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Her book, "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" is a series of essays written in the early 60's. Reading it today, I would say she hasn't had enough influence over th

Her book, "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" is a series of essays written in the early 60's. Reading it today, I would say she hasn't had enough influence over the world. I think Rand would be horrified at the current popularity of socialism. She rightly points out that, historically, it's created nothing but poverty and misery. I would highly recommend her essay, A Textbook of Americanism, available free online here: http://laissez-fairerepublic.com/textbook.htm http://laissez-fairerepublic.com/textbook.htm Perhaps if more people read Rand (especially her nonfiction), we might not be in this predicament.

mindcrime 8y ago
Her book, "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" is a series of essays written in the early 60's. Reading it today, I would say she hasn't had enough influence over the world. I can't agree strongly enough. Everybody should read Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. And go into it with an open mind, instead of planning to reject it based on preconceived biases. A lot of people might be surprised at how they feel about things at the end. All of that said, I think Rand hurt herself in one crucial way w.r.t her writing. And that is her somewhat nonstandard use of certain words, especially "selfish" and "selfishness". For better or worse, her use of those words is a bit different from the common, colloquial usage, and most people - in my experience - don't bother to try and really dig in and parse out what she meant. I'm not even sure a word exists that, by itself, captures exactly what she meant by "selfish" or "selfishness". Something like "self interest" or "inner desire" or maybe "self reward" comes close, but those all feel kinda clumsy if inserted into her works in place of "selfish" and its other forms. Perhaps if more people read Rand (especially her nonfiction), we might not be in this predicament. Agreed. Sadly, even among people who have read Rand, too many just read Atlas Shrugged and formed their opinions there. And while I enjoyed AS and think it has a lot of virtue, it's not a great novel in many ways, and as a non-native English speaker, her writing in AS can feel a bit wooden and stilted at times. I think The Fountainhead is a bit better in this regard, in addition to being shorter, and generally recommend it as a better intro to Rand's fiction, for people who want to go down that path.

mindcrime 8y ago

Her book, "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" is a series of essays written in the early 60's. Reading it today, I would say she hasn't had enough influence over the world. I can't agree strongly enough. Everybody should read Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. And go into it with an open mind, instead of planning to reject it based on preconceived biases. A lot of people might be surprised at how they feel about things at the end. All of that said, I think Rand hurt herself in one crucial way w.r.t her writing. And that is her somewhat nonstandard use of certain words, especially "selfish" and "selfishness". For better or worse, her use of those words is a bit different from the common, colloquial usage, and most people - in my experience - don't bother to try and really dig in and parse out what she meant. I'm not even sure a word exists that, by itself, captures exactly what she meant by "selfish" or "selfishness". Something like "self interest" or "inner desire" or maybe "self reward" comes close, but those all feel kinda clumsy if inserted into her works in place of "selfish" and its other forms. Perhaps if more people read Rand (especially her nonfiction), we might not be in this predicament. Agreed. Sadly, even among people who have read Rand, too many just read Atlas Shrugged and formed their opinions there. And while I enjoyed AS and think it has a lot of virtue, it's not a great novel in many ways, and as a non-native English speaker, her writing in AS can feel a bit wooden and stilted at times. I think The Fountainhead is a bit better in this regard, in addition to being shorter, and generally recommend it as a better intro to Rand's fiction, for people who want to go down that path.