I think I’d have to check some of Ayn Rand works to have a full understanding of what you’re talking about
Also, it’s good to have you here after a while
I think I’d have to check some of Ayn Rand works to have a full understanding of what you’re talking about
Also, it’s good to have you here after a while
Thanks a lot, yeah if it sounds like something that interests you definitely check it out. The book "The Fountainhead" is a sort of look at individuality and a good starting point for her books... Atlas Shrugged is her 'magnum opus' the thing she is known best for. Atlas Shrugged also deals with themes of individuality but also the scope of that entire story is absoultely breathtaking. And when reading he books it's easy to fall into the sense of, ah yes, but of course, it's just a made up story - which basically they are. But I have also seen exactly what she is talking about play out in the real world in many instances and i wonder to myself just how much of a story is it really. She was a 'romantic' author not like romance novels but writing in the way that life out to, and could very well be, which is another consideration in the whole 'its just a story idea.' Also if you don't want to dive headfirst into reading Atlas Shrugged was made into a movie. Three actually, because the book is in three parts. The movies might appear a bit boring and i think they had a hard time trying to actually get the movies made because there isn't an insanely massive demand for this type of stuff so budget etc. was a bit all over the place. The first movie part 1 has the best budget and it shows a bit. Also the movies contain only like probably 1/10 of what is really in the book but i think they did an excellent job with what they had of preserving the sort of 'spirit' of the message in her work. You can only fit so many lines into a movie without it being 60 hours long or something as well the budget needs to cover. Oh yeah, also the main protagonist of Atlas Shrugged could be considered Dagny Taggart and she is such a badass heroine figure and h er relationship with her brother as president of Taggart Transcontinental and her doing all the work and him taking all the credit, i think it's such a wonderful way to illustrate her philosophy of there are people that produce and make things happen and then there are others that would just wish to use others and this story is an exploration of what happens in that dynamic when things are taken to their extreme and logical outcome. In the story it's observed both on a personal level as well as a greater societal level which is why i was saying the breadth and scope of atlas shrugged is impressive.
Anyways haha thanks for checking out the blog glad to be here hope you have a wonderful day @rafzat
Ok I know that was a big reply, but i just watched the trailer of the movie and thought it might be good to add just a few more points 😳🤣
First of all, Ayn Rand is very pro-capitalist, and i feel like there is a lot of anti-capitalist sentiment nowadays. So Ayn Rand was raised in Communist Russia and her family managed to escape the absolute horrors (which are very well documented, by countless authors, survivors and other remnants of history) of the communist system. She then went to New York which must have seemed literally like a glittering, shining utopia to her. She talks about this, and i think during that time America was especially in the 'Golden Years' of Capitalism. But I do understand why people find it so easy to hate on capitalism, it makes perfect sense, but if you peer further underneath the surface, it's a little bit more complicated. At the core of it capitalism is just a system where people can voluntarily exchange money for value, and nobody is stopping you from creating that value for people (or at the very least, trying.) But people see ecological destruction, people being taken advantage of, sweatshops, factory farms, pharmaceuticals, medicine as a way to make money not heal people etc. I think that growth just for the sake of growth is one of the dumbest ideologies people have come up with, and that is probably where these problems are coming from, not from capitalism itself. And if you think capitalism is really that bad, then go ahead and go live in a communist country, because a lot of these people seem like they have no clue what that sort of experience that was like for millions and millions of people that suffered and died under that. So yeah the movie deals with a lot of 'rich white men' and with all this capitalism stuff it's easy to take a glance at the movie and come off with the wrong sort of idea. Because we often see presented the idea that all these rich white men and corporations are just out for themselves and set to screw anyone in the process. Not saying that doesn't happen either but yeah... like I said I watched the trailer and those things came to mind, about how people are saying money is the root of all evil but what if really money is just a tool basically. Ayn Rand puts it this way, if money is the root of all evil, then what is the root of money? I think this is a sort of question to make us reflect about ourselves, instead of blaming money we could look at it differently and see that maybe it's something in our entire morality and code of ethics... and i think it can really be summed up in the phrase "be selfish, but not at the expense of others." I think if these corporations were set up and structured in the way to be like how can we help people the most and build mutual and beneficial relationships with our employees and customers" the world would be a very different place insteead of "how can we make more money." Because people end up doing all sorts of things for money if that is the only goal in mind. And I do think those types of businesses exist and not only that but do well. So I think maybe in a way that could be the 'problem' with Capitalism, I will call it modern capitalism - where corporations are basically in servitude to their stakeholders and they are OBLIGATED to keep making more and more profits each and every quarter (4x a year needing to make increasingly more money!?! come on. You can't even watch youtube now without seeing 15 ads in the space of 5 minutes it seems, I wonder why)