Blog Roundup

A Friday Hodgepodge

1. "The Lost Precursor to Atlas Shrugged," by Brandon Lisi (New Ideal):

[During an interview, Ayn] Rand recalled that during her late teens, she would write lists of story ideas, to be completed when she was "old enough ... sometime between twenty and thirty... I knew very well that I was somewhat too young to write them, and besides, they could not be written in Russia. But I was making outlines ... of novels which I really intended to write, and the most notable of them was ... the grandfather of Atlas Shrugged."

She described the story as "symbolic, much more than real ... a sense-of-life projection of Atlas." What follows is a condensed description of that early story's narrative, as Rand remembered it decades later. By presenting it here, we aim to illuminate her literary imagination during those years in Russia, and the story ideas that were "advance echo[es]" and "concrete antecedents of Atlas." Below we indicate some of them in passing. (If you've yet to read Atlas Shrugged, there are plot spoilers ahead.)

1400 words/7 minutes

2. "What Erratic Policies Accomplish," by Brian Phillips (The Texas Institute for Property Rights):

The explanations offered by the Administration for these policies are merely a pretense. Reviving American industry or protecting us from immigrants is not the real purpose. Instilling uncertainty and fear is. We are being conditioned to accept uncertainty and fear as normal. And that is what erratic policies accomplish.

300 words/2 minutes

3. "Anti-Capitalists Bark Up the Wrong Tree," by Jaana Woiceshyn (How to Be Profitable and Moral):

If the anti-capitalists really wanted better lives for people -- jobs, decent pay, affordable living costs, housing options, and increased prosperity -- they would advocate freedom instead of state control, and perhaps even capitalism -- if they only knew what it is. For those wanting to know, I recommend Ayn Rand's essay, "What Is Capitalism?" in her book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.

800 words/4 minutes

4. "Imagine How Embarrassing It Would Be to Show DA Henderson the Headlines From 2025: 9 Years Without Him," by Amesh Adalja (Tracking Zebra):

What is the status of biological weapons work? Is our biodefense capacity resilient enough for 2025? It's likely that Russia, North Korea, and China all have offensive bioweapons program. Is our biodefense apparatus -- which must be tightly integrated to our public health systems -- up to the task? Is the White House engaged enough or possessing of the expertise to handle these threats? What is the first thing to focus on that could strengthen the US in this regard?

700 words/3 minutes

-- CAV