With the news of my previous post moments ago on Ayn Rand speakers on the G. Gordon Liddy show and the big leap in numbers of articles and letters to the editor in major newspapers and magazines across the country, it appears that many Americans are rattled and trying to find answers for the meltdown in the marketplace -- and many are turning to Ayn Rand's books for answers.
Too much of what has happened eerily resembles a chapter from Atlas Shrugged. It is too obvious to ignore. Each day brings fresh news of another seedy or corrupt figure who personifies a James Taggert or a Wesley Mouch. Each new company failure and tawdry story revives a page of poignant fiction and shuddering memory of Orren Boyle. Each brazen denouncement by a corpulent, venal Barney Frank makes one believe that he will soon state, as Mr. Thompson does, "I hereby declare Rearden MicroSystems and Steel Imports, Inc., to be the property of the state!" Each greasy pronouncement by Alan Greenspan reveals beneath a Dr. Robert Stadler, a sellout for fame and stolen fortune.
I won't say that Ayn Rand was prophetic or prescient. That would give her critics too much grist for the "Objectivism is a religion" mill. Rand knew what happens when the freedom of the individual becomes secondary to the "needs of the many" and the will of concomitant government. She didn't just extrapolate rationally. She also saw it first-hand in the Soviet Union. She then became sickened when she saw her beloved adopted country of America head down the same murderous path. And we are now farther along that path.
The dear lady has been dead 26 years now, so the fight is no longer hers. It is ours. There is much more to life than fighting, so it is not an enjoyable task. But to see what once-proud America has become and to know that the next knock on the door may bring men of unknown origin taking you from hearth to unknown destination stirs men of principle to action. This may not happen tonight or tomorrow, but how many tomorrows before the inevitable?
You think I exaggerate? You think you are safe? You say, "There's no way that could happen in America." You believe that if you just keep your mouth shut and maintain a low profile, you, at least, will be safe?
Perhaps. Maybe. For now. But monsters get bigger and hungrier. And the only thing that slays a political behemoth is rational ideas backed by men and women of action. Our enemies, as Rand so effectively illustrated, are cowards who take command by the forces of massive ignorance. They slink together on the heaps of the mentally dead. It is that ignorance that must be blunted, swept back, destroyed. Ideas do that. Ideas forcefully and eloquently expressed do that. That is where our battle lies. Ideas.
You may be relatively free now, but what about tomorrow? Next year? In 2017? Knock knock!
The time to fight is now. The time to speak is now. The time to fight is now!
2 comments:
Hear! hear!, or should I say "read! read!"...
and the blogosphere is a most suitable battleground for those who have little free time to spare from their quest for survival. Let quick comments be your weapon. Let no irrational attack on reason stand unanswered.
Go to: http://www.google.com/alerts and sign up for blog alerts with the keywords for "Ayn Rand", "Objectivism", "Objectivist", and/or whatever other one fits your special thinking skills. Google will email a link with brief description of almost every occurrence within a few hours of them being posted. Those three terms bring 6-10 alerts per day. They are easy to scan and go to or delete. Even if you do not have the time or skill to reply, you will learn from the replies and will gain an overview of the extent to which the discussion of Rand has permeated the worldwide debates in the culture war.
The goal is to make sure that no irrational ideas go unexplained and unanswered. The honest minds searching to satiate their curiosity about Objectivism need rational answers to be joined at the hip of every irrational blog entry.
You can already see this in action as Objectivist answers from "Brian", "Richard", "Donahue", and others appear throughout Blogger, Live Journal and independently hosted personal websites. I am now finding some posts disparaging Objectivist ideas with more than half the replies correcting the misrepresentations. This works!
Thanks ironically to the Greenspan affair and the meldown itself, this is truly a moment of great opportunity. Thanks to the ARI's Rand books for teachers program, the familiarity with Rand has mushroomed in recent years.
You are oh so right -- now is the time to act!
Thanks very much, Michael. It is heartening to hear another rational voice out there in the blogosphere who understands the vital implications of what needs to be done.
I'll hook myself up for the alerts.
Thanks again and stay in touch!
Best to you,
David
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