Read it at Business Insider
The Shocking Statistic About Psychopaths On Wall Street
by Sam Ro
(Posted by Warren Mosler at The Center of the Universe)
Read it at The Independent (UK)
Brian Basham: Beware corporate psychopaths – they are still occupying positions of power
(h/t Dimm in a comment at Warren's)
Read it at National Science Foundation
Close Family Ties Keep Microbial Cheaters in Check, Study Finds
(h/t Roger Erickson in a comment at Warren's)
Read it at Trends in Genetics February 2011, Vol. 27, No. 2
Si. I. Li and Michael D. Purugganan
(h/t Roger Erickson at link above)
Martha Stout, The Sociopath Next Door (2005)
Read it at AlterNet
by Mark Ames
Wikipedia: Praise, criticism, influence, and renewed popularity [of Ayn Rand]
For more details on this topic, see Bibliography for Ayn Rand and Objectivism.
Over the years, Atlas Shrugged has attracted an energetic and committed fan base. Each year the Ayn Rand Institute donates 400,000 copies of works by Ayn Rand, including Atlas Shrugged, to high school students.[6] According to a 1991 survey done for the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club, Atlas Shrugged was situated between The Bible andM. Scott Peck's The Road Less Traveled as the book that made the most difference in the lives of 5,000 Book-of-the-Month club members surveyed, with a "large gap existing between the #1 book and the rest of the list". [49] Modern Library's 1998 nonscientific online poll of the 100 best novels of the 20th century[50][51] found Atlas rated #1 although it was not included on the list chosen by the Modern Library board of authors and scholars.[52]
In 1997, the libertarian Cato Institute held a joint conference with The Atlas Society, an Objectivist organization, to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Atlas Shrugged.[53] At this event, Howard Dickman of Reader's Digest stated that the novel had "turned millions of readers on to the ideas of liberty" and said that the book had the important message of the readers' "profound right to be happy".[53]
The C-SPAN television series American Writers listed Rand as one of twenty-two surveyed figures of American literature, though primarily mentioning The Fountainhead rather than Atlas Shrugged.[54]
Rand's impact on contemporary libertarian thought has been considerable, and it is noteworthy that the title of the leading libertarian magazine, Reason: Free Minds, Free Markets, is taken directly from John Galt, the hero of Atlas Shrugged, who argues that "a free mind and a free market are corollaries".
The Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises admired the unapologetic elitism of Rand's work. In a private letter to Rand written a few months after the novel's publication, he declared, "...Atlas Shrugged is not merely a novel. It is also (or may I say: first of all) a cogent analysis of the evils that plague our society, a substantiated rejection of the ideology of our self-styled "intellectuals" and a pitiless unmasking of the insincerity of the policies adopted by governments and political parties... You have the courage to tell the masses what no politician told them: you are inferior and all the improvements in your conditions which you simply take for granted you owe to the efforts of men who are better than you."[55]
Acclaim has not been unanimous. Nobel Prize winning economist and liberal commentator Paul Krugman alluded to an oft-quoted quip[56] in his blog: "There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."[57]
"I know from talking to a lot of Fortune 500 C.E.O.'s that Atlas Shrugged has had a significant effect on their business decisions, even if they don't agree with all of Ayn Rand's ideas."– John A. Allison, former CEO ofBB&T [6]
In the late 2000s, the book gained more media attention and conservative commentators suggested the book as a warning against a socialistic reaction to the finance crisis. Conservative commentators Neal Boortz,[58] Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh[59] have offered high praise of the book on their respective radio and television programs. In 2006 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Clarence Thomas cited Atlas Shrugged as among his favorite novels.[60]
RepublicanCongressman John Campbell said for example: "People are starting to feel like we're living through the scenario that happened in [the novel]... We're living in Atlas Shrugged", echoing Stephen Moore in an article published in The Wall Street Journal on January 9, 2009, titled "Atlas Shrugged From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years".[61]
The sales of Atlas Shrugged have since then sharply increased, according to The Economistmagazine and The New York Times. The Economist reported that the fifty-two-year-old novel ranked #33 among Amazon.com's top-selling books on January 13, 2009 and that its thirty day sales average showed the novel selling three times faster than during the same period of the previous year. With an attached sales chart, The Economist reported that sales "spikes" of the book seemed to coincide with the release of economic data. Subsequently, on April 2, 2009,Atlas Shrugged ranked #1 in the "Fiction and Literature" category at Amazon and #15 in overall sales.[62][63][64] Total sales of the novel in 2009 exceeded 500,000 copies.[65]
Like most everything here on “The number one MMT site on the web!”, your insinuations about Ayn Rand are misplaced. I’m not here to defend here Ayn Rand. However, she has little if any influence among the present day Austrian School and/or libertarians. The idea that her adopted Austrian ideas have influenced Rush Limbaugh, Chris Cox and/or Greenspan is ludicrous.
ReplyDeleteMurray Rothbard long ago wrote a play mocking her and her inner circle called “Mozart was a Red”. The very Austrian Justin Raimondo of antiwar.com wrote an introduction:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/mozart.html
The difference between Rothbard and Rand is profound. Rothbard insisted that libertarianism is nothing but a political philosophy and it is concerned only with what people are forbidden to do to each other. It says NOTHING about what might do with one’s freedom which is a different topic entirely. Rand insisted that everyone believe all of her nutty ideas in every sphere of life. No libertarians believe that or are promoting that type of thinking these days.
Thanks for your clarification, Bob.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking in particular of those in positons of power and influence who are specifically pushing Rand's idea, such as Rep. Paul Ryan, John Allison, the Koch bros, Glenn Beck, to mention a few. Others, like John Boehner, are doing so non-specifically, and the quote from Von Mises pretty well sums up the underlying idea, although, of course, astute politicians are not telling ordinary people that they are inferior in so many words.
For what it's worth, even Randians believe that laissez faire and gold based money help eliminate poverty. Now libertarians and Randians could be wrong in that regard but harming poor people is not any sort of goal. Rand was a Jewish girl who came of age in the early years of the slaughter and poverty of the USSR and her "hard" attitudes came from that experience. Indeed, both Rand, libertarians and the Austrians blame socialism as a main cause of poverty and government murder. We might be wrong, but we are motivated by wanting to eliminate poverty and government violence.
ReplyDeleteFurther, Rand believed in the basic concept that the purpose of government was to limited to preventing the initiation of force and fraud. To the extent that present day businesses are employing the government to initiate force and/or fraud in the way of pollution and/ or theft and/ or rent-seeking, such actions would violate Rand’s philosophy and she would most likely condemn them.
The difference between Rand and Rothbard still stands. For Rothbard, it would have been perfectly fine if people wanted to voluntarily associate and share their property and income in a form of voluntary socialism. Rand would have been outraged.
Typo:
ReplyDeleteFurther, rand believed in the basic concept that the purpose of government WAS LIMITED TO PREVENTING THE INITIATION OF FORCE AND FRAUD.
But Bob,
ReplyDeleteWith the way we do taxes today, that voluntary association for those folks is next to impossible.
The tax code makes those people "monetize" and net those non-monetary transactions and then imposes a coercive tax on that net.
I dont see how they can "opt out" with today's tax code. (not that I think this is going to happen) but perhaps if we went back to a reasonable poll tax or "head" tax, they could be able to "opt out"....
Resp,
Tom,
ReplyDeleteOne of the best books on sociopaths and how they influence society is Political Ponerology
Tom,
ReplyDeleteNow I am getting "who is John Galt" t-shirt ads on my google page here! LOL!
Resp,
Tom -- In addition to those articles, Yves Smith has a great article at Naked Capitalism today on the "ethics" of Harvard:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/03/on-the-continuing-oxymoron-of-ethics-at-harvard.html
I guess some socio/psychopaths are born that way and some have to be taught.
"The difference between Rothbard and Rand is profound. Rothbard insisted that libertarianism is nothing but a political philosophy and it is concerned only with what people are forbidden to do to each other."
ReplyDeleteDifference between Rand and Rothbard is zero. Both find their source in the Satanism of Bernard Mandeville and his demonic attacks on Catholic Charity and the classical virtues. Rothbard loved and defended the use of torture and child slavery much like Mandeville and Bentham in their reductionist schemes of utility as opposed to morality.
He was in many respects was worse than Ayn Rand was quit moderate.
Libertarian is a not a political philosophy at all because it says nothing about any action people can take in relation to others.
Murray Rothbard never wrote a thing about any existing political system ever.
Libertarian/Slavertarian is only concerned with property not people. It only concerns what people can or can't do with property.
According to the Rothbardian, a life is but the property of an individual and has no consideration outside of being a matter of property and contracts and hence concern over force and fraud used in feigning concern over what a violation of human rights and moral obligation.
The very notion of human polity is abstracted out of existence in favor of the oligarchical construction of absolute property which is presented as a ontological reality.
It is the same argument for slavery that Aristotle made and it just as wrong now as it was then.
Free Market is code for Freedom to Slave. All the arguments that these people are exactly the same as the people who defended slavery, child labor, repression of women, etc...
Stop calling them libertarian. Label them what they are.
Slavertarians.
Defending the freedom to collect profit from slavery and the free movement of slave goods (aka free trade).
They have no principles aside from man exists as property not unlike other cattle.
I always suspected that was Von Mises's viewpoint. It's not a coincidence that both Von Mises and Von Hayek were members of the aristocracy. 'Austrianism' is really just a rehashing of aristocratic ideology. 'Austrians' love heraldic symbols and coats of arms. The whole philosophy is just an attempt to save the old world of superior masters and inferior servants from the forces of progress and emancipation. It's why most of them despise democracy.
ReplyDeleteCarl Menger, Eugene Bohm Von Bawerk, and Friedrich Von Wieser were also all members of the nobility. The Austrian school is basically just the ideology of the upper classes.
ReplyDelete