Citadel CEO Ken Griffin is courageously fighting a “creepy” campaign to tax his wealth, but his defense inadvertently lends support to Mamdani and his socialist supporters
I agree that Atlas Shrugged is the antidote to socialism. However, I disagree that Animal Farm says anything positive about socialism.
Orwell’s Animal Farm is a political allegory warning how revolutions for equality can be corrupted by power. It illustrates how leaders use propaganda and violence to establish a new, oppressive ruling class, ultimately showing how the oppressed can become as tyrannical as their former masters.
As the pigs (the leaders) gain authority, they slowly abandon their original egalitarian ideals for greed and privilege.
The ruling class abuses language, rewrites history, and alters the farm's foundational rules to gaslight the uneducated working-class animals.
The failure of the revolution is largely blamed on the naivety and blind loyalty of the lower classes, who allow their rights to be stripped away.
Nowhere does Orwell suggest within the text of Animal Farm that socialism can work if done better or differently; instead, the novel acts as a tragic warning about how easily socialist ideals are corrupted by human nature and power.
Half the battle is not taking socialists and communists seriously or giving them the time of day. Envy is the number one trait of the Marxist and instead of aspiring to build wealth and build their own lives as enlightened individual citizens, Marxism preaches victimhood and that the only way you can prosper is to take from others without earning anything.
You don’t give Marxists any opening to push their poison on people; you need to always be on the attack and never letting up. Use media to make your points about how corrosive Marxism is, use humor and jokes to make Marxists look stupid (this worked in the eastern bloc since communist countries criminalized telling jokes), and also ensure real consequences when Marxists make threats and pass laws that do not benefit you. Like a virus, Marxism needs an ideal environment to spread and destroy; if you care about the future of the free market and the hope of citizens working as free individuals and creating wealth, do whatever it takes to keep Marxism down. The future of the free world could depend on it.
I think 【moral independence】 is a perfect way to describe the sort of pride that very moralistic people possess, something that would've greatly appealed to the me before I read Ayn Rand.
I was always confident in my judgment, with absolute trust in my own convictions, and insisted that the truth of an opponent's view be convincingly (rationally) supported in order to consider whether I have committed an error.
Actually, you mentioned Anthem being available in high schools... that is how I encountered Ayn Rand: a dystopian novel reading series that ended in Anthem and her Mike Wallace interview.
Sitting in the front row and watching her for the first time on the projected whiteboard-sized video in an otherwise silent & dark classroom... I was completely captivated; such that when the lights came back on I couldn't help but look at my teacher- shouting in shock: "SHE MAKES SENSE!"
~another point you made also hit home: I made a custom shirt for myself 7 or 8 years ago that reads on the front & back: 【Property is the Liberty used for achieving Happiness】.
Sigh, I hope these creative achievers will embrace their own self-worth more thoroughly indeed... but it is difficult to challenge the moral weight of social contribution since it is often the clearest and most obvious feat to prove virtue.
Perhaps if the conception of 【the origin of social value as selfish happiness/idealism】 can be more effectively established, rational egoism will grow.
Well said. Thank you for a well-written and properly stated piece.
I agree that Atlas Shrugged is the antidote to socialism. However, I disagree that Animal Farm says anything positive about socialism.
Orwell’s Animal Farm is a political allegory warning how revolutions for equality can be corrupted by power. It illustrates how leaders use propaganda and violence to establish a new, oppressive ruling class, ultimately showing how the oppressed can become as tyrannical as their former masters.
As the pigs (the leaders) gain authority, they slowly abandon their original egalitarian ideals for greed and privilege.
The ruling class abuses language, rewrites history, and alters the farm's foundational rules to gaslight the uneducated working-class animals.
The failure of the revolution is largely blamed on the naivety and blind loyalty of the lower classes, who allow their rights to be stripped away.
Nowhere does Orwell suggest within the text of Animal Farm that socialism can work if done better or differently; instead, the novel acts as a tragic warning about how easily socialist ideals are corrupted by human nature and power.
Half the battle is not taking socialists and communists seriously or giving them the time of day. Envy is the number one trait of the Marxist and instead of aspiring to build wealth and build their own lives as enlightened individual citizens, Marxism preaches victimhood and that the only way you can prosper is to take from others without earning anything.
You don’t give Marxists any opening to push their poison on people; you need to always be on the attack and never letting up. Use media to make your points about how corrosive Marxism is, use humor and jokes to make Marxists look stupid (this worked in the eastern bloc since communist countries criminalized telling jokes), and also ensure real consequences when Marxists make threats and pass laws that do not benefit you. Like a virus, Marxism needs an ideal environment to spread and destroy; if you care about the future of the free market and the hope of citizens working as free individuals and creating wealth, do whatever it takes to keep Marxism down. The future of the free world could depend on it.
Excellent. Recently reread Animal Farm because my memory of it was fuzzy. It's deeply disappointing.
"the a noble crusade" (typo)
I think 【moral independence】 is a perfect way to describe the sort of pride that very moralistic people possess, something that would've greatly appealed to the me before I read Ayn Rand.
I was always confident in my judgment, with absolute trust in my own convictions, and insisted that the truth of an opponent's view be convincingly (rationally) supported in order to consider whether I have committed an error.
Actually, you mentioned Anthem being available in high schools... that is how I encountered Ayn Rand: a dystopian novel reading series that ended in Anthem and her Mike Wallace interview.
Sitting in the front row and watching her for the first time on the projected whiteboard-sized video in an otherwise silent & dark classroom... I was completely captivated; such that when the lights came back on I couldn't help but look at my teacher- shouting in shock: "SHE MAKES SENSE!"
~another point you made also hit home: I made a custom shirt for myself 7 or 8 years ago that reads on the front & back: 【Property is the Liberty used for achieving Happiness】.
Sigh, I hope these creative achievers will embrace their own self-worth more thoroughly indeed... but it is difficult to challenge the moral weight of social contribution since it is often the clearest and most obvious feat to prove virtue.
Perhaps if the conception of 【the origin of social value as selfish happiness/idealism】 can be more effectively established, rational egoism will grow.