Ayn Rand: More Idiocy In The Media

Collective socialism tends to inhibit innovation, and no one captured this idea more perfectly than Ayn Rand. I think in the context of what America should be today, Ayn Rand's ideas generally work - of course, they're a bit oversimplified and I do not believe her work is a manual on how to run society, as some do. Still, she was a great writer and Atlas Shrugged was her magnum opus: integrating great character stories with her philosophy perfectly.

In hilarious fashion, writer Alex Beam delves right into the Ayn caricature of the typical elitist who pretends he's doing a favor for the masses - by criticizing a book and a philosophy he admits he's never read:

I would be the first to admit that I don't know much about Ayn Rand, beyond her name. The Ayn rhymes with dine, and Rand is supposedly an Americanization of her birth name Rosenbaum. I have heard the operatic details of her personal life, (much younger lover, proves to be fickle; drama ensues) and have a crude understanding of Objectivism, the "morality of rational egoism" that Brook cites above. Private entrepreneurialism = good; centrally planned, government-funded economy = bad.

As it happens, America's most prominent Randie is probably former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who presided over one of the most grandiose expansions of government expenditures in world history. In 1982, Greenspan attended Rand's funeral, where her body lay next to a large floral arrangement of a dollar sign. R.I.P.

[+]

Alex Beam knows nothing of the economy, and nothing of Ayn Rand, only knows that Alan Greenspan attended Rand's funeral and that he presided over government expenditures. Those expenditures were caused by politicians, public pressure, silly world trade agreements - take your pick, but it wasn't Greenspan, who admitted after he left his post that most of what he had done was against what he believed in. But we can't speak out against the sanctity of the Federal Reserve falsely controlling the money supply, because that's an existing institution in the US and Rand is dead, so it's easy to make fun of her without ever reading her books.

Good work Alex, can't wait to read your next article!

Harvard Study Supports BPA Leaching Theory

Further to my original posts [1, 2] about the issues with BPA in plastic drinking bottles, Harvard has released a study which further confirms what everyone should by now know: stay away from products that leach chemicals:

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that people who drank for a week from the clear plastic polycarbonate bottles increased concentrations of bisphenol A - or BPA - in their urine by 69 percent.

BPA is used in hundreds of everyday products. It is used to make reusable, hard plastic bottles more durable and to help prevent corrosion in canned goods such as soup and infant formula.

Numerous animal studies in recent years suggest that low levels of BPA might cause developmental problems in fetuses and young children and other ill effects. The health effects on adults are not well understood although a recent large human study linked BPA concentrations in people's urine to an increased prevalence of diabetes, heart disease, and liver toxicity.



[+]

Bisphenol-A is a widely used chemical additive. The only advice one can really give to pregnant women and families is to try to use stainless steel where possible (water bottles, etc. - check out Sigg and Klean Kanteen, or cut BPA out otherwise. Having canned foods only occasionally, using fresh produce, avoiding the microwave, and cooking in stainless steel pots and pans will greatly reduce the risk of disorders associated with BPA consumption. In short: live naturally, and avoid plastic in unnecessary applications like water bottles.

30 minute presentation on overpopulation

Worth checking out!

[Click here]

More from the Continuum Concept Community

I joined up with The Continuum Concept message board recently, as this idea on the surface seemed to be a good way to consider raising a child (we're expecting in Aug09). Essentially, the idea is to not tie them down with Mommy & Daddy's schedule or strict rules, but let them spend their time how they wish. I like to at least further that idea by stating it's still the parents' job to infuse some sense of cultural values & organic culture into the mind of the child. Try to avoid watching TV excessively, etc. Whether you do this with roundabout methods - focusing on the positive, like, "hey, let's turn the TV off and start preparing a nice healthy meal for dinner!", or setting soft rules in place regarding how much time is okay to sit in front of the idiot box - I don't think this matters as much as the idea that you don't want your child to resent you but you need to start early in terms of gearing them toward a "good" lifestyle.

The unfortunate part of all this is that we've lost the sense of community present in the Yequana tribe, on which the entire concept is based per the author's experience in the novel which set this concept in motion. So on the Continuum Concept forums, you end up with people thinking that community isn't necessary; it was a byproduct of the Yequana tribe living within this Continuum. How they could ever believe that cultural values & strong community has little or nothing to do with the Continuum Concept is beyond me. I feel the inverse is true: without the sense of community & values that are more in accordance with nature than anything we see in industrialized societies today, there would be no Continuum Concept.

This post in particular caught my attention:

I also feel that we are lucky to have "continuum+", ie we have the ability to choose to be connected and we have other freedoms that are to do with our modern world that the Yequana and other tribal people might not have (yet) - although it is interesting to me to see how these people will incorporate the modern stuff into their systems.

Continuum-plus? Because the Yequana didn't have microwaves & TV but we do? I think this idea is ludicrous, and here's my response:

How are we more free than a tribal people in the modern world?

My brother in law is with WorldTeach for a year in Costa Rica. While many of the people in the tiny village he's in love his presence and he's picking up that dialect of Spanish quite well, I envy the idea of unplugging from modern conveniences and living more in accordance with nature. He has changed drastically since going down there; I can hear it in his voice & feel it in the blog he keeps for us family members. You mention the economic crisis to these people and they'd laugh at you - what economic crisis? I feel the people in Costa Rica, living in small houses & sharing food & working together during times of real crisis are a lot more free than people who can jump on a plane for business travel and are always tied to blackberries. The more you centralize government for the sake of "modern society", the less free you really are, because you're relying on leaders that could be thousands of miles away from you to make decisions on your daily life.

I don't think we should eliminate all technology, but if you're talking about true freedom, we pay it lip service in the media but what does freedom mean? Freedom from the evil terrorists in the middle east? Freedom from your government telling you what to do, what to watch, or worse, watching you? Freedom from your neighbor robbing from you, freedom to arm yourself? Many of these are imaginary rights & freedoms to a tribe that simply lives off the land with a group of people, most of whom they get along with simply because they have to, and can choose to swim, go for a hike, or relax and look up at the sky during their free time. I like that idea of freedom better than going to a voting booth while my government (in the US, at least) continues to waste the money we allow them to have on wars in far-off countries for the sake of nonrenewable resources that will dry up in 100 years anyway.

Health care mess chasing people out of state

I posted on Corrupt here about a recent health care story in the news.

The driving points are as follows:

• Massachusetts legislators are looking for new & creative ways to force hospitals & doctors to spend less taxpayer dollars
• Hospitals & doctors are just trying to do their jobs but are being squeezed by insurance companies
• Insurance companies are squeezing patients as the result of above

We've seriously considered leaving the state, and if this mess of health care and increased taxes continues, I don't know how we can afford to stay here any longer. There's too much corruption, red tape, and government interference, and the worst part is, the traditional values of Massachusetts are so misaligned with where we are now. I can't call another state home, but I may have to at least try it out for a bit with the increasing squeeze being put on the middle class.