“There is only one power that determines the course of history, just as it determines the course of every individual life: the power of man’s rational faculty—the power of ideas. If you know a man’s convictions, you can predict his actions. If you understand the dominant philosophy of a society, you can predict its course. But convictions and philosophy are matters open to man’s choice.”
~ Ayn Rand, “Is Atlas Shrugging?” from Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal“Just as a man’s actions are preceded and determined by some form of idea in his mind, so a society’s existential conditions are preceded and determined by the ascendancy of a certain philosophy among those whose job is to deal with ideas. The events of any given period of history are the result of the thinking of the preceding period.”
~ Ayn Rand, from For the New Intellectual
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2 comments:
Progress is the product of the mind. The mind is an attribute of the individual.
This all sounds wonderful but doesn't explain why mankind consistently embraces varying ideologies when its obvious that what is proposed is dangerous and will probably end in tears. If we were rational I would have thought evolution would have made that supposedly attractive trait an obvious feature by now but it appears that only hard core liberterians have it.
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