Individualism Archive

Ayn Rand and murderer William Edward Hickman

November 22, 2011 · Category: Individualism, Intellectual, Objectivism

A friend on Facebook lamented the fact that academics tend to equate libertarian thinking with Ayn Rand — "And it's never her ideas of anything like self-ownership or individuality that get cited either. It's always her batshit personality quirks," like "Her creepy admiration of William Edward Hickman, a serial killer." My reply: I've heard that something like 80% of serious libertarians originally came to these ideas via Ayn Rand's novels — though their intellectual development hardly stopped there, of course — so perhaps it's not surprising that many people, especially those who aren't familiar with the genre, associate her ideas with libertarianism. The ...

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Book recommendation: “Hunter” by Robert Bidinotto

September 25, 2011 · Category: Atlasphere, Individualism, Intellectual, Objectivism, Reviews

I like inspirational novels with a significant moral message, such as Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull. They hit us on multiple levels: supplying entertainment, giving intelligent food for thought, and providing inspiration and emotional fuel for facing the challenges of leading The Good Life. With that in mind, Robert Bidinotto's novel Hunter: A Thriller hit the spot. I found the writing crisp, the characters interesting, and the interplay of plot and theme to be tight and compelling. I was far more moved than I expected to be, particularly by the love relationship between Dylan Hunter and ...

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The legend of Damon and Pythias: Trust and loyalty in a true friendship

July 23, 2011 · Category: Individualism, Intellectual

From Wikipedia. As told by Aristoxenus, and after him Cicero (De Offic. 3.45), Diodorus Siculus (10.4), and others, around the 4th century BC, Pythias and his friend Damon, both followers of the philosopher Pythagoras, traveled to Syracuse. Pythias was accused of plotting against the tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysius I. As punishment for this crime, Pythias was sentenced to death. Accepting his sentence, Pythias asked to be allowed to return home one last time, to settle his affairs and bid his family farewell. Not wanting to be taken for a fool, Dionysius refused, believing that once released, Pythias would flee and never return. Pythias ...

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On the psychological impact of the Atlas Shrugged movie

April 19, 2011 · Category: Atlasphere, Current Events, Individualism, Intellectual, Objectivism

Brian Wright offers some insightful reflections after seeing the Atlas Shrugged movie. These pargaraphs caught my attention as particularly noteworthy: Tonight I find myself clarifying several of the key ideas that Ayn Rand developed that were expressed in the movie. Here are the four key ideas I see in ASM: Innovation and the joy of creation The importance of industrial production Egoism and reason vs. altruism, faith, and force The distinction between the productive class and the political class Each of these points emerges from time to time as the theme of Atlas Shrugged comes forward: That theme is "What happens to society when the 'men ...

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Bill Whittle: What we believe (the Tea Party philosophy)

December 21, 2010 · Category: Current Events, Individualism, Intellectual, Politics

I just discovered these this morning. (Thanks, Marsh!) I haven't had time to watch them all, but I'm so blown away by the quality of the first one -- and I've found Bill Whittle to be so outstanding overall, in the past -- that I'm going to go ahead and post the full series here. What do you think of his presentations?

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The Singing Revolution: How the tiny country of Estonia overthrew their Soviet occupiers, without killing a single person

February 16, 2010 · Category: Individualism, Intellectual, Politics

I just ordered a copy of The Singing Revolution, a documentary about how the Estonian people organized themselves in the 1980s and cleverly used the cultural power of songs to overthrow their Soviet occupiers. An entire nation was freed from Soviet occupation, without a single person being killed. (Think about that for a moment... Why haven't you heard about this before?) See the trailer here. And more information about the movie (including reviews) is available from Amazon. I originally learned about the movie from my friend Stephen Browne, when he wrote about it on his blog. Commentary on the movie (via Amazon.com) from filmmakers ...

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Transcript of my Reason.tv interview about Ayn Rand’s legacy

February 16, 2010 · Category: Buddhism, Individualism, Intellectual, Objectivism

My thanks to a user on braincrave.com for transcribing the parts of my August 2008 interview with Reason.tv that pertain to Ayn Rand's legacy. I'm pasting his transcription below (with a few light edits and corrections) for Mudita Journal readers interested to revisit some of the themes I explored in that interview. I definitely think her novels provide the best introduction to her ideas. They're easier, so they're more accessible to many people. They're best sellers over the last 40 to 50 years, so obviously they've appealed to many people. But also, they set her ideas in the context of the ...

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The Invitation

December 26, 2009 · Category: Individualism, Intellectual, Mindfulness, Personal, Witness Consciousness

by Oriah It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing. It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive. It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon... I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals, or have become shrivelled and closed from fear ...

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John Mackey on Conscious Capitalism

December 8, 2009 · Category: Current Events, FLOW, Individualism

John does an excellent job, here, of explaining the theme he's been promoting in recent years. I particularly like what he conveys in the first few minutes. I'm more ambivalent about the idea of businesses having "responsibilities" to the community, since it seems one-sided to me; it is not clear to me that businesses have any more obligation to the community than communities have to businesses. So why emphasize one over the other? At the same time, I do think that if I owned a business such as Whole Foods, I would be looking for ways to use our massive influence to ...

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Reason TV interviews Atlasphere founder Joshua Zader

November 9, 2009 · Category: Atlasphere, Buddhism, Individualism, Intellectual, Objectivism, Personal

The interview, titled "Dating in the Atlasphere," was actually conducted in August 2008, but they've waited a while to publish it as part of a long series of interviews about Ayn Rand's legacy. From Reason TV's summary: Joshua Zader's intellectual relationship with Ayn Rand began as it does for so many, during his college years. He then blazed a trail uniquely his own among Rand admirers by creating The Atlasphere—an online networking and dating site for the fans of Rand's novels with particular emphasis on The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Zader found inspiration in Rand's portrayals of independence and integrity, ...

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