Showing results by author "Ayn Rand" in All Categories

Is being a part of the "herd" really a good thing? In Ayn Rand's Anthem, we join our protagonist in this dystopian future world where humankind's compulsion to seek and live in the "safety of numbers" can go horribly wrong. Anthem was published in 1938 but is scarily relevant to our modern world. 

In Ayn Rand’s Anthem, humankind has entered a dark age at some point in the unspecified future. Individuality is no longer permitted, and people are assigned roles to fulfill in their lives. The work's protagonist, Equality 7-2521, is given an undesirable job as a punishment for thinking for himself and desiring to become a scientist instead. The novella outlines his journey as he starts to commit more “crimes” against society, such as desiring a companion of his own choosing, discovering electricity, and ultimately fleeing from his leaders.

The classic dystopian novella, Anthem, is one of the earliest books to explore a theme which has become a standard motif in science fiction literature: the search for individualistic expression in a repressive and rigorously organized society.

"Ideas are the greatest and most crucially practical power on earth," wrote Ayn Rand. In the title essay of this collection, Leonard Peikoff applies this principle to the world of business. He shows that certain philosophic ideas, such as reason, egoism, and individualism, are needed to defend and protect the freedom of businessmen, while the opposite ideas, such as mysticism, altruism, and collectivism (which dominate our universities), destroy that freedom.

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, and screenwriter. She is best known for her two influential novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and for developing a philosophical system she called objectivism. In this public lecture, Rand criticizes altruism and mysticism as incompatible with business.

Von der Autorin der weltweitbekannten Romane "Atlas wirft die Welt ab" und "Der Ursprung". Gleichheit 7-2521 lebt in den dunklen Zeiten der Zukunft, in denen alle Entscheidungen von Ausschüssen getroffen werden, alle Menschen in Kollektiven leben und alle Spuren des Individualismus ausgelöscht wurden. Trotz eines solch restriktiven Umfelds brennt in ihm immer noch der Funke des individuellen Denkens und der Freiheit. Er, Gleichheit, 7-2521, verlor fast sein Leben, weil sein Wissen als verräterische Blasphemie angesehen wurde.

Der Ursprung, Ayn Rands zeitloser Klassiker von 1943, beschreibt seinen Helden Howard Roark als einen Menschen, der die Motivation für seine Arbeit aus sich selbst schöpft und nicht um den Applaus anderer bemüht ist. Dieser junge Architekt kämpft nicht nur für die künstlerische Vision seiner Bauten, sondern gegen die Maßstäbe der "Autoritäten" und gegen die Herrschaft der Mittelmäßigkeit, der Gleichmacherei und der Beliebigkeit - und gegen eine atemberaubend schöne Frau, die ihn leidenschaftlich liebt, aber seinen schlimmsten Feind heiratet.

Ayn Rand’s dystopic science fiction novella takes place at some unspecified future date. Mankind has entered another dark age as a result of what Rand saw as the weaknesses of socialistic thinking and economics. Technological advancement is now carefully planned -- when it is allowed to occur at all -- and the concept of individuality has been eliminated.

Panel discussions & debates on philosophy, psychology, culture, and politics, with leading intellectuals from around the world.

Full-cast audio dramas from classic novels. L7jYVqjVIDL4KJ3naqHt

Mankind has entered another Dark Age. Individuality has been eliminated. People refer to themselves only by using "we" and "they". All live in collective homes and the mass is more important than the individual. However even in this far future, there is someone called Equality 7-2521 who stands against the norm.