The centrepiece of Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged -- which is currently rocketing up Amazon's ranks after the New York Times declared it "one of the most influential business books ever written" -- is the tour de force that is Galt's Speech. It took Rand two years to write the Speech (the effort of writing it, she once said, gave her at least ten more IQ points) and you can now see a four-minute video introduction to this incisive and powerful piece of writing here on YouTube.
Don't waste your lunch hour reading about the new taxes imposed upon you for the sin of offending Gaia; spend four minutes instead watching this YouTube presentation, and hearing words that cut through and explain all the crap:
"You have heard it said that this is an age of moral crisis... Through centuries of scourges and disasters, brought about by your code of morality, you have cried that your code had been broken, that the scourges were punishment for breaking it, that men were too weak and too selfish...Discover morality? What could that mean? The answer is here in this short article on 'Galt's morality' in New Statesman: Objectivism. A philosophy for living? - the first of a four part series by Onkar Ghate.
Yes, this is an age of moral crisis. Yes, you are bearing punishment for your evil. But it is not man who is now on trial and it is not human nature that will take the blame. It is your moral code that's through, this time. Your moral code has reached its climax, the blind alley at the end of its course. And if you wish to go on living, what you now need is not to return to morality–you who have never known any–but to discover it."
Part 2 is here: The Selfish Life.
Part 3 is The Roots of Objectivism.
Part 4: Objectivism's Appeal and Demands.
[Hat tip Noodle Food]
Do yourself a favour. Watch and read today. Do it not because it's your duty, but because it's selfishly important to you.
6 comments:
That really is stunning! Thanks for the post PC.
It was very captivating.
I must be coming around Libertarianism because while watching the beginning of the video I was thinking, this seems totally wrong.
Great stuff! You know a lot of people deride the ideas expressed at this blog as unworkable and I must admit I was one of them – it truly is hard to shake off the collectivist thinking. Even if it is unworkable because to implement it fully requires collectivism, I don’t care, it’s the only way for a man or woman to truly live.
Count me in as a convert.
Good for you, AA. You've made my day. :-)
(flippant) Business book?
Like 7 Habits or Rich Dad Poor Dad?
I thought is was supposed to be literature or is there a get-rich-quick scheme buried inside somewhere? All the copies seem to contain subscription cards so maybe it's a pyramid scheme like Usana! (/flippant)
Off to watch the vid now.
Yeah good links. Thanks. Another vid titled 'Deep Ecology' came up afterwards and that too was a nice primer on why the Greens are nutters.
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