Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - Book Review & Philosphy 

@Dennis Walker Thanks for your comment and for watching !

I don't see it as selfish when you're the one providing jobs for other citizens as a business owner. Socialism is about getting handouts. It's very hard to start a successful business in the U.S.A because there are is SO much regulations.

@@JH-qy8no agree, anyone who has tried starting own business in UK or the US knows it's an administrative challenge.

@@JH-qy8no socialism is about getting handouts? what? do you seriously think noone works in socialist countries?

@@JUK3MASTER I'm talking about those who choose NOT to work and apply for unemployment like what's happening right now in the U.S. Socialism slowly encourages total dependence on the government therefore loss of freedoms more and more. It will cost the country something either way. It is a slow gradual process that takes decades.

Thanks for the extra context here!

The bill of equal opportunity reminds me of some real situations involving the European Union...

@@OdolenaKostovaDigitalMarketing The EU are looters. 😂

@@endmity6659 hahha only someone who's read the book would get this one right

There's no such thing, as Jon Gaaaaalt!

I agree that to some extent the book oversimplifies the reality. However I don't think more regulation is a solution. If there is a strong incentive to break the rules people will find a way. I am bigger fan of the right incentives for businesses to encourage positive outcomes for most of society.

This book describes society as it actually is, not as it attempts to be. Natural Selection and Evolution play important roles. Business Ethics are an evolutionary advantage for instance. It may well be that cutting corners eventually leads to greater success for society. It may not. But the freedom to allow that societal evolution to take place is the core value of Rands philosophy

We have the most regulation in history and companies still cut corners and now intentionally make products with obsolescence in mind

yes, or the dangers of welfare state type of thinking in its extreme.

Thank you!

Wow, now this is flattering!

You are so welcome! Thank you so much for watching!

Thank you for watching and I hope you enjoy the channel!

Thanks! 😊

Thanks for watching, Helcio! I agree, having seen what's the effect of regulated state even 30 years after it is supposed to be free. The worst result is the imprint on people's mindset

Not to rain on your parade but Rand's philosophy is very much opposed to Stoicism and libertarianism.

@@bruno.6610 thanks for your comment! As I mentioned in the video, I am a Ray Dalio fan - I like being radically open minded, meaning I have no problem holding two opposing ideas and not being devoted to a single philosophy

@@OdolenaKostovaDigitalMarketing If you venture deeper into Objectivism I think you'll find very quickly that you gotta go all or nothing. Rand's ideas cover almost all essentials in philosophy and are very tightly integrated and related. Of course you can honestly hold some Objectivist principles as true and others as false but I find it hard for most people to do so because of how interrelated everything is. I'm glad you enjoyed the book, enjoying both this book and/or The Fountainhead shows me someone who is capable of appraisal. For more on her philosophy I recommend (in order): Philosophy: Who Needs It? by Ayn Rand The Ominous Parallels by Leonard Peikoff The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal by Ayn Rand Romantic Manifesto by Ayn Rand Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand by Leonard Peikoff Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology by Ayn Rand Keep in mind the list above assumes you are willing to dive very deep into Rand's philosophy. Good luck, great video. Have a nice day :)

@@bruno.6610 It's not opposed to libertarianism at all. It can have a few differences, but she is compatible with the libertarianism. Stoicism I'm interested, I didn't say it's the same as her philosophy. I'm just interested in some practical wisdom stoicism offers, not deterministic part as a whole.

Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease Higher scores in this test indicate that the written material is easier to read. This readability score is widely used across many commercial and Governmental sectors. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Used throughout the field of education and beyond, this test scores your text as a U.S. grade level. This makes it much easier for teachers, librarians, parents and others to correctly assess the overall readability level of their reading materials. It also can be referred to as the number of years of education that are required to properly understand the text. Gunning Fog Index This score estimates the number of years of education required by the reader to fully understand the written content. For example, a fog index of 12 would indicate a reading level of a U.S. high school senior, at 18 years old. Coleman-Liau Index This test aims to gauge the U.S. grade level required to understand a passage of text. SMOG Index Score This index scores according to the humber of years of education needed by the reader to understand the text. SMOG is actually a fun acronym for Simple Measure Of Gobbledygook.

Interpretation: if this kind of text excites you, you're reading level is around US grade 6. I'm not american but suspect the numbers translate to pre-pubescent, around 11-12 years old.

@@NeilKelly_is_angryexpat Thank you for taking the time to write about this. However, I doubt the correlation between enjoyment and level of reading capability unless proven wrong of course

I know this is five months late, but it is written adequately. The writing is not clever or elegant, but it is, in a sense, comforting in its directness. The only part that really screamed bad writing to me was Rand's compulsive overuse of metaphor. Some of them will really make you wince. She has no talent whatsoever at figurative writing.

😄😄 I just googled her! Yeah, I can see some resemblance. Thanks for letting me know

I don't think Donald Trump is mediocre, you can use many other words and would be right : )

@@OdolenaKostovaDigitalMarketing I think five bankruptcies classifies him as, at best, a mediocre businessman, at worst a cheat and a crook.

@@LovesickAussieBoy Yet he became president. That would suggest that may not be as mediocre as you think.

@@Wordsalad69420 Or, that the political system is more mediocre than you think.

Thank for clarifying. I didn't know she actually changed her name officially.

Odolena Kostova I just wanted to put that out there, no worries. Thank you for doing great review :)

No, Ayn Rand was not her legal name. It was literally a pen name. From Wikipedia: Alice O'Connor (her married name, after she married Frank O'Connor) (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;[c] February 2 [O.S. January 20], 1905 - March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (/aɪn/ INE). From Encyclopdia Britannica: Ayn Rand is the pen name of Alissa Zinovievna Rosenbaum. She adopted it when she moved to the United States in 1926 (although I read somewhere she was already using it before she immigrated?). The first name, which rhymes with “pine,” was inspired by the name of a Finnish writer (whom she declined to identify), and the surname she described as an abbreviation of Rosenbaum.

@@DeathEater93 Wiki is wrong, she has legally changed her name to Ayn Rand.

@@DeathEater93 I literally said that.

cannot agree more. Then again the same critism is directed to Marx. Being fed and clothed by Engels

I am okay with that. I know a lot of people don't like this one and I have my explanations why ; )

@Aaron Alfeche I would agree - Ayn Rand is building her case with crisp logic. It may sound shocking at first but it makes perfect sense to me.

@@sfdko3291 You do not have to agree with everything she said/wrote.

There is no reason to get offended by Atlas Shrugged to the point of calling it's fans "psychopaths" unless you are viewing it through the lens of a collectivist looking to justify mediocrity and lack of personal responsibility. AKA the kind of people who were starving in Seattle's autonomous zone because they called for a race and class revolution to destroy the "evil oppressor capitalist white males" without first even bothering to learn how to grow vegetables to feed themselves. Oh how great it must feel to destroy property for the sake of "righteous" perpetual victimhood.

@@OdolenaKostovaDigitalMarketing Except that her logic, based on a straw man argument, is broken.

Thanks for the comment and for following my videos, Adreana! I take what I like and what fits with my experience in life from every book. My favourite approach is the on of Ray Dalio, you can watch my video about him here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cTwh8ggWPgo.html What I love most about his tips for life is: being radically open-minded.

Thanks for your comment! Yes, there are a lot of analogies nowadays. Here in Europe the European Union is an example of a nosy gov organisation :)

Much better for the rich to kick the beggars, eh?

@@LovesickAussieBoy I don't believe that it is right to have the state TAKE my money, which is compensation for my labor, so they can build a larger bureaucracy that will ultimately want more. The worst part of it, even worse than being a slave to the state for half of every day, is it doesn't help these poor people. I see them defecating and shooting up on the sides of the freeways. Taxes go up, the problem gets worse, so taxes go up.

MeSoTrashed You could not be be more wrong. Let me ask you a question: which countries have the lowest crime, lowest unemployment lowest poverty, lowest drug use, and highest happiness? Here’s a clue: they all have high taxes and lots of government regulations. What say you to that fact?

@@LovesickAussieBoy Then by all means, live under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party. By your logic, it must be the happiest place on earth. I'm sure that's what the party would say.

Thanks for your comment and for watching the video! There are some chilling similarities to nowadays, yes. I can't say about America, as I don't live there, but I have amended some in the UK.

American is crumbling because, starting with Reagan, it embarked on a course of more and more unfettered capitalism, the very system Ayn Rand advocates. Only one system is proven to work, and that is the mixed economy.

A course correction according to the book would be elon musk and jeff bezos running off to a magic valley and blowing each other till we all died because we forgot to inhale without them telling us to.

@@LovesickAussieBoy Let's see, the Democrat line up of total fails and destruction to the USA. Wilson creating a private banking firm to control our money - FAIL Roosevelt and the gold theft - FAIL JFK starting Vietnam, LBJ ramping up the effort with 500,000 more troops for a war they knew they could never win since 65 - FAIL LBJ - signing the Act to allow unchecked immigration into this country (leading to doubling the population in 50 years) which is terrible for the country itself, considering a high percentage of these people will never integrate, but want to change and destroy the country. They are doing this today in spades (which apparently you are a big fan of?), with so-called "cancel culture", and "woke" movements - with the stated goal of completely dismantling Western Civilization for more Socialism and Marxism, horrid. Jimmy Carter's presidency - FAIL Bill Clinton - Signing of NAFTA so more jobs could leave the country Obama - more handouts, total fail handing more things to China - Total Fail The current geriatric - the continued allowance of teachers to have more rights over kids than parents, promoting sexual demented crap in grade school, sexually grooming kids, wanting parents to use puberty blockers, and worse. The Democrat left-wing is completely destroying this country, it is now past fixable without serious draconian measures. Democrat terrorist groups attacking the elderly simply because they did not vote the way they wanted. Amazing how Democrats are living in cities where crime is off the charts and keeps getting worse and spreading throughout the cities more and more but they still keep voting for these same numpties every cycle as they boil along with the other frogs in their hell-scape of a town.

I agree with you wholeheartedly, woke culture liberals and the liberal agenda are definitely ruining America.

Thank you for your comment. Everyone has their limits and it's important to have conditions to live a respectful life even if not everyone makes it to the top. I do think that responsible businesses can provide such conditions

Businesses can provide these conditions? The whole premise of Rand is greed and that does not support anything but making the rich richer and a failed trickle down system. Excuses to be greedy - oh boy.

@@LS-vp3du You are a looter . You have no claim on the production of the individual . If you want what someone else has the only ethical thing is to trade for it . If the state robs me to pay for you're brother do not consider you're self anything but a void of eternal chaos where all production gets destroyed and made nill by the madness of you're irrational mind .

Thank you, I am glad!

It's not a biography, it's a pure fiction novel. You can listen it in an audio book, it's like a movie, quite easy to follow.

@@OdolenaKostovaDigitalMarketing Thankyou

Thank you!!

Hi, thank you for your comment. I don't have big disagreements with Objectivism, I am still learning about it. Would be interesting to discuss. Feel free to contact me on LinkedIn, you can see my link in the description.

I keep hearing that The Fountainhead is kind of the better novel of Ayn Rand. Getting curious!

@@OdolenaKostovaDigitalMarketing She's a good philosopher, untill she's not and then it's really dark. The Fountainhead is one of those stories that end with "And then everybody clapped." But it's still good. It's more about individualism.

I like such stories, when everyone claps at the end! Thanks for the recommendation. Let me know other books which you found good.

Thanks a lot! I will check it out, it's a new subject for me, but I really love the book so far.

I started reading 3 weeks ago, I am at page 780. I will most likely finish it this week. After part one I lost a bit of interest, tbh.

A man thinks and works alone. A man cannot rob, exploit or rule - alone. Robbery, exploitation and ruling presuppose victims. They imply dependence. They are the province of the second-hander. Rulers of men are not egoists. They create nothing. They exist entirely through the persons of others. Their goal is in their subjects, in the activity of enslaving. They are as dependent as the beggar, the social worker and the bandit. The form of dependence does not matter.