Business Moguls , Politicians and celebrities inspired or influenced by Rand

[Marc]

Friends ,

I am asking for help to compile a list of the above who have openly stated that Rand had influenced them in some way .

I think that if anyone in the future needs this list it could be effective to give a brief explanation of who the person is .

In no particular order , I will offer a few who I am aware of .

Thanks in advance for any consideration to help me .

Mark Cuban , founder of Broadcast.com and current owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA franchise.

John MacKay , Whole Foods

Ed Snider , owner of the Philadelphia Flyers ( my favorite hockey team ! )

Chip Wilson , Lululemon

Peter Thiel , founder of Paypal

Paul Ryan , ran for US VP

[FuturistNow]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales

This guy is an Objectivist.

[caroljane]

Joannie Rochette, Olympic figure skating medallist.

[syrakusos]

Depends on what you mean by "influenced." I live in Austin, the home of Whole Foods. If John MacKay was "influenced" by Ayn Rand, it was only in passing, along with the Dalai Lama and many, many others. I am happy for Whole Foods and we shop at both of his stores here, as we did in Ann Arbor. However, we buy our groceries from many places. Just sayin'... being "influenced" by Ayn Rand is common enough.

T. J. Rodgers of Cypress Semiconductor.(That's Doctor Thurmon Rodgers, though he insists on "T. J.")

And I would remove Paul Ryan. He repudiated Ayn Rand and her philosophy in order to secure the nomination. He was stringing us along, as politicians so often do, and desperate for attention the Atlas Society fell for him, like a homely girl for a masher.

[caroljane]

Tim Thomas, Stanley-Cup-Winning goalie and complete, utter jerk.

[tmj]

John A. Allison IV formerly of BB&T, currently of the Cato Institute

[Marc]

Depends on what you mean by "influenced." I live in Austin, the home of Whole Foods. If John MacKay was "influenced" by Ayn Rand, it was only in passing, along with the Dalai Lama and many, many others. I am happy for Whole Foods and we shop at both of his stores here, as we did in Ann Arbor. However, we buy our groceries from many places. Just sayin'... being "influenced" by Ayn Rand is common enough.

T. J. Rodgers of Cypress Semiconductor.(That's Doctor Thurmon Rodgers, though he insists on "T. J.")

And I would remove Paul Ryan. He repudiated Ayn Rand and her philosophy in order to secure the nomination. He was stringing us along, as politicians so often do, and desperate for attention the Atlas Society fell for him, like a homely girl for a masher.

Thanks so much everyone so far !

Michael , thanks for the valuable insight and thoughts.

I probably should think of a better way to phrase my request for this thread.

People are always telling me that Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead " changed my life " , and I love having those discussions with people . The other day a person who is helping me with a marketing strategy for a hobby of mine told me that she read Atlas at 13 and it changed her life . Needless to say , I hired her for the job !

I am not really interested in qualifying if the person is an Objectivist , or simple loves Rand because of one book , I just want to know who - in the public forum - has actually been influenced by Her at one point in their lives.

I love reading that Mark Cuban has read the Fountainhead numerous times . I love that Paul Ryan has openly said at one point that he expects , or insists that his staff reads Atlas .

I only want to know who in the public has had this experience .

Thank you again

Thanks so much everyone so far for the help !

Marc

[Marc]

Tim Thomas, Stanley-Cup-Winning goalie and complete, utter jerk.

Tim Thomas ?

So are you telling me that I have been waiting 40 years for my beloved Flyers to find one goalie - Pelle Lindbergh RIP aside - and my most favorite owner in sports along with the Rooneys of course , could not even get an Objectivist super star goalie to play a few years for us ???????

Ouch , that is a dagger to my heart ,

[Mark]

Please leave out Paul Ryan, Alan Greenspan, and John MacKey.

The last is in part getting rich on food stamps, and he puts it in your face:
www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blog/food-stamped-do-something-reel-film-festival
-- an insult to everyone living on a budget.

Not only does Whole Foods get the increased revenue from selling to food stamp people, the government reimburses Whole Foods more than the list price of the food. In other words, they make more money selling to food stamp people.

People not on food stamps are forced to pay for the food stamps of those who are. That would be bad enough, but food stamps also drive up the price of food, so food costs you more than it would otherwise.

In so far as people can hold a low paying job and receive food stamps at the same time, food stamps enable employers to pay lower wages. Food stamps drive down wages for all low income people, even the ones not on food stamps.

The Corpos are taking over, and they know the lynchpins. It doesn't get any more basic than food.

And don’t say MacKey is just competing with other grocers who do the same thing. He could make a real statement, one that would make the national news, by refusing SNAP or whatever food stamps are called these days, and advertising that instead of the demoralizing spectacle under the link above. Whole Foods would remain profitable, if not quite so profitable, and people would believe MacKey was sincere in his book.

[caroljane]

Tim Thomas, Stanley-Cup-Winning goalie and complete, utter jerk.

Tim Thomas ?

So are you telling me that I have been waiting 40 years for my beloved Flyers to find one goalie - Pelle Lindbergh RIP aside - and my most favorite owner in sports along with the Rooneys of course , could not even get an Objectivist super star goalie to play a few years for us ???????

Ouch , that is a dagger to my heart ,

lol. I have mentioned my own goalie sufferings all too often here.

Think yourself lucky. If you had got Thomas there would have been no Philadelphia jury to acclaim him at his trial for total jerkiness. The callous contempt he has shown for his team and the fans, as he enjoys his well-paid vacation year, have sent him from the toast of Boston to toast in Boston. He is despised the length and breadth of the Commonwealth and I don't just mean Massachusetts.

[caroljane]

But TT is undoubtedly a Randian of a certain type. He seems to believe that talent and mastery in your chosen trade makes you a superior human being.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Marc,

There is a huge passage at the end of The Passion of Ayn Rand by Barbara Branden that gives a bunch of such folks. Many are still alive and kicking.

But something else immediately comes to mind. Multi-millionaire Internet marketing gurus of the infoproduct sort. Here are just a few off the top of my head who have openly talked about how important Rand has been to their thinking.

Joe Polish

Dean Jackson

Eben Pagan

Yanik Silver

Richard Branson has to be included, although I am not aware of any statement by him on Rand. However, these marketers and others like them hang out with him a lot and some are regular visitors to Necker Island.

I believe you will find others hanging around Singularity University, since these marketers tend to hang out there, too.

One small comment on Eben Pagan. I have not heard him talk about Rand, but he has talked a lot about Nathaniel Branden and even did a joint venture with him once.

Michael

[caroljane]

PS to Marc, as you are at the mercy of Ilya "Don't Care" Bryzgalov, author of the upcoming Zen and the Art of 2-Goal Lead Maintenance, I will stop fretting that Reimer and Scrivens are too normal.

[Mark]

Ted Turner. Early in his career he advertised Atlas Shrugged on a couple hundred billboards ("Who is ...").

And let's not forget Ron Paul:

[Kyle Jacob Biodrowski]

Angelina Jolie, actress, director, screenwriter.

[syrakusos]

I probably should think of a better way to phrase my request for this thread.

People are always telling me that Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead " changed my life " , and I love having those discussions with people . ... I love reading that Mark Cuban has read the Fountainhead numerous times . I love that Paul Ryan has openly said at one point that he expects , or insists that his staff reads Atlas .

I only want to know who in the public has had this experience .

Marc

Sales of Ayn Rand's eight canonical books (see below) are at over 36 million. Of course, perhaps only 8 million of those are unique readers: anyone who read Fountainhead probably read Atlas, so you cannot count the sales separately. That said, you cannot tally the "important" people (however defined) who were "influenced" by Ayn Rand's works simply because very many exist.

At the 50th Anniversary Celebration for Atlas Shrugged back in 2007, Ed Snider told the story of how he came to learn about Ayn Rand. He was at a meeting of hockey team owners and the proposal on the table was ridiculous. He said that he turned to Peter O'Malley and asked how these men could vote for something that was obviously not in their self-interest. and Peter O'Malley wrote "Atlas Shrugged" on a piece of paper and said, "Read this." But we never count Peter O'Malley, only Ed Snider. O'Malley keeps himself to himself.

Mark Cuban speaks up and speaks out. T. J. Rodgers is famous for "beating up a nun." (Browse for "t. j. rodgers sister doris gomley" or "t. j. rodgers nun epsode" just to see the legs and traction. The story is on the Cypress website here: http://www.cypress.com/?rID=34986) But millions are like Fred Smith (Frederick W. Smith) of FedEx: influenced certainly, and maybe they mentioned it, but mostly, they don't, because it was just one influence out of many, important though it may have been.

People here cited Ted Turner, in his early days. It did not stop him from playing Hank Rearden to Jane Fonda's Liliian. Similarly, you have been warned twice to stop mentioning Paul Ryan. He was playing us. For him Atlas Shrugged was a political novel against socialism, nothing more. As a Congressman from Wisoconsin the national "support" (money) from Objectivists was all he wanted. He publicly repudiated Ayn Rand's philosophy. Read it here: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/297023/ryan-shrugged-robert-costa

The same applies to Angelina Jolie. She might have been "influenced" by it as she was by many other things, I have several copies in storage as collectibles of the New Individualist issue with the cover story ahead of the release of Atlas Shrugged wherein Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were touted for Atlas Shrugged. (Jim Carey admires Howard Roark, but I don't know that you can see that in his work.) Basically, they got a lot of movie stars to come out of the closet. Immediately on the heels of that Bradjolina adopted some children and also adopted some environmental causes. Just to say...

We here are special in that we are narrowly focused on the works of Ayn Rand. We were deeply influenced.

Everyone else the world, maybe not so much, but somewhat...

By contrast, my wife and I just watched all three seasons of Slings & Arrows. After a startling success on the stage, the quirky director suffers a grinding interview of cliches. "Was this an influence?" "Well, yes, and so was my third grade teacher." When I was much younger, I once asked an artist how long it took him to paint this thing and he said, "Twenty-eight years."

Over on Rebirth of Reason, I have a post tallying sales of Ayn Rand's books. Back in 2008, the ARI put sales at "over 25 million." However, I could only find numbers for eight books.

1- We the Living

2- Anthem-

3- The Fountainhead

4- Atlas Shrugged

5- For the New Intellectual

6- Virtue of Selfishness-

7- Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal

8- The Romantic Manifesto

Using recent news sources, reporting increased sales of Atlas Shrugged, I extrapolated the others came up with 36 million. However, we have another ten books such as The Ayn Rand Lexicon and The Early Ayn Rand. In addition, another ten about about her or directly derived from her works, such as Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life and Goddess of the Market. For those, I have no numbers.

I believe that counting Atlas Shrugged alone gives the most accurate overall picture of her wider audience, at 8 million. I also believe that sales of technical books such as The Virtue of Selfishness or The Romantic Manifesto correctly identify the core of her admirers at 1 million.

Still, that is a lot of people.

[Selene]

Fascinating attempts to justify what we believe in...

Confirms my decision to Strike..

[Kyle Jacob Biodrowski]

Fascinating attempts to justify what we believe in...

Confirms my decision to Strike..

Is that so?

[Marc]

I checked out Jimmy Wales and Wikipedia actually has a list of people too who were influenced by Rand which is interesting . Thanks Futurist now .

Michael , thanks ! I am going to take a look see at that list which reminds me that there is also an amazing list in Marsha Enrights book .

Michael and Mark , I very much appreciate the feedback on Ryan et al . I am not qualified enough to decide who should be on this list or not on the list and while I have just learned a lot by your posts , I plan on reading the research that was given to me on the topic of said people .

I would like to enlighten myself to that and maybe I should have even thought about that before starting this thread . That being said I have no desire to debate anyone on " who should be on this list " . I am not qualified to in the least . I also do not wish to offend anyone on this amazing board .

I would leave it up to any of the moderators to decide if they wish to delete someone from the list .

Again , I respect the wonderful people here so my intentions are not to bother anyone .

On a topic that I can debate anyone on though is the state of the Philadelphia Flyers and Ilya B . What would you say if I told you that he was their best player this year ?

Hmmmmmm, when was the last time that the Leafs were in the playoffs and the Flyers were out .

Please Mr . Snider , find us a goalie . Trade for James Reimer !

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Confirms my decision to Strike..

Adam,

We're going to be OK.

I truly believe that.

Whatever it is that hit you, it's yours, so I won't say it isn't valid.

But I am saying things are going to be OK.

And you matter.

Michael

[syrakusos]

Over on RoR, Stephen Boydstun reocmmended Tara Smith's Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics. So, I went to the University of Texas library and along with that (two copies), I found these in the same shelf of the philosophy section:

Objectivism in One Lesson by Bernstein
On Ayn Rand by Gotthelf
Ayn Rand and Alienation by Greenberg
Ayn Rand and Business b Geiner and Rinni
The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand by Kelley
Metaethics, Egoism, and Virtue by Gotthelf and Lennox
With Charity Toward None by William F. O'Neill
The Philosophic Thought of Ayn Rand by Den Uyl and Rasmussen
Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical by Sciabarra
Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics by Smith

[FuturistNow]

Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics - by Tera Smith

I bought the book a few years ago. It is wonderful. There are so many things I didn't used to understand until I read that book.

[caroljane]

Tim Thomas, Stanley-Cup-Winning goalie and complete, utter jerk.

Tim Thomas ?

So are you telling me that I have been waiting 40 years for my beloved Flyers to find one goalie - Pelle Lindbergh RIP aside - and my most favorite owner in sports along with the Rooneys of course , could not even get an Objectivist super star goalie to play a few years for us ???????

Ouch , that is a dagger to my heart ,

Nobody could get Thomas. even by torture. He is on strike.

[Marc]

I heard Tara Smith speak in NYC a few years ago at an ARI auction where I bought some books and original contracts of Rands .

She is a fantastic speaker and she was speaking about the left in academia .

Not sure if its on YouTube or not .

Thanks so much for the links ! I keep getting homework from you and I love it !

Go Flyers , go Leafs !

[caroljane]

Tara Smith seems to be the only Ortho Oist who earns universal respect and admiration.

Go Reason, go Reimer!