PostHeaderIcon Happy Birthday Ayn Rand

Today is Ayn Rand’s 110th birthday. The man that introduced me to her writings 40 years ago, Robert Ringer, has penned a fitting tribute with some insightful discussion of individualism:

“…her contributions to the cause of liberty were enormous…a pure genius who was 100 percent right in her belief that the individual is a sovereign entity.

Ayn Rand’s name is, in fact, virtually synonymous with individualism, the term used to convey the belief that every person is an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life. (Her overarching philosophy is objectivism, which is similar to individualism but more complex. It is the belief that people are sovereign due to their rationality — their ability to choose what knowledge they will gain and how they will lead their lives.)

Individualism holds that a civilized society can be achieved only through recognition of individual rights, and that a group has no rights other than the individual rights of its members. It rejects the notion of a collective good and emphasizes the sovereignty and worth of the individual. In other words, the individual is supreme when it comes to his own life.

To the individualist, the individual is the end and society the means. Statists, on the other hand, believe that society is the end and the individual the means. The latter is the foundation for the nefarious concept of the state.”

Do read the whole thing; it is well worth the time. â—„Daveâ–º

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