The Anthem

It just seemed stupid becuase it was an uneeccessary question. I could have reached the same conclusion if I had thought longer.

Oops, sorry for implying anyone was old. I'm just going to blame it on the naiivety of my youth. I'll check out those other movies.

Hm, I think I made a stupid topic. When I thought of the question I was thinking of team sports in my high school. The only way a team can truly work is if they are all fighting towards the same goal. In High School sports, they may not be. They may want to impress colleges, members of the opposite gender, etc. When I apply my question to professional sports the answer is the same as the above posters. By the way, I should have reffered to sports as team sports so as not to arouse confusion. I know of track, swimming, etc.

That sounds so cool. Hopefully you can share it with us.

I would make it a reference. That way you won't run in to any legal trouble and it won't seem like a rip off, more of a tribute.

This was kind of inspired by the topic "One Other Thing I noticed about AS" where sports are mentioned minimuly in Atlas Shrugged. Sports weren't shown in Galt's Gulch, is that a sign of what Ayn Rand thinks about sports? Also, a lot of sayings in sports seem anti obejctivist, (e.g. theres no "I" in team). It seems like the best way to win a game in sports is to think of the team ahead of you. Think of a ball hog in basketabll, say he enjoys dunking, so he tries to dunk every time he gets the ball. Unless he's Michael Jordan the team won't win becuase no one else will have the ball. Do you think its possible to be an objectivist athlete? It seems to me that a selfish athlete would never win.

I doubt it. It was a black and white film made a long time ago. It was based loosely on the Scopes Monkey Trial but dramaticized it and added different names. Basically, Bertram Gates taught evolution in his science class, which is illegal. He is thrown in jail. The whole country goes in an uproar around this controversy. Matthew Harrison Brady, a fundamentalist christian lawyer comes down to prosecute Scopes. Henry Drummond, another famous lawyer, comes to defend him. Much of it is in the court scene where Darrow spouts some beautifully objectivist and anti-religous stuff. Drummond may very well be an objectivist, he certainly knows the importance of thinking. Here are some awesome quotes from Henry Drummond: "Can't you understand? That if you take a law like evolution and you make it a crime to teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools? And tomorrow you may make it a crime to read about it. And soon you may ban books and newspapers. And then you may turn Catholic against Protestant, and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the mind of man. If you can do one, you can do the other. Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we'll be marching backward, BACKWARD, through the glorious ages of that Sixteenth Century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind!" "As long as the prerequisite for that shining paradise is ignorance, bigotry and hate, I say the hell with it." "Yes. The individual human mind. In a child's power to master the multiplication table, there is more sanctity than in all your shouted "amens" and "holy holies" and "hosannas." An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral. And the advance of man's knowledge is a greater miracle than all the sticks turned to snakes or the parting of the waters." I still can't believe I got to watch this in science class.

Okay, I think I'm getting it. The main thing seems to be that a governemtn can just order more paper money to be produced while gold is in limited supply. Thanks for clearing this up.

A lot of people are uneducated concerning politics, so they decide to vote for the black guy just so a black person can get into office. Also, any simpleton knows Bush was a horrible president so if soemone is up there shouting "Change!" they sound great.

I like it. I especially like how you put ratioanlity on the top, considering reason leads to all the other conclusions.

I really hope its substantial. I really think the only reason Obama is becoming so powerful is do to his oratory skills. All he does is yell change into the microphone and people go wild. Everyone hates Bush so change seems perfect. They forget that things can change from bad to worse.

Well, I would move on to Atlas Shrugged and the rest of Rand's novels. You can find a lot of information in there. There is a lot of info in the Ayn Rand Institute website, especially in the Lexicon. This website is actually very good for developing opinions and learning. I've already asked a few questions and just by reading around I've learned a great deal. Besides that, I don't know. I'm 15 and a fellow novice in the ways of objectivism.

@ Libertod, I daydream the same way! Daydreaming is productive for me because I'm a writer so I like to let my mind wander because I may come across a story idea or something. I'll also day dream what if scenarios and stuff.

What value does gold have besides as a trading device?

WWI was a suprisingly terrible time. An act (can't remember the name at the moment) literally made it so that people who spoke out agianst the governemnt could be jailed. In a supreme court case, a man wanted to print a number of pamphlets out denouncing the war. When he was found guilty, he appelaed his case to the supreme court on the grounds that this violated his right to freedom of speech. He lost unanimously. Nationalism was wide spread. People were asked to serve their country (WWI birthed the Uncle Sam I WANT YOU poster), sacrifice things such as meat, wheat, and other foods, and money in liberty bonds. Basiacally, people were both asked and forced to give up free thought. This reminds me of a great quote by Benjamin franklin: "Those who sacrifice a little liberty for a little security, deserve neither and will lose both." I find that you substitute security for pretty much anyhting else, including economic power. You should not sacrifice liberty for anything.

Ayn Rand obviously prefers gold coins to paper money. I can seem to find a real concrete reason for this. Is it because gold can be uniform and there will be no need to change currency? It can't be due to inflation, gold prices fluctuate too. Can someone please explain this?

The more I am on these boards, the less I like Obama. The first quote seems to imply the US has been appointed leader of the world. Who is forcing us to teach by example what other countries should do? I guess if he's elected it will be him. On the second quote, its kind of hard to gain something if someone is ultimately dissapppointing.

Early retirement is unselfish. The time to retire should be unwanted, assuming the person about to retire chose the correct career. I knew if I had a job I loved and had to quit because of my age, I would be rather unhappy. Luckily for me, I'm going to be an author so I can pretty much continue working until I die. I'm writing an essay about Patriotism right now that I will post on my blog. Patriotism has been morphed into a monster where blind slaves to the red, white, and blue are now the patriots, rather than the questioning, skeptical, citizens who belive in America's fundamentals, not every single action they do.

Sometimes, we get roped into doing things that we hate doing but have to do. For me this is most of school. I love writing but none of my classes, including English, ever have it in it, so I get bored. I despise math and find it dull but math is a required course. I am happy overall but every weekday I find boredom.

Thanks for all the responses. I've been a strong follower of objectivism but when it came to capitlaism, my belief was a little more tenous. I agree witht he points made here. If one employer has low wages, the workers will flock to next employer. In the end, the mistreatment of workers will end up hurting the business though loss of employees more than the gain through low wages. Thank you all for helping clear this up.

Could capitalism have advanced poverty? If I look out only for myself and personal, fiancial gain, a way to get more money is to pay workers less and force them to work longer.

During the 1920s, the US ran off of a laissez faire capitalism, the system Ayn Rand wants and the one I want. However, there was horrible mistreatment of workers, low pay, long hours, dangerous conditions, etc. Does a laissez faire capitalism always lead to this? Am I even right in caring what happens to these workers?

Don't worry, I've read it. I have Fahrenheit 451 and will be reading it after my current book.

I've read 1984, Brave New World, We, and Anthem (obviously). These seem to be the biggest but I want to continue. I'm trying to research dystopians so as to help the one I am writing. Right now, I'm reading A Canticle for Leibowitz. Does anyone have any dystopian recomendations?

How I wished I had just googled objecitivsm earlier, than I would have gotten here sooner. I have taken a quick look around the place and it seems pretty neat. I'm fairly young for an objectivst, I'm 15. The origin of me discovering Ayn Rand is pretty funny. This girl in my friends Psycology class suggested the Fountainhead to him on the last day of school. He read it over the summer and loved it. When school started again, he suggested it to me. Sadly, the mystery girl was a senior, she has graduated and moved on. Its weird, she changed our lives and yet we never knew her name. We refer to her as girl-with-cool-sweatshirt because she had a Readen Steel sweatshirt on all the time. Well, just wanted to post a hello to everyone and tell you how I found Rand and this forum.