The Objective Standard Blog

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Yaron Brook on Ayn Rand: A Triptych

Posted by Craig Biddle at 11:12 am

1. If you’ve not yet read it, don’t miss Yaron Brook’s excellent op-ed “Is Rand Relevant?” in the Wall Street Journal. Here are the opening paragraphs:

Ayn Rand died more than a quarter of a century ago, yet her name appears regularly in discussions of our current economic turmoil. Pundits including Rush Limbaugh and Rick Santelli urge listeners to read her books, and her magnum opus, "Atlas Shrugged," is selling at a faster rate today than at any time during its 51-year history.

There’s a reason. In "Atlas," Rand tells the story of the U.S. economy crumbling under the weight of crushing government interventions and regulations. Meanwhile, blaming greed and the free market, Washington responds with more controls that only deepen the crisis. Sound familiar?

The novel’s eerily prophetic nature is no coincidence. "If you understand the dominant philosophy of a society," Rand wrote elsewhere in "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal," "you can predict its course." Economic crises and runaway government power grabs don’t just happen by themselves; they are the product of the philosophical ideas prevalent in a society—particularly its dominant moral ideas.

Read the whole thing here.

2. Brook expands on these points in his recent interview with The Objective Standard. Here’s an excerpt:

YB: Atlas Shrugged is not primarily a political novel. It is a novel about what happens to a world that denounces its best minds as greedy and immoral. It’s a novel about what happens when, instead of thanking and rewarding the brightest and most successful, a nation denounces, despises, and shackles them. It’s a novel about what happens when the best minds stop allowing that to happen. Whether this last aspect of the plot will play out in real life is yet to be seen, but the parallels to date are remarkable.

CB: What would you say is the fundamental reason for these parallels? What enabled Ayn Rand some fifty years ago to effectively project what we are witnessing today?

YB: Ayn Rand understood that ideas shape society. A society that values reason, the individual, and freedom creates the United States of America. A society that denounces the mind, preaches self-sacrifice, and worships the collective creates Nazi Germany.

Thus, once Rand identified the basic ideas driving American society in the 20th century, she could predict the course we would take. She could not predict the details, or the timing, but she could see where in principle a country committed to the ideas that prevail in the United States would have to end up—if it did not reject those ideas.

Above all, Ayn Rand understood that our culture’s dominant moral ideal, altruism, is incompatible with freedom.

Virtually no one in Rand’s time or today questions the precept that we are our brother’s keeper, that self-sacrificially serving others is good, and that being selfish is evil. What Rand saw was that this was irreconcilable with the vision of man as an independent, self-sufficient, sovereign being who deserves and requires freedom. If a society believes man’s duty is to sacrifice for others, then it cannot countenance capitalism—a political-economic system that enables and encourages men to pursue their own interests, their own profit, their own welfare.

The deepest reason Rand saw America as moving toward statism, however, was our deteriorating respect for reason. A culture that respects reason, such as the Enlightenment culture of the 18th century, will embrace a political system that leaves men free to exercise their own reason. But for more than a century now, our intellectuals have been preaching that reason is limited, that faith is superior to reason.

Read the whole TOS interview here.

3. Brook is interviewed on Pajamas TV, where he discusses the increasing sales and philosophical depth of Atlas Shrugged, the crucial role of bankruptcy, the statism of Alan Greenspan, the phenomenon of today’s “tea parties,” and the need of a moral revolution in support of capitalism.

Check out all three!

Posted in: Announcements, Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Business and Economics, Individual Rights and Law

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

A Letter from Dr. Yaron Brook

Posted by ARC Media at 9:44 pm

Last November, in the wake of the election results and the mounting crisis in the financial markets, I wrote . . . that the months ahead could be a golden opportunity for ARI and for the advancement of Objectivism.

It appears that this opportunity is, in fact, upon us.

• Since the first of this year, sales of Atlas Shrugged have skyrocketed—selling at a rate three times that of the same period last year.
• CNBC’s Rick Santelli made headlines around the world with an impassioned call for resistance to Obama’s economic plans—making clear reference to Atlas Shrugged.
• On the radio, Rush Limbaugh has referred repeatedly to Atlas Shrugged in broadcasts to his tens of millions of listeners—and has applied the ideas of Atlas to the crisis we now face.
• Elsewhere, mentions of Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged in relation to the current economic and political mess exploded across cyberspace: from Instapundit to The Economist; from Forbes magazine to Michael Savage; and from Michelle Malkin to (of all places!) an online publication in Abu Dhabi, UAE. A U.S. Congressman even declared that “We’re living in Atlas Shrugged”—and gives copies of the novel to his interns. Even the New York Times felt compelled to report on the skyrocketing sales of Atlas Shrugged—as well as the so-called “Going Galt” phenomenon.
• Spontaneous protests, styled as “Tea Parties,” in the spirit of America’s original 18th-century tax revolt, have erupted across the country—some with protesters making specific references to Ayn Rand; more protests are planned.

In other words, people are looking for answers, as I noted last November. And they are beginning to see that those answers can be found only in Objectivism.

ARI and our Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights (ARC) in Washington, DC, have worked tirelessly to capitalize on this growing public discontent, and on the emerging public interest in Ayn Rand and her ideas. 

• ARC’s special Web page on the financial crisis adds new, hard-hitting commentary weekly; the site has attracted thousands of online readers—many of whom are directed there by links from the pundits listed above;
• ARC’s new blog, Voices for Reason, has further strengthened our ability to issue rapid-response commentary on the news of the day.
• Three public lectures in Washington, under the aegis of ARC, have drawn more than 600 attendees—an extraordinary turnout!
• ARC is working right now to finalize several promising partnerships with think tanks, industry groups, policymakers, and media outlets. These are institutions and entities that are seeking us out, who are eager to learn the Objectivist perspective on the current crisis, and who are committed to working with us going forward.
• I have received a number of invitations from a variety of groups seeking to learn more about the Objectivist perspective on the current political and economic crisis. One notable event will be an appearance at the Virginia state GOP convention in May, when I will deliver a 30-minute address to more than five thousand Republican activists.

The magnitude of the crisis appears to have served as something of a “wake-up call”—at least for some Americans.

But with a growing number of citizens now roused, and aware of the need to change course, they need to understand not just the basic, summary “plot line” of Atlas Shrugged. They need to know the full story—the full, philosophical background behind the novel. 

In short, what’s needed—and what only we can provide—is the philosophical foundation for this nascent but growing opposition to the toxic ideas that animate Congress and the administration.  That foundation, of course, is Objectivism.

The opportunity we have at this moment in history is unprecedented. On the other hand, however, we do not know how much time we have. There is a very real risk that either:

• Public attention will turn elsewhere; or
• The economic and political situation will deteriorate beyond the point of no return.

Which is why, in conclusion, I am turning to you for your assistance.

Please help us to capitalize on this unprecedented opportunity.  You can contribute right here and right now to help the ARC expand, and help us to get out the Objectivist message.

Your support will strengthen ARC’s media capabilities, our online presence; it will fund speakers and underwrite articles and publications; it will give us the resources to seek out and secure strategic alliances with organizations who are coming around to our point of view.

As I suggested might happen in November, people are looking for answers.

Better still, they are looking to us for answers.

At no point in recent history has there been such public interest in what Objectivism has to say on matters that affect the everyday life of Americans. 

With your support, we will be able to take that public interest, give it a firm, philosophically sound foundation—a foundation rooted in individual rights and reason—and help lead and give direction to the growing public discontent.

Every day, we read accounts of bad economic developments—and of even worse political ones. 

Given the dire news, we should consider the fact that not only is this an unprecedented opportunity for the advancement of Objectivism—and thus an American renaissance—but that it may be one of the last such opportunities that many of us will see in our lifetimes.

With that in mind, I thank you in advance for your consideration and support.

Sincerely,

Yaron Brook
President and Executive Director

Copyright © 2009 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved. 

Posted in: Announcements, Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Business and Economics, Individual Rights and Law