What is the Establishment?
Posted by overmanwarrior 11 years, 7 months ago to Philosophy
I recently read Ayn Rand's Philosophy: Who Needs It and had intended to cover parts of it that I found particularly interesting. One of the chapters I liked a lot was the one about Establishments. It took me some time to think about it: good stuff! It's like uncovering a treasure from the past.
I do not know how old you are but "The Establishment" was a label from the 60s youth rebellion or "counterculture" referring to the older generation. By 1972, when Ayn Rand wrote this essay, the word was accepted into the mainstream. She used it, of course, with a special (in fact, more precise) meaning.
Two quote are online at the Ayn Rand Lexicon. From the shorter of them, this: "The fundamental evil of government grants is the fact that men are forced to pay for the support of ideas diametrically opposed to their own. This is a profound violation of an individual’s integrity and conscience. It is viciously wrong to take the money of rational men for the support of B.F. Skinner—or vice versa."
http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/govern......