Ayn Rand on The Tonight Show
During the 1960s Ayn Rand appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. One of Ayn Rand’s best TV appearances with one of my favorite TV personalities. Johnny is clearly fascinated by her and they end up having a surprisingly deep and wide-ranging philosophical conversation. Enjoy.
13 Comments to “Ayn Rand on The Tonight Show”
I’ve never seen this before. That’s pretty neat, thanks!
The fly comment . . . phahahaha.
Her second appearance on Carson is also very good—in some ways better than the first. Hopefully a video tape of it will turn up eventually. In the mean time, people can read a transcript of it (along with many other TV and radio appearances in Objectively Speaking (http://www.aynrandbookstore2.com/prodinfo.asp?number=AR100B).
Because he is a conceptual being, man *needs* a long range perspective. That’s where religion comes from (in the absence of reason). Brilliant!
“America is the one country that could not collapse to Statism,” - I wonder if she would say that today?
I’ve watched this video go viral over the last few days on Facebook. You never know what a good scholar is going to make happen. : )
What the world needs now is more AYN RAND and Objectivism. Sadly, America has lost to Statism because so few of her citizens actually comprehend HOW the US Constitution makes and keeps them free. They have “agreed” to a society of majority rule (at best), or absolute dictatorship (at worst), all because of their inability to see the world clearly through the lens of “rational self-interest.” My deepest gratitude to the Ayn Rand Institute for making this perfect philosophy available to all of us. Once you know the truth (Objectivism), there’s no going back to blindly following anything or anyone. The world will not be freed by any particular country, movement, or group. It will be freed by the many individuals who are practicing Objectivism. I think this is only fitting. True Freedom is highly contagious. It is inherent in human nature to seek freedom. It will spread, and all world governments will either fall to it, or forever be fundamentally changed by it. At this point in time, I can only conclude that the American government will fall under her own economic weight of severe deficit spending and immoral practices of wealth redistribution, regulation, and absolute corruption. As the song goes, “Bye Bye Miss American Pie. . .”
Someone passed me a copy of The Fountainhead back in 9/65. I figured this gal died sometime b4 1950. Then, I discovered she’s still ‘live’n’active. I read everything she published I could get hold of ‘til she died. Never met her (my fault), never saw her, ‘sept when she’s on a coupel TV shows in late ‘70’s, or so. As for the Johnny Carson Show (b4 I knew of her at all), I, today, disagree with her about the U.S. spreading freedom by example (if she was here today, I think she’d think WHAT I NOW SAY!), damn it! The U.S. must spread freedom abroad, AND AT HOME!, by BRUTE PHYSICAL FORCE!, because it is always physically attacked! Try setting an example to the AVERAGE Muslim PERSON of today. Sometimes REASON must take the form of, not arguments or examples, but, a punch in the face! (and laying the asshole DOWN so he’s UNABLE to get up, in the STREET), and of regime ending, by force, in other countries. It’s not the same as, in Atlas Shrugged, the “gvt.” passing a “law” saying, be “free”. I’m saying, leave’em free; if they initiate force, slam’em, abroad, AND AT HOME. Abroad, that means billions; at home, it means many millions. Bad? Gee. I’m so “sorry”. People are valuable only in so far as they are rational. Beyond that, people are trash! Put reason to them; whoever turns their nose up from it, turn them out to the sky above, for exposure. I don’t have the same positive view of people that Ayn Rand, in her time, had, or that Objectivists seem to have today. People, with their rational faculty, even as per human life, are simply, objects, like stones. They are Jack Shit, maybe fertilizer, pending how they choose to use their rational faculty. I’m talking about billions of the bodies. If they choose to use their minds as per human life, and ACT like it, great (after millenia), otherwise, kill’em, exterminate’em, as the ANIMALS they have chosen to be. That’s egoism, that’s rite, that’s human life. (Please, the sun’s commin’up, I’m old and tired. I must rest and sleep. THAT old, varies from person to person. I’ll continue this soon. Read the continuation, if you can withstand it.) MK I flap my jaw or jab my keyboard, and you find yourself exposed to it. Sorry, if you don’t like it. When I’ve had my fill, I’ll conk off and get some shut-eye. Then, I’ll come back, here, or in the street, if I’m attacked, and I’ve been attacked. Next time, if it happens, well, I’s only just SO old and tired. See somebody’s body, but not mine, probably still alive, in a hospital. But, I’ll be in great shape. Careful my old fists. They look squiggly, but they’s hard’n’ tough. Like I say, I’ll continue this comment, here, if I may. If I may not, well, elsewhere.
“The U.S. must spread freedom abroad, AND AT HOME!, by BRUTE PHYSICAL FORCE!”
“Sometimes REASON must take the form of, not arguments or examples, but, a punch in the face!”
Really? Your solution is to initiate force against people, to force them to use reason or be exterminated? Mr. Thompson, Floyd Ferris, and Wesley Mouch would love you!
Seriously, these are some of the most egregious statements I’ve seen in a long time. One of the most “sacred” tenets of Objectivism is the non-initiation of physical force (especially by government), yet you advocate its use so simply and cavalierly that I question your level of understanding about Objectivism. I do not intend to be harsh here, but I couldn’t let all this go unchallenged.
BTW, reality will deal with the people you speak of soon enough, without anyone violating their right to be irrational.
In response to initiatory force, you don’t argue. You fight back with effective physical violence. THAT’s reason in such a situation, not arguments. That’s not trying to force anybody to use reason. It’s just forcing them to stop initiating force. Much as I’m sure you don’t want to, I suggest you re-read my comment to see if this is what I said.
Understanding Objectivism is one thing; applying it is something else. I don’t say you misunderstand it, but I do say you misapplied it in your response to me.
As for the rest of my comments about people (which you didn’t take up), people, as such, in their moral character or integrity, are neutral. The big thing is their potential. That, for good or evil, depends on their choices. I don’t automatically take a positive view of them. I wait and see; when I see, then I know, one way or other. If they choose reason, great; if they don’t, they’ve chosen unreason. Too bad. If that bad choice becomes initiatory force, THEN force back at them (this is where my comment was less than optimal). Otherwise, let’em take hard drugs, or whatever they’re doing.
My comment was a little dramatic, theatrical and swashbuckling, but, big deal. I apologise for one thing: the profanity. There’s bound to be somebody offended by it. That’s their right.
“My comment was a little dramatic, theatrical and swashbuckling, but, big deal. I apologise for one thing: the profanity. There’s bound to be somebody offended by it. That’s their right.”
Your comment was unfocused, poorly thought out, and clearly construed on a whim. Everyone can see that, and can see you for what you’re worth. A lot of people are probably thinking “This guy needs to read Atlas Shrugged.” I know you’ve read it, and that you paid as much attention to it as you did to the world making that post, it’s why none of it hit you, why you never got it. It’s because you’ve been drifting through life, without focus. We can all identify the grammar and manner of a drifter, and all the experienced Objectivists here know what you are: a mediocrity.
You revealed your soul in that post, and I must say that I don’t like what I saw. An unfocused hard to read bit of contradictory drivel.
Sorry, again. My name is not “anonymous”. It’s Mike Kevitt.
Nobody cares.
Speak for yourself, Mr. Tate.