Individualism Archive

Reflections on the current state of Objectivism

October 13, 2009 · Category: Individualism, Objectivism

I wrote the following in response to a friends-only post on LiveJournal, in which a Rand-admiring friend in academia claims Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism offers no worldly advantage. For example, if you look at leaders in various fields of human endeavor, Objectivism is no more represented among those people than in the general population. A few thoughts I've not yet had a chance to integrate fully: - I agree with something Nathaniel Branden said once, that knowing someone calls him- or herself "an Objectivist" tells you almost nothing about that person -- except perhaps whether they are likely to go to ...

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Are you a right-wing extremist?

April 14, 2009 · Category: Current Events, Individualism, Politics

Drudge has had two headlines today that are just delicious together. First, we learn that the Department of Homeland Security has sent out a nine-page document warning local law enforcement officers that the economic recession, the election of the first black president, and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could lead to a resurgence of right-ring extremists. Here's the best part: A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines "rightwing extremism in the United States" as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of ...

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John Galt is smiling

March 19, 2009 · Category: Current Events, Individualism, Objectivism, Politics

The allusions to Atlas Shrugged in the mainstream media are just getting better and better. From the new Bloomberg article "Obama Needs AIG’s Liddy, Not Other Way Around," by Caroline Baum: The hero of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is smiling because he’s seen it all before: the government’s intervention in the private sector; the constraints placed on business in the name of the people; the desperation on the part of government bureaucrats when they realize their leverage is limited; and -- this part is still fiction -- the decision on the part of business leaders to walk away from the ...

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Mudita Forum is now at Google Groups

March 18, 2009 · Category: Buddhism, Eckhart Tolle, FLOW, Individualism, Integral, Intellectual, Meditation, Mindfulness, Mudita Forum, Objectivism, Witness Consciousness

Check out the new Mudita Forum, if you think you might be interested. The purpose of Mudita Forum is to provide a stimulating, thoughtful environment for discussing Eastern consciousness-raising practices — such as meditation, mindfulness, and the cultivation of presence — while using Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism as a basic philosophical frame-of-reference. The old group got lost when I was changing servers a couple years ago, but recently I've been contacted by new people wishing to join. My hope for the new group is that it will be much like the old one: low-volume, high-quality, and stimulating on many levels. I sent invites ...

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Now you’ve heard of Adam Shepard

February 2, 2009 · Category: Current Events, Individualism, Politics

I enjoyed reading Charles Platt's expose of what it's really like to work at Wal-Mart -- lack of unions and all. At the end comes this gem: If you haven’t heard of Adam Shepard ... His remarkable book Scratch Beginnings, now being promoted through scratchbeginnings.com, describes how he went through an experience far more gruelling than my brief flirtation with low-paying work. He placed himself in a homeless shelter with $25 in his pocket, found a job as a day laborer, then worked for a moving company, and after 10 months had a pickup truck, an apartment, and $2,500 in savings. His ...

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Sage insights about the “ownership society” and how it relates to the financial crisis

December 24, 2008 · Category: Individualism, Intellectual, Politics

I've been a late-comer to the Volokh Conspiracy party -- I remember hearing its name for many years and skimming many posts before realizing why it was such a big deal, and worth reading regularly -- but lately it has become one of my favorite blogs for political commentary. Today Eric Posner has an excellent post called "What is the 'ownership society'?" with many excellent observations about the mixed bag that politicians have promoted in the name of "ownership." Eric begins: This term ["ownership society"] cropped up on in a recent NYT article which blames the financial crisis on Bush administration policies, including ...

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The Socratic method in education

June 18, 2008 · Category: Atlasphere, Individualism, Intellectual

I enjoyed this interview with Michael Strong on Socratic Practice in education. The interviewer, by the way, is from the same Francisco Marroquin University that we noted recently at the Atlasphere, for their pro-freedom political views.

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When we no longer need our illusions

May 25, 2008 · Category: Individualism, Intellectual, Personal

I had a dream recently where I went down a rabbit hole and found a people true to themselves. I wrote down the dream, and one day may share it here. In the interim, here's one passage that particularly intrigued me: The community itself was a conscious exercise in trueness. When someone stole, for example, no one got upset, least of all the person who had been stolen from. When the thief had what he needed, the experience of being a thief, he would return whatever had been stolen because he no longer needed it. And no ...

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Best Buy leading the world in workday flexibility

May 4, 2008 · Category: Current Events, Individualism, Intellectual

I am fascinated by what Best Buy has done: [W]hen Hance participates in a morning teleconference with his co-workers or in-house clients, he sometimes is calling in via cell phone from his fishing boat on a lake or from the woods where he's spent the hours since dawn stalking wild turkeys. "No one at Best Buy really knows where I am," he explains. "Nor do they really care." Gone are the days when Hance needed to spend morning until night seated in a cubicle surrounded by papers and charts he'd carefully arranged to ensure that co-workers and bosses who peeked in would ...

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Abraham Lincoln: We all declare for liberty…

May 3, 2008 · Category: Individualism, Politics

This quote from Abraham Lincoln does an excellent job of distilling the difference between "negative" and "positive" rights, and the implications of each: We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word, we do not mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called ...

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