Southern Capitalist

In my early studies of Religion and the occults I studied Lavey and Satanism in depth. Let me add that Books I through V is a complete plagiarized version of Might is Right by Ragnar Redbeard and he did not give any citation to the original author. I would post it but you can just read it here: The satanic Bible: www.freewebs.com/.../The%20Satanic%20Bible%20(Underground%20E... Might is Right: http://archive.org/details/MightIsRightByRagnarRedbeard Nemo here states that "Satanism has far more in common with Objectivism than with any other religion or philosophy". I would imagine so since he took Might is Right and Rand through them in a cup and what came out is the Laveyan point of view of Satanism. This not to say he didn't have a idea and capitalize on it. But come on... don't take entire chapters of another individuals work and duplicate it without citation. Within the Satanic community most like Rand and Objectivism. Some hate it for whatever reason. Also for your own research about Lavey himself and the truth: http://www.churchofsatan.org/aslv.html

I listen to his show often and I am constantly surprised and a lot of the things I agree with him on. So great idea Michael. I have been wanting to get The Blaze to check it out. I believe At&t has got it now. If nothing else its probably a better alternative cable news program. Also I hear him mention Rand, especially Atlas Shrugged a lot and has started promoting and defending Libertarian thoughts. Its been a few months but i was surprised when I heard this, and I quote "if we could all be Libertarians the world would be a better place". He also has been at Libertarian events as of late. I even hear Hannity mention Atlas Shrugged and has a little skit in ASPT2. So I am very pleased to hear these gentleman discuss Rand and her ideas. Even if they are very Conservative. After all, its not the conservatives im concerned about.

This is very interesting. You know the government will do their best to "take, steal, require" his idea. So he has a fight ahead. I also will like to say Beck has been doing good work lately. Granted, I obviously disagree with a lot of his religious thoughts and other topics, but what can I say, he's doing good work. Its also nice he stands behind and promotes Atlas Shrugged and Rand's ideas.

Oh and wow!, i appreciate the introduction to the ARI watch website. Very interesting and informing stuff. However in my beginnings of studying Objectivism his book Objectivism: the philosophy of Ayn Rand and his vids of Objectivism 101 was helpful. But some of these articles on ARI watch are disturbing. Most unfortunate being he is the "intellectual heir". and considers Objectivism a "closed" philosophy. But again, thanks for the information. You have a new reader and of course I will pass the link along.

Don't know if this is the place to put this but if anyone is up for debating They put a lot of their personal time into criticizing Rand and Objectivism. I would think there would be better things to do. http://aynrandcontrahumannature.blogspot.com/

I live in Alabama so being an Atheist I am beyond being a minority. However, we have two large Atheist groups here. The first one I created myself but had to leave due to most of the members being of "liberal" mind. The second one just contacted me and claims a more "Libertarian" mind, less socialism and Obama worship being involved in the discussion. So will try it out. But its odd to be a minority when it come to being religious, and then a minority among those who are "lacking" Theism. Even among others or "Libertarian minded" I am an Objectivist. So once again, I am a minority. Not that this is to incredibly bad because I can discuss and debate my views very well Thanks again Ayn Rand But does anyone else have similar problems? If it is a problem at all. The positive in this is it improves my communication dealing with Objectivism and improves my debating process. Just curious of others experiences with this.

"Ayn Rand is one of those things"? What thing? women? philosophy? writer? subject? experiences? on and on.......and on Those in high power, or politics, are getting more incompetent by the years.

Thanks for the welcoming Stephen. Unfortunately I will not be attending. My wife is due in two months with my daughter. So between that and classes my time is limited. The good thing is Alex usually records what he participates in. I enjoy his wall street occupiers interviews. I like what he's doing, especially with me being in the field and in school for process Engineering so most likely I will continue my career in the Petroleum field. Mark, thanks for the correction. The Koch Foundation seems to invest in some good organizations and have expressed that the belief in economic freedom is essential for well being and the economic progress.

Michael, thank you for welcoming me. This tone you speak of is exactly the reason I registered to participate on OL. I scanned around all Objectivist and Rand forums and found I felt more comfortable coming to OL. I did not get that "tone" or feeling on the other major Objectivist forums. Of course I really don't want to speak ill of them but again, it seems this was the appropriate forum for me. I understand the misunderstanding with Rand. I myself read her books many years ago but started studying the philosophy around 4 years ago, and only until recently claiming Objectivism as my personal philosophy. I wanted a complete understanding before I considered myself an Objectivist so I would not misrepresent the philosophy. Even now I still may have questions, so again its nice to have a place I can ask questions that may pop up, cause even though I consider myself as a good bit of knowledge, philosophy is a in depth subject. Objectivism gets deep in Metaphysics and Epistemology. Which I enjoy learning. Kyle, yes I agree, at least with no knowledge someone can start the understanding of Rand or Objectivism with good communication and maybe they will get a better understanding than from say a "liberal" minded individual.

me: Have you heard of and like Ayn Rand? person: yea and no I don't like her, shes a selfish crazy bitch. me: have you read any of her books? person: No me: oh soooo you don't like her because of what you heard? person: yea I guess, heard she was crazy and selfish and supported Capitalism. me: oh, ok, so do you know what capitalism is? person: well I know rich people like it, I heard it makes rich people more rich and poor people more poor. me: so do you enjoy private property and individual rights? person: yes me: ahhhh ok, so have you ever heard of Objectivism person: whats that? me: nevermind, Yes humorous but very disappointing. I could post more but I am sure most of you have had similar conversations.

I have used this phrase to people from time to time... they generally take it as an insult. Which personally I think I intended it to be.

Alex Epstein is the director of the Center for Industrial Progress, an organization he founded in 2011. Its mission is to "inspire Americans to embrace industrial progress as a cultural ideal." He is also a blogger at Master Resource, a "Free Market Energy Blog," and a past fellow of the Ayn Rand Institute, an organization that has received funding from the Koch Foundations including at least $50,000 between 2005 and 2010. I personally support his organization........ “The story of oil at its core is one of human aspirations, human challenges, and human triumphs. It’s a story of the aspiration to produce the best energy in the world—particularly the best portable energy to power the mobile machines that allow us to grow enough food to feed seven billion people, to whisk us away on amazing vacations, to have cars that allow us to work and play where we choose. Not to mention, the energy that improves our environment: by things like building water purification systems, sewer systems, and climate resistant buildings. Your story is a story of the challenge of figuring out how to produce this caliber of energy, which nature doesn’t automatically give us.” “The most important thing to having a healthy environment to live in is development. Which, ironically, is considered bad for the environment. This is exactly why undeveloped countries have the worst environments. It’s not some coincidence; it’s exactly because they are undeveloped. They breathe smoky air from wood fires because they lack centralized power plants—built by oil. They drink naturally contaminated water because they lack irrigation and water purification plants. They live with filth because they lack industrial scale sanitation. They are vulnerable to climate because they lack sturdy climate controlled homes. And they don’t get to enjoy nature very much for that matter, which is supposedly what you get when you take away industry because they lack modern transportation—no one’s going to the Grand Canyon with a five mile travel radius.” "The natural environment is not particularly hospitable to human life . . . the key to having a good environment is improving it through work. . . . Energy is fundamentally an environmental improver and if we classify it that way it makes sense out of a lot of these controversies. . . . It's our obligation and our right to make [our environment] as good for human beings as possible. With that view, it's very easy for people to understand precisely the reason it's good to alter it — because it doesn't naturally come the way we need it to be." "The difference between a healthy environment and an unhealthy environment can be summed up in one word, and it's not 'CO2' or 'climate' or 'temperature.' It's 'development.' [...] Whether you're drinking clean drinking water, listening to a thunderstorm with pleasure instead of fear, or going to the Grand Canyon, you should be thanking Big Coal, Big Oil, and Big Gas." "...so much of what has gone right in American industrial history is that this country used to have a philosophy that embraced the transformation of nature through energy and industry—that is, embraced industrial progress. The more I read and talked to experts in the field, the more I saw an opportunity to use my knowledge of philosophy, and in particular Ayn Rand’s philosophy, to change the way people think about energy, industry, and environment." Resources from:http://www.desmogblog.com/alex-Epstein http://industrialprogress.com/

I enjoyed this and your other writings. Consider yourself to have another reader.