Ayn Rand has been called one of the worlds greatest supporters and defenders of Capitalism beginning with her discoveries in philosophy, extending to her great fictional novels about heros and her post novel life as the creator of a rather unique philosophy for living your life. She wrote that whe had to creat her philosophy before writing the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged however whe wrote her novels long before making the elements of her philosophy more generally available.
Philosophy is rather simple in the general sense. It consists of a view of everything, Metaphysics and proceeds to Epistemology which is all about knowledge. Metaphysics is easy in the abstract but gets a bit more difficult when it’s applied to reality because some of reality relates to thoughts and their origins. Abstractions are seemingly “not real” although to the individual who holds the abstractions they are really real.
Politics is not exactly philosophy but the philosophic principles an individual holds cannot be separated from their political belief and stances on issues and people. Donald trump is no exception.
What are Trumps philosophic principles? Some would say he’s a confusion of a lot of contradictory philosophic beliefs but so far no one’s listed his philosophy. Of course he has one and it guides his thoughts and actions. The problem is without his statements about his principles one can only surmise based on various conclusions those analysts make but they are subject to their own philosophic biases and prejudices. They are human and human’s make mistakes.
Rand named her personal philosophy “Objectivism”. There are loads of books written about it but just like Trump, we are left somewhat in the dark because we just don’t know all of their thoughts. Rand wrote plenty about her philosophy, Trump not so much.
The elephant in the room of philosophy is “Religion”. It’s written her in quotes to show it not the same for everyone. Many people, Thomas Jefferson for example who did not follow and organized religion but he considered himself a Christian. He was much more than someone who is Christian which refers to one who believes in Christ. the pope believes in Christ. He considers himself a member of and a leader of Roman Catholicism. Jefferson would have rejected Catholicism, both the Roman and the Orthodox versions. Trump has announced he is a Christian and we’ll have to leave that right there because that’s about as far as he’s gone.
Rand’s fictional character Howard Roark was an architect who designed and built buildings. Trump is certainly like Roark. “Donald Trump admires Rand and is proud to say so. Kirsten Powers of USA Today interviewed him April 7, 2016 and her account was published April 12 with the title “Donald Trump’s ‘Kinder, Gentler’ Version.” She says that during the interview “Trump described himself as an Ayn Rand fan.” He expressed his admiration for the novel The Fountainhead by saying that it (now quoting Trump) “relates to business, beauty, life and inner emotions. That book relates to … everything.” (Apparently the ellipsis indicates a pause rather than an omission.) Not the most profound synopsis we’ve ever heard but not too bad for an off-the-cuff statement in the unsophisticated words of no more than three syllables Trump is known for.” Kirsten Powers is not an Ayn Rand fan. She’s a Liberal. It would have been better for the interview if she had followed up trumps answer with more detailed questions but an interviewer cannot be better than her own philosophy nor can she conceive questions beyond her knowledge base, her epistemology.
Rand’s illumination of morality in Atlas Shrugged is rather advanced. It’s part of “The Galt Speech” HERE. Two paragraphs cover “Integrity” and “Honesty” as follows:
“Integrity is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake your consciousness, just as honesty is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake existence-that man is an indivisible entity, an integrated unit of two attributes: of matter and consciousness, and that he may permit no breach between body and mind, between action and thought, between his life and his convictions-that, like a judge impervious to public opinion, he may not sacrifice his convictions to the wishes of others, be it the whole of mankind shouting pleas or threats against him-that courage and confidence are practical necessities, that courage is the practical form of being true to existence, of being true to one’s own consciousness.
“Honesty is the recognition of the fact that the unreal is unreal and can have no value, that neither love nor fame nor cash is a value if obtained by fraud-that an attempt to gain a value by deceiving the mind of others is an act of raising your victims to a position higher than reality, where you become a pawn of their blindness, a slave of their non-thinking and their evasions, while their intelligence, their rationality, their perceptiveness become the enemies you have to dread and flee-that you do not care to live as a dependent, least of all a dependent on the stupidity of others, or as a fool whose source of values is the fools he succeeds in fooling-that honesty is not a social duty, not a sacrifice for the sake of others, but the most profoundly selfish virtue man can practice: his refusal to sacrifice the reality of his own existence to the deluded consciousness of others.”
Trump fits those values rather perfectly.
Trump is a high achiever. He already sent Henry Kissinger to China to begin the complex negotiations between two mighty nations that are based on very different values, Capitalism and Socialism. Trump is involved with the thorny issue of Taiwan, a nation with millions of people who want to be independent of China. China wants Taiwan as part of China but it’s not so simple.
Trump is already acting as President even though he will take the oath of office on Jan 20, about five weeks from now. He’s way ahead of Rand’s fictional Howard Roark and just like Roark, he’s going to be a greater man than most others.
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“Integrity is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake your consciousness, just as honesty is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake existence-that man is an indivisible entity, an integrated unit of two attributes: of matter and consciousness, and that he may permit no breach between body and mind, between action and thought, between his life and his convictions-that, like a judge impervious to public opinion, he may not sacrifice his convictions to the wishes of others, be it the whole of mankind shouting pleas or threats against him-that courage and confidence are practical necessities, that courage is the practical form of being true to existence, of being true to one’s own consciousness.
“Honesty is the recognition of the fact that the unreal is unreal and can have no value, that neither love nor fame nor cash is a value if obtained by fraud-that an attempt to gain a value by deceiving the mind of others is an act of raising your victims to a position higher than reality, where you become a pawn of their blindness, a slave of their non-thinking and their evasions, while their intelligence, their rationality, their perceptiveness become the enemies you have to dread and flee-that you do not care to live as a dependent, least of all a dependent on the stupidity of others, or as a fool whose source of values is the fools he succeeds in fooling-that honesty is not a social duty, not a sacrifice for the sake of others, but the most profoundly selfish virtue man can practice: his refusal to sacrifice the reality of his own existence to the deluded consciousness of others.”
Trump fits those values rather perfectly.
Trump is a high achiever. He already sent Henry Kissinger to China to begin the complex negotiations between two mighty nations that are based on very different values, Capitalism and Socialism. Trump is involved with the thorny issue of Taiwan, a nation with millions of people who want to be independent of China. China wants Taiwan as part of China but it’s not so simple.
Trump is already acting as President even though he will take the oath of office on Jan 20, about five weeks from now. He’s way ahead of Rand’s fictional Howard Roark and just like Roark, he’s going to be a greater man than most others.
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