MK: The autocrats tearing up the US economy; Obama, Bernanke, Geithner, Dimon and Blankfein (and famously, Alan Greenspan) to name a few, ascribe to Ayn Rand’s theory of ‘objectivism.‘ This is poppycock that has about as much relevance as L. Ron Hubbard. If the the US entrepreneurial class followed this tripe we would have no P2P, Linux, Open Source, iTunes, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Wikipedia, Wikileaks, DemocracyNow.org, NASA, a triumph in WWII, or the NFL (and the Super Bowl). All of which rely on collectivist ararchism, not isolationism. This movie is like, 50 years out of date. It’s the philosophy of a weenie waving America from the 50′s that liked to invade other countries with fiat money and call it ‘soft imperialism’ and sell them soft ice cream and soft porn (like Taylor Swift in this movie). Ayn Rand’s an asshole and her philosophy defines assholedom in America.
Ayn Rand exposing her deep racism and hatred for non-techno-bot boot licking clowns like herself
I honestly couldn’t read Rand’s book. I started. I pressed on a while. But it was utter rubbish. It reeked of naivety, arrogance, and rage.
I loved the book, but times has changes, Insight has come…On our way to the linux society!
Nice to see a good movie without the usual suspects !
http://www.atlasshruggedpart1.com/about#cast
Dagny Taggart: Taylor Schilling
Henry Rearden: Grant Bowler
James Taggart: Matthew Marsden
Ellis Wyatt: Graham Beckel
Edwin “Eddie” Willers: Edi Gathegi
Francisco d’Anconia: Jsu Garcia
Wesley Mouch: Michael Lerner
the funny thing : a friend just had ingeneers voming over from Pakistan because he consederd them better scientist then the Dutch…
Ron Paul discusses Ayn Rand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjwuGHPilwI&NR=1&feature=fvwp
Mentions Greenspan BTW
I thought of buying this book based on some recommendations. I may still do it to make up my own mind.
Lots of what people read and their opinions on it comes down to context and interpretation. I wonder if this is a book like that.
This woman is poison.
Ayn Rand’s writing lacks imagination,
lacks compassion,
lacks awareness.
lacks a true reading of nature & phenomena.
Ayn Rand is the demonness ruler of the cult
of selfishness and attracted flies like Greenspan,
William Buckley and that whole maggot ilk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX5XIOq-xUs
Not read the book; don’t think I’ll bother either after seeing the author’s narrow minded ethnocentricism and political naivety. I don’t have exact stats to hand (and sure they’d be contested anyhow), but pretty sure Palestinian children have been killed ten fold compared to Israel’s. And does it make it more acceptable that such deaths are ‘collateral damage’ in violence executed by Zionist men in uniform with ‘sophisticated’ weapons? As far as ‘terrorist arabs’ (Palestinians fighting for their people’s lives) – one woman’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter etc… Trailer for the film looks utter tut too.I almost fell asleep. And it says ‘part 1′ – jeez, they’re making pt 2 are they? BIG YAWN!!!! Zzzzzzzz…
Ruthlessness is reserved for industry only.
Anger can be born out of remembering a fight, or (as it is in most intellectual cases) out of a lack of experience with the mental territory, so that the instinctive responses surface. She was a hatefull arrogant woman, someone wholly inadequate to lead, but like Keynes she provided the mental repository that equalized the dumb actors with their smart resistors.
You are what you eat… S510 is dead, for the moment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YpAKsNhNqk&feature=player_embedded
And like Israels territorial claim the reason why Ayn Rands game could be played is because of undeserved oil. The undeserving are the most arrogant.
Seeing that Donahue video reminds me that his show was cancelled for being an anti-war voice in the lead up to war, which I only found out about a few months ago. I always wondered why his show was cancelled.
Donahue was by far one of the best listeners / interviewers in recent years.
—————-
snippet from an interview with Amy Goodman:
—————
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we all learned about this memo, just soon after you were fired that came out of NBC, that was—that said that as we led into the invasion of Iraq, they didn’t want to have their flagship show, no matter how successful it was, the most popular show on MSNBC, being one that provided a forum for anti-war voices. They didn’t want an anti-war face when the other networks were waving the American flag.
PHIL DONAHUE: Right.
Putting aside all of yours and her prejudices,…..she was a brilliant woman !
Tip: Always sort the wheat from the chaff !
she sounds reasonable to me.
who has all the dictators and the depressed,
brainwashed, poor people.
Does anybody think, a scholar in koran.school
could ask a critical question about those suren,
like for example 5 or 9 asking to kill non-muslims?
None of the people you named there subscribe to Ayn Rands philosophy. They are the very people she intellectually destroys and warns about in all of her books.
Hey Max ,are you stealing the line from the angry aussie?priceless comment unless measured in gold! that Ayn Rand is an arsehole.hey gang for a good old aussie mouthful,check out Ayn Rand Acolytes by Angry Aussie on you tube,sorry cant do that link thing in blue ,im still a slide rule kid,but it is the best takedown of all neocon/ayn rand arseholes ever,and fuck it ,you can add Schiff,Ron and Rand Paul too.Who the fuck do you think they have in mind when they get rid of the Federal Reserve?Murdoch and News Corp?Your right Max ,America does suck,ive seen the attitude over there,especially american women,Stacy excluded off course, who act like this Rand bitch.Its all about me,me,me,so this aussie guy told them to go get fucked!Thats why we aussies had the highest survival rates as prisoners of war under the japs,cause we stuck together and shared all our food with one another,officers included,and why the yanks died like flies following Rands fucked up belief system,of me ,me.Here endeth the lesson.Plus noone swears like an aussie!
Hmmm. So technological advancement is advancement of civilization, meaning the more technologically advanced the more civilized a people or nation is. So that would mean the Germans are the most civilized society on earth, Right?
Well there you have it. Out of his own words.
Max Keiser is a “collectivist”. In other words a “communist” with “religious” tendencies who likes to swear. A real split personality
No wonder he broadcast out of Russia and Iran.
Max, I would hardly say that Dimon and the rest are free market capitalists…they’re kleptocrats as you yourself have said.
Washington / Wall St is so hopelessly corrupt, competition is practically dead.
ayn rand ..dumb dumb dumb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_byYoYp3jlY&feature=related
Looks pretty dull.
Promo music like that = Dull movie.
Saw True Grit this afternoon.
That was good.
BTW:,……It’s “ARSE”,……an ass is a stupid animal !
Repeat after me,……I’m a stupid ass, who talks out of my arse hole,….
Ayn Rand is a true Cultural Chernobyl. Her ideology is far more destructive, and with a higher kill count, than the Eugenicist quacks who inspired Hitler. Neo-Cons and Neo-Liberals worship at the Altar of Randianism. A poisonous and bankrupt ideology which espouses Fascism by ignorantly claiming it’s Liberty.
Friedman
Kissinger
Nixon
Reagan
Greenspan
Dubya
Anytime the US Gov’t speaks about its interests in furthering war policies(through military attack or economic sanctions) the ideology of Randis being followed. Every time a huge bank games commodity markets or steals trillions for profits and calls it “market making” Rand is being followed.
Her philosophy is laughed at……..Her economic ideology has been championed by Western Finance. It is bankrupt and has led to the greatest rise in world poverty and hunger in human history. It has also led to record highs in wealth disparity and a continuous pillage of the have nots by the haves. One could go on and discuss the continuous destruction of ecology…….
Her writings are strident, bombastic and so full of appeals to authority they reek of Medieval Summas written to endorse a Faith’s Dogma. She is far more anti-enlightenment than the Arabs she titles as “savages”. Dehumanization has always been a tool used by Dogmatists. The Catholics who “discovered” the Western hemisphere labelled the Natives as “Savages” too–What happened to them? Ethnic Cleansing and mass slaughter or forced assimilation if you’re lucky. How are they any different from the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza being subjected to the same by European settlers who style themselves as Zionists?
dont bother with Ayn Rand, her philosophy was 50years out of date when she came up with it! ,rather read Stuart Chases “The Tyranny of Words” , written in 1937 its a treatise on General Semantics and Non-Aristotelien Logic, developed by polish emigre Alfred Korzybski after the first world war, if we want to get to humanities next level we have to learn to communicate.
@Wombat Stew.
Thanks for Angry Aussie.
Very expressive and good breathing technique
@Bel-ami,…..all the people you mentioned are brilliant in their own right !
As are you no doubt,….
Tip: Try not to get too wrapped up in your own convictions,…it’s dangerous !!
Did she say “civilised conflict” as opposed to terrorism?
The British used to wait until the enemy was ready before they opened fire.
Civilised bunch they were.
That was a disgraceful racist out-burst
Would Ayn Rand know of Ibn al-Haytham ?
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Haytham
Tyranny of words,. for anyone who’s interested
http://pdfcast.org/download/tyranny-of-words.pdf
Max Keiser seems to be becoming more and more consumed with hatred.
Could it be that he is really a “failed” Wall Street finance-boy that couldn’t hack-it and was not recognised. He really wanted to be like Jamie Dimon.
Everyone who doesn’t agree with Keiser is an “arse-hole”. Eventually people like Keiser end up as the only “arse-hole” left in the room.
One wonders after watching this woman talk about Israel and racism whether or not she herself is not a Jew.
@max
firstly lets deal with the primary clarity required here
collectivism is not the cause of all the above success. they were the result of Interdependence working side by side with independence.
collectivism is a cancer that would have silenced any creative thought as the people who would have engendered such wondrous creations would have been living with inherent fear. Such fear hinders at best and kills in kind the insightful human spirit. Collectivism by its nature is SLAVERY.
Judging by the look of the movie trailer her book must be pretty shit.
And the answer is . . . YES!
http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/bio/biofaq.html#Q6.9
6.9 Was Ayn Rand Jewish?
Ethnically, yes, Rand was Jewish. She was born into a Russian Jewish family, although her parents were not particularly observant. As an adult, Rand did not practice Judaism as a religion, since she became an atheist at an early age. A number of Rand’s close associates over the years, including Nathaniel Branden, Barbara Branden, Leonard Peikoff, and Alan Greenspan, have also been ethnic, but non-religious, Jews.
Perspective is everything.
Many would consider Max Keiser’s rants to be hate laced sermons.
Ayn Rand was just as much against slavery as Max Keiser or any of the rest of us.
Ayn Rand so frequently stated that slavery arises from monopolies and monopolies only result when the state grants them.
Ayn Rand believed that we (you and I) are entitled to our mind and its creative capacity. She would be vitriolic in opposing the monopolistic cartel of wall street and the Federal Reserve and and the system of economic slavery it has wrought.
She resented religion for its attempt to enslave such mind.
She resented the state for doing the same.
She resented the welfare state for enslaving the creators and producers of society.
Ayn Rand died in 1982. It was only the latter part of her life that money was not backed by gold.
If Ayn Rand where alive today and of sound mind, she would be the leading voice against the cartel of wall street, central banks, and the fiat money system. Like Max Keiser, she would be just as loud and vitriolic in her opposition. Unlike Max Keiser, she would remain in, rather than flee, the United States in her fight against this tyranny.
@ Daniel /Istanbul
@ David
Atlas Shrugged sold millions of copies. It very long and can be at times difficult. The speech given by Galt is particularly long and sometimes tedious.
There are many interesting points to Ayn Rand’s philosophy and is certainly a book that should be read before commenting on. If your opinion of a book must be “shit” before you’ve even read it then you have obviously been well trained by Keiser.
So, the answer is collectivism? Maybe the next “Pirate My Movie” theme should be “Batshit Crazy” because Bat Shit is obviously what you are smoking if you think that(Collectivism) is the answer to our societal ills. As a Chinese whose parent ssuffered under the Communist/Collectivist yoke during the cultural revolution, I take issue with your statements. Collectivism, no matter how well meaning, has always led to Despotism. As far as Obama being an adherent to the works of Ayn Rand, give me a fucking break, Max.
And yet, she was so right about so many things. Crony Capitalism, and how with the help of one class of people another class destroys a country. Her flaw I think, is she sees industrialists as human beings. They used to be, NOW what is it better to be? A human that can be TAXED into obliviion because you lack the Power and Advantage of being wired into the monetary and political system, or a CORPORATION? If you incorporate, you can play the game, if your a flesh and blood person you are toast. People have moral hazard, corporations have none.
Oh oh, don’t upset the libertards Max!
@newladworkingin EIRA
Palestinian children out number Israeli children ten fold, so Israeli children are worth more.
Besides Palestinian are not human, are you going to compare livestock being slaughter to the Chosen People being murder. How dare you anti-Semites? You are just full with hate.
Its obvious who is getting high fructose corn syrup intravenously fed into their veins,@george sign,go piss in your own pocket.The bitch took money from her Chicago relatives and promised to repay when she became well known,well surprise,surprise gomer,guess what she didnt!oh i forgor only the strong and independent survive?Oh and when she needed health care for lung cancer guess what she turned to medicare!gee what a champion of the free market and survival of the fitest!Just as well she didnt have offspring,i would have hit them over the head and thrown them back in the bucket.
haha I always have to laugh so loud on this site… Oh my god…
Nak wrote: @newladworkingin EIRA
Palestinian children out number Israeli children ten fold, so Israeli children are worth more.
My reply: What? Quantity is somehow inversely related to value when it comes to people? The more people, the less they are worth? What a scary logic you have. It could be used to justify something like Nazism and fascism, I guess.
Nak Wrote: Besides Palestinian are not human
My reply: Is this worth an answer? What don’t you join the KKK or something.
Nak wrote: are you going to compare livestock being slaughter to the Chosen People being murder. How dare you anti-Semites? You are just full with hate.
my reply: Palestinians as livestock? Oh dear. You are very racist aren’t you. What do you mean, when you write ‘Chosen people?’ Chosen by who? A loving God? I’m not anti-semite. People, regardless of religion, etc need to be more compassionate. I am not hateful either. I don’t regard fellow human beings as animals. Watch Occupation 101, OK? I’m not replying to you anymore, you aren’t very intelligent or informed.
I wonder how Stacey will look in her Berka (at least it will hide her cut off nose and ears).
You guys may get your wish
On your list of autocrats spouting Ayn Rand, you left of Ron Paul. How is it that he gets a pass from everyone when he sticks to the official 9-11 line? He says bin Laden is still alive and 19 Muslims brought down Tower 7, sounding as ignorant as any of the other idiot on that list, yet some how people think Ron Paul is a great guy who will fix something with HIS version of the official lie.
People are just too lazy to live their own life, they all insist on a leader and only interfering assholes seek leadership.
@newladworkingin EIRA
Well I did hear the Arab demographics out numbers Israel’s Jewish population, so when a Jew is killed it weighs more on the Jewish population and their survival. I heard it on American TV news and my favorite anchor people did not dispute the claim, so it must be true.
Some of the comments here are hyperbolic nonsense. “Ruthlessness is reserved for industry only”? wtf does that mean? Anyway, you should not confuse crony capitalism and bankster manipulations with objectivism, a philosophy that does not entail the use of force against the innocent, which is what happens when companies, and central banks, use the guns of government to write them favorable laws at the expense of others. If we actually had statesman that fully appreciated this, America would be a lot better off. If we had citizens that didn’t look to the entity with the monopoly on the use of violence to solve every problem, America would be a lot better off.
Rand a Welfare Queen:
“… the recent “Oral History of Ayn Rand” by Scott McConnell (founder of the media department at the Ayn Rand Institute) that in the end Ayn was a vip-dipper as well. An interview with Evva Pryror, a social worker and consultant to Miss Rand’s law firm of Ernst, Cane, Gitlin and Winick verified that on Miss Rand’s behalf she secured Rand’s Social Security and Medicare payments which Ayn received under the name of Ann O’Connor (husband Frank O’Connor).
As Pryor said, “Doctors cost a lot more money than books earn and she could be totally wiped out” without the aid of these two government programs. Ayn took the bail out even though Ayn “despised government interference and felt that people should and could live independently… She didn’t feel that an individual should take help.”
But alas she did and said it was wrong for everyone else to do so. Apart from the strong implication that those who take the help are morally weak, it is also a philosophic point that such help dulls the will to work, to save and government assistance is said to dull the entrepreneurial spirit.
In the end, Miss Rand was a hypocrite but she could never be faulted for failing to act in her own self-interest. ”
She’d make a good wall street banker
In the novel, by withdrawing the minds of the individuals most contributing to the nation’s wealth and achievement via a strike. Rand intended to illustrate that without the efforts of the rational and productive, the economy would collapse and society would fall apart.
Sadly this collapse is occurring, as the banking system, oil cartel and corporatism have eliminated the rational and productive.
The woman is a Semite, it doesn’t matter if she calls here self a Jew or not.
rational self-interest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QDv4sYwjO0
In the novel, by withdrawing the minds of the individuals most contributing to the nation’s wealth and achievement via a strike. Rand intended to illustrate that without the efforts of the rational and productive, the economy would collapse and society would fall apart.
Sadly this collapse is occurring, as the banking system, oil cartel and corporatism have eliminated the rational and productive.
that’s not angelina jolie.
it’s taylor swift.
luckily enough.
my favorite tweet of the week
amazingatheist – Any liberals worried about the upcoming Atlas Shrugged movie being persuasive–fear no more. http://tinyurl.com/5vr9ml5 I lol’d
it looks like TV, not even good enough for HBO
Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged – Future Fact Disguised as Fiction
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.8635/pub_detail.asp
…and there’s always the rumor that Rand was the booty call of Philip Rothschild.
Thanks for this post, Max.
Ayn Rand is a foul, ugly women (referring to her mind & black soul, not her physical features) whose entire “free will” ideology was based on racist clan/tribal supremacy – just like the Nazis.
There IS no “free will” if you and your people are about to be overrun and massacred by a stronger, invading tribe (whether Romans, Huns, Mongols, Conquistadors, or any of history’s other ruthless conquerors.)
So the Neo-Cons like Rand CONFLATE the themes of THEIR OWN tribal/clan “superiority” with “free markets,” “free will,” and “freedom” even as “Free Markets” mean monopoly, oligopoly cartels; “freedom” means the right of those cartels to BRIBE the entire political and press/media class, and as they try to masquerade their calls to ever more wars and conflicts (whether against big enemies like Russia & the USSR, or smaller enemies like Egypt, Iraq, etc.)
(Call for war, of course, require the bending of “free will” of draftees, to the absolute military discipline & obedience of military life.)
As Molly Ivins once wrote (about a Pat Buchanan speech) “It sounds better in the original German” – Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, Leo Strauss, Irving Kristol, and other Neo-Con godfather’s ideology is just Nazi-lite, with the blatant appeals to genocidal wars rounded off and polished up a tad.
(See the book, “The War Nerd,” for how CLAN/TRIBAL IDENTITY, is, and always has been at the root of all human actions, is the basis of all human conflicts;
http://motherjones.com/media/2008/08/book-review-war-nerd
no matter how we try to gussy up our immediate political desires in terms of “all men are created equal” (written by a slave-owner) or other altruistic sounding principles.)
Max, I’m just wondering, you have a show on Press Tv which is funded by the Iranian government. If you support the whole Egypt revolution thing where do you stand on Iran?? Would be very interested to know.
Thanks, Sean, Ireland.
High copper content Rearden Steel will save the world?
Ayn was as bad at chemestry and metalurgy as she was at identifying the true social problems of her age.
She wrote that airplans hunted and found each other in the western sky before Radar.
Her understanding of the real world was just bat shit krazy
I would do Dagny Taggert
Who is John Galt? Think of a Favio like hero for a 19th century Russian pesant girl..
Is it just me or the woman who plays main character looks a lot like Blythe Masters? Same cold eyes.
The movie looks crappy, but this is consistent with the material it is based on.
Max Keiser runs the risk of becoming the modern day Maximilien Robespierre.
Max has been a great leader and orator in the revolution against the monopolistic enslaving financial system.
However, Max now seems to be turning his ire on fellow revolutionaries as well as advocating replacing our current form of slavery with another form of slavery, collectivism.
Like the revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre, Max Keiser may be facing the guillotine from the face up position if continues his “rein of terror” on the very revolutionaries that have joined him in this war against the monopolistic cartel of wall street and the federal reserve.
Those that seek to enslave us, whether it be thru fiat currency or collectivism, are subject to the same fate, THE GUILLOTINE!
Also, Angelina is not in the trailer. It looks like despite loving Rand, she realized the movie will be a failure.
Ayn Rand is one of the greatest orators of libertarianism.
She is very respected by Ron Paul. She advocated for liberty and individual freedoms. Pieces she wrote embraced the value of an individual, and it is individuals who change the world – geniuses like Einstein, Copernicus and hundreds of others. Her books encourages and inspires a lot of people, especially young entrepreneurs, who may be very talented but sometimes lack self-confidence.
You may disagree with her on some points, sure, but there’s no doubt she was a great philosopher and a freedom lover.
How the heck can you put her next to the likes of Obama/Bernanke/Greenspan, who are lying manipulative autocrats is beyond comprehension. It’s a pity Max you’ve made such an ignorant comment.
Yawn . This bitch has already ended up in the dustbin of the history of philosophical thought . Classement vertical comme on dit en France .
@ Max
I’m all for collectivism as long as individualism is aloud to flourish to move the collective forward. It’s the power of the individual and power letting a person’s unique talents thrive that has moved the human race forward. The type of collectivism that is pushed on us by a global elite meant to stifle free thought and create hoards of mindless worker bees is how we got into this mess.
But Max,
Ayn Rand loved gold! (I would say that you keep strange bedfellows except I would not like to possibly insult a lovely lady with the initials SH).
But MS Rand was also a hypocrite who took Social Security and Medicare when she NEEDED them: http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/149721/ayn_rand_railed_against_government_benefits,_but_grabbed_social_security_and_medicare_when_she_needed_them/
So since Ayn Rand paid into Social Security and Medicare, she wasn’t “entitled” to receive them? Believe or not, we are all “forced” to take these benefits. As soon as you sign up for Social Security, you are automatically forced to take Medicare, whether you like it or not. Prove me wrong.
Ayn Rand had her inconsistencies, just like everyone. She spoke of the “individual”, but yet when you questioned her line of reasoning, you were banished. (Nathenial Brandon and Murray Rothbard. Brandon is still alive, and speaks of it to this day)
She had a long time relationship with Mr. Brandon when she was in her 60′s and he was in his 30′s. So, yes, she wasn’t perfect. She was married to Frank O’Connor for 50 years. And shock and horror, she was an athiest.
But as far as the free market, and government intervention, she was at the top of her game. Someone claimed here that Bill Buckley was a big fan. Nothing could be further of the truth. He condemned her, and spoke negatively about Atlas Shrugged.
Max, you really should pick up her book “Captialism: The Unknown Ideal”. It is the best and moral defense of the free market. There’s an essay written by Alan Greenspan about the Gold Standard, and the faults of the Fed. (Now there’s a true hypocrit)
Another fault of hers is that she would have defended the attack on Iraq in 2003. However to her credit she was a harsh critic of the Vietnam War.
She was a mixed bag, some good, some bad. People are free to pick on both. After all she was a human being, like the rest of us.
Ayn Rand’s real name was Alicia Rosenbaum, so yes, she was Jewish!!
Remember, Rome fell when it let the barbarians in and gave away their technological advantage.
Oh! how history loves to repeat itself when generations forget the valuable lessons of the past.
Max, you really should pick up her book “Captialism: The Unknown Ideal”. It is the best and moral defense of the free market. There’s an essay written by Alan Greenspan about the Gold Standard, and the faults of the Fed. (Now there’s a true hypocrit) Jean
Speaking of hypocrisy, those who claim to be in favour of a free market but seek government recognition of gold as money are themselves hypocrites. That includes, unfortunately, Ron Paul too.
Well you have to understand that Ayn Rand wasn’t objective about Israel because the lady was of jewish russian origin. So much for ‘objectivity’. The disgrace is that progressives like Mossadejh in Iran were toppled by USA. They prefer in Washington and Tel Aviv medieval puppet princes or dictatorsgeneralslike their friend Hosni Moubarak and his 70 billion dollars stolen from the egyptian people parked in swiss and UK bank accounts. Ayn Rand created also another monster. ALAN GREENSPAN.
Collectivism was the foundation for Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. If you like perpetual maintenance on the status quo, collectivism is for you. This is one the areas where i completely disagree with Max. Innovation in any field typically comes from one person with a revolutionary idea, who was willing to put his ideas out there at the risk of being ostracized for coming up with ideas that are contrary to the status quo. A perfect example of this is what we call western medicine. It is the collectivist power structure that has been put in place that works hard to destroy any innovator that comes forward with new concepts towards healing that threaten the status quo. I can tell you with first hand knowledge that if the collectivists weren’t actively suppressing knowledge, cures for virtually every disease would be found that would be low cost and not only that, would further mans understanding of the true nature of himself.
While the argument can be made that some collectivism is necessary to make an idea become widespread and the technology a reality for the public, it can’t be ignored that at some point the collectivists turn in protectionists that no longer look for further innovation, but act to stop it.
Max’s tirades against banksters i absolutely love, but his ongoing support of manmade global warming without discussing the planetary changes of weather patterns throughout our solar system adds weight to him getting caught up in collectivist/group thinking. As a permaculture design graduate, there is no doubt that our actions do adversely affect the biosphere, but i see no solution through taxation that is going to solve the problem which Max seems to tacitly support.
I’m actually suprised by the majority reaction here.
Atlas Shrugged is one of the best anti big government beurocracy novels ever written. Communist or not, to not recognize that people often have self interest at heart is to ignore human psychology altogether…it is why communism has failed time and time again.
Rand’s vision is of a society that actually works despite this nature…and it’s really not as cold hearted as some make it out to be. It is a large reason why the psuedo-capitalism that we have today is failing. Our current version of “capitalism” is failing because of its fascist/communist inroads. Max points to some impressive companies, calls them collectivist, but I would say they would be nowhere without a capitalist backbone.
Some of you will point at the super wealthy as a travesty, and I would agree…**SOME** of the super wealthy, eg. bankers, are the worst face you can put on capitalism. I will point at the government and say do you honestly believe if our government institutions were not laced with corruption, we would have such an imbalance?
Is it a coincidence that one of the richest areas in the united states is washington DC? What do they make there – Cars? Computers? Software? Apple Peelers? Nope…laws. Another is New York – well what do they make there?…financial “instruments”…ways to steal weath without doing any actual work yourself (this is a half truth, call me out on it if you wish). Nothing that actually does an economy good. And theres the problem. Lawmaking is not an industry. Buying the law and stealing money through inscrupulous trading…nah I’ll just call it was it is…through being an immoral dickhead, is not adding anything of value to society. D.C. Is “rich” because it has siphoned off the productivity of the nation…it’s a leach that must be cut loose. Wal street is “rich”, because it has been immoral, not through effort, not through brains, but through lies and deciet. Yet another leach on productive society we must be rid of.
I agree with Rand on some things…and I agree with Max on some things, but it disappoints me greatly when I hear someone like Max, who I respect, spouting half truths to “rile the masses”.
maxie boy
i read atlas shrugged (it took me a year to read) about 40 years ago. what i understood from that book then and the residual memory of it is this… that the mindless corporate acquisitors are incapable of creating intrinsic value…only of economically capturing and controlling those who are the creative/worker/savers.
your website is my homepage because i believe you are a john galt type, but you sometimes let your female side come out in an emotional blast. it is fine to have feelings…just don’t let them control you.
lupe
Max you are too kind and diplomatic to AynRand (Greenspan’s heroine)
All that arrogant elitist claptrap and so-called theory boils down to this: (sorry to be so crude but my working-class roots are showing):
I got mine jack, so fuck you! Well to those who subscribe to this I say: “fuck you too buddy”. Pretty simple really. Well if you want social decay and civil war, Rand is your gal.
Adam Curtis named the first episode of his doc “the Trap”
“Fuck You Buddy”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=404227395387111085#
All of which rely on collectivism, not isolationism. – Keiser
This is what I don’t like about intellectualism. Intellectuals often get stuck with the idea that they individually or as a small group can ‘solve’ the worlds problems – either by eugenics or immunization or technology. The intellectual often isolates themselves from the collective and acts in small syndicates (syndical meritocrates) often apart from the environment or the collective body rather than as an organ of the collective body. When this happens you get stuff like the military generals in Egypt stepping in and taking over instead of the people who will have to continue struggling to ensure they don’t continue to get stepped on by a new un-elected isolated governing body.
Ayn Rand’s an asshole and her philosophy defines assholedom in America.
She is a strong debator but I don’t like the conviction of her logic. Her teachings would bring a despot to power in a heart beat and could justify almost any extreme level of suffering inflicted on a people. She was an isolated intellect without regard to the collective, as are her followers – imo.
@ F Beard
Read the constitution. Dr. Paul has consistently called for repealing the legal tender laws, and allow competition in the acceptance of currency. If people want to choose gold, or silver, or oil, or trash bags as a medium of exchange for goods and services, then that will be the choice of the people and the marketplace for that matter. Dr. Paul is following history when it comes to the favorable means of exchange.
One of the few powers that the Feds have is maintaing a sound currency. How the hell is that hypocritical?????
@Piotr
Rand called libertarians “right-wing hippies”. I don’t know if she would have believed what you said, but it’s very true that she influenced many who call themselves libertarians.
Right on, Max!
The human race should progress socially and technologically to a level where we can begin to colonize other celestial objects within my life time, and but what’s held us back and will continue to present us with all sorts of unnecessary suffering, and possible doom is pinhead psychopathic monopoly men, and the vast armies of people who work for them mostly without even realizing it.
Just think about how many people just in America work for DEAD assholes! (Ford Foundation-Amy Goodman(I appreciate her positive contributions, but there’s a sinister aspect to her weird outlook also).
So we have all of these manipulated, co-opted, doctranaire factions and the terminal phase of the political duopoly is super messy because each effort to start fresh or return to some core sane American principles as a break-out group(Tea Party began with the right idea) are hammered and turned into crap because of this.
Either we “will Star Trek”, or the fuckers are going to get us all killed, but I think the former will happen, so puhlease everybody, help me cultivate a pandemic intolerance for bullshit, lets reinstate the systems that have worked well for us, and let’s not get too uppity with our alliegiances to philosophical abstractions. Paleoconservatives and radical enviromentalists can agree on Glass Steagal! Let’s all get behind that! No point tolerating any other “issues” brought before us via our representatives. “Not listening. Pass Glass Steagal, then you can float some other bullshit, but don’t bother me with it now. Stop doing that other shit. Pass Glass Steagal, we are recruiting your replacement with all our spare time.”
I deserve to see the beginnings of the “Star Trekky” era of humanity before I go. When the headline reads “RAND Corporation Recommends War to end recession” yell “Arrest them!” I do believe that is prosecutable under RICO and Nuremberg standards.
Read the constitution. Dr. Paul has consistently called for repealing the legal tender laws, and allow competition in the acceptance of currency. If people want to choose gold, or silver, or oil, or trash bags as a medium of exchange for goods and services, then that will be the choice of the people and the marketplace for that matter. Jean
Dr. Paul’s idea of competing currencies only involve PMs which require usury and historically have led to fractional reserves. There are other forms of money such as common stock that require neither PMs nor fractional reserves nor usury. What about them?
Dr. Paul is following history when it comes to the favorable means of exchange. Jean
History (and logic) teaches us that it is government sanction for PMs that give them exchange value otherwise PM coins would be melted down for their commodity value.
The best Dr. Paul will achieve is a repeat of history if he looks to PMs as a money solution. Then another generation will experience the problems we should properly deal with now.
Ayn Rand – hypocrite and enemy of mankind
http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/149721/ayn_rand_railed_against_government_benefits,_but_grabbed_social_security_and_medicare_when_she_needed_them/
Rand’s vision is of a society that actually works despite this nature…and it’s really not as cold hearted as some make it out to be. – mobius
I’d have to see an example of Rand’s vision that “actually works.” All visions are delusions of grandure which deceive the visionary into thinking they know something they don’t – imo.
@George Sign
‘Could it be that he is really a “failed” Wall Street finance-boy that couldn’t hack-it and was not recognised. He really wanted to be like Jamie Dimon.’
Maybe Max failed in that he wasn’t prepared to become a criminal to enrich himself. Good for him. If Wall St was run by people with principles like Max has then we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in.
WTF? Who, of your staff, fed you this crap? I have previously so enjoyed your ranting, thinking it was backed by knowledge and careful, clever thinking. Now, I am suspicious. Perhaps I have been too ignorant and uncritical. Gotta watch it!
She actually despised libertarianism.
ayn in her youth has an uncanny resemblance to blythe masters if you see other videos of ayn on youtube.
Does Capitalism Work? -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJLaRhTKzw8&feature=player_embedded
Channeling what you were saying about the incorrect attribution of the technological innovation we enjoy toady to Capitalism, Max;
“If the the US entrepreneurial class followed this tripe we would have no P2P, Linux, Open Source, iTunes, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Wikipedia, Wikileaks, DemocracyNow.org, NASA, a triumph in WWII, or the NFL (and the Super Bowl). All of which rely on collectivist anarchism, not isolationism. “
There are at least two other Ayn Rand interviews on Youtube….or there were when I watched them well over a year ago..one with Mike Wallace from the late 50′s I suspect and another from circa 1989 on Donahue, later than the ciip here…one point she made that has stuck in my mind is taxpayer support for handicapped people…paraphrasing what she said, “why should we spend all this money to support those types and not invest in our gifted children?” A true Darwinist…I think she was married to a painter, they are buried next to each other somewhere north of New York City.
If you take her value system and superimpose it on the criminal banker/political class you will see her influence on them. She has convinced them the end justifies the means.
Sci-fi author John Scalzi nailed Atlas Shrugged as “nerd revenge fiction.” That’s really all you need to know, but the dangerous part is that this trashy standard has been hoisted from the intellectual gutter. Millions of years of evolution showing h. sapiens as a social creature hard-wired for cooperation is no obstacle for Randroid true believers, who are too cowardly to admit to the base instincts they’re always bitching about in others. They’ve already destroyed America and now they want the world. Max is not only right to lance into this tripe, he doesn’t do it often enough.
Dear Max,
holding L.Ron Hubbard as an example of irrelevance is quite a joke. And that is because no matter what you have been told, L. Ron Hubbard advocated the same ideas in economics as those you yourself do in the present, nearly half a century before you did.
that’s funny max didn’t you support Obama last election? and to think that wasn’t event 30 years ago
She is a rabid zionist jew what do you expect they are genocidal in their hatred, its a pathology