Ayn Rand & The Beginning Of The End Of Objectivism 1

Who is Ayn Rand?

As this video says, "Ayn Rand created a philosophy for free men to live by":


IHS - Liberty from Duncan Scott on Vimeo.

I have to ask... really? Are you sure? Do you know anything about Ayn Rand? She said this is a philosophy for free men so you believe her? She was born & raised in Communist Russia of the first world war... how could she know about living like free men when all her life she sought escape from restrictions till she came to her promised land and was so disappointed that she declared America to be culturally bankrupt (Eric Hoffer called America 'the children of the world'). Relevant axiom: "Disappointment is like a bankruptcy. Bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation" Eric Hoffer.

Isn't believing some video - or her - without question the very collectivism she hates so much?

Anyways, entering the realm of the forsaken...


The following extract is from a 'Brief Biography of Ayn Rand:

Ayn Rand was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 2, 1905. At age six she taught herself to read and two years later discovered her first fictional hero in a French magazine for children, thus capturing the heroic vision which sustained her throughout her life. At the age of nine, she decided to make fiction writing her career. Thoroughly opposed to themysticism and collectivism of Russian culture, she thought of herself as a European writer, especially after encountering Victor Hugo, the writer she most admired.

She had a thirst for writing/language (common female brain structure). She made a fictional hero a model for her life from age 9. 

During her high school years, she was eyewitness to both the Kerensky Revolution, which she supported, and—in 1917—the Bolshevik Revolution, which she denounced from the outset. In order to escape the fighting, her family went to the Crimea, where she finished high school. The final Communistvictory brought the confiscation of her father's pharmacy and periods of near-starvation. When introduced to American history in her last year of high school, she immediately took America as her model of what a nation of free men could be.

Troubled adolescences, difficult times and established America as her model of how all nations should be without ever having been there.

When her family returned from the Crimea, she entered the University of Petrograd to study philosophy and history. Graduating in 1924, she experienced the disintegration of free inquiry and the takeover of the university by communist thugs. Amidst the increasingly gray life, her greatest pleasures were Viennese operettas and Western films and plays. Long an admirer of cinema, she entered the State Institute for Cinema Arts in 1924 to study screenwriting. It was at this time that she was first published: a booklet on actress Pola Negri (1925) and a booklet titled “Hollywood: American Movie City” (1926), both reprinted in 1999 in Russian Writings on Hollywood.

She was a part of Russian arts community. Politics in her community got crazy. (seems pretty normal... the more things change the more they stay the same).

In late 1925 she obtained permission to leave Soviet Russia for a visit to relatives in the United States. Although she told Soviet authorities that her visit would be short, she was determined never to return to Russia. She arrived in New York City in February 1926. She spent the next six months with her relatives in Chicago, obtained an extension to her visa, and then left for Hollywood to pursue a career as a screenwriter.

Lied to escape a country of oppression. Common today as well.

On Ayn Rand’s second day in Hollywood, Cecil B. DeMille saw her standing at the gate of his studio, offered her a ride to the set of his movie The King of Kings, and gave her a job, first as an extra, then as a script reader. During the next week at the studio, she met an actor, Frank O’Connor, whom she married in 1929; they were married until his death fifty years later.

Captured the first American man she could find for marriage and possibly American citizenship so she doesn't have to go back to Russia. Also common today.

Trend: Tough life. Difficult times. Lies. Escape. Survival at all costs. Sounds like a desperate and difficult life. Not as difficult as getting bombed by drones while playing in your backyard but pretty bad.


Preface to "For The New Intellectual" by Ayn Rand

This book is intended for those who wish to assume the responsibility of
becoming the new intellectuals. It contains the main philosophical passages
from my novels and presents the outline of a new philosophical system.

The full system is implicit in these excerpts (particularly in Galt’s
speech), but its fundamentals are indicated only in the widest terms and
require a detailed, systematic presentation in a philosophical treatise. I am
working on such a treatise at present; it will deal predominantly with the
issue which is barely touched upon in Galt’s speech: epistemology, and will
present a new theory of the nature, source and validation of concepts. This
work will require several years; until then, I offer the present book as a lead
or a summary for those who wish to acquire an integrated view of existence.

They may regard it as a basic outline; it will give them the guidance they
need, but only if they think through and understand the exact meaning and
the full implications of these excerpts.

I am often asked whether I am primarily a novelist or a philosopher. The
answer is: both. In a certain sense, every novelist is a philosopher, because
one cannot present a picture of human existence without a philosophical
framework; the novelist’s only choice is whether that framework is present
in his story explicitly or implicitly, whether he is aware of it or not, whether
he holds his philosophical convictions consciously or subconsciously. This
involves another choice: whether his work is his individual projection of
existing philosophical ideas or whether he originates a philosophical
framework of his own. I did the second. That is not the specific task of a
novelist; I had to do it, because my basic view of man and of existence was
in conflict with most of the existing philosophical theories. In order to
define, explain and present my concept of man, I had to become a
philosopher in the specific meaning of the term.

For those who may be interested in the chronological development of my
thinking, I have included excerpts from all four of my novels. They may
observe the progression from a political theme in We the Living to a
metaphysical theme in Atlas Shrugged.

These excerpts are necessarily condensed summaries, because the full
statement of the subjects involved is presented, in each novel, by means of
the events of the story. The events are the concretes and the particulars, of
which the speeches are the abstract summations.


Basically she outlined a plot for her story based on her life experiences and then took that evolving story-line and turned it into a marketable philosophy. She did come to the State seeking money and escape for Russia... she poured her frustration onto paper, her pride got to her and she began to think her story-line (i.e. map of the territory according to her experiences and knowledge base) was reality itself... which was OK for her as several others believed her as well. That's easy when you write a really big book in a culture that doesn't read. One big book can have a trans-formative effect on consciousness add that to laziness and you have a cult. If one big book had such a big effect imagine 100 books? What can I say... as Ayn Rand put it:

"America is culturally bankrupt." Ayn Rand 1956 - Page 1 of For the New Intellectual

How is her "philosophy" any different from this:

The above gives you a high-level view of your novel. Now you need something similar for the storylines of each of your characters. Characters are the most important part of any novel, and the time you invest in designing them up front will pay off ten-fold when you start writing. For each of your major characters, take an hour and write a one-page summary sheet that tells:

• The character's name
• A one-sentence summary of the character's storyline
• The character's motivation (what does he/she want abstractly?)
• The character's goal (what does he/she want concretely?)
• The character's conflict (what prevents him/her from reaching this goal?)
• The character's epiphany (what will he/she learn, how will he/she change?
• A one-paragraph summary of the character's storyline

Or this?


2) When you feel that you're getting ready to move beyond the brainstorming phase, then write down answers to these questions:

Who will be your main character? Write some information about him or her. (It's possible to have more than one main character, but this will make your novel more complicated to write. If you plan to have several main characters, write information about each of them.)

Normally, your novel will be about an important problem that your main character has to solve, or an important goal that he or she wants to achieve. What is this problem or goal? Write it down. Why is it the most important thing in the world to your character right now? (If it isn't that important to your character, look for another problem or goal to be of your story. If your character doesn't care a lot that he or she resolves the problem, your readers won't either.).

What terrible difficulties are there between the character and his/her goal or the solution to his/her problem? (If it's too easy for your character to get out of trouble or get what he/she wants, then there will be less of a story). Make a list.

Where and when (in general) will your story take place? In Miami in the early 1980's? On the planet Fiz in the year 2044?

In general, what type of novel are you writing? Is it mainly comedy? Drama? A thriller? Read more about types of novels here.

What are the main events that will move your character toward (or away from) solving the novel's central problem or achieving the central goal? Make a list.



Or this?

Plot: 4

• Outline some of the main events of your story. If this is your first step in writing the story you may not know everything that is going to happen. Outlining your story helps you organize your thoughts so it is OK to begin writing with an incomplete or loose outline. Allow your story room to change in future drafts. Read more: How to Write an Outline for a Story | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4605999_write-story-outline.html#ixzz2MQXpGjS3

Background:

Description From Amazon:

Biography

Ayn Rand's first novel, We the Living, was published in 1936. With the publication of The Fountainhead in 1943, she achieved spectacular and enduring success. Through her novels and nonfiction writings, which express her unique philosophy, Objectivism, Rand maintains a lasting influence on popular thought.

Notice that these novels were published in 1936 and 1943 (plus books take time to write, especially big ones).

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

AYN RAND (1905-1982) was born in Russia, graduated from the University of Leningrad, and came to the United States in 1926. She published her first novel in 1936. With the publication of The Fountainhead in 1943, she achieved a spectacular and enduring success and her unique philosophy, Objectivism, gained a worldwide following. 

Notice that all her foundational experiences are in Communist Russia. Not the Oligarchical capitalist society Russia is today but an old tribal like society where one man had recently gained power over the entire country (which is why all she sees are "witch doctors and tribal chiefs") using an ideology derived from the works of a German philosopher named Karl Marx who had written his philosophy (beginning on the premise that entrepreneurship was worth nothing which is a faulty assumption - the other extreme is modern day banks who give huge bonuses for people who can run software programs and make money using other peoples money destroying whole economies ... basically, entrepreneurship is overvalued... tremendously).

Book Description

Release date: December 1, 1963 | Series: Signet

This is Ayn Rand's challenge to the prevalent philosophical doctrines of our time and the "atmosphere of guilt, of panic, of despair, of boredom, and of all-pervasive evasion" that they create. One of the most controversial figures on the intellectual scene, Ayn Rand was the proponent of a moral philosophy--and ethic of rational self-interest--that stands in sharp opposition to the ethics of altruism and self-sacrifice. The fundamentals of this morality--"a philosophy for living on Earth"--are here vibrantly set forth by the spokesman for a new class, For the New Intellectual.

Her time was from the age of awareness of society, being a girl lets say 6-8, to the full formation of her main brain structures (age 12-14) and her hormonal imprinting (15-18) and adulthood (i.e. enough experiences & pain to have some understanding of life - he view of 'joy as a goal' - in this context - was an escape from sadness... given that the mind thinks most of what it is desperately trying to avoid, it's likely sadness/depression was her everyday reality). In other words, by the time she left Russia and came to the States everything about her personality, view of the world, understanding of love/men and experience of life had already been formed. These can be changed using modern techniques not available in her time though (knowledge is constantly increasing).

Ayn Rand would be over 108 if she was alive today. How many 100 year old's do you know who are cool or up to date with normal every day life? How many 108 year old's ideas on life are valuable for you today? Ron Paul is 60 it makes sense for him, but not if you are below 40.

Her emotions were already set. She was probably an unhappy and angry woman and you can feel this anger in her writing and in many ways it corresponds with anger many people feel with the rigidity of their society no matter what time we live in, so it has relevance even today. To a small extent (she doesn't seem to be saying anything original, to me at least). Here she is in a culture where she had more freedom that the culture she hated and feared yet all she sees is "cultural bankruptcy". I think her inner life was bankrupt. To put it another way, Ayn Rand was emotionally bankrupt, something we can all identify with in our time, problem is this bankruptcy colored her view of everything so much that that's all she saw.


Here is an allegory of Ayn Rand's experiences in Communist Russia:


Fountainhead - Ayn Rand (subt. ESP) from Marcos on Vimeo.




Videos:

The Colbert Report
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Notes on Ayn Rand (Sociopath?) from the above video:

2:37 Ayn Rand's philosophy of rational self interest states that the purpose of life is pursuing your own happiness with no regard for others.

2:50 "I'm challenging the moral code of altruism" Ayn Rand (i.e. she supports the opposite of altruism or in other words, she supports the opposite of charity, get it dufflepuds?)

3:05 " [Love] is immoral if it is a love placed above oneself" Ayn Rand

Q. "If a man of woman is weak is he/she beyond love?" Reply: "He certainly doesn't deserve it" Ayn Rand (The example Colbert uses is one of grandparents, I think with proper questioning kids would have fallen into the same category for Ayn Rand. I don't like kids that much myself but to say they don't deserve to be loved and/or saved seems like something a very disturbed and traumatized individual would say/believe.)

NOTE:

2:37 Ayn Rand's philosophy of rational self interest states that the purpose of life is pursuing your own happiness with no regard for others. 

By Ayn rand's definition Dick Cheney is the perfect example of the sort of capitalism she envision for "free men". You can follow Dick Cheney's example by learning more about Dick (by clicking here).