There is no John Galt - and that's worse


syrakusos

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There is a destroyer loose who is shutting off the motor of the world, slowing the engine of creation, tapping out the extra power of invention. But it is not one person whose name is a question. What you tax you get less of; and what you subsidize you get more of. The brightest people in the world are making video games; and no one is on the Moon. It did not take a genius to figure this out: it is a universal law of human action.

No law, no regulation or ruling says what a computer is or who is qualified to program one. In a lifetime, we have gone from no computers to over a billion of them. The poorest people in the world have cellular telephones; and they trade online minutes as an ad hoc monetary medium. It is truly wonderful, a perfect demonstration of the power of open markets. When criminal hackers seek to violate your financial security, they do not need supercomputers chilled with liquid nitrogen: they use gaming computers whose powerful processors outstrip anything planned by university consortiums.

However, to be an civil engineer or a mechanical engineer, you need to attend a government approved college, take a government licensing examination, serve an industry mandated apprenticeship, and, as a professional, buy a ton of liability insurance. Since 1945, on the advice of MIT's Vannevar Bush, the government has actively subsidized as many research projects as we, the people, (and our grandchildren) could afford. So, we have the same roads, the same railroads, the same internal combustion engines and steam turbines as we did 100 years ago. They are, indeed, better, but not different. The jet engine is 70 years old. So is nuclear power. We have nothing better.

They subsidized education, but never bothered to measure learning. Torrents of federal money only bloated the administrations of universities without rewarding the faculties or incentivizing the students. They subsidized healthcare, but never investigated life extension. The medical monopoly pursues a cure for cancer like 19th century doctors fighting consumption caused by miasmas.

We all get along somehow...

And that allows the lawmakers, the regulators, and taxers, and tax-eaters to believe that their actions have no effect, no deleterious consequences. They believe that human action - and human inaction - is impervious to reality, that the physical laws of the universe do not apply to their decisions. They see the tax-revenues coming in. They spend the money going out. They never discover the unbroken window.

Frederic Bastiat's famous analogy of the broken window is a law of the universe. As best as we can imagine from science fiction, any sentient, self-aware, rational being must of necessity act and respond just as we have. There is no escape. Every decision of the government must be an economic loss because the basis of that decision is for power not for profit. Economic losses are not impersonal: they take the food off your table. You do still have food, for the moment, but you do not know what you do not have because it was not invented or discovered.

But if obeyed, nature can be commanded. New sources of energy will power the extension of humanity into new frontiers. We know from historical evidence that new arts can be invented and new artists will flourish. We could live longer and smarter and prosper. To achieve that in every endeavor, we must only do what we have done to create the video game industry: nothing. Laissez nous faire. Leave us alone.

Previously on Necessary Facts

Atlas Shrugged Opening Show (2011)
Love, Loss, and Redemption in Atlas Shrugged
The Influence of Ayn Rand's Objectivism

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Michael, the many technological advances that we had dreamed (say back in 1957) would come to be by now and have not appeared have mainly not appeared due to hard facts of nature, not due to lack of trying or governmental regulations. We dreamed of enormous improvements in the efficiencies of engines, turbines, and generators, but reality has simply proved a bitch. We dreamed there might be radically new ways of coaxing usable energy from nature and dreamed of far faster daily transportation. We dreamed that all cancer would be cured. These quests will go on, but these are dreams that have not panned out so far, for reason of the stubbornness of nature, and we cannot claim to know they ever will, we can only gamble the investment. Meanwhile, many other important advances in technology, some of which we never dreamed of those decades ago, have been attained: in materials science, molecular biology, electronics, communications, and information processing; making medicine, production, and other aspects of our lives enormously better.

There are “John Galts,” in Galt’s inventiveness and his facility with high theory and nuts-and-bolts, alive and working in these decades of our own lives, succeeding within governmental regulations and with private and governmental investment. As in Sight of Superlative Achievment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PS

Let's watch those "diesel steam engines," Michael. Pretty sure you meant diesel electric power plant (consisting of a diesel engine [oil] driving an electric generator, which then powers electric traction motors driving axles in the case of a locomotive).*

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Hey, Mike, thanks for the link The Influence of Ayn Rand's Objectivism. I need to read your blog more often. ARI claims cumulative total of 30 million copies of Rand books sold, and ARI successfully exported the meme (to The Economist, for instance) that annual sales of Atlas are over 400k. Must be the figures Jerry spoke of yesterday, because 7/8 of those "sales" of Atlas are invisible to Publishers Weekly.

How come? Your blog post provided a clue, that the world's biggest customer for Ayn Rand books is ARI, who gives them away free. We also need to exclude Canadian, British, and foreign language translations. Publishers Weekly only reports US bookstore and US online cash sales -- not how many copies were printed wholesale and shipped on shrink-wrapped pallets to ARI or sold overseas.

But the Zogby poll you quoted is mind-blowing, if true, that 29% of US adults have read Atlas and half of them say it changed their ethical and political outlook? That ARI press release needs to be investigated with a blowtorch and a goddamn search warrant.

Zogby 2007 -- 8.1% of American adults have read Atlas Shrugged. http://www.freestarmedia.com/pr/Freestar_Zogby_poll_press_release.pdf

WIN/Gallup Intl 2012 -- 5% of Americans are atheist. http://www.wingia.com/web/files/news/14/file/14.pdf

ARI 2009 (linked by Glenn Reynolds) -- Atlas "bookstore sales reached an all-time annual high in 2008 of about 200,000 copies sold.”

...that squares with Publishers Weekly tally of 148,695 paperbacks sold in 2009. Linked ARI press release was scrubbed.

Cato 2007 -- 2% of Americans self-identify as libertarian (Rasmussen) 9% are libertarian (Zogby) http://libertarianmajority.net/libertarian-polling

Harris 2014 America's favorite book: Atlas dropped from top 10 after holding 9th in 2008 http://www.harrisinteractive.com/NewsRoom/HarrisPolls/tabid/447/ctl/ReadCustom%20Default/mid/1508/ArticleId/1422/Default.aspx

...1. The Bible, 2. Gone With The Wind, 3. Harry Potter series, 4. Lord of The Rings, 5. To Kill A Mockingbird

6. Moby Dick, 7. Catcher in The Rye, 8. Little Women, 9. The Grapes of Wrath, 10. The Great Gatsby

New York Public Library System September 2013

Top Adult Fiction

  1. Inferno by Dan Brown
  2. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
  3. Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
  4. The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling
  5. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
  6. The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman
  7. First Sight by Danielle Steel
  8. W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton
  9. Never Go Back by Lee Child
  10. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

Chicago Public Library 2013

1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

2. Fifty Shades Of Grey by E.L. James

3. Inferno by Dan Brown

4. And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

5. The Causal Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

6. Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James

7. Alex Cross, Run by James Patterson

8. The Cuckoos Calling by Robert Galbraith

9. A Deeper Love Inside by Sistah Souljah

10. Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James

Bottom line: a nation of idiots, complete failure of Rand or Rothbard to make an impression.

chart-poll-tea-party-oct2010.jpg

Non-Christian 3%

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"There is no escape."

There's an ancient Bible saying that flies in the face of that statement: "For every temptation there is a way of escape."

The more you give up the need for power over others... the more they lose their power over you.

There is a John Galt. He is you.

So how do you go about stopping the motor of the bloated government bureaucracy in your own life? And the answer is by reducing your own need for that same bloated government bureaucracy.

So you first identify the economic sectors most highly infested with bureaucratic parasites:

First, the government itself,

then the legal system,

the insurance system,

the healthcare system,

the debt system,

the education system,

the credit system,

and the union system.

Then what you do is set about to reduce your need for, and participation in, those clearly marked contaminated sectors...

...and the more you do, the more liberty you will enjoy in your own life. :smile:

Every person is enslaved to the government only by their own need for the false feelings of comfort and security and entitlement and indemnification the government only ~appears~ to offer.

Greg

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more Atlas 3 reviews:

...film takes an odd jump from stiff actors reciting Rand quotes during the first two-thirds of the movie to a final third that turns into a bad action film... Most bizarre and irritating in the film is the fact that the drivers in Galt's Gulch, which is supposed to be a haven separated from the collapsing government and society, drive around in this haven of freedom in cars that have state of Colorado license plates! http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2014/09/quick-review-atlas-shrugged-who-is-john.html

...the many mustaches, beards, and GQ-type unshaven faces are incongruous...and Ellis Wyatt’s waxed handlebar mustache is simply ridiculous... Philosophically, Rand would almost certainly have objected to the thematic omission of religion; all three movies stay resolutely focused on the political and economic. In the book, Galt spent pages decrying mysticism, irrationality, and faith. Rand was an atheist, which makes many conservatives who would like to embrace some or all of her political and economic views queazy. Perhaps the movie’s makers are trying to broaden its appeal, which probably also explains cameos by Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and Ron Paul, but in terms of fealty to the book, the omission is a gaping hole. http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/143101b2/a-review-of-as3

Just saw it last night with my wife. We spend the rest of the night talking about how how bad it was. The casting was the worst part, there are only 1 or 2 people in movie who seems that they know what acting is, everyone else just delivers every line the same. Almost none of the characters look anything like the way they are described, such as being decades older than they should be... They also slashed out everything from the book that wasn't about Dagney or Galt down to a mention at best including completely cutting Rearden from the movie. The first two were bad, but they compared to the last one they are fucking awesome. http://www.reddit.com/r/Libertarian/comments/2g9oej/atlas_shrugged_who_is_john_galt_hits_theatres/ckh55ym

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... have mainly not appeared due to hard facts of nature, not due to lack of trying or governmental regulations. We dreamed of enormous improvements ... Meanwhile, many other important advances in technology, some of which we never dreamed of those decades ago, have been attained: in materials science, molecular biology, electronics, communications, and information processing; making medicine, production, and other aspects of our lives enormously better.... As in Sight of Superlative Achievment.

PS

Let's watch those "diesel steam engines," Michael. Pretty sure you meant diesel electric power plant (consisting of a diesel engine [oil] driving an electric generator, which then powers electric traction motors driving axles in the case of a locomotive).*

First, thanks for the edit. I woke up inspired and wrote directly into the blog. I let my poetry runaway with my engineering. I changed the line to

"... the same internal combustion engines and steam turbines ..." I cannot fix the other posts that I put out in O-land, but I can live with a mistake.

On the other point, I agree that progress continues. I do not see the end of civilization around the corner. I certainly do not hope for it as do so many of our conservative comrades. I have written about the progress in scientific made during the Middle Ages. We owe a lot to the medieval alchemists who worked out empirical methods and processes. The monks who gave us brandy and champagne would understand a petroleum cracking plant. They also imported a lot from the Muslim/Arabic world, which has since fallen from its zenith. (We can only hope that this is the nadir and better times are to come.) But that being as it may ...

W-Disney-Man-in-Space-02-fo.jpg

The rate of change has diminished. The promises of the past are left unfulfilled because of the inexorable laws of reality.

In the 1970s and 80s, the idea of "colonies in space" was rekindled from the Disney era. Suggestions included carbon fiber matrix. You can get hunting bows made with it. Hard hats are made with it. You can build your own airplane with it. But you cannot build a home with it.

The obstacles to innovation are tremendous: "Convention gets built; innovation gets published," as the saying goes; commercial developers are risk averse; public agencies have pit bull watchdogs; building codes ask for ASTM certifications; owners need insurance; building inspectors expect uniformity; contractors thrive on repetition; everyone has shallow pockets. Innovation takes time, money, and a leap of faith, but it does happen, and it is happening more, although it can't be called the norm of practice—yet.

It is not the end of the world, but we are a little ways off from a renaissance... which would still be a re-birth, not a new birth.
My PS to you is to thank you for the link from Rebirth of Reason to your article, Sight of Superlative Achievement.
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Wolf, Yup, I saw it. It is not in my opinion, horrendous or sacrireligious.It is about the same as the two previous parts, but production values, in some areas, seem lower (I think the Hollywood Reporter review, which is not really a hit-job, speculates that they appeared to have run out of funding).

You probably already know this by now, but your anxiety over the Jotn Galt oath being said in the movie, is over. It is said at least 5 times. Several times by Galt, a couple by his Gulch partners, and at least three times by Dagny. It is also written in stone, literally, on the entrance to a building housing Galt's "motor" pullling energy out of the atmosphere (which sounds suspiciouisly, superficially, like Wilhelm Reich's proposed, but never built or demonstrated, "Orgone Energy," machine [not the same device as his built and sold "Orgone Energy Accumulator," the Orgone box, as it was called, and which got him arrested by the Feds. He defended himself in court. And unlike Roark, was convicted and imprisoned, where he died of a heart attack]..

You have already seen and linked to Michael Moratta's blog discussing the book's sales and influence, which is excellent.. As he notes, trying to find the exact sales figures is difficult. Also, about 100,000 copies of A.S. is given-out free to schools each year, hoping that the students will participate in their essay contests.

For what it's worth, I think that giving books out free, leaves an underlying implication that the book (any book) is worth what it cost the student: nothing. But that's just me.

I do not think that, contrary to the clips, Kristoffer Polaha was unsuitable as Galt. He did as good as can be expected with a rather stunted script. In my ideal world, the role needed someone with real screen persona and an authoritative bearing and voice. But Charlton Heston, Burt Lancaster, Gregory Peck are no longer with us. Annoyingly, to me at least, is showing Galt as fashionably sporting the current, 2 day's unshaven, grungy look!

The scriptwriter credits list John Aglialoro, Herman Kaslow, and James Manera. But David Kelley is listed only as "Production Advisor," as is Duncan Scott (although Duncan indicated in a post to those who are funding a Rand documentary that he is producing, that he asked that his name be removed from the credits (due to conflicts with the producers that he cannot discuss due to a non-disclosure agreement)..

.

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As for "the message." Did A.S. 3 deliver it, adequately?. Sort of. Since I first read Atlas in 1962,(!) in my mind I can fill in the blanks. But how about for a neophyte, an Atlas "virgin.?" Would they "get it?." I am not sure. Would they go out and buy the book - and read it? I cannot say.

Major parts of the philosophy as given in Galt's speech, are left out (Peikoff, by the way, has said that when he was working with a previous production attempt, he was asked to reduce Galt's Speech to five minutes! I think Kelley's (?) version is slightly longer)... No way could they include the whole 60 page speech. But possibly, just maybe,...that is good. Maybe the neophyte will want to figure out exactly what Rand is getting at. Maybe. Or maybe the neophyte's reaction, after public school brainwashing, will be: "wtf ??!!"

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I know this is too late to mean anything, but I think I have a perfect cinemagraphic solution to Galt's speech.

Instead of making it an exposition of reasons, which is what Rand did, we now live in the age of the Internet. He could make the speech a series of rhetorical statements and accusatory questions, then say for the more intelligent among you, I have laid out my reasons in a manifesto on the Internet. For the hardheaded among you, I will not waste my breath.

This would allow the whole speech theoretically to be included, prompt user curiosity to go to the book to check it out, give Galt some rhetorical meat to chew on so he could express genuine anger and posture of command.

This would wed the movie to the book (or even a reference site on the Internet) in an organic fashion.

Actually, this is part of a new storytelling concept I have been studying called "transmedia storytelling." This means different parts of the story experience occur in different media. A typical example is the TV series, Lost.

The trick is to create an imaginary world, then let the audience experience that world, the plotlines, characters, etc., through TV or movie (or both), reference sites, books (including comic books), mini webisodes, blogs, forums, maps, treasure hunts, video games, contests, etc.

I can easily see this happening with AS. Rand created a perfect imaginary world for a transmedia project. In fact, I think AS fits a transmedia project much better than it fits the 90 minute movie format. I think it would make a crap load more money, too.

Oh well...

Michael

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However, to be an civil engineer or a mechanical engineer, you need to attend a government approved college, ...

When I was taking physics classes at Lansing Community College in 1981-82, one of my instructors held a master's in physics and a master's in mathematics. He wanted to take the mechanical engineer's licensing examination, but the State of Michigan would not grant permission because he did not have a bachelor's from an accredited mechanical engineering program. So, he moved to Indiana.

Texas Board of Professional Engineers

Software Engineering

After years of hard work by countless software professionals across the country, the Software Engineering Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam is ready for its maiden administration in April 2013. This will mark the culmination of one phase of the journey and a critical step in the overall philosophy surrounding software engineering and the licensing of software engineers in the United States.

http://engineers.texas.gov/software.html

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Every decision of the government must be an economic loss because the basis of that decision is for power not for profit.

Do car crashes never happen because the basis of any act of driving is to get from point A to point B safely? Sometimes power leads to profit, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes profit leads to power, and sometimes it doesn't. For the complete history of when these two things have coincided over the past 1000 years, you can take a look at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Plenty-Millennium-Princeton-Economic/dp/069111854X

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MSK, surely you know the work of Richard Gleaves, XCowboy2, posted to YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00xStn_jXKo.

He dramatized Galt's Speech in 16 installments. He actually made two complete versions.

Michael,

Of course I know about that. It's even been posted here on OL a few times. (Too lazy to look it up, but if you are interested, seek and ye shall find.)

btw - (I have Gleaves's book Sleepy Hollow: Rise Headless and Ride (Jason Crane) (Volume 1). I haven't read it yet, but, as of this post, he did get 161 reviews, mostly 5 star. How many of those are Rand-oriented, I don't know. (I don't trust reviews by Rand-oriented people. They like to skew polls and call it "activism.") There is a one-star review I looked at and it got 27 comments mostly blasting the reviewer, so it is a good bet this was the Rand-oriented crew. Independent of this, it looks like a good book.

There is a fiction-writing concept that has been practiced since the dawn of storytelling that Gleaves seems to have done. It is called "writing into the gap." This means taking a story by someone else or a legend, finding a gap in it, then writing a story to fill that gap. One of the earliest examples was the Aeneid by Virgil, which filled in the gap in between the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer. Obviously this gap-filling can come with spinning the story around in a whole new direction so that the gap is really more of a prompt or inspiration.

Michael

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Every decision of the government must be an economic loss because the basis of that decision is for

power not for profit.

Gary:

Are you too lazy to learn how to use the quote function which allows us to go directly to the source of "wandering quote," both in number and author?

I know you went to a really, really effete school, however, at least put the post #

that the quote is from in your post.

Thanks.

A...

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Hey, Mike, thanks for the link The Influence of Ayn Rand's Objectivism. I need to read your blog more often. ARI claims cumulative total of 30 million copies of Rand books sold, and ARI successfully exported the meme (to The Economist, for instance) that annual sales of Atlas are over 400k. Must be the figures Jerry spoke of yesterday, because 7/8 of those "sales" of Atlas are invisible to Publishers Weekly.

How come? Your blog post provided a clue, that the world's biggest customer for Ayn Rand books is ARI, who gives them away free. We also need to exclude Canadian, British, and foreign language translations. Publishers Weekly only reports US bookstore and US online cash sales -- not how many copies were printed wholesale and shipped on shrink-wrapped pallets to ARI or sold overseas.

But the Zogby poll you quoted is mind-blowing, if true, that 29% of US adults have read Atlas and half of them say it changed their ethical and political outlook? That ARI press release needs to be investigated with a blowtorch and a goddamn search warrant.

Zogby 2007 -- 8.1% of American adults have read Atlas Shrugged. http://www.freestarmedia.com/pr/Freestar_Zogby_poll_press_release.pdf

WIN/Gallup Intl 2012 -- 5% of Americans are atheist. http://www.wingia.com/web/files/news/14/file/14.pdf

ARI 2009 (linked by Glenn Reynolds) -- Atlas "bookstore sales reached an all-time annual high in 2008 of about 200,000 copies sold.”

...that squares with Publishers Weekly tally of 148,695 paperbacks sold in 2009. Linked ARI press release was scrubbed.

Cato 2007 -- 2% of Americans self-identify as libertarian (Rasmussen) 9% are libertarian (Zogby) http://libertarianmajority.net/libertarian-polling

Harris 2014 America's favorite book: Atlas dropped from top 10 after holding 9th in 2008 http://www.harrisinteractive.com/NewsRoom/HarrisPolls/tabid/447/ctl/ReadCustom%20Default/mid/1508/ArticleId/1422/Default.aspx

...1. The Bible, 2. Gone With The Wind, 3. Harry Potter series, 4. Lord of The Rings, 5. To Kill A Mockingbird

6. Moby Dick, 7. Catcher in The Rye, 8. Little Women, 9. The Grapes of Wrath, 10. The Great Gatsby

New York Public Library System September 2013

Top Adult Fiction

  • Inferno by Dan Brown
  • And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
  • Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
  • The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling
  • Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
  • The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman
  • First Sight by Danielle Steel
  • W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton
  • Never Go Back by Lee Child
  • Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
Chicago Public Library 2013

1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

2. Fifty Shades Of Grey by E.L. James

3. Inferno by Dan Brown

4. And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

5. The Causal Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

6. Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James

7. Alex Cross, Run by James Patterson

8. The Cuckoos Calling by Robert Galbraith

9. A Deeper Love Inside by Sistah Souljah

10. Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James

Bottom line: a nation of idiots, complete failure of Rand or Rothbard to make an impression.

chart-poll-tea-party-oct2010.jpg

Non-Christian 3%

Fifty Shades of Grey? We''re screwed.

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"We're screwed," So this is new? I don't think that anyone with a working brain expected a real life John Galt to arise and actually follow the book and cause a strike of the the creative, the innovators, the producers, etc. It's a plot device! Even Rand emphasized this.

Fifty plus years after Atlas Shrugged was published,...with all the subsequent Objectivist books, publications, organizations, conferences, etc. And to what effect? The nation elected ,...Obama. Not just once, but twice. There may be no real-life John Galt, but we have damn near a clone of Mr. Thompson, .maybe worse. . With the full backing and cooperation of the mainstream media, academia, the entertainment industry, many of the wealthy and powerful. And, an almost solid block of the black voters. Choosing an African-American was a stroke of genius. When any significant opposition to his socialistic proposals arise, the left, including the leaders, cries out that his opposition are not about economic issues, no these issues are thinly disguised plots to get Obama and return this country to white racist rule..

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MSK, surely you know the work of Richard Gleaves, XCowboy2, posted to YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00xStn_jXKo.

He dramatized Galt's Speech in 16 installments. He actually made two complete versions.

Michael, In your article, The Influence of Ayn Rand's Objectivism, you left out an important book: "The Vision of Ayn Rand: The Basic Principles of Objectivism", by Nathaniel Branden. LaissezFaire Books/Cobden Press,2009. Also issued in Kindle eBook format on Amazon.com in 2014. A transcription of the original NBI set of lectures..

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Thanks, Jerry! I found a couple of others at a different library. So much has been published that I simply cannot keep up. However, if the NBI lectures are available in book form, then that is a significant citation, especially given the recent date of ultimate publication.

When any significant opposition to his socialistic proposals arise, the left, including the leaders, cries out that his opposition are not about economic issues, no these issues are thinly disguised plots to get Obama and return this country to white racist rule..

Actually, I voted for Barack Obama in 2008, so when I start off with that, my opinions tend to have a different outcome. Also, I do not accuse him of being a foreigner, a Muslim, or a Marxist. Neither do I call him the Liar-in-Chief or B.O. I simply point out that he continues the policies of George W. Bush; and that like Bush, he is an empty suit who speaks for others. Pres. Obama has V.P. Joseph Biden for the same reason that Pres. Bush had V.P. Dick Cheney. When I say all of that, no one argues back. Either they have been silenced by a truth deeper than they knew or they think I am a hopeless imbecile. Beyond that, I look to Stephen Boydstun's essays on human language and wonder why I bother to speak at all.

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I simply point out that he continues the policies of George W. Bush;

Pres. Obama has V.P. Joseph Biden for the same reason that Pres. Bush had V.P. Dick Cheney.

Michael:

As to your first statement, it is facially not true.

There are a number of "policies" that President O'bama has continued.

Therefore, I would ask you to be specific as to which policies you perceive he is continuing.

As to the Cheney/Biden statement, the same reason would be ___________?

A...

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Respecting the influence of AS, I don't think library checkout statistics mean anything for this kind of novel. Not the kind of thing libraries stock for it's not the kind of thing librarians have a natural predilection for.

If we knew the hardcover sales, that would be interesting. If you buy the paperback and it grabs you, you're likely to go get the hb because the pb font size is so small and you want to get more into the ideas.

--Brant

speculations

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Respecting the influence of AS, I don't think library checkout statistics mean anything for this kind of novel. Not the kind of thing libraries stock for it's not the kind of thing librarians have a natural predilection for.

If we knew the hardcover sales, that would be interesting. If you buy the paperback and it grabs you, you're likely to go get the hb because the pb font size is so small and you want to get more into the ideas.

It just isn't there, Brant. Maybe 20,000 HB a year, $39.95 retail $26.05 from Aglialoro (best price) #19,734 in Books at Amazon

Every public library in America has Atlas on their shelves. Several hundred have HB copies of a dumb book I wrote in 1990.

Best year for Atlas was 2008, down in 2009, then fell off sales charts, less than 100,000 paperbacks per year.

Total book sales rose 1.0% in 2013 over 2012, to $15.05 billion, at the 1,211 publishers that report results to the Association of American Publishers’ StatShot program. The adult book category managed to show a 0.8% increase in the year despite the blockbuster numbers turned in by the Fifty Shades trilogy in 2012. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/financial-reporting/article/61667-book-sales-rose-1-in-2013.html

Suppose the average price was $15 (mass market, trade paper, discount HB). That's 1 billion books a year not Atlas.

Ditto movie box office, $40 billion in 2011-2014 to date. Atlas I, II, III were insignificant, 0.00025% of sales.

Barack Obama Audacity of Hope (2006); Dreams From My Father (1995)

Weeks on NYT Best Sellers List: 270, Total copies sold: 4,650,000

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Respecting the influence of AS, I don't think library checkout statistics mean anything for this kind of novel. Not the kind of thing libraries stock for it's not the kind of thing librarians have a natural predilection for.

That's an understatement...

There is no group of government workers more rabid liberal democrat than librarians.

Greg

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