Welcome Once in a while, we listen to a talk and we know we have experienced something special. We know we have experienced something memorable, and we know that this talk will stay with us for a long time. For many of us in the object community, such a talk was 1 that my colleague, doctor Ron Ga gave back in 2007, It was a talk with the memorable title, Atlas Rad America's second declaration of independence.
And today, we'll get the chance to what's this memorable talk again and we'll have the chance to watch it together. Because America's independence day is approaching, and we thought this is a very fitting opportunity to link a unique novel, the ideas of... And the values of a unique novel, with the ideas and the values of a unique country. We also want you to support us in our efforts to share these revolutionary methods of Atlas ra.
To help more people come across the moral revolution of iron rand, a revolution that She saw. As the continuation of the political revolution and of the spirit of the fourth of July. And before we what's the talk, actually, there will be a broadcast. We will... What's only the main part of the talk, not the introduction, not the Q and A will just watch on lecture. But before we brought broadcast a talk, I have with me today On encore himself for a short introduction before the the broadcast.
So On I watched this talk some years ago, and the time I was watching it. I thought, okay. This is a love letter. To the country country. This is a love letter to the ideas that made America special and the people that make this country possible. But my first question to you has to do with the title itself, because this is the first thing that stuck out for me. America's second declaration of independence. And this second
declaration of independence is a novel. How did you come up with this concept? It it's really what the story of Atlas shrugged is about. So if you think of the parallel between the founding of America and what Atlas shrugged is about. Start with the founding of America. It's in the run up to the declaration of independence, the I mean, what we would now call the Americans are trying to find common ground, trying to appease, make terms with compromise with Britain.
And they find over, like, a period of decades that they're just unable to do it. And this... The last straw is we need to declare our own independence and thinking of the of some of the wording of the declaration. Of our... Assume our status as equal. So now they're Declaring, we're gonna be a new nation where they're equal of Britain or a France. So they're assuming their own place as... You can think of it, like, a full
individual or full adult in the world. And what atlas front is about is about that's the same pattern of it's about the men who are enormously productive have a great ability intelligence. The kind of people who built America, and they've been over a period of a long time. Been trying to find some kind of common ground make terms compromise with their actual opponents and enemies. And what the story is about is that them learning that's what we've been doing, and we've gotta
stop doing that. And so you can... The way that I put it is that you're declaring your moral independence. We're assuming our place as individuals in the world and in our society, and we're not gonna be treated, like, second class citizens, there to be exploited. It's that's what the novel about. And in that sense, it's it is parallel to the story of the creation of America itself. Right. So the 2 pro protagonist ski is on the 1 hand, the protagonist of July
fourth, the founding fathers. And when it comes to ultra strikes, it's ai rand. So listening to your talk, 1 gets the idea that Time run fills this spiritual bond towards the founding fathers. So how does hair ideas relate to the ideas of the founding fathers? Yes. She had profound admiration for the founding fathers for the creation of America and particularly for the declaration of independence, and that's another link of why I
titled it. Like this, she called the declaration of independence, the greatest political document in human history. And and she meant it. Like, what that was not hyper, she meant that So the the... She thinks of herself as champion and defending America and 1 way you can look at it to to make it to focus it. In the declaration, probably, the most radically new idea, and there's a lot of radical new ideas in the declaration is that an individual should pursue his own happiness. He has the right
to do that. That right should be protect it. Governments are instituted to protect his rights and and the end of what he's after is to achieve his own happiness. That's at a political level. If you ask it a moral level, does anybody champion and fend the pursuit of happiness. When we mean it as each individual pursuing their own individual happiness, The answer is no. No 1 does until
I ran an Atlas shrugged. And so to think of it, like, what is it that she is celebrating and then giving a much deeper explanation and defense for. It's the idea that morally you should you should it's right morally right to pursue your own happiness. And that's what the at the shrugged is about and about the heroes of the story, learning to do that and learning to do
that fully. And it's, again, it's it's a a deep and profound tie to what the declaration of independence and the American revolution is about if you understand it at a deep philosophical level. Right. 1 last question because I know everyone in our audience is looking forward to the broadcast is looking forward to the lecture itself. But I have to ask you. You gave this lecture in 2007. We are at 2024. Looking back and comparing 2007
2 today. Are you more optimistic about where the country is going, are you more optimistic that this moral revolution that I run and vi envisioned can actually take place? I'm more optimistic in this sense. It's our mission at the institute at at I,
where you work where I work at. Ina ran Institute is to get Ina iran's new ideas and especially her new moral ideas, the moral revolution that she's launching an Atlas shrugged to get that into more people's minds And 1 of the ways to do that is to get atlas shrugged into more people's hands into readers or gonna to to consume the book and the story, and it as you know, it's a it's a mystery story. It's an exciting story. So it... It ignites a lot of young people.
We're grow. I mean, Ari ai, we're trying to get bigger and bigger, but we've... I've been here 20 plus years, and we've doubled or tripled in size since I've been here. So we're getting more effective at getting our message out. But we know it's a long term struggle. And it's and it's a it's a... Our mission is long term. It's not, like, we're gonna convince people in 5 years or 10 years. We're gonna convince more people. 5 years from now than now. And again, more
people 10 years from now than 5. But it... It's... This is a mission that's gonna take time. It's part of why we need support because it's a long change project. And I don't think there's anything more difficult than changing people's moral ideas. So to get to to people to understand this enlightenment idea that the pursuit of happiness is what your life should be about, and, again, the should means morally should. That is... They're being taught from all kinds of
directions and avenues, the opposite of that. So for this idea to really take hold. It's gonna be long term. It's it's a long term prospects. But the idea is right, and the proof of this, and this is I ran off and said that the proof that the idea is right, is the success of America, and particularly its success so insofar as it lived up to the promise of the declaration of independence. And so what we should be seen is success building upon
success. And as people get more interested in Ina rand and her ideas, they achieve success in their own lives and they dedicate their own lives to the pursuit of their own happiness. And when people see that, it's... They effect on in. Like, I want some of that. And that's how the the ideas and the philosophy will grow, and I'm certainly optimistic long term. That this will succeed. 1 last thing before we travel back in time to 2007 and we find ourselves in that beautiful hotel
where the talk was given. I have a request for our viewers. Help us get this book in the hands of more people. Picture this. Picture an idea young person, which is already burning with the fire of wanting to do something with their life of wanting to change the world of wanting to be something be given than what they are at the moment, and imagine that young the realistic person coming into contact with Atlas tract. This is what we are trying to do, but we need
your help. So you have the chance right now to help us By going to in rand dot org slash donate rand dot org slash donate end whatever you think is is whatever you can give to help us again, pass the button of this model revolution to more and more young people. So now we are going to proceed to the actual broadcast will be in the same stream. I will be in the comments and we are all what's together this talk by An, but from 2007, Atlas Sr, American second declaration of independence. On.
Thank you very much. And I'll see the 2007 non card in a few seconds in the script. Great. Thanks Steve. Let's begin. The Ina rand institute mission. Is no doubt an ambitious 1. We're trying to help bring about an intellectual change in the culture. That will restore and revitalize America's foundation. And perhaps our most important activity in this regard. Is to get Ina Rand novels into the hands of Americans. And the most vital of her novels to get into their hands is atlas shrugged. Now why?
Why do we believe that the foundation of America needs restoring And what does a novel a work of fiction have to do with anything, much less with the course of a culture and the fate of a nation. Now, these are the questions I'm gonna try to answer tonight. My focus is not gonna be on the novels, on the details of the novels story. And I'm gonna try to avoid as many plots oil as I can for those who have not yet read the enough. My focus is going to be on atlas shrug cultural importance.
Now to understand that cultural importance, we must first rewind about 230 years to the birth of the nation and see what the American revolution, both accomplished and failed to accomplish. It's easy to forget how radically new an idea America is. The founding fathers invented a new form of government. All previous forms of government had concentrated power into the hands of the state at the expense of the individual.
The theo placed power into the hands of priests and pope, who as spokesman for the supernatural or to be ab obeyed without question. Monarchy placed power into the hands of a king or a queen, whose subjects lived and died by the rulers Edi. Ari placed power into the hands of a hereditary elite. Who tram on members of the lower classes. Democracy placed power into the hands of the majority who could do whatever they wish to the minority.
In all these systems, rec individuals were dealt with in the same way. They were greeted with the instruments of physical comp with imprisonment, torture death. The priests placed galileo under house arrest and burned bruno at the stake. The king beheaded, Thomas Moore. The aristocrats tram upon the individual peasants on mass. Sometimes to literally so that literally they could bathe in the peasant blood. The at opinion democracy ordered socrates to drink Hem.
To all such outrageous, the founding fathers said no more They devised a political system that placed power into the hands of the individual at the expense of the state The individual they declared possesses the ina in both rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The government does not stand above the individual as is master. The government stands below the individual as its servant.
To secure these rights, Jefferson wrote in the declaration of independence, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the government. And if a government tres on the rights of the individual, quote, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government. Close quote. Now in the declaration, the founding fathers were of course declaring independence from great britain.
But more deeply, they were declaring independence from priests and from kings from a aristocrats and from the will of the majority. They were creating a sanctuary for individuals, for individuals with un bound minds for the galileo and the socrates of the world who are now to meet with a different fate. Now what motivated the founding fathers to take the incredibly dangerous action of creating a new country. Why? Did they risk their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor?
The the key to understanding the founding father's motivation is that they were this worldly fact based ideal, As students of the enlightenment of Europe's age of reason, the founding fathers believed in the perfect of man If man un uses his rational mind. And if he carefully studies and formulate the methods by which in fact human values. And prosperity are achieved, then perfection they held. Here on Earth was possible to man.
This is precisely what the founding fathers did with respect to the subject of government. They painstakingly studied the forms and the history of governments. In order to define a perfect method of governance. The result was the constitution of the United States along with its system of checks and balances, which were designed to prevent the emergence of any absolute power.
Now to most British subjects, British rule was good, which comparatively speaking to the rest of the world it was, and it was good enough. But to the founding father's good was not good enough. As ideal, they sought perfection. And when they saw the possibility for action, therefore they rebelled when few other men would have done so. Now to burn with this type of ideal, requires a profound self esteem. It requires a spirit that wants to see perfection made real for itself and in its own life.
Genuine self esteem, not that we're all okay variety, isn't earned esteem of one's own soul It is the conviction that you are deserving of success and happiness because you are continually working to achieve these. If you wonder about the imposing stature of the founding fathers of men like Washington and Jefferson. This is the key. They were men of genuine self esteem. Men who took the perfection of their own lives mind, character and happiness with the utmost seriousness.
They were abstract thinkers and doors, men of wide and constantly expanding air addition, who are also lawyers, farmers, printers, business owners, architects, and inventors. Now this kind of individual will jealous guard his freedom is freedom to follow his own judgment to make his own choices and to enjoy the values and wealth he creates. To such an individual, the issue of his own perfect is a daily reality.
Which he will allow no 1 to use to such an individual, the idea that he is sinful, are rational or a miserable creature, desperately in need of a superior to tell him what to do has no reality. This kind of individual will allow no king or a government to dictate his convictions or dispose of his fortune and life. Not for any reason or to any degree. For the founding fathers, the motto live free or die had real meaning
Without freedom, they would be dead. Their mode of existence would be dead, their un un bound pursuit of their own perfection would be dead. And so they thought. The declaration of independence was a declaration of self esteem. It was a declaration of self esteem. But the founding father's achievement is eroding. They would be shocked by the power that is now concentrated in the hands of the American government at the expense, of the individual.
Can you imagine Jefferson submitting to building inspectors who would decide if Monte monticello is up to code. Or pleading with Fda officials to take an experimental drug that according to his scientific judgment is beneficial or allowing social security administrators to dictate how much he has to save for his retirement and where he has to invest it. Or patiently patiently watching the tax collector as he takes his money away and pours it down the aid drains of Africa.
Can you imagine him pros himself before the Fcc who would determine if it's broadcast content is obscene. Can you imagine Thomas Jefferson seeking the government's permission to smoke a cigarette in a restaurant, eat a irr spinach, screw in and and in incandescent light bulb, or buy a trans fatty French fry. And yet, today, Americans do not have the self esteem to protest these user patients of their judgment, their choice, their freedom.
America's declaration of self esteem has not taken full root. Why not? Now although the core of self esteem is an earned confidence in one's power to think and to produce, which Americans have earned in abundance Full self esteem requires that 1 self consciously, value 1 self. Full self esteem requires that 1 know x explicit moral terms that 1 is good and why. This positive moral
evaluation. It's and self evaluation. The declaration of independence does not fully provide and the founding fathers cannot not provide The European enlightenment had promised to put morality on a rational, scientifically and mathematically precise foundation, but it could never deliver on its promise.
And far too many of its intellectual leaders assumed that the content of morality would be essentially Christian morality, stripped of its mystical trapping, and somehow defended by rational argument. The founding fathers agreed with the European intellectual. Jefferson for instance made his own compilation of Jesus teachings. Jefferson compilation, which omit the miraculous from the new testament includes the sermon on the mount.
Indeed, Jefferson in a letter refers to Jesus as, quote, the sublime preacher of the sermon on the mount, close quote. Now ask yourself this, Does the sermon on the mount not ind incite Jefferson and the other founding fathers as evil? When the British struck America's right cheek, did Jefferson in the declaration Tele america to turn to offer them the left. Did Jefferson love his enemies or did he go to war with them? Did Jefferson, who had a gallery of war
in his home? Portraits of men like isaac Newton and John Lock think that the blessed or the poor in spirit. Or that the only people worthy of admiration or those who choose to make something of their spirit. Did Jefferson and and the other founding fathers? Think that the meek shall inherit the yours earth or that the rational and the industrial is shell. Did Jefferson give up riches? Or did he seek them? On every essential, the founding fathers did the opposite of what the Sermon commands?
And that's what because the sermon on the mount is a declaration of war on self esteem is a declaration of war on self esteem. Anyone who has achieved anything and taken pride and joy his accomplishments is condemned by Jesus. Woe unto to you that are rich for you have received your consolation. Woe to you that are full. For y shall hunger. Won't to you that laugh now for y shall mourn and weep.
Well, who then has a right to feel good about themselves according to the sermon, the meek and the poor and spirit, which means those who have little cause to esteem themselves. So you can look at America's history this way. The founding fathers created a new form of government, and thereby opened up a comp a continent to their kind of men. Men of self esteem individuals who were ready to drop their backward cultures and work for a better future. Individuals who value themselves so highly.
That they sought the best for themselves and in themselves by coming to America. But the founding fathers left these people unable fully to understand or appreciate their own greatness, open to every form of abuse and vulnerable to every sort of moral den pronunciation, and the den soon came. The new country had explode into an org of productive.
Most responsible for this prosperity were men who had never had a chance to exist before, to capitalist, and industrial list, oil, steel, new financial instruments, railroads, these and other innovations, the rockefeller, the Carnegie, the Jp Morgan's and the Van builds brought into the new world, and taught men how to value. For this, they weren't denounced as robert barons.
In essence, it was Jesus voice rising against them woe to you that are rich for Yi shall suffer, woe to you that build railroads and oil derrick, for yi shall mourn mourn and weep. And more than just moral pronunciations came. If America was to be the land of the ideal. As the founding fathers had promised. And if the ideal is in fact that the meek and the poor and spirit Shall inherit at the earth, that America's government needed drastic overhaul.
All the new government powers, the alphabet soup of regulatory agencies that Jefferson would have rebelled against were justified by attacking the men of self esteem in the name of the meek and the re. For instance, what is the moral justification for the Fda's existence? Rich? Greedy drug companies. I. E. Those who discover and manufacture life saving compounds will exploit an experiment on hap less patients. So the government must oversee the companies every move?
Besides how can the meek be served unless the government, so through its process of approvals and rejections, favors the kind of drugs the meek need? And how can the poor spirit achieve blessed. If in their mindless, they pop some pill that they should have known 1 might kill them. So to protect the bless it from their own rationality. We need wise government officials to tell everyone what pills they may and may not swallow.
Or what is the moral justification for the creation of social security. To quote from the administration's website in an article about the history of social security, it is, quote, the government's duty to to provide for the welfare of the poor close quote. If a person is too meek to provide for his old age then those who are richer should be forced to provide for his retirement.
If a person is too ignorant or irresponsible to save for his own retirement, if he is that poor and spirit, then the government must step in, and in his name, strip everyone of control over their retirement plans. Or what was the moral justification for the income tax ratified in 19 13, soak the rich. Now to all of this, to whatever form, the sacrifice of men of self esteem. To men without self esteem takes. I'm rand and Atlas shrug says no more.
In 1 of the world's great acts of independence, Iran declares in effect that the essence of the sermon on the mount, along with everything it pre and everything it implies is evil. The idea that the good consistent achieving the good of others of your neighbors of your country, even of your enemies, of anyone or anything, real or imagine that
is not you. The idea that you must sacrifice your personal values with even without even the expectation of return, The idea that nobility means being selfless and wicked means being concerned with self. The idea that morality is synonymous with alt and immoral morality synonymous with ego ism. All of this is challenged in Atlas run. On this of this whole approach to good and evil. Rand asked questions no 1 dared to ask. What she asked? Is the good according to this morality?
Now supposedly is that you achieve the good of others. But what then is there good. Well presumably that they achieved the good of still other people. But then we're again faced with the same unanswered question, what is the good of these other people? To the question, what is the good? This approach to around the actually offers no answer. It gives you only a chain of arrows, leading to nowhere, a string of zeros. Adding up to nothing. The code uphold no ultimate value, no positive ideal.
It is un concerned with the main task of ethics, namely of defining the good that men must live up to. Now what does this do to men in actual practice? It means that it's in possible to know whether 1 has ever achieved the good or failed in the attempt. Now what is this do to a man of self esteem? To anyone striving to be good? This code declares that you have never done enough. No matter how much you've sacrificed. You can never achieve your own moral. You can never reach the good.
Have you ever wonder why the demands for sacrifice can continue to grow and grow. The income tax, for instance started off as something that would only of, of course apply to the very rich. And which of course would be capped at 7 percent of income. But then it grew to 15 percent, 20 percent, 25 percent, of all income and included in its clutches more and more productive citizens. Now can we at any stage protest that we've sacrificed enough that we've already achieved the good of others.
Don't be so naive. Who said the good is achievable. Or why is it decade after decade as the Us pours money into Asia, Africa and the Middle East? Still more hand outs are demanded from us. Can we ever protest that we've sacrificed enough that we've achieved the good of others? Don't be so naive. Why do you think the good is achievable. Therefore the result, to any rational person striving to be good is a state of moral anxiety, self doubt and guilt, No matter how much he has sacrificed.
The thought haunt him that he could have sacrificed still more. Most good people therefore stop trying to be a hundred percent moral, and they thereby abandon the quest, for self esteem. Now what are the sc rules who are actually un concerned with being more? No matter the nature of their concrete actions or how dreadful the outcome so far. So long as their motive is not self interest. Anything is permitted to them.
Whatever they do, they retain the halo of morality, self Have you ever wondered why when the so called humanitarian at the Un produced debacle after debacle? And corruption after corruption, their power and prestige only increase. Have you ever wondered why when government program after government program leads to disaster when social security undermine a person's retirement and public education undermine a child's mind. The power of these programs only increases.
Have you ever wondered why as individuals were murdered in the thousands and tens of thousands in communist, Russia and China. On on in the east and West alike, said, give them more time. They may eventually achieve the good of others. Atlas shrugged gives us the answer. Nothing can count its failure to achieve the good of others because nothing counts as success. To quote from Atlas.
Quote, the good of others is a magic formula that transforms anything into gold, a formula to be recite as a guarantee of moral glory and is a fu for any action. Even the slaughter of a continent. You need no proof. No reasons, no success. All you need to know is that your motive was the good of others, not your own. Your only definition of the good is a. The good is the non good for me. Close quote. So what we have here is a negative morality.
This code is unable to specify the nature of the good. But it does define in precise detail, the nature of evil. To be concerned with advancing your own interest is evil. To escape evil, therefore, you must sacrifice your values. The concrete advice, the code offers is sacrifice sacrifice and then sacrifice some more. This is the real focus of the code and why Rand names it the morality of sacrifice.
Sacrifice your money to strangers who have not earned it, pro preclude a sermon on the mount and sacrifice you love to enemies you hate. Sacrifice the values of both matter and spirit, sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice. But does the morality of sacrifice not contain some enormous hidden double standard. As I ran asked in Atlas shrugged, and all further quotes will be from the novel unless I indicate otherwise. Quote, Why is it moral to serve the happiness of others, but not your own.
Why is it immoral to produce a value and keep it? But moral to give it away. And if it is not moral for you to keep a value, why is it moral for others, to accept it. If you are selfless and virtuous when you give it, are they not selfish and vicious when they take it. Does the virtue consist of serving vice? Is the purpose of those who are good self em inhalation for the sake of those who are evil? Close quote. Now what is the sermon on the mount answer to these questions.
Well, to quote again from Atlas, the monstrous answer is no. The takers are not evil, provided they did not earn the value you gave them. It is not immoral for them to accept it, provided they are unable to produce it, unable to deserve it, unable to give you any value in return. Quote. Why, for instance, do drug companies not have the right to sell their inventions to anyone eager to buy them? Because the companies invented them.
Now why do we the public through the Fda, have the right to dictate what drugs these companies can and cannot sell. How they have to research, test, manufacture and label the drugs, what uses the drugs can be prescribed for and who can purchase them? What gives us this incredible power? The fact that we didn't invent the drugs. Or why does an employee not have the right to invest all as income as he judge best for his old age? Because he earned the money.
Why do we the public have the right to take part of his income, pool it into a so called insurance scheme and dole it out to whoever supposedly needs it. Because we didn't earn the money. Quote, such as the secret core, of your creed. The other half of your double standard. It is immoral to live by your own effort, but moral to live by the effort of others, It is immoral to consume your own product, but moral to consume the product of others. It is the parasites
who the moral just... Vacation for the existence of the producers, but the existence of the producers is an end in itself. Close, quote, Now if you want just 1 contemporary example to fix in your mind, the gruesome essence. Of the morality of sacrifice and what it does to self esteem, consider America's response to 09:11 When the twin towers collapsed, many people in the Middle East danced in the streets.
But others there, although sympathetic to the revel sought to hide the revel reit, from view. They worried that the attacks had gone too far this time, and an America would refuse to suffer such an outrage They worry that our self esteem was not completely strangled, and that their gl would revive it, They worried about our ind nation and our wrath. And there were some signs of this on the part of the American people. There was some anger and some desire for revenge.
People wanted bush to do something. Responding to the country's mood, the administration promised a campaign of shock and the extraction of infinite justice. But then there is no doubt bush ash himself, what would Jesus do? Tragically, it was 1 of the few questions to which Bush knows the answer. Operation infinite justice was renamed. Gone was the extraction of justice, replaced by the goal of bringing democracy to the Middle East so that its inhabitants can elect whomever they wish.
Killers emphatic not excluded. A campaign of shock and us did steal materialize, but not in the way originally meant. Imagine the utter shock of the Islamic warriors and their numerous supporters. When they realized that it was not Us bombs dropping on their heads, but packets of lentils, barley stew, biscuits, peanut butter, and strawberry jam, along with the message. This is a food gift from the people of the United States of America.
Imagine the awe they must have felt at their own power they had attacked the Pentagon and toppled the twin towers, and this had brought them not Us soldiers bent on their complete destruction. But Us soldiers bent on rebuilding their hospitals in moss and bringing them the vote. The young soldiers all the while dying in the process. We are proving to these people that the meek shall inherit the earth and that blessed indeed or the poor in spirit. The power these killers feel is real.
It is granted to them by the morality of sacrifice, Now, the sermon on the mount and all its variations through the centuries. Atlas shrugged reveals is a morality of evil and 4 evil. But it has a fatal flaw. It requires that it that its victims accepted. Quote, I saw that the enemy was an inverted morality. And that my sanction was its only power. I saw that there comes a point in the defeat of any man of virtue. When his own consent is needed for evil to win.
I saw that I could put an end to your outrageous by pronouncing a single word in my mind. I pronounced it. That word was no. This is the beginning of In iran's declaration of moral independence. To win one's moral independence, 1 must first say no to the corrupt ideal of sacrifice.
1 must reject as un unspeakable evil, any morality that demand sacrifices, whether the sacrifice of your values to the mis fortune or a rationality of others or the sacrifice of their values to your mis fortune or a rationality. Whether it be a relative demanding an attention he has not earned or the latest healthcare scheme from Washington, promising to give us something for nothing by soaking the rich. 1 must say no. The moment the good requires victims. It cease to be good.
To win one's moral independence 1 must uphold the individual's moral right to exist, beginning with one's own, you have the right to exist a moral right to your own life and to trying to achieve happiness within its days and years. No 1 has a moral right to man that you gain his permission to exist by sla administering to his needs and protecting him from his own shortcomings. No 1 has a claim on your life.
The moment someone waves his pain or need or failures around, proclaiming that it is these that ent him to your values, he removes himself from any moral consideration. The founding fathers grasped politically that no 1 gains a right to your life, by virtue of his real or alleged superiority. Neither priest nor king nor a ari democrat nor the majority gains a right to your life by of superior social position, mystic visions, ancestors, wealth or numbers.
What must now be grasped morally is that no 1 gains a claim to your life by virtue of his real or alleged inferior. No 1 gains a moral claim to your life by virtue of his inferior wealth, power, happiness, intelligence, ability, knowledge or judgment.
What this means is that your moral stature not at the mercy, of someone who has failed or perhaps could not even be bothered to provide for his own health or retirement So politically, the declaration of independence taught us to reject the notion of un served. Morally, Atlas teaches us to reject the notion of unearned guilt.
Now in place of unearned guilt, 1 should embrace the nature of one's existence as an individual human being, a being that must seek and create values in order to remain vibrant alive. This is the pre condition of self esteem to seek in all things the best for 1 oneself, to embrace life is to recognize that the whole act of valuing arises in the context of one's own life and the need to make it go well.
From a child choosing a toy to a teenager choosing a friend to an adult choosing a career or a lover or a form of government? The need to do so arises from the same question. What will advance my life? The pre condition of self esteem is to refuse as the founding fathers refused to settle for anything less than the ideal in one's life. And to this quest for the ideal, morality, properly conceived is an indispensable aid. Its task is to teach you fully, what the value and how to value.
Its task is to teach you how to achieve life. And happiness. Alice shrugged accordingly offers a new conception of the moral ideal a new conception of the sacred and the exalted, far different from that of the sermon on the mount. Fundamental to Atlas new moral code or the action requirements of life and happiness. Central to its new ideal, therefore, are the virtue of thought production, and trade, thought, production, and trade. Atlas shrugged is a him to man's mind.
Every value that man is achieved had to first be discovered by some individual mind from picking fruits to hunting with spears to planting crops in order to harvest them only months later. From the invention of theater, as a source of enjoyment and emotional fuel to the discovery of perspective in painting, to the creation of music and then of more and more complex
harmon and forms of composition. From the identification of the laws of motion to the formulation of the laws of logic from the discovery of germs and antibiotics to the invention of the transistor and the computer For each of these steps, some mind had to figure it out. This is the source of human life and happiness. To worship life, therefore, means to worship man's intelligence.
And if it is one's own life that 1 seeks then the development of One's intelligence becomes the most fundamental of goals to learn to think to make connections, and to see farther than what has so far seen to learn to think carefully, systematically, logic objectively, to learn to see the full implications of one's ideas. All this becomes the most important of tasks. The scope of one's knowledge and the power of one's thinking will dictate the success or failure of all one's value pursuits.
From earning a university degree to succeeding as a doctor or computer programmer or Ceo to raising kids who competent, well behaved and independent. For rand as for the founding fathers Abstract thought is not a game in which 1 cynical marvel at the alleged paradoxes of the universe. Thought, abstract thought. Is purposeful. It demands a serious dedication to one's life.
It demands the honesty of a mind seeking all the facts because of these and only these will dictate its conclusions about how to act. It depend it demands the independence of a mind reaching its own verdict. No matter how many people say otherwise. It demands the integrity of a mind committed to acting on its own. Considered judgments. Thought is purposeful. Thought is selfish. Thought is for the sake of production. Which brings us to the second production.
The of production atlas the shrug shows means a dedication to making the ideal real. It means far more than holding a job is a dedication to the work of, quote, we're making the earth in the image of one's values. It represents the proper union of the spiritual and material. What Atlas drug shows is that the souls of an artist and of an industrial list are 1 in the same.
The artist has a new vision of beauty of what could be, and he strive to give it material form to e a sculpture of a woman to paint a beautiful landscape or to write ser d. The industrial list has a new vision of prosperity of what could be, whether it be railroads, chris cri crossing the continent, a metal superior to steel or a computer on every desk, and he works endlessly to bring his vision into existence. All production is born of a dedication to one's life and reality.
It is the earthly form of ideal. And without it, there is no self esteem. Now the producer in his dealings with other men demands and non sac mode of existence. In issues of both matter and spirit. In money and in love, he is a traitor Quote, a traitor does not ask to be paid for his failures. Nor does he ask to be loved for his flaws. Just as he does not give his work, except in trade for material values. So he does not give the values of
his spirit. His love his friendship, his esteem, accept payment and in trade for human virtue. In payment for his own selfish pleasure. Which he receives from men he can respect. Close quote. Trade is moral, not because it achieves the welfare of the meek. Or the wealth of the nation. Trades justification is not that it's somehow commute selfish into self sacrifice. Adam Smith's invisible hand, taken as a justification is corrupt. Trade needs no outside justification.
The justification of trade is precisely that it's trade. It's an interaction in which each person is able to pursue his self interest. It is the only form of interaction, in which men meet 1 another as equals, not as exploit and exploited it. What is the result? What happens when say? You trade your paycheck for a new computer. Both parties achieved their self interest. You both obtain something more valuable to you than that which you give up.
Trade is the only form of human interaction that it once demand self esteem. It demands that each trader be seeking the best for his own life. And in turn allows each person to preserve his self esteem because he has neither sacrificed his self to others. Nor try to cheat reality through the double standard of demanding sacrifice of others to self. Trade, production and thought. These form the core of atlas rug new life based morality.
Now notice how stark this ideal contrast to the sermon on the mount religious conception of morality. Faith, hope and charity are its virtue. Faith means belief in the absence of logic. It is the opposite of thought. Hope means that you are unable to reach the ideal that perfection is beyond you reach but that that but that by God's grace, you might obtain it in some alleged life. It is the opposite of working to achieve the ideal in this life. It is the opposite of production.
Charity means giving yourself over body and soul to your neighbor and even your enemy. With the expectation of no return It is the opposite of trade. Jesus on the cross exhibited these virtue. He had the faith. That there was an other otherworldly father. He had the hope that he would gain the grace of this other otherworldly being He had the charity to sacrifice his own soul for those of sinner. The result was his death. For a morality of life, this cannot be the image of the moral ideal.
What then is. The great thinkers and producers, the men of the mind, the heroes of Atlas shrugged, the scientists, philosophers, artists, inventors and industrial who make a human mode of existence possible. Individuals like Aristotle, newton, Edison and Rockefeller. Remember Jefferson gallery of war, Who were some of the individuals included in it, other than himself?
Philosophers like Francis Bacon and John Lock, scientists like Isaac Newton and Benjamin Franklin, political thinkers and men of action, like Volta, T and Thomas Pain. In Iran's terms, men of the mind. And this in a nutshell is the greatness of the American revolution. It was the possibility of such ideal men that served as its motive power.
And the tragedy of the revolution is that Jefferson and the other founding fathers still thought of Jesus as the sublime preacher of the sermon on the mount. What atlas shrug shows is that the choices either or and more, it shows us the Jefferson gallery of war or worthy of that which they had never been granted before. Moral fact, moral admiration, and moral esteem. In atlas shrugged, the character of hank rear is the representative of the man of self esteem of the true America.
Rear is a man of tremendous intellect drive and productivity, who is denounced for his ability. And although he possesses the core of self esteem, He's h by the thought that morally he's un. Atlas the shrug is a story of his liberation. To all such men of real self esteem atlas the shrugged throws a lifeline from the morality of sacrifice. Quote, They had known that theirs was the power. I taught them that theirs was the glory. Quote. Now why did Ina rand do all of this in the form of a novel?
Well precisely because her concern was the moral ideal. She wanted to give material expression to her new vision of the ideal. The form in which 1 does this is art. The goal of my writing she said after Atlas Shrug publication is the projection of an ideal man. Art allows 1 to experience the ideal made real. It allows 1 to inhabit that world for a time. As anyone who's read atlas the drug nose, the contemplation of a great work of art. Is an unforgettable and indispensable experience.
Now, I ran, of course knew that 1 can learn a lot from Atlas shrugged. But she regarded this as a secondary benefit. The book's primary essential value is that within its pages, 1 experiences her new ideal made per and real. Any great romantic work of art is to quote from 1 of her later essays quote, an entity complete in itself, and achieved realized I movable fact of reality. Like a beacon raised over the dark crossroads of the world, saying this is possible. Close quote.
And that's what Atlas shrugged is by presenting a new moral ideal of what is possible to man. Atlas shrugged is America's second declaration of independence. Now having said this, I bet some of you are still wondering, is the comparison out the shrug to the declaration of independence really that exact. After all, the declaration won the support of the American people, whereas Rand iran's new moral ideal has not yet. Now this is true, but I think I mean, it's true only up to a certain point.
First off, the declaration and the American revolution hardly had unanimous support. This did not stop the founding fathers from change in the world. Much more importantly, however, although although Americans have not yet rejected the morality of the sermon on the mount. And embraced Ina iran's new morality of life, they have embraced atlas shrugged. Since its publication in 19 57, Atlas shrugged has been popular. Last year, it sold over a hundred and 30000 copies.
To be sure, the book is still regularly ignored or lamp by many of the cultures so called intellectual. But not so among the nation's citizens. Atlas shrugged has already had a significant impact on America. And you can I believe see this impact in 2 broad areas? First, it has helped disarm evil. And second, it has helped inspire the good. Take the first issue. Now today, it's hard to imagine. The twentieth century infatuation with socialist.
Despite a trickle and then a stream and then a torrent of data about the misery and deaths socialism was producing in the country's experimenting with it. Intellectual cl to it as the coming of heaven on earth. In America socialism was to come not by revolution, but peace meal and by vote. Now there were other insightful critics of socialism, especially some economists, but none was more penetrating than 9 rand.
In atlas shrugged and are later writings, She stripped socialism of its cloak of rationality. She showed it to be neo mystic, a secular version of religion of religion, a secular version of religion. The intellectual ignored or ridiculed Atlas shrugged in an attempt to evade its existence, but they knew the critique existed. Now, a major explanation of socialism lost appeal is, of course, the devastation and death it produced in Britain in Russia in Germany and in China.
But my point is that that awareness of the devastation was not sufficient for socialism demise. The socialists were always ready with an excuse. Socialism had not been fully implemented, or we didn't wait for the latest 5 year plan to bear fruit or monstrous extremist like Stalin Hitler and M have hijacked a peaceful system. Socialism is noble in theory they cried, but men aren't yet good enough to practice it. We must try again.
Atlas the shrug showed that socialism is anti life and practice because it's irrational in theory. Intellectually at the shrug made the choice confronting the socialist clear. Choose the men of the mind by embracing capitalism or choose to remain anti capitalist by reno the men of the mind, Most socialists chose to remain anti capitalist. They were to thus revealed for the sn meal that they are, and Americans increasingly abandoned the left.
But not only did Atlas shrugged in this way help give Americans some breathing room. It also provided them with clean air to breathe in, When prominent individuals in the culture are asked to name the books that have had the most impact on them, they regularly name Atlas Shrugged. The number of times that Doctor Brooke, the Institute executive director. In his travels meets successful businessman, enthusiastic about Atlas Road and its formative influence on them. Has ceased to surprises us.
Atlas the shrugged has given men of the mind a sense that it is good to produce, It has inspired businessman and entrepreneurs by showing them that their work is noble. A significant Aspect of the revival of the business in the of business in the eighties, and of the technological and entrepreneurial revolution in the nineties, in silicon Valley and beyond is this. The participants implicitly think that what they are doing is good. This is a conviction that Atlas shrugged has helped create.
Now at the intellectual level, Atlas Shrugged has accomplished at least the following. It has helped resurrect the idea of capitalism. Before Atlas shrugged, capitalism was not just a dirty word. It was an unspeakable word. The book put it back on the intellectual map. And so although today the essence of capitalism is still far from understood, the possibility of it being understood now exists. Atlas Rung has helped gain recognition for human intelligence and ability for man's mind.
Prior to atlas shrugged in intellectual pratt on about human instincts, material resources, and manual labor as the sources of prosperity. Today, many more people understand that the value potential contained in material resources and human labor remains unrealized, absent the actual source of prosperity, human intelligence. Today, companies and nations alike talk about the importance of human capital.
Now these I believe are some of the first steps in the march towards independence for the men of self esteem. In atlas shrugged, they have been inspired by a vision of what can and should be. However, it's true. They have not yet come close to fully understanding that vision and the conditions under which it can endure, While the thinkers and producers of to... Sorry, when the thinkers of and producers of today, x explicitly talk about morality.
Some version of the sermon on the mount usually still gus forth. Moreover culturally, the intellectual have regroup. Centuries ago after the brutality of religious rule, the intellectual in effects said, the supernatural version of the sermon on the mount has failed. So let's try the secular version. Today, what we are beginning to see. Is the intellectual saying that the secular version of the sermon on the mountain has failed? So let's retry the supernatural version.
It's always a game in which tails you lose heads they win. So what remains to be done to in fact make at shrugged America's second declaration of independence? First, we must recognize that the hardest thing in the world for someone to do is question his moral code and embrace a new 1. It is not an accident that in some 2000 years since the sermon on the mount, only 1 individual has challenged that ab dismal sermon and proposed a radically new moral coat.
And this is why we must get atlas the shrugged in as many hands as we can't. Especially among the young who are more willing to question received wisdom. We must learn and then continuously argue you for In rand new morality of life and against the morality of sacrifice. And we must show the implications of each code for every important issue of the day. In short, we must do the kind of work that the institute is doing on an ever increasing in scale.
And we should do this work not because the world might go to hell in 30 or 40 years. Although it might, that's not the issue. The founding fathers did not create a new nation because the world was about to go to hell. They create a new nation because they wanted to achieve the ideal. They were not motivated by a negative, but by a positive in the words of atlas shrugged, it was not death that they wish to avoid, but life that they wished to live.
In the name of what is possible and on this, Atlas shrug fiftieth anniversary, let us be grateful. For the ideal and self esteem that atlas the shrug can bring to our own lives if we work at them. And let us take our turn now. To pledge our honor to achieving the ideal and self esteem, which Atlas shrugged alone can bring back to America. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Ina Rand Institute live. Remember to subscribe wherever you listen. You can
also find on Youtube. If you like this content, please share or leave us a review. For more information, go to I rand dot org.