Navy medic Daniel Lakemacher found a copy of Atlas Shrugged among the used books in his base quarters at Guantanamo Bay and it changed his life, literally. He left the military within a year as a conscientious objector, and has since been speaking to groups across the country about his experiences and his emboldened belief that “initiating force or fraud against other people is always wrong, every time. It doesn’t matter what costume you’re wearing, or who told you to do it, it’s still wrong.”
In the spirit of Lakemacher and others who have opened their minds to new ideas about war and peace while in the war zone, the gals over at LOLA (Ladies of Liberty Alliance) (disclosure: I’m on the advisory board) have been raising money to send care packages to troops overseas. According to LOLA development coordinator Nena Bartlett, each care package will contain the basics — snacks, candy, shaving kits, Q-tips — plus a copy of Atlas Shrugged and a pocket U.S Constitution, donated by Cato.
Bartlett said that while Lakemacher was certainly an inspiration, they don’t aim to shove any ideology down anyone’s throat — they just want to give liberty a chance. “We do not expect that anyone else will become a conscientious objector, nor is that our goal. We merely intend to inspire liberty in the minds of other soldiers."
For more info — and if you know a soldier who might appreciate such a gesture — contact Allison Gibbs at allison@iamlola.org.
I hope the copies of Atlas Shrugged doesn't include any information from the Ayn Rand Institute. This initiative could backfire, since it's hard to deny that objectivists are often found in the War Party, The same is that case with many Ayn Rand-admiring politicians in Europe, and probably in North America as well.
ARI and the other organized "objectivist" groups while grotesque are merely shadows now. An excellent serious work on Rand is Chris Matthew Sciabarra's The Russian Radical.
We drive out the Pamela Gellers through scholarship and reason. Racism can't hide behind Rand's radical individualism; they are mutually exclusive.
Angela,
I think what the scandy is getting at is that there is usually a postcard inserted in copies of AS and other Rand works by ARI that readers can send in to get more information – at least that was the case last time I picked up a copy to page through at a book shop – if they are still there they should be ripped out before being sent…
cheers,
marc
Wasn't Ayn Rand extremely racist towards Arabs?
She was a Russian Jew – she was extremely racist to everyone… ;)
I never met old Ayn but everything I’ve read leads me to the conclusion that she was one of those people you meet on rare occasions who you find absolutely brilliant but at the same time you want to kick them in the teeth (in a non-violent anti-war kind of way).
Sheesh, isn't military service in a war zone torturous enough without having to read through Shrug's unending monologues?
Yes, I'd stick to Camus.
Now why would any American be interested in the “ideas” of a Russian Jewish Czarist who never understood american democracy?
Especially one who was sick enough to “celebrate” a serial murderer’s “right” to cut up his victims as a paradigm of “individual expression”.
Ayn Rand, who was basically undeducated in science, economics, philosophy,… represents an attempt by eastern european jews to “justify” their anti-social, racist behaviour towards other members of society by claiming to be “supermen”. No accident that – the same sort of underlying philosophy as the “aryan master race”.
Of course, the east european zionists invest lots of money and media power in trying to sell this fundamentally anti-American ideology to those gullible enough to be fleeced.
No, but I might know those who are terrified by Rand.
This is Brian Doherty's response to the misogyny of Andrew Corsello in GQ:
"His violent reaction to [Rand's] ideas also shows something dark about Corsello. The basic socio-political message of Rand, separated (as she wouldn’t want you to do) from all the recondite stuff about concept-formation and deriving oughts from ises, was summed up by her once as: 'Gentlemen, leave your guns outside!' That is, don’t try to get through life by threatening or using violence against others. That’s the idea that Corsello says so many “f-ck you”s at. The civilized could rightly shout a loud one back. That’s retaliatory force, which is OK by Rand."
From what I've read the warfighters' notion of literature runs to the captions in Hustler and Playboy. The ads in GQ are popular too, even though it lacks the reality of the others. Maybe Hef would run a condensation of Atlas, he did write a 'philosophy' and he's always been quite 'liberal'.
Perhaps if a library of selected readings were indstalled in every port-a-san??
Sounds like this ex-Navy guy has a sound mind and is perfectly capable of reasoning things out for himself. Most likely any handwringing over his mind being conquered by the neo-Objectivoids at ARI is unnecessary.
I am asking for Nobel peace price to be returned and for next president of USA or the president of republic of France or the servants’ of Queen of England and Bank of England to have their commitments in writing and signed mailing it to eligible voter so the elected officials cannot change their story or promises’ they make before people voting for them. It would be a document which people would have in their hand when they demand the wrong doing by elected to be impeached, resign, prosecuted and any other lawful means that is out there. The law makers don’t do it, so there must be rule of law allowing people to do it.
At the same time.., there should be a law when and if a elected official is proven to be guilty of a crime.., no matter what sort of lying or dishonesty.., then they are no longer be eligible for receiving their pension, nor a office paid by tax payers, nor the costs of a Library, or free travel by Airlines and or government entities nor secret service protection and not a book signing deal and while they are questioned by law enforcement their photos should be put on internet for people to recognize them.
This "support the troops, not the war" crap really bugs me. If they joined or renlisted any time after it became clear that there were no WMDs in Iraq and no reasonable links to Al Queda than they have no excuse not to know better. I am a vet, and an anarchist, and read Rand while I was in. If you pay taxes you are already supporting them too much.
There are much better ways to interact with the troops… Bookshops and and literature on and around posts, outside of MEPS and recruiters, etc. You could even, if you are so inclined, push them more towards thinking about their oath of enlistment and how the gov't (not some random Iraqi) is the enemy of the constitution. Tell them BEFORE they join or encourage them not to re-enlist and provide information of how to get out early.
How anyone could take that bug-eyed Zionist nutcase seriously is beyond me. She was a hateful, misanthropic sociopath who worshiped the lust for power and unbridled selfishness of the sociopath as the apotheosis of human character. To her, there were two kinds of people, predators and prey, and to show compassion to the prey was the ultimate evil.
Here she praises a predator who raped, murdered and dismembered a little girl, sending her body parts to the cops and her family:
"The newspapers were filled for months with stories about serial killer called William Hickman, who kidnapped a 12-year-old girl called Marion Parker from her junior high school, raped her, and dismembered her body, which he sent mockingly to the police in pieces. Rand wrote great stretches of praise for him, saying he represented "the amazing picture of a man with no regard whatsoever for all that a society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. A man who really stands alone, in action and in soul. … Other people do not exist for him, and he does not see why they should." She called him "a brilliant, unusual, exceptional boy," shimmering with "immense, explicit egotism." Rand had only one regret: "A strong man can eventually trample society under its feet. That boy [Hickman] was not strong enough."
http://www.slate.com/id/2233966/
Her racist attitudes towards Arabs and support for the terrorist state of Israel are also well documented:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uHSv1asFvU&fe…
A copy of "The Best and the Brightest" did it for me…Ayn Rand still sucks.
No Pashtun ever violated my Constitutional Rights, it was those jerks in Washington DC, London and Tel Aviv that did that. We should bring the troops home now so they can get some Liberty Call!