive American public, the majority of which is far more interested in taking away from those who earn than in keeping LIBERTY as our signature value.

However, I will offer this: A system that allows industry and achievement to elevate citizens above those who do not contribute will create prosperity and strength by providing incentive. It will work for ONLY so long as decisions are not actually made by a majority of the citizens. Over time, when ALL of the citizens are counted, a system of EQUALITY will replace the system based on FREEDOM. Once the Communist principle of EQUALITY becomes the framework upon which laws are created and business is done, the incentives will fall away, the society will cease to produce substantial progress and the nation will die. That is the deadly circle.

This may be the first time you have head such thinking. If that is the case, it is because you did not read Ayn Rand.

For good or bad, for fair or not, for just or unjust people putting up their own money to operate a business in this country were once given the freedom to decide for themselves who they would hire, for what reasons, how much they would pay them, when they would fire them and for what reasons, how much if anything they would pay them at the conclusion of their service, how they would speak to them, how they would use their power over them, what customers they would serve and a great many other issues based on the notion that competition would shape each of these enterprises and profit would determine who lived and died. ALL those freedoms have now been removed and each of those I mentioned has been removed in the name of EQUALITY. The tax burden on business today makes it almost impossible to create profit and the tax is what it is because those who are NOT in business now have a right to share this wealth through entitlements.

The United States of 1950 will become the USSR of 2050, and every time you invest yourself in the notion of EQUALITY you are assisting in that process.

Finally, when bigotry is made to be illegal, free thought has become nonexistent. When hatred is outlawed, the right to be stupid has been taken away from you. When it becomes a violation of law to call another person by a disparaging name, you have no freedom of speech. Freedom is not always used wisely, but that is not sufficient reason to exchange it for any other human value.

These are the things Ayn Rand learned from the original America. They are the things she taught an America that had forgotten. They are also the things we have all but lost again in our self-destructive collapse into the arms of EQUALITY.

Long live the United States of America, home of the equal, land of the lazy.