Ayn Rand saw collectivism in all its forms as an impediment to human rights. "The good of society" cannot be the basis of rights, since society is merely a collection of individuals, and so the only proper rights are individual rights. When we base rights on what is good for society, that begs the question: Who speaks for society? Throughout history, such people who claim to speak for society inevitably turn out to be tyrants. You have a few, even a single person, deciding what is good for the people. Rand thought that people ought to decide for themselves, based upon rational self-interest.
Podcast
LR Podcast S2E7: Collectivist Debt
Ayn Rand explains how leaders with a collectivist mindset can justify such lusty sums for pet projects and public largess even though we are experiencing record inflation partly due to previous enormous spending. It comes from altruism, paired with a neurotic lack of self-esteem in a leader or among lawmakers that fuels the need for ever more spending on “the public good”. It is based upon the need to feel good, rather than actually doing good.
LR Podcast S2E6: Ayn Rand on Racism
Today, we can see the Left is still using the same playbook, as their motivations and political goals remain the same. They retain all of the moral shortcomings that Rand wrote about over fifty years ago, including when in 1964 she wrote a chapter in her nonfiction book, The Virtue of Selfishness, which is a collection of essays written by her and Nathaniel Branden that lay out the principles that make up her Objectivist philosophy.
LR Podcast S2E5: Memorial Day Message/COVID Endgame
To Reagan, and many of his generation, communism, and socialism equaled slavery-- not to a particular person, but to the state. What would the people of that era not so long ago make of the acceptance of Marxism and of collectivism we see among so many today?
LR Podcast, S2E4: It’s just repackaged Marxism
Since the early 20th Century, Communists have sought to exploit existing racial tensions in America to destabilize our society so it can be brought down and replaced with their collectivist Utopia.
LR Podcast, S2E3: Enter the Woke
Wokeness is the need to demonstrate one's virtue, or “wokeness” by advocating for certain causes that the Left, under the ethical framework of Cultural Marxism, has deemed worthy.
LR Podcast, S2E2: CRT and Thee
A natural one to exploit was the race struggle of blacks and other minorities in America. Modern socialism though Cultural Marxism/Critical Theory continually seeks out new "victim" groups to stoke tensions between them and the predominant group, so black against white, rich against poor, secular against the religious, etc.
LR Podcast S2E1: “We the Government”
The “Infrastructure” plan. (talked about at length in episode 51.) Congress using the same “bait and switch” language in describing it. They're selling it as an infrastructure plan, but what you really get is about 7% infrastructure and the rest Green New Deal crony capitalism.
LR Podcast: 1st Anniversary Special
Thanks for listening this past year. I hope you'll stick around for season 2 of the LR podcast starting soon!
LR Podcast, Episode #51: “War of Words”
The left's assault on the English language continues, most recently with their attempt to redefine the word "infrastructure". "Control the language and you control the debate," is an axiom in the worlds of politics, the law, and anywhere else where influencing thought is considered valuable. The left, being well aware of this has been working for decades redefining words. Terms like racist, fascist, and justice have been so far removed from their meanings as to become unrecognizable to those of us who know the original, correct definitions.
