I am urging everyone to read Rand, from "Anthem" to "Atlas", before Amazon bans them. I feel every child should read age appropriated Rand in school, what a different world we would have. Sometimes I read the court speech from "Fountainhead", just because I need the boost to keep fighting. This is life as it should be, but instead, we are getting life as Rand predicted we were heading toward, she knew.

Most men are born unique, but sadly die a copy. Not at all amazing how many Muslims come from Muslim parents, Christians come from Christian parents and Liberal/Conservatives come from...

I really don't care what Ayn's objective was. Mine is to reduce infringement on my own freedoms. One means to do this is to challenge people to think objectively, and overcome the barriers of cognitive dissonance. To accomplish this, one must grasp another's attention briefly.

You are a professor, teaching as a profession. I can't believe we are at odds on this subject.

Rand sought to challenge people's minds, but not change them. She could control the challenging process, but every individual must come to their own philosophy for themselves. Part of the problem is that many people never do.

In part 3 of the movie, the Taggart Bridge is destroyed even though Project X (which destroyed it in the book) never happens. Also, Cheryl Brooks' suicide makes no sense. I wonder if your husband will notice these things and comment on them.

Hey, I found it! Was on my birthday, which by the way was also John Galt's birthday in the movie (from his driver's license)!

The problem we have here is that people are already not held responsible for their own actions (exercising freedoms). Therefore, providing additional freedoms is fundamentally hanging a burden on others.

Agreed. It is much easier to deal with something that is above board, and paid for by auditable transactions, than the concealed, subversive black market.

The complaint is not personal. It is that we do not influence others well, for example, as well as PragerU.

Libertarians and Objectivists seem to be unable to develop concise, clear messages to illustrate the virtue in the philosophies. For example:
"Libertarians seeking to take over the world and leave you alone."
Just clearly explaining the virtue of selfishness in the long game (vs each separate decision) lacks clarity.

If the end game is to Gulch, let's work on that. If the end game is a more realistic and challenging "change people's minds", we have much room for improvement. If the plan is to gather and bitch (or pontificate), I should drop my membership.

Perhaps drug decriminalization is a better term. This is a concept in Portugal. There are pluses and minuses. In the end, we spend billions/year fighting the drug war. Since they are illegal the street value is many times more than a "decriminalized product". The supply would level off due to the lower prices and demand would level off making our market less desirable and not worth smuggling in the product. The criminal element would reduce and would save lives.

To be fair, while you have paid the owner of Galt's Gulch Online, you haven't paid the other Gulchers for their messages, so you have gotten more than you paid for.

Yep, that is my issue with Prager too. They do crisp, clear messages though. Unfortunately, here the messages are like Listerine...”go read pages 1154-1173 of the letters of Objectivism from 1973”

Thoritsu,
I think, honestly, the Libertarian party pushes drug legalization as its one of the few things that distinguish them from most Republicans. I do not care if people want to do drugs on their own time, although I think they should keep or increase the penalties for anyone found supplying drugs to minors. You'll never see drugs completely decriminalized, because there's too much profit motive in keeping them illegal. DEA and the Mafia and cartels are making too much money to allow that.

Yep. Saw this link somewhere else at the same time. ;)

Prager and Rand agree on many things, but on one thing, they differ. Prager sees what he considers to a preponderance of evidence for a creator; Rand does not.

Great presentation, and thanks for posting. Will pass this along to a few friends who may not be well aware of AR's philosophy and its implications for an economic-political system.

Yes. No idea why the Libertarian party has to continuously harp on marijuana. However, it does seem to be consistent with a freedom people's interest in exercising.

Trump should have pressed for eliminating the federal prohibition and taxed it. Would have swayed a lot of middle people.

Yep, me too. Another place to gather some solace is the Mises Institute. They are Libertarian, though without the emphasis on drug use, as far as I can tell. While I have no desire to throw drug users in prison, I just don't care for it and I see the harm it can do, so I am not in favor of encouraging it. Mises.org

Good on you! Good luck with your reading!

Also happy to see Prager advertise for Ayn. They do a good job on production. Some of the other Objectivist materials are too dry for mainstream audience.

I'll have to go look that up.

I am reading AS to my husband. As we reach the end of each part, we watch that part's dvd. We just started reading part III. He has Alzheimer's and is enjoying the whole process, asking questions and commenting on my comments. Reading out loud has added something special to my enjoyment and appreciation as well. I listen to PragerU regularly and was delighted to see the Ayn Rand production. Shared it with my groups immediately.

Prager is a little too religious for me, but other than that aspect, we are largely in alignment. They have some clear messages. Good for discussion.

This is cool, and something to share with those I've talked with about Atlas Shrugged. I have heard of Prager Institute and should look into it. In my semi-retirement I want to become more involved in a pro-Objectivist organization.

And, the young lady in the video is incredible. LOL

Great and honest minds think alike!

Just got around to opening the Prager email, listened and even though it's nothing new to us here at the Gulch, I thought I post it because Prager was bringing light to Rand's work and experiences...
...but you beat me to it...good job!