{"id":281522,"date":"2021-03-22T11:00:47","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T15:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=281522"},"modified":"2021-03-22T11:00:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T15:00:53","slug":"prageru-understanding-ayn-rand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/prageru-understanding-ayn-rand\/","title":{"rendered":"PragerU: Understanding Ayn Rand"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">8<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fprageru-understanding-ayn-rand%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=281522&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-44.png?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>In a new&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.prageru.com\/video\/understanding-ayn-rand\/\">video<\/a> for PragerU,&nbsp;<\/span><span>the Objective Standard Institute\u2019s Gloria Alvarez explains why Ayn Rand\u2019s literary and philosophical works continue to resonate decades later.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cBorn in St. Petersburg, Russia on February 2, 1905, Rand became one the most celebrated authors and philosophers of the 20th century,\u201d Alvarez begins. \u201cHer most famous novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, still sell hundreds of thousands of copies every year around the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cRand lived through the early years of the Russian Revolution, saw her father\u2019s pharmacy business confiscated by the Bolsheviks, and experienced the horrors of communism firsthand,\u201d Alvarez continues. \u201cShe longed to emigrate to America. In 1926, she did \u2014 and never looked back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Alvarez then explains that the United States represented freedom to Rand, and that she saw the Founding Fathers as heroes who had created a country based on individual rights.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cMan\u2019s right to his own life, to his own liberty, to the pursuit of his own happiness,\u201d Rand said, which means that every individual has a \u201cright to exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself\u201d \u2014 nor to the government.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Rand argued that the practical results of the American system could be seen in the skyline of New York City.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAmerica\u2019s skyscrapers,\u201d Rand <a href=\"https:\/\/aynrand.org\/novels\/the-virtue-of-selfishness\/\">noted<\/a>, \u201cwere not built by public funds nor for a public purpose: they were built by the energy, initiative, and wealth of private individuals for personal profit. And, instead of impoverishing the people, these skyscrapers, as they rose higher and higher, kept raising the people\u2019s standard of living.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cRand advocated pure capitalism, which she described as a system in which \u2018the government acts only as a policeman that protects man\u2019s rights.\u2019 No bailouts, no special favors for big business, no government intervention into the economy,\u201d Alvarez continues. \u201cWhen people are free to produce and trade, and when the government is limited to protecting rights, everyone benefits. Individuals thrive. Societies prosper.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As evidence of this, Alvarez then asks us to \u201cCompare freer, more capitalist societies to less free, more statist ones.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIn Rand\u2019s day \u2014 America compared to the Soviet Union. West Germany to East Germany,\u201d Alvarez says. \u201cMore recently, South Korea to North Korea. Colombia to Venezuela.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cSuch differences were painfully obvious to Rand,\u201d Alvarez continues. \u201cSo were their causes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIn Atlas Shrugged, she showed how easily a free society can collapse into a dictatorship. The heroine, Dagny Taggart, works tirelessly and brilliantly to save her family\u2019s railroad business, while ever-increasing government interventions destroy businesses and crush the economy,\u201d Alvarez says. \u201cMeanwhile, one by one, the top producers across various industries mysteriously disappear. No one knows where they have gone. The only clue is a question they leave behind: Who is John Galt?&nbsp;<\/span><span>As the economy crumbles, how do politicians, bureaucrats, and academics react? They blame \u2018the greedy businessman\u2019 and decry the profit motive and free markets. Their solution: more government intervention which, of course, only makes the problem worse.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Understanding Ayn Rand | 5 Minute Video\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tRDLL_ZiPf4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p><span>In addition to being a cautionary tale about pursuing equality over excellence, through state control over free markets, Alvarez then adds that Atlas Shrugged is also about \u201cthe power of the individual and the power of reason.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe individual\u2019s reasoning mind, Rand argued, is his tool of knowledge \u2014 his only means of understanding what is true or false, how the world works, what is good or bad for his life,\u201d Alvarez continues. \u201cThis is the theme of Rand\u2019s work more broadly: In order to thrive, to achieve happiness, the individual must think for himself and live by the judgment of his own mind.&nbsp;<\/span><span>To do this people must be free \u2014 free to voluntarily exchange ideas, goods, and services for mutual benefit; free to speak their minds without fear. For this, she regarded capitalism not only as the best, but as the only moral social system.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Rand <a href=\"https:\/\/aynrand.org\/novels\/the-voice-of-reason-essays-in-objectivist-thought\/\">argued<\/a> that \u201cCapitalism does not tell men to suffer, but to pursue enjoyment and achievement,\u201d and that \u201cCapitalism does not preach passivity, humility, resignation, but independence, self-confidence, self-reliance.\u201d Above all, Rand emphasized, capitalism does not permit anyone to expect or demand the unearned.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIs this the system America lives under now? No, said Rand. She called capitalism the \u2018unknown ideal\u2019 because it has never been fully implemented, even in America,\u201d Alvarez concludes. \u201cAyn Rand\u2019s ideas on capitalism, individualism, and reason have attracted millions of people to her novels, essays and lectures. And still do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>PragerU is the world\u2019s leading educational nonprofit focused on changing minds through the creative use of digital media. You can make a&nbsp;<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/donate.prageru.com\/give\/316306\/#!\/donation\/checkout\"><i>tax-deductible donation here<\/i><\/a><i>&nbsp;to help PragerU continue to reach millions of young people with their videos.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i>member<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a new\u00a0video for PragerU,\u00a0the Objective Standard Institute\u2019s Gloria Alvarez explains why Ayn Rand\u2019s literary and philosophical works continue to resonate decades later.\u00a0\u201cBorn in St. Petersburg, Russia on February 2, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1897668,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}