Did Ayn Rand have Donald Trump in mind?


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Did Ayn Rand have people like Donald Trump in mind,  when she promoted Capitalism?

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I believe to some degree, yes. Most of Rand's heroes in Atlas Shrugged were industrialists -- Hank Rearden, Dagny Taggart, Ellis Wyatt. But there was also Midas Mulligan, a financier.  Trump is a combination.

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From Anthem, by Ayn Rand Chapter 10: Then today, at sunrise, we saw a white flame among the trees, high on a sheer peak before us. We thought that it was a fire and we stopped. But the flame was unmoving, yet blinding as liquid metal . . . . And now we look upon the earth and sky. This spread of naked rock and peaks and moonlight is like a world ready to be born, a world that waits. It seems to us it asks a sign from us, a spark, a first commandment. We cannot know what word we are to give, nor what great deed this earth expects to witness. We know it waits. It seems to say it has great gifts to lay before us, but it wishes a greater gift from us. We are to speak. We are to give its goal, its highest meaning to all this glowing space of rock and sky.

end quote

  

Monart Pon on Starship Forum wrote about Randian heroes in response to the Anthem quote and Rand’s later works : History and civilization is, essentially, a movement of ideas – as these ideas are enacted in and by people. Thus, the discoverers of ideas are the movers of civilization. Rand is one of the great artistic-philosophical movers of civilization. If she had not lived, the way she did and in the country she did, the world would not be the free and rational, rational and romantic, world that it is. Fountainhead was published in 1942 and Atlas Shrugged in 1957. Imagine what post-WWII leading up to now would be like, if Rand was not the brave and honest human being that she was. Would the Berlin Wall, instead, have been torn down by Soviet tanks coming from the East? In the everyday lives of everyday people, Rand's ideas have made a difference -- a moral and epistemological difference -- even if people don't know it, or acknowledge it, or have even heard of her. Ideas don't come out of nowhere. Directly or through intermediaries, Rand's ideas, her ~system~ of ideas, her philosophy, is the source of the rational-individualist-capitalist-romantic cultural revolution of the past 50+ years, and of the boundless future years to come. I know that I would not be who I am -- I would, instead, be an ignorant, frightened slave -- if it weren't for Rand. No, she was not the sufficient cause, but she was a necessary, and gloriously inspiring, cause and prime mover.

 

Vive la Ayn Rand!

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Ayn Rand's Inspirations—In Real Life and In Fiction

An Exclusive Banner Interview with Nathaniel Branden

From 1950 until the end of their association in 1968, psychologist Nathaniel Branden was the foremost spokesman for Ayn Rand and her philosophy, Objectivism. Founder of the Nathaniel Branden Institute and the organized Objectivist movement, a prolific and best-selling author, and a brilliant public speaker, Dr. Branden is also known as "the father of the self-esteem movement" in psychology. The following are excerpts from a recent exclusive interview with The Atlas Society's Robert Bidinotto, to appear in The Banner, the newsletter of The Atlas Society.

Copyright © 2002 by The Atlas Society. This material may not be reproduced or circulated in any form or medium without written permission.

The Banner: Do you know if there were any real-life inspirations for any of Ayn Rand's fiction heroes?

Nathaniel Branden (NB): There wasn't, in any important sense.

Banner: How about composites of people—or actors and actresses whose faces she liked?

NB: No, I never heard a word from her to suggest that… Possibly Zorro—who was a fictional character, not a real person—possibly Zorro, in a very general, abstract way, played a small role in Ayn's concept of Francisco [d'Anconia, a hero in Atlas Shrugged]. I remember her talking about Zorro. Francisco is almost like a classic figure in literature of a certain kind. The Scarlet Pimpernel, that's another variation of the same idea: the man who pretends to be a fop, but who's really involved in a grimly serious mission. Zorro was obviously that.

Banner: Did the appearance of any of her heroes draw upon anyone—her husband Frank, for instance?

NB: All of her heroes grew from Cyrus, the hero of that children's story she loved about the British soldier in India [The Mysterious Valley]. That was the imprint. And Frank was of that same physical type. Gary Cooper was. And Wallace Reed, an earlier actor. But that was set was she was nine years old.

Banner: I've thought that there seems to have been two stylistic types of hero in Rand's fiction: the classical type—reserved, somewhat stoic, less expressive, like Galt or Roark—and the more expressive, flamboyant, romantic type: Francisco, Midas Mulligan. She seems to go back and forth between the Rearden and the Francisco type. Do you think that is true?

NB: I don't see that. No, she used to say that she loved Viennese operettas. And Francisco for her was tied up with the gaiety of those operettas, and came out of that music. She said she wanted to create a character who would embody the spirit of that music. It was a spirit that she wanted to capture. I can't say that I see any deep stylistic difference. I can't join you with that. But perhaps "style" isn't the word you mean?

Banner: As far as actors and actresses whom she liked…

NB: Well, she adored Greta Garbo, and she would have loved for Greta Garbo to play Dominique [in the film version of The Fountainhead]. According to what Ayn told me, Greta Garbo declined, and for what to me was the most odd reason I ever heard: she didn't think that Gary Cooper [who played Howard Roark] would have been a suitable lover for her. I gather Garbo wasn't a fan of Gary Cooper. But that's merely what Ayn was told by somebody; I have no knowledge as to whether that was true.

Banner: How about for Dagny?

NB: Well, she used to say, "the young Katherine Hepburn in physical appearance"—that's how she saw Dagny.

Banner: She said that once at a Ford Hall Forum I once attended.

NB: I know she wanted Cooper for Roark, even though he was really too old for the part. He was clearly her physical ideal.

Banner: Any other actors that she was partial to?

NB: I can no longer remember. I know she said that [in any movie version of Atlas Shrugged), Galt needed to be played by an unknown—someone with no other associations with any other movie. That makes sense dramatically.

Banner: Were there other people whom she was impressed by?

NB: Well, he was not a public person, but she very much liked the businessman William Mullendore. There were not that many people whom she really liked or admired, as I'm sure you know. Isabel Patterson—until everything went wrong. Ludwig von Mises.

Banner: Figures in history? What about Victor Hugo?

NB: Well, I'm sure she would have loved to have met him. I'll tell you a great Ayn Rand story about Victor Hugo.

I remember coming to her apartment one day, and I was raving about a Hugo novel—I think it was The Man Who Laughs. She asked me to bring down the book; she wanted to check the translation. She read a page or two and said, "Oh, oh, you don't know what you are missing. This is not a good translation. You cannot know from this what a great writer Victor Hugo was."

She went into her office and she got a notepad and she translated the first page or two of Hugo's novel. And it was like a whole new world opened up. It was dazzling, beyond my ability to communicate, because here was a great writer translating a great writer. See, you had to be an extraordinarily gifted writer to do the kind of translation that Hugo warranted. And it was a thrilling moment—I'll never forget it—because it was like I was in a murky room, and somebody turned all the lights on.

Banner: Do you recall having ever attended movies or plays that ever moved her?

NB: Yes. The English playwright Terence Rattigan wrote a script called Breaking Through the Sound Barrier, which was a fictional account of how the sound barrier was broken by a British aviation company. I didn't realize what a strange movie it was, because when I later learned how that actually happened in America, I couldn't imagine how a person could justify inventing a totally fictional portrayal that bore no relation to historical reality. Just the same, the movie was brilliant in its own terms. I saw it and raved about it, and I took Ayn and Frank to see it, and they were very enthusiastic.

Later, Frank had a birthday, and as kind of a birthday present, Barbara and I took Ayn and Frank to see My Fair Lady. I can't say that she was deeply moved, but again, they were very enthusiastic—"That was beautifully well done," etc.

We loved The Untouchables on TV, especially the first two seasons. Then it began to fall apart. But we all watched that religiously.

She rarely, rarely went to the theater, and I can never remember her coming home with a positive reaction.

Banner: Did she like musicals?

NB: No, not American ones. She liked 19th century Viennese operettas, but she didn't like musicals in general—not the American ones.

Banner: When she was dealing with [producer] Al Ruddy to do a screen version of Atlas Shrugged [in the 1970's], did she see The Godfather?

NB: She didn't know Al Ruddy. So as kind of a self-introduction, he asked her to come and see his production of The Godfather. And that sold her on him, and she entrusted him with the project. What happened later on was that she wanted final cut approval—which [they] cannot give. That means they could spend $80 million on a movie, and if she didn't like something they wouldn't agree to, she could have kept it from being released. So the deal foundered over that.

Banner: Is there anything you'd like to add about those evenings you and your friends spent at her apartment reading Atlas Shrugged and discussing her ideas?

NB: The level of intellectual excitement of those evenings is almost indescribable. There was such a passion for ideas, there was such enthusiasm, there was such intensity of interest. It kind of ruined me for social life after that part of my life came to an end. Nothing that happened later quite equaled it.

A week ago I was in Washington, D. C., and Devers (my ex-wife and best and closest friend) and I had brunch with Alan Greenspan, and he was saying the same thing—that it was just a unique experience that nothing later in life quite touched.

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Speaking of Midas Mulligan, I smile every time this comes to mind.  Simply superhuman and possible only in fantasy!

Quote

Midas Mulligan had once been the richest and, consequently, the most denounced man in the country. He had never taken a loss on any investment he made; everything he touched turned to gold. "It's because I know what to touch," he said. Nobody could grasp the pattern of his investments: he rejected deals that were considered flawlessly safe, and he put enormous amounts into ventures that no other banker would handle. (Atlas Shrugged, Chapter X Wyatt's Torch) 

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27 minutes ago, merjet said:

Speaking of Midas Mulligan, I smile every time this comes to mind.  Simply superhuman and possible only in fantasy!

A banker is not also a venture capitalist, but Rand combined the two.

--Brant

can't stand this new software--it won't let me quote a whole post containing a post without deleting the embedded material

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13 minutes ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Merlin!

I'll be goddam!

We fully agree on something!

:)

Michael

I don't know what you think we agree on. By "combination" I meant industrialist/ financier, not the names I used. Nobody, absolutely no real human, could be a Midas Mulligan the way Rand described him.

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7 minutes ago, Brant Gaede said:
3 minutes ago, merjet said:

I don't know what you think we agree on. By "combination" I meant industrialist/ financier, not the names I used. Nobody, absolutely no real human, could be a Midas Mulligan.

 

JP Morgan was much more than Midas.

--Brant

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12 minutes ago, merjet said:

I don't know what you think we agree on. By "combination" I meant industrialist/ financier, not the names I used.

Merlin,

That's exactly what I took you to mean. That's what a good portion of my arguments in the Trump thread was premised on. Going back to last July.

Go on, give it up.

It hurts, I know, but it only hurts for awhile.

We actually agree on something!

:)

Michael

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2 hours ago, Brant Gaede said:

can't stand this new software--it won't let me quote a whole post containing a post without deleting the embedded material

It's like the your-leaders-know-what's-best-for-you State - a nuisance to circumvent.

Ellen

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11 hours ago, BaalChatzaf said:

Did Ayn Rand have people like Donald Trump in mind,  when she promoted Capitalism?

Well, not the part about eminent domain. But I imagine you're taking notice of him because he's trying to become President, not because he's of great interest next to others from real life as semblance of an Atlas protagonist (Steve Jobs, Eli Yablonovich*).

 (This is a quote-function test as well.)

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2 minutes ago, Guyau said:

Well, not the part about eminent domain. But I imagine you're taking notice of him because he's trying to become President, not because he's of great interest next to others from real life as semblance of an Atlas protagonist (Steve Jobs, Eli Yablonovich*).

 (This is a quote-function test as well.)

Put Elon Musk into the blend.

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7 hours ago, Ellen Stuttle said:

It's like the your-leaders-know-what's-best-for-you State - a nuisance to circumvent.

Ellen,

Believe me, when I can afford it, this will change and the procedures for some controls will stay static for a long time. Right now I don't have the technical competence to do it myself nor a structure for other options.

Michael

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20 hours ago, BaalChatzaf said:

Did Ayn Rand have people like Donald Trump in mind,  when she promoted Capitalism?

When I answered "yes" (2nd post on this topic) I omitted a lot of my basis. I thought of many more ordinary people, like when Rand spoke of businessmen as America's most persecuted minority.

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Brant and others, on how to produce Nested Quotes.

You can get nested quotes by first using "Multi Quote," as William describes here (in a post on the "Donald Trump" thread).

That will give you a result which looks like this:

 

On March 11, 2016 at 1:38 PM, Brant Gaede said:

can't stand this new software--it won't let me quote a whole post containing a post without deleting the embedded material

23 hours ago, Ellen Stuttle said:

It's like the your-leaders-know-what's-best-for-you State - a nuisance to circumvent.

Ellen

 

Next, again as per William's instructions, if you're using a mouse, you can click and drag quote boxes into whatever arrangement you want.

If you're using a touch-controlled device, the procedure's more difficult.  I've taken to going into "Source" (the button at the top left of the Toolbar) and maneuvering directly there, then toggling back.

This needs some understanding of what the code means, but after a bit of practice, I've become more handy at producing the results I want instead of a mess :laugh:

For example:

 

23 hours ago, Ellen Stuttle said:
On March 11, 2016 at 1:38 PM, Brant Gaede said:

can't stand this new software--it won't let me quote a whole post containing a post without deleting the embedded material

It's like the your-leaders-know-what's-best-for-you State - a nuisance to circumvent.

Ellen

 

If you're trying to keep quoted material which was inserted into the post to which you're replying, you simply have to copy and reinsert it.

Ellen

RATS!  Now it's making the embedded quote from Brant show up collapsed, at least on my screen, and I don't know why.

It didn't do that with another post where I used "Source." <sigh>

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On March 12, 2016 at 9:24 PM, Guyau said:

. . . But I imagine you're taking notice of him because he's trying to become President, not because he's of great interest next to others from real life as semblance of an Atlas protagonist. . . .

Rand's political assessment of Trump would likely repeat her points against George Wallace, but without her charge of racism (at least it would be a more oblique racism). But the other charges would still fly, and her summation would still be: proto-fascism in America. Next to Wallace, she thought Humphrey looked practically decent. Of course she'd be in a pickle more than most of us today, what with Hillary being a woman and all.

PS - Rand of course differed with Trump-type immigration talk (his public talk anyway), and like most Americans would condemn his conduct at the Presidential debates, a disrespectfulness and sordidness displayed to us, to his conception of us, himself, and the Presidency.

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22 hours ago, Ellen Stuttle said:

 

Brant and others, on how to produce Nested Quotes.

You can get nested quotes by first using "Multi Quote," as William describes here (in a post on the "Donald Trump" thread).

That will give you a result which looks like this:

 

 

Next, again as per William's instructions, if you're using a mouse, you can click and drag quote boxes into whatever arrangement you want.

If you're using a touch-controlled device, the procedure's more difficult.  I've taken to going into "Source" (the button at the top left of the Toolbar) and maneuvering directly there, then toggling back.

This needs some understanding of what the code means, but after a bit of practice, I've become more handy at producing the results I want instead of a mess :laugh:

For example:

 

 

If you're trying to keep quoted material which was inserted into the post to which you're replying, you simply have to copy and reinsert it.

Ellen

RATS!  Now it's making the embedded quote from Brant show up collapsed, at least on my screen, and I don't know why.

It didn't do that with another post where I used "Source." <sigh>

First I hit "MultiQuote" then "Quote" and now--what did I get?

--Brant

edit: you're looking at it

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7 hours ago, merjet said:

I don't know about the US in total. I do know that China's sovereign wealth fund owned $1.3 trillion of U.S. Treasuries as of June, 2015. It's likely a little higher now. Anyway, it's at least 1.3/18.1 = 7.2% of all US Treasury debt. As the saying goes, money talks.

Suppose a POTUS wants to threaten China with import duties like Trump has done. What will China do? Well, the response could be for China to start selling their US Treasury holdings. Also, to the extent import duties reduce China's exports to the US, it goes hand-in-hand with such selling. They don't need to hold them to conduct trade with the US. Selling, of course, likely means interest rates on US Treasuries rise. The average rate on Treasuries was recently 2.04%. It probably wouldn't quickly affect the overall rate the US has to pay on Treasuries, but each 1% rise would mean an added outflow of 0.01*18.1 = $180 billion annually. Enough 1%'s, and you're talking real money. A 5.55% rise is $1 trillion. Compare it to Federal gov't revenues, spending, and the deficit. In fiscal year 2015 federal government spending was $3.7 trillion, revenue about $3.3 trillion ($438 billion deficit).  

There's talk, talk, talk, at the bully pulpit and then there's real-politic, which can be an obstacle course.

 

Must we be subjected to so much reality?

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