Ayn Rand & Objectivism

Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Duncan Scott is preparing a newly restored high-definition edition of the 1942 movie of Ayn Rand's novel, We the Living. Set during the Russian Revolution—a period that Rand witnessed firsthand—We the Living shows how a totalitarian state makes human life impossible.

Onkar Ghate and Harry Binswanger of the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) have published a long article attacking Carl Barney and me in relation to the 2018 agreement between The Objective Standard (TOS) and ARI, which ARI unilaterally breached. I am sharing here a link to my response to Onkar and Harry’s attack.

This article takes for granted that Atlas Shrugged is a bad book and that Aaron Rodgers’s behavior exemplifies its content—without providing a single shred of evidence to support either conclusion.

Here’s an opportunity to enrich your life with a deep dive into Ayn Rand’s soul-fueling novel The Fountainhead.

Where in Rand’s corpus should a curious reader begin? As someone who’s read it all, I would say that, for most people, there’s no better place to start than with one of Rand’s major works of fiction—Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, We the Living, or Anthem—and I suspect Rand would agree.

If college professors want to prepare students for the real world, they should continue teaching The Communist Manifesto, but they should teach it alongside Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

Real Americans, genuine Americans—not those who merely live here, but individuals anywhere in the world who live the American way—are wonderful people. And they deserve a moral code that supports their wonderful way of life. That moral code is Ayn Rand’s Objectivist ethics.

I recently spoke with bestselling author Adam Grant about his approach to writing, applying principles of persuasion from his book Think Again, and how some of his ideas relate to Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism.

At seventeen, I had no purpose or direction. By twenty three, I had a job at a Nashville studio, a beautiful wife, and a solid sense of self. I turned my life around—and I couldn't have done it without this one book.

Celebrate the 85th anniversary of Ayn Rand's We the Living by picking up a copy—and smile “to so much that [is] possible” when people are free to pursue their values.