You are viewing objectivism

Objectivism Community's Journal
 
[Most Recent Entries] [Calendar View] [Friends]

Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Objectivism Community's LiveJournal:

    [ << Previous 20 ]
    Sunday, March 6th, 2011
    5:41 pm
    [writerspleasure]
    ayn rand
    she died 29 years ago today.

    as far as i can tell from 100 voices, her last words were "will you hold my hand, please?" or "may i hold your hand?" - or something to that effect.

    i'd have held her hand, to the end.

    honor to your memory, old fighter.

    [ note to snarky idiots: no, this does not make me a "follower" of rand. so unimportant an issue, anyway. i love d.h. lawrence as much, and two more incompatible authors cannot be imagined. ]
    Thursday, February 17th, 2011
    1:31 pm
    [writerspleasure]
    Friday, February 11th, 2011
    12:37 pm
    [writerspleasure]
    update on "atlas" trailer
    ATLAS SHRUGGED will go live at 4:30pm eastern time. less than an hour to go!

    http://www.atlasshruggedpart1.com/atlas-shrugged-movie-trailer

    [ disregard timing bug on trailer page. state science institute product. :p ]
    Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
    1:24 pm
    [writerspleasure]
    Thursday, November 25th, 2010
    8:36 pm
    [writerspleasure]
    Saturday, March 13th, 2010
    7:25 pm
    [writerspleasure]
    my new facebook group

    "The 'Coffee Party' Is Astroturfy"

    We seek a good, honest brew.



    A lot of sincere people want something better in U.S. politics, but Annabel Park's "Coffee Party" isn't the place to go. This Facebook group is for those who want more factual scrutiny into the establishment roots of this "Grass Roots" movement.

    - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=359936598963

    join up, and tell people who want an honest cup of coffee to join too!

    [ x-posted, for importance ]

    Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
    2:15 pm
    [writerspleasure]
    any thoughts on this?
    Howard Roark in New Delhi - The surprising popularity of a libertarian hero in India.

    - http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/10/19/howard_roark_in_new_delhi?page=0

    one sample: Not only do Indians perform more Google searches for Rand than citizens of any country in the world except the United States, but Penguin Books India has sold an impressive number of copies -- as many as 50,000 of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead each since 2005, a number comparable to sales there by global best-seller John Grisham. And that's not counting the ubiquitous pirated copies of her works that are hawked at rickety street stalls, sidewalk piles, and bus stations -- an honor that Rand, a fierce defender of intellectual property rights, probably would not have appreciated.

    another: In recent years, the so-called "Howard Roark effect" has swept across wealthy Indian society. Shortly after winning Miss India Earth, the country's top beauty pageant, in 2005, Niharika Singh cited The Fountainhead as her favorite book. "Ayn Rand helped me win the crown," she declared. Other stars, including biotech queen Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, actress Preity Zinta, and soccer-player-turned-dancer Baichung Bhutia have all credited Rand with helping them succeed.

    [ x-posted here and there ]
    Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
    7:30 pm
    [rumblethunder]
    AYN RAND MEETS BUSTER KEATON
    That's the way friend of mine described a screenplay I wrote called Global Village Idiot.

    It's a feature film comedy screenplay that celebrates Individualism, Capitalism and the American Spirit.

    It's also the screenplay that ended my career as a Hollywood screenwriter.

    I made my living writing movies for more than a decade. But after writing Global Village Idiot, which is a comedy about the environmentalist movement, Hollywood kicked me off the lot, took away my gate pass and told me never to darken their pitch meetings again. I haven't worked in the movie business for more than 15 years, now.

    But there's new interest in the script -- it recently won first-prize in a screenwriting contest hosted by American Film Renaissance, which just happened to be looking for screenplays that celebrated Individualism, Capitalism and the American Spirit.

    So I started a blog and posted the screenplay on the web with the hope of bypassing the typical Hollywood gate-keepers and connecting directly with people interested in producing the movie.

    You can read how I got kicked out of Hollywood here.

    And you can read the script itself here.

    Now that the Atlas Shrugged movie is back to square one, I'd have to say that this is hands-down the most Objectivist-themed new screenplay you're ever likely to see on the big screen. 

    Please give it a read and tell me what you think. Or blog about it, and send me the link. No matter if your comments are good or bad -- I can take it.

    And if you like what you read, please send the screenplay link to a friend who you think would like to see it or who, perhaps, can help get it made. I'm depending on word of mouth to get the screenplay moving.

    Or just visit my Global Village Idiot Blog and look around.

    And I'm not kidding when I say it's probably the most Objectivist-themed movie you're likely to see since The Fountainhead. And a comedy, to boot.

    Thanks for your consideration and I hope you enjoy it.

    Henry Halloway


    Current Mood: hopeful
    Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
    9:59 pm
    [writerspleasure]
    huge and long and x-posted all over the place ...
    because it is that important. read it, and repost it all over. this needs to be known. an important voice has emerged.



    Mr. Obama,

    Given the uproar about the simple question asked you by Joe the plumber, and the persecution that has been heaped on him because he dared to question you, I find myself motivated to say a few things to you myself. While Joe aspires to start a business someday, I already have started not one, but 4 businesses. But first, let me introduce myself. You can call me "Cory the well driller". I am a 54 year old high school graduate. I didn't go to college like you, I was too ready to go "conquer the world" when I finished high school. 25 years ago at age 29, I started my own water well drilling business at a time when the economy here in East Texas was in a tailspin from the crash of the early 80's oil boom. I didn't get any help from the government, nor did I look for any. I borrowed what I could from my sister, my uncle, and even the pawn shop and managed to scrape together a homemade drill rig and a few tools to do my first job. My businesses did not start as a result of privilege. They are the result of my personal drive, personal ambition, self discipline, self reliance, and a determination to treat my customers fairly. From the very start my business provided one other (than myself) East Texan a full time job. I couldn't afford a backhoe the first few years (something every well drilling business had), so I and my helper had to dig the mud pits that are necessary for each and every job with hand shovels. I had to use my 10 year old, 1/2 ton pickup truck for my water tank truck (normally a job for at least a 2 ton truck).

    I spent the next 10 years developing the reputation for being the most competent and most honest water well driller in East Texas. 2 years along the way, I hired another full time employee for the drilling business so that we could provide full time water well pump service as well as the well drilling. Also, 3 years along the path, I bought a water well screen service machine from a friend, starting business # 2. 5 years later I made a business loan for $100,000.00 to build a new, higher production, computer controlled screen service machine. I had designed the machine myself, and it didn't work out for 3 years so I had to make the loan payments without the benefit of any added income from the new machine. No government program was there to help me with the payments, or to help me sleep at night as I lay awake wondering how I would solve my machine problems or pay my bills. Finally, after 3 years, I got the screen machine working properly, and that provided another full time job for an East Texan in the screen service business.

    2 years after that, I made another business loan, this time for $250,000.00, to buy another used drilling rig and all the support equipment needed to run another, larger, drill rig. This provided another 2 full time jobs for East Texans. Again, I spent a couple of years not knowing if I had made a smart move, or a move that would bankrupt me. For the third time in 13 years, I had placed everything I owned on the line, risking everything, in order to build a business.

    A couple of years into this, I came up with a bright idea for a new kind of mud pump, a fundamentally necessary pump used on water well drill rigs. I spent my entire life savings to date (just $30,000.00), building a prototype of the pump and took it to the national water well convention to show it off. Customers immediately started coming out of the woodworks to buy the pumps, but there was a problem. I had depleted my assets making the prototype, and nobody would make me a business loan to start production of the new pumps. With several deposits for pump orders in hand, and nowhere to go, I finally started applying for as many credit card as I could find and took cash withdrawals on these cards to the tune of over $150,000.00 (including modest loans from my dear sister and brother), to get this 3rd business going.

    Yes, once again, I had everything hanging over the line in an effort to start another business. I had never manufactured anything, and I had to design and bring into production a complex hydraulic machine from an untested prototype to a reliable production model (in six months). How many nights I lay awake wondering if I had just made the paramount mistake of my life I cannot tell you, but there were plenty. I managed to get the pumps into production, which immediately created another 2 full time jobs in East Texas. Some of the models in the first year suffered from quality issues due to the poor workmanship of one of my key suppliers, so I and an employee (another East Texan employed) had to drive across the country to repair customers' pumps, practically from coast to coast. I stood behind the product, and made payments to all the credit cards that had financed me (and my brother and sister). I spent the next 5 years improving and refining the product, building a reputation for the pump and the company, working to get the pump into drill rig manufacturers' product lines, and paying back credit cards. During all this time I continued to manage a growing water well business that was now operating 3 drill rig crews, and 2 well service crews. Also, the screen service business continued to grow. No government programs were there to help me, Mr. Obama, but that's ok, I didn't expect any, nor did I want any. I was too busy fighting to make success happen to sit around waiting for the government to help me.

    Now, we have been manufacturing the mud pumps for 7 years, my combined businesses employ 32 full time employees, and distribute $5,000,000.00 annually through the local economy. Now, just 4 months ago I borrowed $1,254,000.00, purchasing computer controlled machining equipment to start my 4th business, a production machine shop. The machine shop will serve the mud pump company so that we can better manufacture our pumps that are being shipped worldwide. Of course, the machine shop will also do work for outside companies as well. This has already produced 2 more full time jobs, and 2 more should develop out of it in the next few months. This should work out, but if it doesn't it will be because you, and the other professional politicians like yourself, will have destroyed our countrys' (and the world) economy with your meddling with mortgage loan programs through your liberal manipulation and intimidation of loaning institutions to make sure that unqualified borrowers could get mortgages. You see, at the very time when I couldn't get a business loan to get my mud pumps into production, you were working with Acorn and the Community Reinvestment Act programs to make sure that unqualified borrowers could buy homes with no down payment, and even no credit or worse yet, bad credit. Even the infamous, liberal, Ninja loans (No Income, No Job or Assets). While these unqualified borrowers were enjoying unrealistically low interest rates, I was paying 22% to 24% interest on the credit cards that I had used to provide me the funds for the mud pump business that has created jobs for more East Texans. It's funny, because after 25 years of turning almost every dime of extra money back into my businesses to grow them, it has been only in the last two years that I have finally made enough money to be able to put a little away for retirement, and now the value of that has dropped 40% because of the policies you and your ilk have perpetrated on our country.

    You see, Mr. Obama, I'm the guy you intend to raise taxes on. I'm the guy who has spent 25 years toiling and sweating, fretting and fighting, stressing and risking, to build a business and get ahead. I'm the guy who has been on the very edge of bankruptcy more than a dozen times over the last 25 years, and all the while creating more and more jobs for East Texans who didn't want to take a risk, and would not demand from themselves what I have demanded from myself. I'm the guy you characterize as "the Americans who can afford it the most" that you believe should be taxed more to provide income redistribution "to spread the wealth" to those who have never toiled, sweated, fretted, fought, stressed, or risked anything. You want to characterize me as someone who has enjoyed a life of privilege and who needs to pay a higher percentage of my income than those who have bought into your entitlement culture. I resent you, Mr. Obama, as I resent all who want to use class warfare as a tool to advance their political career. What's worse, each year more Americans buy into your liberal entitlement culture, and turn to the government for their hope of a better life instead of themselves. Liberals are succeeding through more than 40 years of collaborative effort between the predominant liberal media, and liberal indoctrination programs in the public school systems across our land.

    What is so terribly sad about this is this. America was made great by people who embraced the one-time American culture of self reliance, self motivation, self determination, self discipline, personal betterment, hard work, risk taking. A culture built around the concept that success was in reach of every able bodied American who would strive for it. Each year that less Americans embrace that culture, we all descend together. We descend down the socialist path that has brought country after country ultimately to bitter and unremarkable states. If you and your liberal comrades in the media and school systems would spend half as much effort cultivating a culture of can-do across America as you do cultivating your entitlement culture, we could see Americans at large embracing the conviction that they can elevate themselves through personal betterment, personal achievement, and self reliance. You see, when people embrace such ideals, they act on them. When people act on such ideals, they succeed. All of America could find herself elevating instead of deteriorating. But that would eliminate the need for liberal politicians, wouldn't it, Mr. Obama? The country would not need you if the country was convinced that problem solving was best left with individuals instead of the government. You and all your liberal comrades have got a vested interested in creating a dependent class in our country. It is the very business of liberals to create an ever expanding dependence on government. What's remarkable is that you, who have never produced a job in your life, are going to tax me to take more of my money and give it to people who wouldn't need my money if they would get off their entitlement mentality asses and apply themselves at work, demand more from themselves, and quit looking to liberal politicians to raise their station in life.

    You see, I know because I've had them work for me before. Hundreds of them over these 25 years. People who simply will not show up to work on time. People who just will not work 5 days in a week, much less, 6 days. People always looking for a way to put less effort out. People who actually tell me that they would do more if I just would first pay them more. People who take off work to sit in government offices to apply to get free government handouts (gee, I wonder how things would have turned out for them if they had spent that time earning money and pleasing their employer?). You see, all of this comes from your entitlement mentality culture.

    Oh, I know you will say I am uncompassionate. Sorry, Mr. Obama, wrong again. You see, I've seen what the average percentage of your income has been given to charities over the years of 2000 to 2004 (ignoring the years you started running for office - can you pronounce "politically motivated"), you averaged less than 1% annually. And your running mate, Joe Biden, averaged less than ¼% of his annual income in charitable contributions over the last 10 years. Like so many liberals, the two of you want to give to the needy, just as long as it is someone else's money you are giving to them. I won't say what I have given to charities over the last 25 years, but the percentage is several times more than you and Joe Biden. combined (don't you just hate google?). Tell me again how you feel my pain.

    In short, Mr. Obama, your political philosophies represent everything that is wrong with our country. You represent the culture of government dependence instead of self reliance; Entitlement mentality instead of personal achievement; Penalization of the successful to reward the unmotivated; Political correctness instead of open mindedness and open debate. If you are successful, you may preside over the final transformation of America from being the greatest and most self-reliant culture on earth, to just another country of whiners and wimps, who sit around looking to the government to solve their problems. Like all of western Europe. All countries on the decline. All countries that, because of liberal socialistic mentalities, have a little less to offer mankind every year.

    God help us...

    Cory Miller

    just a ordinary, extraordinary American, the way a lot of Americans used to be.

    P.S. Yes, Mr. Obama, I am a real American... www.cmillerdrilling.com

    - http://community.livejournal.com/conservatism/3069303.html
    Sunday, October 26th, 2008
    8:17 pm
    [writerspleasure]
    so obama never believed in wealth "redistribution"?

    negative rights versus positive rights: here it is. the philosophical issue is joined.

    a moderate, eh?

    i strongly suggest you forward this as widely as you can. wealth redistribution is not american. not yet.

    [ c/o http://community.livejournal.com/conservatism/3065491.html ]
    1:10 pm
    [writerspleasure]
    this is a disaster waiting to happen - spread the word, broad and wide
    ladies and gentlemen, i don't do alarmism or conspiracy theories, but this is an absolute catastrophe - and it is obscene that it is even being discussed.

    Would Obama, Dems Kill 401(k) Plans?

    House Democrats recently invited Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at the New School of Social Research, to testify before a subcommittee on her idea to eliminate the preferential tax treatment of the popular retirement plans. In place of 401(k) plans, she would have workers transfer their dough into government-created "guaranteed retirement accounts" for every worker. The government would deposit $600 (inflation indexed) every year into the GRAs. Each worker would also have to save 5 percent of pay into the accounts, to which the government would pay a measly 3 percent return.

    - http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/10/23/would-obama-dems-kill-401k-plans.html

    more (somewhat more partisan/inflamed) at: http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/10/24/obama-dems-seek-to-end-401-k-plans/

    originally found in http://community.livejournal.com/conservatism/3064509.html

    do i even need to adumbrate what withdrawing trillions of dollars of investment from the stock market would do to individuals and to the american economy? how many fewer business startups and expansions would find funding (in a time when india and china are rising)? what the consequences would be of turning trillions of investment funds over to government keeping - which would then pay in the form of more taxes - at a miserable return hardly even up to the present rate of inflation, not to mention the higher inflation under a more left-tending mixed economy?

    says j. mcdermott (dem-wa, chairman of the house ways and means committee's subcommittee on income security and family support): "we have to start to think about whether or not we want to continue to invest that $80 billion for a policy that's not generating what we now say it should."

    well "we" can decide what "we" want to do with our money ourselves, thank you. how about you stop addling the economy with your interventions?

    these idiots think there's some sort of golden fountain from the exploitation of the poor oppressed workers that can just be infinitely siphoned from. they do not seem to know that the system is already battered and on its knees from their bad "management." this is yet another smashing blow. how long can a complex system endure such massive distortion?

    this is insane. if this comes to pass, i might just started taking thomas jefferson's line about what's good every now and then. enough is enough.

    [ horrifiedly x-posted all over ]
    Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
    10:01 am
    [writerspleasure]
    Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008
    4:04 pm
    [writerspleasure]
    semi-official word: "we the living" on DVD end of 2008
    those interested in ayn rand will be interested to know that the 1942 italian "pirate" movie of rand's novel we the living - re-released on the big screen to generally strongly positive reviews in 1986 and then to VHS (still available) - will be released on DVD around the end of this year. i'll post more info as it's received.

    producer's site: http://home.earthlink.net/~dscottprod/

    no DVD news yet: http://www.wethelivingmovie.com/

    IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092194/

    [ x-posted somewhat ]
    Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
    4:42 pm
    [cest_lui]
    Objectivist Spirituality?
    Hey again everybody. It's me, Jack, with another question.

    In a lot of Nathaniel Branden's writings, and in some of Ayn Rand's, I have come across mention of the "spirit" and "spirtual" matters and "spirituality."

    What I'm wondering is what exactly do they mean? I know both are (were) atheist, and I know a lot of people say they're spiritual without being religious, but I am unsure of what exactly these words mean when used in this way. Do any of you have ideas?

    Again, thanks. I really appreciate this community!

    Peace,
    Jack
    Saturday, July 26th, 2008
    8:07 pm
    [cest_lui]
    After the past year, which saw me leave the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), flirt with the Catholic Church, and then stop attending all religious functions altogether, I no longer feel like I can call myself a Christian.

    I was asked the other day about my religious beliefs, and my response startled me: I said "I don't know."

    I don't think I am an atheist...just much less religious than I was at one point in my life. I am becoming a capitalist, though. Nathaniel Branden has all but won me over. It's a strange place to be: a member of the socialist party...then completely convinced by an old Objectivist with white hair that socialism is full of self-sacrificing and kills the individual (which I now believe).

    I know this change in my worldviews is related to my dabbling in the works of Ayn Rand, but one thing that I find really odd is that Ayn Rand herself fails to capture my attention or convince me of anything, but Nathaniel Branden (her one-time associate and lover)'s books have pulled me hook, line, and sinker.

    When I read his The Six Pillars of Self Esteem, and his essays in The Virtue of Selfishness, I really do feel like a lightbulb has gone off in my head.

    This relates to Christianity big time: Christianity is full of social impetus. Feed the poor, hug the weary, clothe the naked. Be your brother's keeper. As I find myself more and more agreeing with Objectivism's rational self-interest and individuality, I admit that this scares me because all my life I've heard the virtures of self-sacrifice and giving to others freely, and to be able to see that as evil (as I am able to do) is shocking.

    I have no real point with this post, I just thought I'd throw it out there, if they have had a rather steep change of direction in worldview.

    (cross-posted in my own journal)
    Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
    8:22 pm
    [cest_lui]
    a question for Objectivists
    Hey everybody...

    I have a question. I have been reading a lot of Ayn Rand's work and some of what Nathaniel Branden has written, and I think I am beginning to more fully understand the concept of man's mind being so vitally important, so crucial to proper human existence. Inherent in that viewpoint (please correct me if I am wrong) is the notion that religion is generally an attempt-gone-bad to describe reality, that religion only tries to give answers about life's ultimate goal, meaning, purpose, etc., whereas philosophy (specifically, Objectivism) actually does offer valid, workable answers.

    I am becoming more and more prepared to accept that as I learn more about Objectivism and apply it to my life and actions.

    However, recently I stumbled upon mention of a book called God Speaks by Meher Baba. One review I read of the book said this:

    "While Meher Baba does not emphasize intellect alone as a path to perfection, in God Speaks Meher Baba delves deeper into the subject of metaphysics than most other Indian masters. In Mastery of Consciousness Allan Y. Cohen, Ph.D. writes that in God Speaks "his explanations of the creation, purpose, and evolution of the universe may be the most explicit ever written."[3] Oriental scholar Walter Evans-Wentz, the original English translator of The Tibetan book of the dead, wrote, "No other Teacher in our own time or in any known past time has so minutely analyzed consciousness as Meher Baba has in God Speaks.""

    I am wondering if anybody has ever read this book or is familiar with the kind of metaphysical approach that Meher Baba promoted? I really have no idea what he says in the book, but I am in the process of getting it on Interlibrary loan and I was curious if anybody else who is interested in Objectivism has read it and what you had to say.

    Much peace and thanks,
    Jack
    Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
    12:12 am
    [cest_lui]
    psychology and medicines
    Can anybody point me toward Objectivist writings on taking medications such as Prozac and Paxil, and how this relates to the concept of self-esteem? I'm just curious and I haven't been able to find anything on my own. I am rather new to learning about Objectivism so I really have no idea where to start.

    Much peace,
    Jack
    Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
    7:07 pm
    [writerspleasure]
    nationalization of oil companies threatened
    melvin_udall is reporting that maxine waters uttered approximately the following in today's congressional oil hearings:
    "this liberal will call for socializ... ... ... taking over of the oil companies."
    - http://melvin-udall.livejournal.com/425602.html

    did anyone else witness this? google news shows nothing for the string as yet.

    [ concernedly x-posted ]

    edit: report confirmed

    edit, part deux: pending actual audio, here's another transcription: " ... this Liberal will be all about Taking Over, and Running, all of your companies ... " - http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080522165031AAxWmWV - second answerer
    Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
    5:10 pm
    [writerspleasure]
    today ...
    50 years ago, atlas shrugged was published.

    happy birthday!
    Wednesday, September 5th, 2007
    12:00 am
    [boffo]
    New Progress on Atlas Shrugged Movie
    It's now being written/directed by Vadim Perelman, who wrote/directed House of Sand and Fog, the upcoming In Bloom, a Kelly Clarkson music video, and that's it.

    Details

    I'm not particularly confident about this. I see no reason he would succeed in forming a workable script when much more experienced writers like Jim Hart and Randall Wallace haven't been able to do so. But Lions Gate says they're hoping for an early 2008 production start.
[ << Previous 20 ]
About LiveJournal.com