By Derek Thompson
The presidential campaign (click here) is replete with allusions to better times and eclipsed golden ages of American greatness. But in a new review from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economist Carol Boyd Leon paints a sociological portrait of America as it was 100 years ago, when technology was meager, financial ruin was one downturn away, war was ongoing in Europe, and the choices that Americans have come to expect—in their cars, clothes, food, and homes—were preceded by a monotonous consumer economy. In 1915, Americans walked everywhere (or took a streetcar, if they lived in cities), lived in three-generation homes that they rarely owned, ate almost as much lard as chicken, and spent Friday nights dancing to player pianos. In short: Everything was worse, except for the commute....
Ayn Rand discussed a philosophy called "objectivism." Her Objectivism came at a time when the USA was economically vulnerable. It makes complete sense she threw the baby out with the bath water.
Ayn Rand was a radical for her time. She did what every American citizen does when the economy is not working for them, they question the wisdom of the day. Her voice became part of the Industrial Revolution.
She wasn't a native American. She was born in Russia and migrated to the USA in 1926.
She wanted to become a screen writer. It is safe to say her taste for excitement was cutting edge. She wrote a play that was performed on Broadway from 1935-1936. She would eventually write "The Fountainhead" in 1957.
She came to the USA because Russia's society was growing dark and oppressive. There was no place for her in Russia if she wanted to pursue cutting edge authorship. She came to the USA to find fame and there was only one place she finally did and that was with Objectivism.
The Roaring Twenties was followed by the Great Depression beginning in 1929. This is how we should have an economy? Ideological with a known outcome that defeats all strategies?
By Craig Biddle
It is widely believed today (click here) that our moral, cultural, and political alternatives are limited either to the ideas of the secular, relativistic left—or to those of the religious, absolutist right—or to some compromised mixture of the two. In other words, one’s ideas are supposedly either extremely “liberal” or extremely “conservative” or somewhere in between. Ayn Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism, rejects this false alternative and offers an entirely different view of the world.
Objectivism is fully secular and absolutist; it is neither liberal nor conservative nor anywhere in between. It recognizes and upholds the secular (this-worldly) source and nature of moral principles and the secular moral foundations of a fully free, fully civilized society.
Morally, Objectivism advocates the virtues of rational self-interest—virtues such as independent thinking, productiveness, justice, honesty, and self-responsibility. Culturally, Objectivism advocates scientific advancement, industrial progress, objective (as opposed to “progressive” or faith-based) education, romantic art—and, above all, reverence for the faculty that makes all such values possible: reason. Politically, Objectivism advocates pure, laissez-faire capitalism—the social system of individual rights and strictly limited government—along with the whole moral and philosophical structure on which it depends....
The basis of Objectivism puts everyone in a box to define the reason why Objectivism is best and economically successful. Basically, a person is either this or that, but, Ojectivism sets them free. If that isn't a Russian experiencing the USA, don't ask me what is.
This is the ideology of the Republican economics. I think we need better thinking than existed 100 years ago.
