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A great day for the United States of America? A reminder of what a great power can do when its back is against the wall? A historic move by a lame-duck administration many thought could no longer solve any problems? It will be some time before we know whether this week will go down in history as all, or even some, of those things. But as the largest bailout in government history unfolded in almost dizzying waves over recent days, a very different view prevailed at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, an outpost of free-market, anti-government thinking located...

Afterword to Anthem ...Some of those who read the story when it was first written, told me that I was unfair to the ideals of collectivism; this was not, they said, what collectivism preaches or intends; collectivists do not mean or advocate such things; nobody advocates them. I shall merely point out that the slogan "Production for use and not for profit" is now accepted by most men as commonplace, and a commonplace stating a proper, desirable goal. If any intelligible meaning can be discerned in that slogan at all, what is it, if not the idea that the motive...

By Dr. Edward Hudgins August 8, 2008 -- I spent an extraordinary day in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives, sitting in seats normally reserved for members of Congress but with members sitting right in front of me. No, I was not elected to that august body. On that day and all that week policy junkies, activists, bloggers, and tourists had the rare chance to sit in the literal seats of power. They were the often-cheering and often-on-their-feet-with-standing-ovations audience for Republican members who all day, each day addressed them the way they would address their fellow members of...

Address To The Graduating Class Of The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York - March 6, 1974 Since I am a fiction writer, let us start with a short short story. Suppose that you are an astronaut whose spaceship gets out of control and crashes on an unknown planet. When you regain consciousness and find that you are not hurt badly, the first three questions in or mind would be: Where am I? How can I discover it? What should I do? You see unfamiliar vegetation outside, and there is air to breathe; the sunlight seems paler...

My 17 year old Grandson is looking for A university that he can double major in philosophy and physics. Thus far he has visited Wheaton, University of Dallas and North Texas State. Naturally he likes all of them but it would be much easier on the family if he would pick North Texas State. He lives in Prosper, Texas not that far away but far enough that he would not stay at home. I need help convincing him to select NTU. Please give me some ammunition. SF

Leftist ideology may be gaining ground in Latin America. But it will never set foot on the manicured lawns of Francisco Marroquin University. For nearly 40 years, this private college has been a citadel of laissez-faire economics. Here, banners quoting "The Wealth of Nations" author Adam Smith -- he of the powdered wig and invisible hand -- flutter over the campus food court. Every undergraduate, regardless of major, must study market economics and the philosophy of individual rights embraced by the U.S. founding fathers, including "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." A sculpture commemorating Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" is...

This Did Not Work It Never Will by Reginald Firehammer Sometime in late 1940 or early 1941, Ayn Rand began efforts to form an "individualist" movement that would counter the growing collectivist, socialist, and communist movements active in those years. She expended a huge amount of time and energy on this "project" which she firmly believed would bring a kind of counter-revolution and restoration of individual liberty and free-market culture to America. One of her supporters in this effort was Channing Pollock, a drama critic, novelist, and playwrite. Her correspondence with Pollock reveals both her enthusiasm and conviction that this...

I’m a Conservative Republican like you, Austin…� The voice resonated through my headphones during the final minutes of my radio program, at AM 630 WMAL in Washington, D.C. The caller to the program - - we’ll call him “John� - - paused mid-sentence, and I sensed that there was a “big but� coming next. “But,� he continued, “we’ve just gotta do something to reign in these excessive profits from the oil companies.� Oil industry executives had been questioned by members of Congress earlier in the day about why their profits, and prices, have been so high. The inquisition on Capitol...

As a college student in Chapel Hill, John Allison stumbled across a collection of essays by Ayn Rand and was hooked by her philosophy of self-interest and limited government. As he rose over the decades to chief executive of BB&T, one of the country's leading regional banks, Rand remained his muse. He's trying to replicate that encounter through the charitable arm of his Winston-Salem-based company, which since 1999 has awarded more than $28 million to 27 colleges to support the study of capitalism from a moral perspective. But on at least 17 of those campuses, including UNC Charlotte, N.C. State...

After years of delays, Ayn Rand's famous novel "Atlas Shrugged" is being made into a feature film starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, according to media reports. Lionsgate Films bought the rights to the film version of the 1957 novel, considered in many polls to be one of the most influential books in history. According to Hollywood trade paper Variety, the Mr. And Mrs. Smith co-stars, who are both fans of the Russian novelist, would play the lead roles of Dagny Taggart and John Gault. The story revolves around the economic collapse of the United States sometime in the future...

Even more relevant than when she said it in 1961. Substitute "Islamists" for "Communists" Hopefully, we will see in our lifetimes a realignment of the GOP in favor of reason and individual rights and away from faith and tradition. Religion is a private matter. With the respective candidacies of Giuliani and Huckabee the split has become even more glaring: the pro-freedom Giuliani (pro-choice, socially liberal, capitalist, anti-regulation- who respects profit and achievement) vs the christian socialist Huckabee (pro-tradition, anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-reason, anti-capitalist, pro-regulation altruist) Interestingly, in Rand's 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged (celebrating 50 years in publication) the President is the...

One of the most profound corporate philosophers of modern times was the writer Ayn Rand (1905-1982), whose landmark novel "Atlas Shrugged" is celebrating its 50th anniversary. During her lifetime, Rand's pontifications on individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism, presented under the theory of Objectivism, never touched upon alternative energy issues. Her successors in Objectivism, however, are aware of today's alternative energy industry and believe its heavy reliance on government tax incentives and rebates is hurting the growth and viability of this sector "Government incentive programs for adopting alternative energy are totally corrupt," warns Alex Epstein, business analyst with the Ayn Rand...

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. As I write, the book ranks Number 237 at amazon.com. That is phenomenal for a 1,200-page novel that contains philosophical speeches, one of which stretches to 90 uninterrupted pages. The book has sold over 6 million copies. In one survey from 16 years ago, Atlas Shrugged was ranked second only to the Bible as the book that influenced people most. My Ayn Rand craze happened in the late '70s when I was a professor of Biblical Studies at Bethel College. I read most...

A Freestar Media/Zogby poll found that 8.1 percent of American adults have read the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. The poll of 1,239 adults was conducted by Zogby International between October 10 and October 14, 2007 at the request of Freestar Media, LLC. Among the poll's 80 questions was "Have you ever read the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand?". The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points. The full poll can be read at: http://www.freestarmedia.com

Two important events occurred in October 1957. First, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, named Sputnik, into orbit, causing many to speculate the West was losing to the superior technology and, possibly, inevitable ideology of communism. Second, the novel "Atlas Shrugged" was published. Its author, Ayn Rand, had fled the tyranny of Soviet communism in 1926 for freedom in the West. Today communism in Russia and its satellite countries is dead. "Atlas" and Miss Rand's other works continue to sell millions of copies. A 1992 Library of Congress survey found it to be the most influential book in...

The famous question remains pertinent a half-century later: "Who is John Galt?" In 1957, Ayn Rand introduced a generation of readers to Galt, the reclusive engineer whose radical pro-capitalist stance brings a socialist government to its knees. Mixing romance, mystery, science fiction and philosophy, "Atlas Shrugged" has since fascinated millions with its epic tale of railroad heiress Dagny Taggart, who struggles against greedy union bosses, incompetent management and corrupt bureaucrats until her encounter with the refugees of "Galt's Gulch" enlightens her to the true nature of the "anti-life" forces that oppose the entrepreneurial spirit. The novel's 50th anniversary will be...

The Historic Significance of Atlas ShruggedBy Robert Tracinski October 10 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ayn Rand's classic novel Atlas Shrugged, so in the coming week we can expect to see a flurry of articles about the novel—many of which will, unfortunately, offer highly inaccurate descriptions of its meaning and significance.That's a shame, because Atlas Shrugged is a novel that everyone ought to discover and grapple with, because it succeeds at something too few artists and intellectuals have had the courage to do.The purpose of art and philosophy is to show us truths about human nature, about...

One of the most influential business books ever written is a 1,200-page novel published 50 years ago, on Oct. 12, 1957. It is still drawing readers; it ranks 388th on Amazon.com’s best-seller list. (“Winning,” by John F. Welch Jr., at a breezy 384 pages, is No. 1,431.) The book is “Atlas Shrugged,” Ayn Rand’s glorification of the right of individuals to live entirely for their own interest. For years, Rand’s message was attacked by intellectuals whom her circle labeled “do-gooders,” who argued that individuals should also work in the service of others. Her book was dismissed as an homage to...

New York, NY (CNS) - Lionsgate has signed "House of Sand and Fog" director Vadim Perelman to direct the film adaptation of Ayn Rand's iconic novel "Atlas Shrugged." According to trade magazine Variety, Perelman will also rewrite a draft of the script penned by "Braveheart" writer Randall Wallace. The latter will remain involved with the project. The film follows, Dagny Taggart, a railroad executive to be played by Angelina Jolie, who strives to keep her family-owned trans-continental railroad company alive amidst worldwide strike involving industrialists and thinkers. Howard and Karen Baldwin ("Ray"), who hold the rights to Rand's most ambitious...

Heinlein the Libertarian "Ayn Rand is a bloody socialist compared to me," shows yet another side to the Heinlein paradox. As a literary influence on the emerging libertarian movement, Heinlein was second only to Rand. Yet his statement about self-sacrifice and duty to the species seems as un-Randian as you can get. Heinlein, a human chauvinist, always believed freedom and responsibility were linked. But he would never have thought it proper to impose the duty he saw as the highest human aspiration. Heinlein once told a visitor, "I'm so much a libertarian that I have no use for the whole...

It was the breaking-news headline last Friday that three construction workers had died in a coal-mine accident in Princeton, Ind., and maybe the markets melting down too, that congealed in my mind a thought I'd been kicking around for a while now: Our country is having an "Atlas Shrugged" moment. Trapped coal miners in Utah, smashed levees in New Orleans, busted steam pipes and flooded subways in New York City, a collapsed bridge over the Mississippi River in Minnesota, an air-traffic-control system stressed to its break point. Could this really be a description of the most prosperous country on the...

The nexusORIT ARFA Anyone who has heard Dr. Yaron Brook lecture on foreign policy would likely call him a militant, unflinching champion of Israel. His loyalty, however, does not derive from his Jewish or Israeli background. He's a proud atheist, who admits to not knowing - or really caring - when the Pessah Seder falls. He relentlessly defends Israel and the West because he puts his faith in the rational, free, individual soul. Brook is the president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) in Irvine, California, an educational institute and resource center entrusted with spreading Objectivism, the...

When all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated. -- Thomas Jefferson, 1821 Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain, quoted in A.B. Paine's Mark Twain: A Biography (Harper, 1912, Vol. 2, page 724). The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop. --...

Egoism is a state of mind where a person values all things in terms of their value to the self. Egoism and selfishness are virtues, in fact the greatest of all virtues, as they enable life. All living beings are selfish. To survive, they must be. Without fulfilling one's basic needs of water, food, or protection, one would cease to exist. Although selfishness is a necessity, many people hold selflessness as their goal in life, and this altruistic thinking is a dominating and corrosive mainstay of today's society. If one were to give all of his money to charity or...

Beyond the repetitious and narrow coverage of bombings and death, there is a trend that is clear enough to anyone who bothers to look for it or similar - significant - signs. To wit -- the native Sunni element of the Iraqi Insurgency is cracking and unravelling at once --

Earth Day approaches, and with it a grave danger faces mankind. The danger is not from acid rain, global warming, smog, or the logging of rain forests, as environmentalists would have us believe. The danger to mankind is from environmentalism. The fundamental goal of environmentalism is not clean air and clean water; rather, it is the demolition of technological/industrial civilization.Environmentalism's goal is not the advancement of human health, human happiness, and human life; rather, it is a subhuman world where "nature" is worshipped like the totem of some primitive religion. In a nation founded on the pioneer spirit, environmentalists have...

New Cult of Darkness by Edward Hudgins ehudgins@atlassociety.org Since early men ignited the first fires in caves, the unleashing of energy for light, heat, cooking and every human need has been the essence and symbol of what it is to be human. The Greeks saw Prometheus vanquishing the darkness with the gift of fire to men. The Romans kept an eternal flame burning in the Temple of Vesta. Our deepest thoughts and insights are described as sparks of fire in our minds. A symbol of death is a fading flame; Poet Dylan Thomas urged us to "rage, rage against the...

When Ayn Rand finished writing "Atlas Shrugged" 50 years ago this month, she set off an intellectual shock wave that is still felt today. It's credited for helping to halt the communist tide and ushering in the currents of capitalism. Many readers say it transformed their lives. A 1991 poll rated it the second-most influential book (after the Bible) for Americans. At one level, "Atlas Shrugged" is a steamy soap opera fused into a page- turning political thriller. At nearly 1,200 pages, it has to be. But the epic account of capitalist heroes versus collectivist villains is merely the vehicle...

I have been reading "Atlas Shrugged" again for about the 6th or 7th time, mostly because I like the book and I always learn new things. This passage leaped out at me and struck me with Ms. Rand's precience: "Then you will note the rise of the men of the double standard - the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money - the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you...

Ayn Rand is one of the most controversial writers in modern American literature, known for her tireless advocacy of the right to selfishness and her hatred of big government. She has been derided and loved in equal measure and her books have sold millions of copies, attracting followers as diverse as banker Alan Greenspan, President Ronald Reagan and architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Her most famous book, Atlas Shrugged, has long been a target of Hollywood producers and attracted such big names as Faye Dunaway, Raquel Welch and Sharon Stone. But each project collapsed in the face of turning a 1,200-page...

February 2, 2007 -- Ayn Rand was born on February 2, 1905; in 2007 we celebrate her great achievements and the legacy that she left us all! Rand has had a significant influence on today's world: Her strong moral defense of freedom and capitalism inspired many who have fought over the years for limited government, individual liberty and free markets. Her great novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, show the terrible consequences of the wrong philosophy on both individuals and societies and present the vision of happy, joyous lives in a benevolent society that is the consequence of human achievement,...

Back in the 1970s, Albert S. Ruddy, the producer of "The Godfather," first approached Ayn Rand to make a movie of her novel "Atlas Shrugged." But Rand, who had fled the Soviet Union and gone on to inspire capitalists and egoists everywhere, worried aloud, apparently in all seriousness, that the Soviets might try to take over Paramount to block the project.

OINO's Paranoid Fear of Christians As though to prove the thesis of my recent article, "An Atheist's Defence of Christianity" [also on Free Republic], the usually brilliant and highly respected (at least by me) Leonard Peikoff shocked me with a piece of unobjective illogic that I can hardly believe. From the question and answer piece on his website: "In my judgment, anyone who votes Republican or abstains from voting in this election has no understanding of the practical role of philosophy in man's actual life ..." Why did he say that? Because he believes the US is on the verge...

"About six years ago, I had a full sized Kimber .45acp that I never should have given up. Nonetheless, I'm back. After some apologies, the gun forgave me for abandoning the brand, and agreed to spend a day at the range. Aside from my normal paper targets, I dropped by the local Barnes and Noble to pick up some things for penetration tests. I've never felt so self-conscious leaving a bookstore. Not even when I purchased anatomy and "photography" books from the art section as reference for my cartoons. I'm pretty good at not getting pulled over on the highway....

Lefties commonly say there is something wrong with Rand’s use of fiction as a vehicle for Objectivist beliefs. In a 1957 review of ‘Atlas Shrugged’, Whittaker Chambers, who had no idea how successful Atlas Shrugged would be, said, “The mischief here is that the author, dodging into fiction, nevertheless counts on your reading it as political reality.” Lefties have been using that same approach ever since. Using fiction is ‘mischief’ and ‘dodging’. Rand was trying to make an otherwise dull subject interesting, and she also wanted to show what might happen in a world where businessmen really did go on...

...The news about this book seems to me to be that any ordinarily sensible head could possibly take it seriously, and that apparently, a good many do. Somebody has called it: "Excruciatingly awful." I find it a remarkably silly book. It is certainly a bumptious one. Its story is preposterous. It reports the final stages of a final conflict (locale: chiefly the United States, some indefinite years hence) between the harried ranks of free enterprise and the "looters." These are proponents of proscriptive taxes. Government ownership, Labor, etc. etc. The mischief here is that the author, dodging into fiction, nevertheless...

Visionary student architect Howard Roark strives to break away from the classically inspired designs of ordinary architects. His unwillingness to compromise, despite the advice of his ambitious friend, Peter Keating, causes him to be kicked out of school, but earns him a job with Henry Cameron, a talented architect, who also believes that form must follow function. After Cameron is completely destroyed by the system, Roark sets up his own company, but gets only an occasional job. Roark is offered a commission to build a bank building, but when he learns that the bank wants him to add some classical...

That rumour from the other month is now confirmed, Angelina Jolie is set to star in the film adaptation of Ayn Rand's iconic tome "Atlas Shrugged" for Lionsgate reports Variety. Jolie, a longtime fan of Rand's, was eager to play the role of Dagney Taggart, the most powerful female character in any of Rand's books. A movie version of the Russian-born author's novel, which runs more than 1,100 pages, has been long in the making. For years, producer Al Ruddy tried to bring "Atlas Shrugged" to the bigscreen, attracting the interest of Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway along...

As if things weren't crazy enough already in the Middle East, here's the officially sanctioned message in sixth-grade Palestinian textbooks for 11- and 12-year-old kids: "The noble soul has two goals: death and the desire for it."...It's Jonestown, writ large, a cult of suicide for the collective, for Palestine. Israel isn't on the maps in the Palestinian textbooks. ...A recent article in Rolling Stone, "The Unending Torture of Omar Khadr," tells the story of a 15-year-old captured by U.S. troops in Afghanistan .... "Born into a fundamentalist Muslim family in Toronto," Omar Khadr "had been prepared for jihad since he...

We all know the basic alternatives that form the familiar "spectrum" of American politics and culture. If a young person is turned off by religion or attracted by the achievements of science, and he wants to embrace a secular outlook, he is told--by both sides of the debate--that his place is with the collectivists and social subjectivists of the left. On the other hand, if he admires the free market and wants America to have a bold, independent national defense, then he is told--again, by both sides--that his natural home is with the religious right. But what if all of...

The 1945 Movie "Love Letters" (screenplay by Ayn Rand) will be shown  on Turner Classic Movies at 8pm Eastern on Wednesday, August 16th.   Set your Tivos, DVDRs and VCRs if you haven't already gotten a copy  of this delightful film.   See: THIS page.  Also: click on the "MONTH SCHEDULE" button in the  second menu bar (scroll half way down).

When: Thursday, August 31, 2006, 6:30 PM Where: Please visit http://aynrand.meetup.com/158/ and sign up for details. There have been location and time changes. Description: This will be our group's August where we will meet to discuss Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand. We will listen to a taped lecture and after listening to the it, Ed Carlson will lead the discussion on the issues and points Branden brings up. The time slot has also been moved to up to allow for more discussion after listening to the tape.

Karen and Howard Baldwin spoke at The Atlas Society's recent Summer Seminar about plans for their film adaptation of Atlas Shrugged. The principals in Baldwin Entertainment Group (BEG), producer of the 2004 Oscar-winning "Ray," appeared in a 90 minute panel session on July 7 with TAS board member John Aglialoro, who holds the screen rights to the Ayn Rand novel and will be co-executive producer with Howard Baldwin, the company’s president and CEO. Baldwin and Aglialoro confirmed earlier reports that BEG will collaborate with Lionsgate, the studio that produced last year’s Oscar winner, "Crash”; the final contract was signed just...

Happiness is not to be achieved at the command of emotional whims. Happiness is not the satisfaction of whatever irrational wishes you might blindly attempt to indulge. Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy—a joy without penalty or guilt, a joy that does not clash with any of your values and does not work for your own destruction, not the joy of escaping from your mind, but of using your mind's fullest power, not the joy of faking reality, but of achieving values that are real, not the joy of a drunkard, but of a producer. Happiness is possible only...

by Edward Hudgins, The Atlas Society & Objectivist Center On July 4 we celebrate the creation of the United States of America. Our birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence, reads, "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal." It states that we're each endowed with "certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." It concludes that "to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed." Most Americans give lip service to these sentiments. But how many of us understand...

Libertarianism is not thought of well in the minds of the public. Among the notably small percentage of them that have even heard of it (that is, heard enough to form an opinion on it), a prevailing view among them is it’s basically a quasi-anarchist, uber-capitalist homily to Ayn Rand.

Only one prominent intellectual in the last century--Ayn Rand, the great intellectual defender of individualism--has been brave enough to name the moral lesson. Rejecting the morality of sacrifice, she declared that "The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live," while in her classic novel The Fountainhead, her hero laments that "The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing." Ayn Rand remains a controversial figure, scoffed at by both left and right. But this phrase, "perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing"--could there be a better description of the Palestinians'...

OXFORD, N.C. --A college based on the teachings of philosopher-author Ayn Rand might come to Oxford -- if Maine doesn't get it first. The University of North Carolina Board of Governors, the ruling body for the state's public universities, has received a request for the establishment of Founders College in Oxford. The board has to approve applications for private colleges in the state. Two Duke University professors, Gary Hull and Eric Daniels, are involved with the College of Rational Education Inc., which would operate Founders College under Rand's principles. The author of "Atlas Shrugged" emphasized the rights of the individual...

The House is to be applauded for voting to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. Oil and gas are the lifeblood of our industrial civilization. Without them we wouldn't be able to run our cars, heat our homes, cool our offices, light our streets or power our machinery. Drilling in ANWR will increase the supply of energy and thus will directly benefit human life. Opponents of drilling, however, value wilderness as an end in itself and are impervious to the great benefit we gain from oil production. Hopefully, this victory for man will be the...

Frat boys and self-centered individualists of the world rejoice -- Lionsgate is moving forward on a big screen adaptation of Ayn Rand's heaviest book. According to Variety, "Ray" producers Howard and Karen Baldwin believe they've cracked the challenge of turning the 1,100 page novel "Atlas Shrugged" into a manageable feature. Lionsgate has acquired worldwide distribution. Written in 1957, "Atlas Shrugged" is considered Rand's masterpiece by people who believe that the Russian-born author had a masterpiece (in fairness, most frat boys usually stop after Rand's kiddie lit effort "The Fountainhead"). The weighty tome focuses on railroad executive Dagny Taggart, who feels...