How did you discover Ayn Rand's ideas?

How did you discover Ayn Rand's ideas? How old were you? Relate your story in this thread - how you discovered the first thing you read by Rand; if you went to the other works or stopped there initially; your "evolution" as an Objectivist; and anything else you deem relevant to this discussion.

Jason

P.S., I'm particularly curious about the stories of those like Hong and Adam who weren't born in the United States. But I think most people will have an interesting story to tell.

Post 1

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 11:19am

Good thread Jason. Atlas Shrugged, then Fountainhead, then The Virtue of Selfishness. I was fifteen. For a long time I had no one to discuss her ideas with. My deeply religious Grandmother would sit for hours listening to me expound on rational self interest and atheism lol Poor woman, but she loved me enough to understand where I was coming from even if she didnt agree.

John

Post 2

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 11:26am

Particularly curious about me? You are sweet, Jason. I have to run now but I said something before here:
http://www.solohq.com/Forum/PollDiscussions/0073.shtml#4

I've since finished reading "Atlas Shrugged" and Barbara's biography of Rand. Still can't claim to be an Objectivist!

Post 3

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 11:49am

I was born in the Philippines but I did not learn about Ayn Rand or Objectivism until I came to America. I first learnt about it in a microeconomics class in college, where we read Alan Greenspan's antitrust essay from "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal". I was a 19-year college student, a Roman Catholic, and a New Democrat. I was curious about Ayn Rand so I visited the site of Capitalism.org and the Ayn Rand Institute (I did not know either SOLO or TOC existed at the time). I was blown away by what I read but I was not 100% comfortable with the atheism part. The irony was that my mother had signed up for a Christian retreat and it in the retreat that I read "The Fountainhead". I spent my time arguing with everyone else in the retreat! Before the retreat was through, I knew that I could not go back to my old beliefs and I read every Ayn Rand book I could get my hands on. The rest is history.

I take that back, I heard of "The Fountainhead" when I was in the Philippines but only because the girl I was dating at the time casually mentioned it. To my regret, I paid little attention to what she said . . . I was paying attention to other things!

Post 4

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 3:23pm

My first exposure to Rand was through Anthem when I was about 14 or so. It was probably more the teenage rebelliousness that attracted me to it at the time, but I used it as a "gateway book" to Rand's other work. From there I went to Atlas Shrugged and We the Living (my favorite). Living was really the one that drew me in the most because I not only resonated with Kira personally and career-ally (umm, yeah), the presentation of the ideas was more subtle and allowed me to address the underlying ideas myself rather than the presentation-style reading of some of the Atlas speeches. I never really had a problem with the ideas since my family was never religious and I've always been left to my own devices so most of what Rand said served to pull things together into a bigger picture. Although, I still don't know if I can, or want to, claim the title of objectivist. But that's for another thread some other time.

Post 5

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 3:52pm

Hey Newberry, if you are out there reading, check out the title to this thread! ROFL

George

Post 6

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 1:50pm

Oddly enough, I have to credit Richard Nixon and John Kenneth Galbraith for getting me started with Rand. By my late teens I'd evolved an individualist/libertarian worldview on my own, but didn't have a philosophical framework in place to support it. My father (ironically, a welfare statist) had suggested to me that I might resonate with Rand's writings, but when I tried reading Atlas Shrugged I got bogged down early and gave it up after 40 pages or so.

Then (I forget the exact date, but I would have been about 22) Nixon imposed wage and price controls.

I was outraged. I felt like I'd died and gone to Russia. And being young and passionate, I would vent my outrage at every opportunity. This habit resulted in many arguments, most of which I would lose because I didn't have any facts or philosophical grounding to back me up. In one case, I called up a talk show on which Galbraith was a guest. He was in favor of controls, and took my arguments apart with ease.

In search of intellectual ammunition, I turned to Rand. I started with her non-fiction: Virtue of Selfishness, For the New Intellectual and Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal. Then I picked up Atlas again, and this time it hooked me. I was up until 4 AM three nights in a row finishing it.

Reading Rand didn't change my mind about much (probably the biggest adjustment I made was giving up a belief in the goodness of antitrust laws), but boy, did it ever help me organize and defend my ideas!

Incidentally, one result of my philosophical awakening was that I got into activist groups, and one of the people I met and worked with was Robert Bidinotto. I haven't had any contact with him for 30 years or so, and just ran across his name on this site. Hi Robert, if you happen to read this.

Post 7

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 5:47pm

I was raised Catholic but rejected that evil (I thought it was just silliness then) by age sixteen.

Over the years, my thinking was influenced by such writers as Robert Heinlein and Milton Friedman.

In 1984, I started my own comic book publishing company and began reading a great many comics trade publications. I would often read how my all time favorite comics creator, Steve Ditko, was strongly influenced by Ayn Rand. And when Rand was mentioned, Atlas Shrugged was also often mentioned. I finally bought a copy and found it to be a page-turner. But as much as I loved the novel, I did not understand the philosophy on first reading.

As the years moved on, I began to read many libertarian works, from Reason and Liberty magazines to the "Uncle Eric" books by Richard Maybury, as I continued to refine my personal philosophy.

In 1994, I received a card in the mail from "The Ayn Rand Admirers of Rhode Island (ARARI)" indicating that they met monthly for dinner and discussion and invited me to join them. Curious as to how they got my name, I called and spoke to the sender of the card, Dr. Ellen Kenner (of the "Rational Basis of Happiness" radio show.) It seems our children attended school together and her daughter had seen my oldest daughter reading The Night of January 16th, my daughter told her she had gotten the book from me, and this conversation was conveyed to Ellen. And the funny thing is my youngest daughter was dating Ellen's son at this time.

I initially declined the invitation but Ellen strategically maneuvered me into meeting this Objectivist group. Our children were on a "date" (they were about thirteen at the time) at her house and rather than my driving the extra distance to pick up my daughter, Ellen suggested my meeting them at the restaurant they were dining at that evening, which was a much shorter drive for me. There, she introduced me to her Objectivist group, and I found that brief introduction so intellectually stimulating, I began joining them regularly.

That meeting occurred in 1995 when I was forty-one years old. Ten years later, I continue to read and learn from the greatest mind I have encountered in my lifetime, that of Ayn Rand. Thank you, Steve Ditko & Ellen Kenner.

As an aside, Ellen's son and my daughter dated on and off until college and I continue to meet regularly with ARARI run by Ellen and her husband, Harris.

(Edited by Bob Palin on 4/15, 5:55pm)

Post 8

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 6:23pm

>> How did you discover Ayn Rand's ideas? How old were you?

Listening to the Politically Incorrect Show on Radio Pacific, not too long after arriving in New Zealand from England. I was about 32.

I forget who hosted that show... Someone Perrysomething I think...

Post 9

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 8:01pm

First of all--I love this thread! It's so cool to see how folks blossomed into a life-affirming world-view!

I, myself, was brought up as a Christian (sometimes Lutheran, sometimes Methodist--my family switched churches a few times). Early on, I took the Bible literally and I felt that morality and practicality were fundamentally at odds.

I was actually "scared straight" into Christianity (after watching a video entitled "Rapture"--or something like that) while I was in my pre-teen years--I was maybe 10 or 11 years old.

At the age of 12 or 13, I was disheartened upon seeing Billy Graham and noted (to my aunt--who had taken me to see this mogul) that the problem with religion ... is its lack of spirituality.

I thought that I could "fix" religion by instilling into it more spirituality. I sought out books by the Christian psychiatrist, M. Scott Peck--and, at the time, I LOVED HIS BOOKS! The Road Less Traveled was my first, and that led to reading his other books.

I was basically a religious socialist, environmentalist, advocate of animal-rights, and all of the other horrible, horrible things that humans can become--when they mix a little good will with a lot of stupidity.

As Peck's books had tremendously inspired me, I thought I that had reached a summit of morality, but still, something deep-down inside me seemed to suggest that something was wrong with my religion (as I had experienced it).

One of the great things Peck did for me (regarding critical thinking and questioning values) is to every so often refer to God as a She--this jolted me, and led me to question beliefs (how do I REALLY know the gender of God?).

The seeds of doubt (planted by Peck) incited a curiosity to seek further--I somehow stumbled across Branden's The Art of Consciousness. This led to web searches for Branden and to his Yahoo forum. Then came Rand and--oh boy--this is where the rubber hit the road, baby!

At first, I was taken-aback by her argument for non-theism (more commonly known as atheism) and it shook my foundations, but everything else made so much sense--I couldn't put her work down!

I was already in my thirties before I became aware of Rand. I am one of those "left-brain" dry, rational types; and I haven't read fiction in over 20 years (I know, I know--how boring, right?). I retort that I am so stimulated by facts that I have no inclination for fiction (or perhaps, I'm just weird, I guess).

While I'll enjoy movies, and songs, and viewing fine art--I have to admit that I've only read Rand's non-fiction works (plus the "excerpts" from her fiction-- found in Lexicon, etc).

Peck woke me up, Branden served as a bridge to Rand, and Rand empowered me with the conviction to learn how to live, and to learn how to love living.

Ed

(Edited by Ed Thompson
on 4/15, 8:04pm)

(Edited by Ed Thompson
on 4/15, 8:50pm)

(Edited by Ed Thompson
on 4/15, 9:09pm)

Post 10

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 8:23pm

I retort that I am so stimulated by facts that I have no inclination for fiction (or perhaps, I'm just weird, I guess).

Not weird at all Ed. I often find it delightful to curl up in bed with a nice book on differential geometry. Not weird at all. Right?

Post 11

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 8:44pm

I am probably one of the few who grew up as a 'child of Rand' - even tho as a child, I didn't know that..... the always remembrance throughout my growing up was the courtroom scene in the movie 'The Fountainhead' - for some reason, Coop's speech reverberated in my mind, even as the title of the movie faded - until, as a junior in high school, came across a paperback in a grocery store, and wondered if that was the book from which the movie was made..... even now, on reading the courtroom scene, it is Coop's voice I hear, and the words were so threilling - and so welcomingly TRUE - as if I was hearing what was trying so hard to say in myself - that it was more than six months after finding out she wrote an even greater novel that I"d dare read that one...

And yet, having been raised in a religious household - as is most everyone in this day and age - I remember being horrified at discovering she was an atheist.... at the same time, knowing she was so right - so correct - about so many other things, I had the sense to ask myself that if she was so correct in assessment of these other things, what were her reasons for a non-belief in a God - and while it only took me a night to rationally agree with it, it did take a year or so to emotionally get it out of my system, so ingrained as a 'matter of course' the issue is presented, from the time before one is old enough to question it.....

But, of course, my life was consciously altered forever - and gathered everything I could about whatever she wrote, where she appeared [saw her on Johnny Carson show three times], and who else knew of her.... and, along the way, met a number of those who knew her - even, eventually, getting to meet and speak with her myself....

But I should add - this was not, as many would presume, as a fan.... I was not so much interested in her as a person, as I was in getting the detailing of the philosophy, and how it could be implimented to my life... the idea of an integrated view of existance was a thrilling notion to me, something which opened so many doors of understanding in so many directions, and allowed a synthesis to so many of the interests which I always have had all my life..... that is why, when the 'great break' came, while it felt terrible to have happened - never did I ever thought to disclaim the philosophy, as so many I knew at that time did.....

Post 12

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 9:06pm

Thanks, Sarah. I thought that I might've been the only one here who is "consumed" with the factuality of reality--I guess that I will have to admit being wrong about that premonition!

Ed

Post 13

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 9:30pm

Gee Sarah - need to take a break, do some light reading - like maybe UNWEAVING THE RAINBOW or BIOEVOLUTION..:-)

Post 14

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 10:56pm

I always love discovering these kinds of stories. It is like a connect-the-dots game from spark to intellectual spark. :)

I was in the midst of re-examining my life at the age of 22 when Francisco d'Anconia sauntered in. I was brainstorming with a friend of mine about entrepreneurial ideas, and he (the friend, of course) said, "You have to read this book." I mentioned it to my sister, and she gave it to me shortly thereafter as a birthday gift. I'm sure she never imagined how big and important a gift it would turn out to be.

I always knew the "what," but now I knew the "why." Suddenly images and memories would flood me: people calling me "lucky," or male friends being angry that they couldn't copy from my test papers...the thoughts began to click into place. I voraciously read every Rand book I could get my hands on. There are two or three I have yet to read, but I've covered most of the territory.

There was of course my Randroid phase, where I condemned everyone and everything as evil if even the slightest imperfection was displayed. I had tolerance for no one, and contempt for most. But the crossroads came at 31, and I was able to become human again. :)

Post 15

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 11:48pm

I had lived in Poland, Israel, and France before coming to the US at near-14, in 1959. In Israel I stayed on a Kibbutz - my mother's older sister was a member, and my family did not have a place of our own until after my father escaped from Poland - and while it was superficially quite different from Polish Communism, I had a very strong intuition that something, the same thing, was wrong for me in both. But attempts to identify on my own exactly what it was had me stumped.

I was a science-fiction enthusiast from the second grade on; Lem's "American Stories" was the second book I ever read cover-to-cover. So when I got a two-dollar bill for my 14th birthday, I decided to spend it in a bookstore on a science-fiction book to learn English from. And the first book that struck my fancy was "Anthem." I next returned to awareness that I was standing in a bookstore after I finished reading. Rand had solved the problem that stumped me, and communicated her insight in the most riveting book I had ever read.

There was more, both before and after, but that will wait until I have more time.
(Edited by Adam Reed
on 4/15, 11:51pm)

Post 16

Saturday, April 16, 2005 - 8:16am

I first learned of Rand through the progressive rock band Rush; I was a huge Rush fan as a teenager (I still admire the band very much). Anyhow, I read that their drummer and lyricist Neil Peart was an Ayn Rand admirer, and that her philosophy influenced Peart's individualist lyrics. I didn't make any effort at the time to study her.

It wasn't til I was 23 that I first read any Rand, it was during the 2000 presidential election. I was politically homeless at the time, and was turned off by both the Democratic and Republican party. Luckilly, I was flipping through the channels one day and came across a CSPAN coverage of the Libertarian Party convention. Their defense of capitalism and individual liberty resonated with me immediately, and I began to consume libertarian writings with fervor. And you don't have to study libertarianism long enough to come across Rand's name (she would probably roll over in her grave if she heard that!), so I decided to read the Fountainhead to see what she was all about. And so I'm here posting this message today....

Post 17

Saturday, April 16, 2005 - 10:04am

For me, Rand was the evolution from Space cadet to Spaceplayer.

I first learned of Rand through Rush, also,but that wasn't why I ultimately read her. It was 1996 and, at 21, I had just come out, and was with a VERY Christian boyfriend, and I was in my first or second atheist/agnostic phase, questioning my beliefs, trying to reconcile my faith with my sexuality. Because I wanted to make the relationship work, I determined to make up my mind once and for all about God. So I was perusing books in the library, and came across ANTHEM. I remembered Rush's 2112 was based on it, so I picked it up out of curiosity. And oddly enough, it dealt with the religious issues I was going through. Then I picked up ATLAS right after that, and after getting past the first chapter (which I almost didn't; what is it about the first chapter? I've known a few people who can't get past it),
my mind was blasted. WOW.

Needless to say the relationship ended.

And I set about to change the world. ;)

The book that really set me on fire was THE ROMANTIC MANIFESTO, as an artist and musician it both inspired and terrorized me. Terrorized me because it raised the standard well above my level at the time, but inspired me because it raised the standard to where I wanted to go, even before Rand I never liked the playing the bar scene of rock music, the lifestyle, etc.

What really lifted me was Rand's essays concerning Romanticism. When she defended the spirit of Buck Rogers against the sneers of adults (Buck Rogers? Hah! Never gets colds in the head!), my sking tingled with exitement. All I heard growing up was "the Brady Bunch isn't real," "life is not like that," "get your head out of the clouds,"etc. My mother's favorite name for me was "Space Cadet." (I wanted to be an astronaut, and was always drawing robots, robots playing guitar, robots turning into cars, etc.) I thought I was Spiderman when I was 3. But she called me space cadet as an insult, and here was Rand celebrating the spirit of what I felt! But what really got me was that it wasn't just a celebration of something childish. Rand saw the importance of such a spirit in adulthood, of never losing that sense of wonder, and she made the acute observation that what matters is not the literal, but the spiritual sense of the matter: "He knows that it isn't exactly Buck Rogers he has in mind and yet, simultaneously, it is...". Rand taught me the idea of abstraction and that the fantasy, sci-fi, mythology (and religion) I responded to were not escapism but abstractions of a sense of life. (That is where I believe Jung and Rand have their common ground.)

But where Jung and his contemporaries still believed in a Kantian model of reality, they offered a life controlled by the new gods of the collective unconscious. "Be a space cadet, explore the stars, the gods will guide you through the stars." Rand said, be a space cadet, explore the stars, and be your own pilot."

Rand turned me from being a cosmic pawn to an explorer of my own potential and possibility. I went from a space cadet to a Spaceplayer.

Lanza sang, "I'll walk with God, I'll take his hand." Rand sang "the universe is yours, run free." And she offered a world on which to land that shone brighter than any star I had seen before, or since.

Post 18

Saturday, April 16, 2005 - 10:08am

Joe

Beautifully expressed.

Post 19

Saturday, April 16, 2005 - 10:48am