#ayn-rand — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #ayn-rand, aggregated by home.social.
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Happiness grows from honest action. Choose what lifts your life.
#Quotes #PositiveLiving #QuoteOfTheDay #AynRand
https://quotes.thisgrandpablogs.com/achieving-personal-happiness/ -
Your mindset shapes your life. Choose empowerment and courage.
#Quotes #Empowerment #FearlessLiving #PositiveMindset #AynRand
https://quotes.thisgrandpablogs.com/empowerment-ayn-rand-quote/ -
I think my goal is to specifically see what I can do to integrate both a collectivist and individualist sensibility in my philosophical view. I think to really have a complete philosophy, both of these things have to be considered: individuals cannot properly understand the consequences of actions taken at the personal level without understanding how those actions fit into and will be responded to by larger societal frameworks. At the same time, we cannot achieve collective benefit without considering how collective actions affect individuals.
I do not yet fully know what philosophical and political frameworks would best help me construct this philosophy, excepting that I think communist theory will undoubtedly be a big part of it, and it will most certainly be very different than Objectivism, excepting the respect for personal bodily autonomy.
Rand was not a feminist, in fact she decried feminism, but she was pro-bodily automomy and supported the right to abortion and in general the right of women to work the same types of jobs as men. I think the thing that Ayn Rand and other right libertarians crucially misunderstand is that a larger social dynamic like misogyny will prevent women from having individual bodily autonomy. They don't understand it because they imagine the world as it is as a meritocracy where only the best rise to the top, and so they imagine the preponderence of men in high social positions is due to the inherent superiority of those men rather than misogynistic favoring of men regardless of ability. They don't understand that women will simply not be allowed bodily automomy in a deeply misogynistic society, that individual bodily autonomy in general will never be allowed most individuals in a capitalist society. -
I've read about Ayn Rand, and I've read short extracts from "Atlas Shrugged", supposedly her magnum opus.
Those extracts did not inspire me to plough through the whole of "Atlas Shrugged", but I thought to be fair I ought to read a complete work of hers, so I picked up a copy of her 1938 novella "Anthem".
In a repressive, techophobic, collectivist dystopia, a young man rebels, rediscovers electricity, and then escapes from captivity to be joined by his female lover. He hopes to rebuild a society based on individualism -- "Anthem" concludes with the protagonist determined to carve into the stone portal of his fort the "sacred word EGO".
Rand's writing is lifeless, with both characters and setting being little more than vehicles for the author's ponderous didacticism. The slight romance narrative smacks of sub-Hollywood teenage fantasy, with the protagonist renaming his lover "The Golden One", followed by her dubbing him 'The Unconquered".
The concluding pages are supposed to be a poetic invocation of egoism. Instead, they come across as Rand attempting to club the reader into submission.
I am pained to learn that this book is frequently assigned in US high schools, as it is devoid of literary merit and of no great significance in literary or cultural history. If teachers or school districts want to assign a mid 20C "antitotalitarian" work, why not press copies of "1984" into students' hands?
Nevertheless my afternoon was not entirely wasted, as I can now get through the rest of my life without having to read another word of this tiresome crank, yet have a clear conscience when I describe her as possessing not a shred of literary talent, because my judgment is based on a first hand acquaintance with her writing.
#Books #Literature #USLiterature #AmericanLiterature #AynRand #Anthem #RightWing
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Listening to Curtis Yarvin is like reading Ayn Rand, omg so bad.
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I figured something out this month that I’ve missed for 34 years.
I’ve been measuring whether I’m “enough” as a person—whether the chooser is adequate—rather than evaluating my choices. That’s a category error. There is no yardstick for myself qua myself. Only for things I do.
The Trap
From #AynRand’s Atlas Shrugged, Galt’s speech:
Man has no choice about his need of #SelfEsteem, his only choice is the standard by which to gauge it. And he makes his fatal error when he switches this gauge protecting his life into the service of his own destruction, when he chooses a standard contradicting existence and sets his self-esteem against reality.
I’ve been measuring myself instead of my choices. Asking “Am I rational enough?” instead of “Am I exercising rationality in this choice?” Treating the volitional entity—the chooser—as if it were subject to pass/fail evaluation.
But you can’t be “wrong in person.” You can only make wrong choices. The chooser is the precondition for those concepts to mean anything.
The Invariant
The concept comes from topology: an invariant remains unchanged when a structure is transformed. @gregeganSF’s Diaspora explores this for consciousness—what persists across memory edits, substrate changes, simulated deaths.
The invariant isn’t the contents of consciousness. It’s the structure of being the thing that experiences. The observer. The integrator. The chooser.
Applied to #identity: I am an existent with volitional consciousness. That’s my identity, metaphysically. Not “I have consciousness” (dualism), but “I am” this integrated entity.
The invariant is the volitional structure itself. Everything else—memories, achievements, mistakes, consequences—is what that structure produces.
What I Wrote Before I Understood It
From my story “La Petite Mort”:
She wanted to keep being Thalindra. Wanted to keep having thoughts, even painful ones. Wanted to keep waking up every morning, tired and aching and alone, because waking up meant she was still there to do the waking. Wanted existence as what she was—this particular configuration that was specifically hers.
The preference was immediate. Simple. Undeniable. Hers.
And it was enough.
I gave my character what I couldn’t give myself: acceptance of the invariant without audit.
Now I have it too.
The Correction
I am the standard by which my choices are measured, not the thing being measured.
You evaluate actions. Not the volitional entity that generates them.
If you accept your choices as yours—made with what you knew, under your constraints—you can accept yourself. Not because you’ve proven worthiness. Because you are the chooser, and that’s A is A applied to you.
Clear. Weightless. Real.
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"Have you ever felt the longing for someone you could admire? For something, not to look down at, but up to?"
~ Ayn Rand, born 02 Feb, 1905.
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Never mind the low wages and the harsh living conditions of the early years of capitalism. They were all that the national economies of the time could afford. Capitalism did not create poverty—it inherited it. Compared to the centuries of precapitalist starvation, the living conditions of the poor in the early years of capitalism were the first chance the poor had ever had to survive. As proof—the enormous growth of the European population during the nineteenth century, a growth of over 300 percent, as compared to the previous growth of something like 3 percent per century.
—“Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World” (1960) by #AynRand, anthologized in Philosophy: Who Needs It (1982)
More quotes on #capitalism can be found at The Ayn Rand Lexicon. Or read Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.
(Not expecting good-faith replies to this.)
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#AynRand’s original introduction to The Virtue of Selfishness is now online--and it directly contradicts most of the claims people make about her #ethics.
If your picture of Rand comes from social media threads, YouTube rants, or second-hand “hot takes,” this is the text that breaks the spell.
Let’s clear out the biggest straw men right away:
❌ “Rand said selfishness means hurting people.”
No. She argues that rational self‑interest forbids coercion, exploitation, and parasitism. Predators aren’t “selfish”—they’re short‑range, self‑destructive, and irrational.
❌ “It’s just an excuse to do whatever you want.”
She draws a hard boundary between whim and #reason. Her ethics demands long‑range thinking, integrity, and principled action — the opposite of impulse.
❌ “#Objectivism celebrates cruelty.”
The introduction explicitly rejects cruelty as irrational. Benevolence is not only compatible with #egoism—it’s a natural expression of a rational, confident person.
❌ “Rand denies moral principles.”
She denies sacrifice as a moral ideal. She does not deny #morality. She argues for a code rooted in reality, reason, and the requirements of human life.
If you want to understand the argument instead of the mythology, read the primary source--it’s short, sharp, and surprisingly accessible.
Read more for context on the full book, editions, and themes.
#philosophy #individualism #reading #nonfiction #ideas #bookstodon
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I don't know what the masto theme is for today but perhaps it's time that Tuesdays were the day for #awfulPeopleInAwfulHats
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Ayn Rand, Rand Paul, and Paul Ryan walk into the #Objectivist Bar on #AynRand's #birthday. There are no regulations, so the bartender serves them tainted alcohol. Everyone dies. The end. https://toilet-guru.com/overview-leaders.html?s=mb
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[NOUVELLE VIDÉO] Vous pensez que la morale exige forcément l’altruisme, le sacrifice de soi ? Et si je vous disais que d'après certains philosophes, votre seul devoir moral c'est d'être... égoïste ? Bienvenue dans le monde merveilleux de l’égoïsme éthique 🙃 #AynRand www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnQB...
L'égoïsme, un devoir moral ? -
Eins der besten Zitate zum Thema #GroßraumPhantastik und Popkultur:
»Zwei Romane können das Leben einer 14-jährigen Leseratte umkrempeln. ›Der Herr der Ringe‹ und ›Atlas wirft die Welt ab‹. Der eine ist ein kindisches Märchen, sorgt oft für eine lebenslange Begeisterung für seine unglaubwürdigen Helden, und führt zu einem gefühlsmäßig verkümmerten Dasein als Erwachsener mit verstümmelter Sozialkompetenz. In dem anderen Roman kommen freilich Orks vor.«
—#JohnRogers, 2009. -
“I don’t want to fight for the people. I don’t want to fight against the people. I don’t want to hear of the people. I want to be left alone—to live.”
—Kira in _We the Living_ by #AynRand
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A #review of the #book “Ayn Rand: Writing A Gospel Of Success” by Alexandra Popoff that is more of a commentary on #AynRand than a #BookReview:
“Atlas Schlepped”, Jewish Review Of Books (https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/literature/17180/atlas-schlepped/).
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'Control. Alt. Delete' - Teil 1: Ayn Rand | Dreiteilige Serie von 3sat Kulturzeit
Eine ‘Kulturzeit’-Reihe auf den Spuren dreier Vordenker, die den Einfluss der Tech-Branche auf die US-Politik geprägt haben. Teil 1: Ayn Rand.
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Wild Speculation...
What if the guys who made the #AtlasShrugged #movies were trying to pull a "Springtime for Hitler" scam, like in #TheProducers, and succeeded because they didn't hire Lorenzo to play John Galt?
This theory assumes they were film-literate enough to have seen and understood The Producers, and is thus incompatible with the predominant theory that they simply did not understand enough to make a good movie based on #AynRand's already wild and unrealistic scifi fantasy plot.
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I updated various descriptions around https://TheBeautifulPrison.com to better reflect the “philosophical noir” tone I’m going for.
Philosophical, because everything is carried by the intellectual rigor of #AynRand’s #philosophy of #Objectivism.
#Noir, because it respects both the darkness and the light.
Neither promise easy resolution or virtue rewarded automatically. Both insist that clarity matters, even when reality seems difficult to navigate.
A self under pressure reveals what it’s made of.
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the worst thing the #sovietunion did was give #AynRand a education
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“days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over”
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Proposal: a version of the speech at the end of the #AynRand novel #TheFountainhead, but instead of defending blowing up a public building, #HowardRoark is defending sending unsolicited #dickpics (illegal in many places now).
(He would totally send unsolicited dickpics to Dominique)
Waste: "A man is entitled to the sweat of his own brow!"
Based: "A man is entitled to send a pic of his own dick!"
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“It boils down to this. The measure of mental health in a person is the degree of their interest in others. That could be their neighbours, or it could be social and political.”
#selfishness #greed #EconomicElites #TechBros #libertarianism #AynRand
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Zoe Williams surveys the landscape of self-help books right now, noting,
"If you yearn for an Ayn Randian existence of absolute self-reliance, there are plenty of bestsellers that can help. They may not make you happier though."
Contra the "Trumpy" philosophy of this literature, she cites psychotherapist Manu Bazzano, who observes,
#selfishness #greed #EconomicElites #TechBros #libertarianism #AynRand
/3 -
"They’re evangelizing a worldview where selfishness is wisdom and concern for others is performance.
This spreads through elite networks, through media that treats cynicism as insight, through algorithmic systems that reward sociopathic behavior with attention and profit."
#selfishness #greed #EconomicElites #TechBros #libertarianism #AynRand
/2 -
"When Marc Andreessen describes liberation as freedom from 'having to pretend to care about other people at dinner parties,' when venture capitalists celebrate 'disruption' that destroys communities while enriching investors, when tech platforms optimize for engagement regardless of democratic consequences—they’re not just acting selfishly."
~ Mike Brock
#selfishness #greed #EconomicElites #TechBros #libertarianism #AynRand
/1https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-birth-of-the-sociopath-why-smart
