People Think Rand Believed Everything Is About Money-Grubbing
Posted by CircuitGuy 11 years, 4 months ago to Philosophy
I enjoyed the video Eudaimonia posted titled Do You Want to Live in the World of Atlas Shrugged?
YouTube commenters are, of course, the stupidest commenters in the world, so I don't pay too much attention. BUT I noticed one theme- Rand critics say things like "How do you fans of Ayn Rand explain when people create art or other content for themselves instead of for money?" They obviously have not read The Fountainhead. I suspect many of these people would strongly agree with The Fountainhead.
It's too bad people think Ayn Rand stood for money grubbing. These critics say they disagree because they're for doing what they truly believe without regard for people trying to push them around and tell them what to think and do. They're Rand supporters, and they don't know it.
YouTube commenters are, of course, the stupidest commenters in the world, so I don't pay too much attention. BUT I noticed one theme- Rand critics say things like "How do you fans of Ayn Rand explain when people create art or other content for themselves instead of for money?" They obviously have not read The Fountainhead. I suspect many of these people would strongly agree with The Fountainhead.
It's too bad people think Ayn Rand stood for money grubbing. These critics say they disagree because they're for doing what they truly believe without regard for people trying to push them around and tell them what to think and do. They're Rand supporters, and they don't know it.
In AS
When the suggestion was made to Dagny to find out how the machine worked and then patent it herself - she refused.
When she was able to gain the customers of a railroad closed by cartel/government action, she recoiled.
When Francisco talked about money in the dvd he said- the measure of a man is not the amount of money he has, it is how he earnt it.
The great capitalist economist Ludwig von Mises said this about the creative genius:
"The Creative Genius
Far above the millions that come and pass away tower the pioneers, the men whose deeds and ideas cut out new paths for mankind. For the pioneering genius to create is the essence of life. To live means for him to create. The activities of these prodigious men cannot be fully subsumed under the praxeological concept of labor. They are not labor because they are for the genius not means, but ends in themselves. He lives in creating and inventing. For him there is not leisure, only intermissions of temporary sterility and frustration. His incentive is not the desire to bring about a result, but the act of producing it. The accomplishment gratifies him neither mediately nor immediately. It does not gratify him mediately because his fellow men at best are unconcerned about it, more often even greet it with taunts, sneers, and persecution. Many a genius could have used his gifts to render his life agreeable and joyful; he did not even consider such a possibility and chose the thorny path without hesitation. The genius wants to accomplish what he considers his mission, even if he knows that he moves toward his own disaster."
Von Mises, Human Action, "Action Within the World" (1966 ed., pg 139)
http://mises.org/Books/humanaction.pdf