Ayn Rand: The Real Motive for the Socialist Mindset

The speaker in this video is Ayn Rand, one of our favorite secular authors. She wrote the book Atlas Shrugged, which is one of our favorite secular works that has affected is deeply from a young age. In this video, Ayn Rand, the founder of Objectivist philosophy, talks about how socialism (Form #05.016) advocates will distort the facts and misrepresent them to avoid having to admit their true motive. What Ayn is describing are symptoms of a mental disease called the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Below is a page describing that mental illness, which appears as a link on our opening page in the green box:

Secular Praise of the Main Virtue of Christianity: HUMILITY, SEDM
https://sedm.org/secular-praise-of-the-main-virtue-of-christianity-humility/

What she describes as the evil of what she calls “altruism” is not properly characterized so people will understand the CONTEXT that her comments about it applies to. Altruism is the foundation of families and in that context is not only NOT evil, but is actually GOOD. People unselfishly have children and altruistically and sacrificially invest their time and money into those children with a hope of eventual reward but that reward is by no means guaranteed or even legally protected. Altruism is also the basis for churches, whereby people help each other out without the legally protected right to recover what they have invested. In that context also, altruism is not evil. Ayn Rand didn’t have a family of her own and was an atheist so she didn’t have the background necessary to fully define her term “altruism” in both a secular atheist as well as a family/church context so that people would understand what she meant and be able to relate it to their real circumstances.

So the context for Rand’s remarks about altruism deal ONLY in a legal, governmental, and secular context and not a family/church context. In THAT context only, her approach to altruism can be summarized as follows:

1. In dealing with the government and other members of the secular body politic, altruism is evil. It is a SYNONYM for legal inequality under the law.
2. Altruism is evil in that context because it produced INEQUALITY and INJUSTICE in the way certain groups or classes of people are treated under the law. See:
   What is “Justice”?, Form #05.050
   https://sedm.org/Forms/05-MemLaw/WhatIsJustice.pdf
3. Franchises, which include statutory civil law, are the method of CREATING and ENFORCING the inequality that is the origin of the altruism she criticizes. See:
   Why Statutory Civil Law is Law for Government and Not Private Persons, Form #05.037
   https://sedm.org/Forms/05-MemLaw/StatLawGovt.pdf
4. All franchises and the civil statutory law are founded on consent and requires voluntary membership to implement. Thus, it functions as a Private Membership Association (PMA) or what the courts call a “social compact”. See:
   Why Domicile and Becoming a “Taxpayer” Require Your Consent, Form #05.001
   https://sedm.org/Forms/05-MemLaw/Domicile.pdf
5. Since the result of franchise, the civil statutory law, or your consent in any form is INEQUALITY, membership (including franchises or the civil statutory law that implement them) and consent should be avoided, which means DOMICILE and CONSENT in relation to the body politic must be avoided. This is because the RESULT of “social compact” is idolatry toward government and civil rulers because the CIVIL STATUTORY CITIZENS and RESIDENTS become involuntary surety and peons in relation to the civil rulers. See:
   How You Lose Constitutional or Natural Rights, Form #10.015
   https://sedm.org/Forms/10-Emancipation/HowLoseConstOrNatRights.pdf

The approach documented above is our DESCRIPTION and IMPLEMENTATION of her atheist philosophy directed only at the legal, political, and secular aspect of how Christians should interact with secular society. This site ties the above approach to biblical law to explain why and how the bible requires the above approach.

It took us YEARS of study to fully understand from a legal perspective the full implication of her criticisms of socialism (Form #05.016), because she didn’t tie them to either the written civil law or to Christianity in a nation that was over 90% Christian at the time she wrote her books. To make that task even harder, no one else we know of ever tried to do that so we had to start from scratch. She couldn’t do that because she had no background in law or Christianity or even the political system here in America. She was a political dissident who escaped the Soviet Union to come to America prior to its collapse in 1990. In that sense, she was just like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who was also a persecuted political dissident from Russia who spent time in Soviet prison for his books and writings. Rand’s works are directed at criticizing the Soviet Union communist tactics so that they would not infect her new home, the USA.

Ayn Rand criticized altruism for several key reasons:

1. Self-Sacrifice: Rand argued that altruism promotes self-sacrifice, which she believed undermines individualism and personal happiness. She saw the expectation to place others’ needs above one’s own as detrimental.
2. Moral Responsibility: She contended that altruism shifts moral responsibility from the individual to society, diminishing personal accountability and the pursuit of one’s own values.
3. Contradictory to Human Nature: Rand believed that altruism contradicts human nature, which she viewed as fundamentally self-interested. She argued that rational self-interest is a natural and positive trait.
4. Undermines Productivity: By prioritizing the needs of others over one’s own, Rand felt that altruism discourages productivity and innovation, as it can penalize success and achievement.
5. Collectivism: Rand associated altruism with collectivism, viewing it as a means to justify the subjugation of the individual to the group, which she strongly opposed.
6. Emotional Manipulation: She argued that altruism can lead to guilt and manipulation, as individuals may feel compelled to sacrifice for others out of social pressure rather than genuine desire.
7. Impedes Personal Growth: Rand believed that focusing on others can hinder personal growth and self-actualization, preventing individuals from pursuing their true potential.
8. Ethical Framework: She proposed that a moral framework based on rational self-interest (her philosophy of Objectivism) is more conducive to a thriving, productive society than one based on altruism.

Further the intent of altruism through the government cannot be anything more than theft at gun point. Regardless of the positive intent it cannot be enforced in any other way. Everything the Government has comes from the work of the people that it takes it from. It does not matter how little or how much someone has when you take it from them by force it is still stealing.

Altruism also does not lead to people having more, it generally enables them to maintain their current mindset and remain in poverty.

You can see validation of Ayn Rand’s principles in practice in reality by the direct experience of Thomas Sowell:

How the Welfare State Ruined Black Families
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=RIwkZYdSelE

More on the subject of this article at:

1. Ayn Rand v. SEDM-in the About->Ayn Rand v. SEDM
   https://sedm.org/ayn-rands-atlas-shrugged-v-sedm-mission-statement/
2. Socialism: the New American Civil Religion, Form #05.016
   https://sedm.org/Forms/05-MemLaw/SocialismCivilReligion.pdf
3. Communism, Socialism, Collectivism Topic, Family Guardian Fellowship
   https://famguardian.org/Subjects/Communism/Communism.htm
4. The Structure of Government -Ayn Rand
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mQmP-JG8o4
5. Ayn Rand-What is Capitalism? (full course)-And this one I think is the utmost valuable presentation for society from Ayn’s message:
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmcmauM78FE
6. Day at Night: Ayn Rand, author, “Atlas Shrugged”-This is one of my favorite interviews:
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhaxvXRdENg