It’s no secret that I think quite in terms based in objectivism. This post from The Patriot Post pretty well sums up what I have been blogging about for more than three years.
“One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary.” –Ayn Rand
“In January, Stephen Moore caused a stir by arguing, in the Wall Street Journal, that the current crisis is turning Atlas Shrugged ‘from fiction to fact.’ And those who are warning that increased government restrictions will cause the nation’s most productive workers to withdraw their talents have taken to calling this the ‘John Galt Effect,’ a reference to the hero — and the main plotline — of Atlas Shrugged. It is no coincidence that the strongest resistance to a government takeover of the economy is coming from people influenced by Ayn Rand. She has long functioned as a stiffener of resolve and as the fountainhead of pro-free-market ideas. …Ayn Rand’s contribution to the philosophical defense of capitalism can be summed up in one central idea: individualism. Ayn Rand demonstrated that the ultimate source of all wealth — everything from steel mills to microchips — is the individual reasoning mind. Thus, a society that wants to prosper has to ask what is required by its thinkers and producers, the ‘prime movers’ who originate and implement new ideas. And the first thing that is required for these thinkers to function is that they be free from coercive interference by bureaucrats, by blowhard legislators, or by federal ‘czars.’ … Ayn Rand’s ideas are the mostly unnamed fuel giving fire and confidence to people like [CNBC financial analyst] Rick Santelli. … If we’re going to have an ideological Boston Tea Party, a declaration of independence from the whole theory behind state management of our lives and wealth, then Ayn Rand is the ideal philosophical hostess.” –editor of The Intellectual Activist and TIADaily.com Robert Tracinski
Tags: Ayn Rand, Economics, Education, freedom, Liberty, News, Obama, Politics
Conservative Libertarian Outpost 
March 3, 2009 at 16:52
related to the above post:
“President Obama, whose whole campaign was about hope over fear, has been scaring the dickens out of people lately. He has certainly terrified the stock market. He’s warned of ‘catastrophe’ and economic ‘disaster’ from which we may never recover. What’s particularly odious about Obama’s scare tactics is that he’s using them for the mother of all bait-and-switches. He justifiably scares people about the magnitude of the financial crisis, but uses that fear not to sell them on a solution to the crisis but to trick them into signing up for a new Great Society. It’s like convincing someone he’s got cancer and then telling him that’s why he needs to buy a new car.” –National Review editor Jonah Goldberg
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March 6, 2009 at 16:17
Michael Boskin, too, has a good article on this in today’s WSJ. Great post, Pat, as usual.
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April 10, 2009 at 08:05
I’m re-reading “Atlas Shrugged” now. The parallels with current events are quite interesting. Obama, as bad as his policies are, has brought about a proper denouement to the liberalism we have suffered from, from F.D.R. forward.
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